BY: PETER J. GIAMMALVO, PhD
Dr. Giammalvo is vice president, leadership formation, Catholic Health East,
Newtown Square, PA.
How Do We Form Leaders Who Have Not Experienced Working Directly with Religious?
SUMMARY
Catholic health care leaders differ from others in the field in that
"they are expected to serve as Jesus served, teach as Jesus taught, and
lead as Jesus led, in order to heal as Jesus healed." The Catholic health ministry today is led largely by laypeople—what
might be called the "first generation" of lay leaders. This first generation
was privileged in that it was tutored by and worked alongside women and
men religious. Those religious are now mostly gone from the ministry,
and that first generation of lay leaders will also be retiring in the
not too distant future. Leadership will then pass to a "second generation,"
laypeople who have not worked alongside religious. How is this new generation
to learn "to heal as Jesus healed"? Catholic Health East (CHE), Newtown Square, PA, has developed a program
explicitly directed at the recruitment and development of second-generation
leaders. In its efforts to fill a position, the system first assembles
a preferred-candidate profile, based on 15 competencies, including seven
core competencies. CHE then employs a recruitment process based on behavioral
event interviewing. All involved stakeholders participate in the interviews.
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Business books and journals are replete with anecdotes and advice concerning
the "hows" and "whats" of successful leadership. Although the criteria for measuring
success are many and varied, there appears to be ample evidence that successful
leadership is outwardly focused and is defined primarily by service. The distinguished
leader is one who serves, not the one who is served.
Although this description may be aptly applied to leadership in Catholic health
care, it is incomplete. Leadership in Catholic health care requires a commitment
to sustain and enhance the healing ministry of Jesus through the organizations
entrusted to those leaders. In signing on for ministry leadership, Catholic
health care leaders are expected to serve as Jesus served, teach as Jesus taught,
and lead as Jesus led, in order to heal as Jesus healed.
Changes for Lay Leaders
Most leaders who serve in the ministry today know and live this. For lay leaders,
especially those who are of the baby-boomer generation, the call to serve the
mission of Catholic health care came to them through diverse channels. A strong
influence, one that is often overlooked, is the partnership that most such leaders
experienced with the vowed religious then serving in sponsorship, governance,
and management roles in the hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care
ministries. This "first generation" of lay leaders was privileged to work alongside
the religious, learning from them through osmosis, so to speak, especially in
the period stretching from the 1960s through the 1980s. Lay leaders, both Catholic
and those from other faith traditions, have truly come a long way, in many cases
because of the impact of those early partnerships.
In recent years, as leadership of Catholic health care has evolved and as management
and governance roles have been filled increasingly by laypeople, the important
role of leadership formation and leadership development has become even more
critical. For the first-generation lay leaders, the normal path of their development
was marked by the mentoring, coaching, and role modeling of the religious with
whom and for whom they worked. Now these "boomers" themselves are responsible
for the recruitment, selection, formation, and development of the next cadre
of leaders—a second generation.
These younger men and women will not have had the experience of walking hand
in hand with the religious sponsors who served in governance and management
roles. Instead, they will learn from the lay leaders who did have that experience.
Mentoring, coaching, and role modeling will look very different.
The implications of this "second generation" phenomenon are quite profound,
not only for those charged with the preparation and delivery of formal leadership
formation and development programs, but for all who serve in leadership roles
in Catholic health care.
It goes without saying that a concerted response by current leaders, sponsors,
boards, and executives is essential to sustaining the integrity of the ministry
over time. It may be helpful to view this challenge—and frame a response
to it—through the lens of core human resources (HR) processes. A fully
integrated approach offers the greatest opportunity for success.
Recruitment and Selection
First and foremost, hiring managers and human resources professionals, along
with their colleagues in mission leadership roles, must facilitate a recruitment
and selection process that screens candidates for leadership positions in two
different dimensions.
Professional Competency The first dimension, the one in which most current
lay leaders have significant experience, is professional competency. Does the
candidate have the academic preparation, requisite experience, and demonstrated
competencies to fulfill the role?
Commitment and Core Values The second dimension can be more challenging,
but is critical. Does the candidate demonstrate a commitment to the ministry
as evidenced by an experience-based understanding of the mission and a behavioral
demonstration of core values? Has this commitment been demonstrated in visioning,
goal setting, operations management, financial management, and other activities
that support the ministry?
Several years ago, the leaders of Catholic Health East (CHE), Newtown Square,
PA, developed a Leadership Profile, a set of 15 competencies that had
been determined to lie at the core of successful executive leadership of CHE
ministries (see Figure; see also Peter J. Giammalvo
and George F. Longshore, "Building
Leadership That Endures," Health Progress, May-June 2002, pp. 50-53,
64). Seven of the 15 competencies are the core values of CHE. (Although some
purists may say that organizational values cannot in themselves be leadership
competencies, a leadership development advisory committee believed otherwise).
If competencies are understood to be the knowledge, skills, attitudes, traits,
and intentions that are predictors of successful performance in a role, then
these core values are indeed competencies. The core values and their behavioral
descriptions are at the heart of CHE's expectations for leaders, and are
combined with other expectations regarding the more commonly understood professional/technical
leadership competencies.
To screen for these leadership competencies, CHE uses a recruitment and interviewing
process based on behavioral-event interviewing. This process—currently
applied to the recruitment and selection of system executives, including local
CEOs—begins with the development of a preferred candidate profile. The
profile, assembled with input from key stakeholders, includes the core leadership
competencies, additional role-specific competencies, basic qualifications (e.g.,
education, experience, etc.), market or organization-specific requirements,
and other preferences (e.g., diversity, promotion from within, etc.).
