Description

Learning Objectives

1. Define effective executive leadership and distinguish leadership responsibility from management and operational responsibility.

2. Explain how executive leadership affects mission fulfillment, patient access, employee engagement, organizational culture, quality, compliance, financial stewardship, and long-term sustainability.

3. Identify the personal, professional, and organizational value of mastering executive leadership.

4. Recognize the traits, behaviors, and capabilities required to lead effectively at the enterprise level.

5. Evaluate how the executive team, board relationships, managers, employees, partners, vendors, policies, processes, data, technology, and organizational systems support or hinder leadership effectiveness.

6. Identify personal, team, cultural, strategic, and operational barriers that prevent effective executive leadership.

7. Use Vision, Mission, Values, and Goals to establish direction, alignment, priorities, and decision criteria.

8. Use Plan, Execute, Evaluate, and Adjust/Adapt to translate strategy into disciplined action and continuous improvement.

9. Strengthen executive skills in strategic communication, collaboration, accountability, decision-making, change leadership, resource alignment, performance evaluation, and organizational learning.

10. Create a practical 30-, 60-, and 90-day action plan for applying and sustaining improved executive leadership practices.

 

Workshop Outline

Session 1: Executive Leadership Foundations

Central questions:

• What is executive leadership?

• How is executive leadership different from management?

• Why is executive leadership important to CHA?

• What is in it for you to master executive leadership?

Key topics:

• Defining executive leadership

• Leadership, management, governance, and operational responsibility

• Enterprise thinking versus departmental thinking

• Authority, responsibility, accountability, and stewardship

• The executive leader as direction-setter, culture-shaper, decision-maker, and organizational model

• The impact of leadership on employees, patients, partnerships, reputation, risk, and results

• Personal and professional benefits of executive leadership mastery

 

Session 2: Executive Traits, Skills, and Leadership Environment

Central questions:

• What traits are necessary to lead well at the executive level?

• What skills must effective executive leaders develop?

• How can the organizational environment support executive leadership effectiveness?

• What prevents executive teams from leading as one organization?

Key topics:

• Integrity, courage, humility, credibility, self-awareness, resilience, and accountability

• Strategic thinking, systems thinking, judgment, communication, collaboration, and influence

• Emotional intelligence and constructive executive conflict

• Decision-making under uncertainty and competing priorities

• Cross-functional alignment and reduction of organizational silos

• Support from the board, executive peers, managers, employees, partners, vendors, and external stakeholders

• Policies, processes, data, technology, financial resources, and governance systems

• Change leadership, innovation, responsible AI use, cybersecurity awareness, and organizational readiness

• Personal, team, cultural, strategic, and operational barriers to effective leadership

 

Session 3: Leadership Best Practices – Direction and Alignment

Central questions:

• Where are we going?

• Why do we exist?

• What principles will guide our decisions and behavior?

• What results must we achieve?

Leadership best practices:

1. VISION: Create and communicate a clear picture of the desired future.

2. MISSION: Keep the organization focused on its central purpose and the people it serves.

3. VALUES: Establish the principles that guide decisions, behavior, relationships, and culture.

4. GOALS: Translate direction into specific, prioritized, measurable results.

Key topics:

• Creating shared strategic clarity

• Connecting organizational priorities to CHA mission and community impact

• Using values as observable leadership and decision standards

• Converting broad priorities into focused goals and success measures

• Aligning departments, resources, communication, and accountability

• Identifying competing priorities, gaps, contradictions, and strategic drift

 

Session 4: Leadership Best Practices – Execution, Learning, and Adaptation

Central questions:

• How will we achieve the goals?

• How will we ensure disciplined execution?

• How will we know whether the strategy is working?

• How will we respond when conditions, information, or results change?

Leadership best practices:

5. PLAN: Define priorities, responsibilities, resources, timelines, risks, measures, and communication.

6. EXECUTE: Turn decisions into coordinated action, accountability, and measurable progress.

7. EVALUATE: Review results, data, behaviors, risks, lessons, and stakeholder impact.

8. ADJUST/ADAPT: Correct course, improve the plan, reallocate resources, and respond to changing conditions.

Key topics:

• Turning strategy into coordinated operational plans

• Clarifying ownership, decision rights, measures, milestones, and follow-through

• Creating an executive operating rhythm for communication, review, and accountability

• Evaluating performance using data, outcomes, stakeholder feedback, and organizational learning

• Distinguishing persistence from strategic rigidity

• Leading change, responding to uncertainty, and adapting without losing mission or values

• Applying the complete leadership cycle to a CHA strategic or organizational challenge

• Developing an individual 30-, 60-, and 90-day executive leadership action plan

 

30-Day Follow-Up Webinar

• Review workshop highlights and the eight leadership best practices.

• Discuss implementation successes, barriers, decisions, and lessons learned.

• Answer executive leadership questions and coach real organizational situations.

• Reinforce the 30-, 60-, and 90-day leadership action plans.

• Identify additional leadership-development or organizational-support needs.