Five Changes Great Leaders Make to Develop an Improvement Culture

By John S. Toussaint, MD, Catalysis & Susan P. Ehrlich, MD, MPP, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center

Optimizing leadership skills is more important than ever, given a fast-changing health care environment rife with competitive new services such as CVS MinuteClinics, virtual second-opinion specialty shops, and offshore 24-hour radiology reading services. To adapt, and survive, organizations must take advantage of every bit of institutional talent. But this can happen only if leaders first embrace the need to change.

But in what ways should a leader change? Many books and scholarly articles describe strategies for leadership improvement. For example, the Lominger Group identified more than 30 key behavioral traits required for outstanding leadership, including “political savvy” and “dealing with ambiguity.” At Catalysis, we have distilled important leadership qualities down to five key behavioral dimensions that, together, are essential for fostering a culture of continuous improvement…

Continue reading full article at NEJM Catalyst.