Leadership Theory

For me GRS along with Philadelphia University has taught me that strong leadership is the cornerstone of all organizations including here at GRS. As healthcare business dynamics become more complex in response to Accountable Care Organizations (ACO's), Healthcare Reform, shortages of therapist, rapid technology changes with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Electronic Health Records (EHR) and increased competition, only those organizations like GRS with great leadership will be able to successfully compete. Organizations like GRS must take pro-active approaches in "sustainable" business development, retention of "top" therapist and development of internal leadership talent. GRS must find ways to prepare their current employers for the leadership challenges of the future. As I said in a previous black board discussion post, "Leadership is about inspiring people to act because they want to, not because they have to."

Leadership Theory has taught "me" that there are many different forms of leadership and that understanding emotional intelligence (EI) is the foundation for each of the different stles of leadership. EI is based on the notion that the ability of managers to understand and manage their own emotions and those of the people they work with is the key to better business performance according to Nahavandi. More than ever today, the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and Area Leadership Team (ALT) have to operate as both leaders and followers in the daily duties of their job. Transformational leadership as we were taught is the other side of the leadership coin. It is based on the notion of self-motivation; it focuses on the commitment of the leader rather than the willing compliance of the followers. The transformational leader is self-reflected as descried by Nahavandi. I often heard Dan speak, "That managers should encourage employees to be open to new ideas, communicate frankly with each other, understand thoroughly how GRS operates, and form a collective vision in working together to achieve their goals." It was transformational vision created "The Transforming the Patient Care Experience": (TTPCE) and "Patient Care Hours" (PCH) was to provide fundamental change of emphasis on the "patient experience". Everyone within the GRS (not just managers) is responsible for trying to improve the patient care experience. - A change to a customer-oriented approach. Under the TTPCE, every decision we make as managers starts with what the customer (patient) needs. It's a commitment from the GRS ELT to engage the ALT and our therapist in "our" vision, mission and values. As we were taught in Leadership Theory class the author Nahavandi stated, "Transformational leadership includes three factors - charisma and inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration that when combined, allow a leader to achieve larger scale change" It takes the active participation of each leadership style from everyone in the GRS to achieve its objectives.

Organizational Ethics reinforced that healthcare today is not "black and white" and there are many shades of "grey". The old view of managers overseeing the work of others is replaced by a "new" idea that everyone is responsible and invested in achieving clinical excellence and regulatory compliance. The role of manager is to now to be a mentor and to coach them in their efforts. Companies like GRS employ a variety of forms of appraisal and recognition. For GRS, appraisal is now seen in the more broad-ranging context of "performance management" from clinical fellowship to mentee and mentor relations. As a company and as leaders of GRS we must embrace issues such as personal development and career planning, in addition to simple analysis of how well an individual has performed over the last year -- as GRS continue to expand to identify "future" leaders of the company. GRS believes in the idea in order to create "sustainable growth" it needs to focus on existing knowledge and maintaining partnerships i,e AOTA, ASHA, ACP and to take an "active" role in community relations and governmental/regulatory affairs. GRS understands under healthcare reform a company's knowledge base is a sustainable competitive advantage.

Human resource management emphasized team concepts and a leadership style. They consist of building "gym" environments that are small communities with common purpose and mutually supportive values that go beyond making money as the core motivator. We were taught to be dedicated to each other's success, replacing internal competition with collaboration and supporting creation-oriented teamwork, where the fulfillment of the GRS vision is so intricately connected to the fulfillment of individual visions that the power of this alignment itself becomes a primary motivator. By empowering our therapist we can have dramatic success. The ability to convey confidence in therapist's ability to be successful, especially at challenging new tasks; delegating significant responsibility and authority; allowing employee freedom to decide how they will accomplish their

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