Mike Niehoff M.D.

The first move to empowerment is to become informed.  The best reason to keep you in the dark is to tell you that you wouldn’t understand the information and as a result would misinterpret it.  If you know how to bread down financial statements and interpret a budget statement that excuse can no longer be used.  It is either admit to a lack of tr…[Read more]

As instructor maybe I should be the first to reply.  In the OR, my leadership style was very authoritarian.  I was very nice and respectful, and all the OR crew liked me a lot.  Still, I had a what may be called, a nice my way or the highway approach.  In a self assessment it was pretty Theory X.  Problem was, I had one case when I was in the Army…[Read more]

I think Theory X is alive and well in healthcare.  I see administrators who just want providers at all levels to show up, work in processes designed and monitored by them, and  keep quiet.  I have had senior people in medical societies tell me hospitals would not support our program because they really do not want an empowered medical staff.  Sha…[Read more]

If it is not written, it never happened.  Where have we all heard that before?  Proper mentoring is a back and forth process over years.  Formalizing the process is key to its success.  Imagine trying to recall a conversation you have 18 months ago to make a point in the present.  Mentoring is used to bring the mentor and mentee to a common path…[Read more]

Kelly

I am very interested.  I would love to see what you have and then consider adding it to a resources/references section for this class.

I agree, negotiation is all about details.  Often time we spend our energy on concepts, and let the details pass.  Yet in a contract negotiation, like the one in this course, it is the small details that ca…[Read more]

From a student of this course

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the course.
The financial stuff was intense. I even mentioned some of the things to my
neighbor (who is a retired CPA) and he was impressed and even a little
intimidated of some of the things that we were covering.
Also I was at a non-medical meeting and they were…[Read more]

Ray, you will have the answer to this at the end of the next course where we will talk about mentoring.  I use an example from my local hospital when a new breast surgeon was having difficulty acclimating to the culture of the OR.  She went to her department chief who referred her to the CMO who informed her that  the hospital employs seasoned ph…[Read more]

Oh, and this is what a reply looks like.

Sorry it took me so long to respond.  Better late than never.  Let’s say you have a list of 10 causes.   Your team decides that 4 of those causes are the most likely.  Create an 8 question survey.  Allot 2 questions to address each cause.  Open ended questions are hard to score so stick to strongly disagree to strongly agree, 1 – 5.  Phase your q…[Read more]

“On the hook” that is a phrase well familiar to all physicians in a variety of situations.  I will refer you to an article in the Harvard Business Reviews that was very influential for me.  Like very!!  Go back to the reference section in the first lesson of the “Quality Leadership” course.  It will only take you 5 minutes to read it but for me…[Read more]

Thanks for the comment Ray.

I look at it like this.  As a surgeon there is a best practice process.  Eliminating variation in the process is essential to the best outcomes.  Your team needs to stay on track and follow the process to the letter, and that is your observation.

Good leaders then examine the process in a theory Y manner.  All of the…[Read more]

Thanks, I love this thoughtful comment!

Theory Y was applied in the Toyota experiment in the 60s and 70s that produced the best cars on the road.  The first thing they did was to educate the workers on the techniques of data driven process improvement.  Once they showed competency they we then set forth to improve, and improve they did.

I see y…[Read more]

One thing I have learned as an employee and also as a manager at various levels is that leadership is absolutely key to move any organization forward. When I say organization I am referring to a whole company, a division, or even a team. Leadership is the difference between good and great organizations. Leadership is an activity and not a…[Read more]