Once agreement on the profile is reached and the position description has been
developed, the search begins, employing fairly traditional methods. For a CEO
position at a regional health corporation (CHE's term for its local ministries),
the local board appoints a search committee. In most cases, the board retains
a search firm as well. For other executive positions, the search process may
be more simple, but nonetheless rigorous. Once potential candidates have been
screened, the stakeholders involved in the search begin the behavioral interviewing
process. They use individual interviews (including interviews by CHE employees
likely to be the candidate's peers), along with group interviews where
appropriate. A valuable tool utilized in the process is the CHE Interview
and Selection Guide, an internally developed set of sample interview questions
and recommended screens based on the 15 core competencies in the Leadership
Profile. In reference checking, many of the same probes are applied in order
to hear and understand responses from several different vantage points.
Formation and Development
Once an executive has signed on, key stakeholders—especially board members,
the supervising executive, and an HR representative—should focus attention
on a process for leadership formation and development. Often overlooked is the
value of a comprehensive orientation program. Orientation for a new leader should
include more than an introduction to the organization's mission, vision,
values, strategic plan, and description of "how things get done around here."
Orientation is the first formal opportunity for a new leader to connect
to the organization. It is the time when the new leader's personal spirit
begins to bond with the spirit of the organization. This doesn't happen
in just a day or two. It is a deliberate process and one that takes time. Some
organizational development practitioners call it "assimilation"; others refer
to it as "on boarding." I prefer to think of it as a merging of cultures and
a mutual growth experience. Both the organization and the new leader bring an
identity forward. Both are enriched in the new relationship. In any case, it
is essential that the new relationship be built on a firm foundation.
CHE, taking its lead from the work of CHA's Ministry Leadership Development
Committee, understands leadership formation to be an ongoing, multifaceted
process that enables current and future leaders to know and confidently act
on behalf of the mission of Catholic health care (see Ed Giganti, "What
Is 'Leadership Formation' Now?" Health Progress, September-October
2004, pp. 18-22). This process requires:
- Personal exploration of an individual's talents, call to service, and
commitment to the mission and values of the healing ministry
- Understanding and engaging the Scripture and the living tradition of the
Catholic Church
- Development and demonstration of those distinctive competencies required
to lead a health care ministry
- Leadership formation is mission-oriented and targets people's spirits
and hearts.
- Leadership development is also a continuing, multifaceted process. It facilitates
current and future leaders' understanding and enrichment of the professional/technical
skills required to lead the health care ministry. It includes:
- Periodic assessment of professional development needs
- Preparation and implementation of professional development plans
- Development and demonstration of those distinctive competencies needed to
lead the health care ministry.
Leadership development is largely slanted toward improving professional skills,
always within the framework of the mission, and targeting people's minds
and hearts.
Ideally, leadership formation and development are fully integrated with each
other and in the lives of individuals and the organization. However, to reach
this ideal, organizational development and leadership development professionals
are obliged to share with leaders an understanding of the nuanced differences
and interdependency between leadership formation and leadership development.
For example, when leaders are engaged in planning and executing strategy, managing
major initiatives, and similar activities, they are expected to demonstrate
content competencies as well as values competencies. The rigorous process of
strategic planning must include such steps as a community needs assessment,
analysis of community benefit outcomes and measures, and an ethical decision-making
process to identify and prioritize strategies. A long-range financial plan should
include resource provisions to ensure care for the poor and underserved, as
well as strategies to ensure capital requirements for the future. In day-to-day
operations, policies and practices must be designed to serve the mission of
the organization while also reinforcing behaviors that demonstrate the core
values.
Although they are beyond the scope of this article, the design and execution
of the organization's performance management program must be aligned similarly.
In other words, policies, goal development, measurements and rewards of the
performance management system must reinforce the comprehensive, holistic understanding
of leadership as described above. An organization that recruits and selects
leaders and supports their development as above—but then encourages them
to perform, and rewards them for inconsistent or incompatible behaviors—is
an organization that calls its own integrity into question.
Beyond the "Boomers"
For the first generation of lay leaders, leadership formation and development
included one seminal element that will soon be impossible to replicate. That,
as mentioned earlier, was the opportunity to walk arm in arm with the religious
sponsors who founded and nurtured the institutional ministries, who understood
at the core of their being that their mission was a contemporary expression
of the healing ministry of Jesus, and who dedicated their lives to serving that
mission.
So what are leaders called to do at this time of transition from first- to
second-generation lay leadership in Catholic health care? What they should not
do is succumb to discouragement and defeatism in the face of fewer vowed religious
in leadership roles. What leaders are called to do is to honor the heritage
of the founding sponsors of these ministries, seek to understand what animated
their dedication and hard work, internalize that animating force, and serve
as role models for those who are coming after them.
To accomplish that, the first generation of Catholic lay leaders must focus
on developing and implementing processes that ensure that the second generation
will have the personal commitment, deep-seated values, and leadership competencies
to carry on the ministry as the early sponsors intended. The many and varied
programs for leadership formation and development that are currently offered
are a necessary first step. What is now needed is for current senior leaders
(the "boomers") to embrace their role as coaches, mentors, and role models;
support and act as advocates for the formal programs now in place (or being
developed); and utilize the core HR processes of recruitment and selection,
formation and development, performance management, and succession management
to ensure leaders for the next generation and beyond.
CHE's Leadership Profile
At Catholic Health East, Newtown Square, PA, leadership is understood to be
based on 15 interlocking core competencies: seven Core Value Competencies (at
left) and eight Leadership Competencies (at right). The demonstration of these
competencies will lead, over time, to the four Mission and Performance outcomes
(center).
