Archived Publications eBook: Confidence in the Development of your Futur | Page 17

Belcher likens the process to building layers: it starts
with identifying the critical positions in the organization.
“We identified those as the CEOs of our facilities,
because if we can get the right leaders in the seat,
support them, and hold them accountable against our
leadership profile, then we can more readily continue
to cascade that down through the facilities.” employees to know they can create a career path
inside LifePoint if they want to be a future chief
executive of a facility.” Ultimately, the idea is to grow
more leaders internally while still hiring externally
based on the leadership profile.
Leadership skills are taught to CEOs through the
LifePoint Learning Academy. The Learning Academy’s
foundational leadership course is mapped to the
leadership profile and covers areas such as fundamental
leadership interviewing, decision-making, time
management, and emotional intelligence. Participants
also learn about influencing, managing performance,
and dealing with high and low performers. “It has a
consistent language and understanding of what
leadership is like inside LifePoint,” adds Belcher. LifePoint places high importance on maintaining
close relationships between human resources and
clinical teams. “Clinical leaders are one of our closest
partners, because when you look at a facility, more
people report up through the CNO than they do to
the CFO,” says Belcher. LifePoint has worked
diligently to forge a close bond between the two
groups based on the company’s need to develop
clinical leaders, as well as to excel in meeting quality
benchmarks, says Bumpus. “One of the things that is
a significant differentiator for our company is our
focus on quality,” he notes.
From there, “We found those skills and competencies
are almost the same for every leadership position we
have,” adds Bumpus. To this point, five years ago, the
hospital system expanded its leadership profile and
training program to its entire “O” team, including
CFOs, CNOs, COOs and other executives in its
facilities. Last year it cascaded even further. “We always
had the vision that once we arrived at the administrative
level, we would move to the directors at the facility
level, including the director of radiology, the controllers,
and other leaders,” notes Belcher. By the end of 2014,
LifePoint will have taught leadership skills to six groups
of directors across its hospitals. Now, with the
foundation in place, Belcher says the next step is to
broaden the skill sets that are taught.
Such programs not only help boost clinical and financial
performances at the facility level, but they are also
helping in succession planning at LifePoint. Another
development program, adds Belcher, recognizes
leaders in the facilities with high potential to become
future leaders at LifePoint, including CEOs, CNOs, and
CFOs. “We have a pipeline now, where we are very
careful to select potential leaders and maintain a
balanced number of candidates,” says Belcher. In the
near future, she adds, this program will be available
throughout our organization so people know the
company is growing its own talent. “We want our
HR AND CLINICAL TEAMS
FORM AN UNBREAKABLE BOND
“We have a pipeline now, where
we are very careful to select
potential leaders and maintain a
balanced number of candidates.”
Three years ago, LifePoint took quality directives to
a new level when CMS selected the company to be
one of 26 Hospital Engagement Networks focused
on reducing hospital readmissions and hospital
acquired conditions , such as infections and falls. To
date, the hospital system has exceeded CMS’ goal in
reducing hospital acquired conditions and is one of
the highest performing hospital engagement networks,
says Bumpus. “The quality and nursing folks have
worked very closely with HR and the talent
development team to help us reach our goals. These
two groups work well together solving real business
problems,” says Bumpus.
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