It’s a rare week when we don’t hear an industry leader talk about long-term care’s severe staffing crisis. It’s getting harder to find and keep frontliners.
But there’s a different kind of staffing challenge that gets far less attention than it deserves: the sector’s aching need for effective executives.
The late Peter Drucker arguably knew more about effective executives than any person ever. One of his 39 books, “The Effective Executive,” is 50 years old and remains highly insightful and full of relevant advice.
For example, Drucker noted that being effective is not the same as working hard. However, to be frank, any long-term care executive who fails to work hard is probably not long for this field. Nor is effectiveness a matter of being highly intelligent, although that certainly comes in handy. Rather, being effective is about following a set of practices and ways of thinking that fuel real contribution.
For many long-term care leaders, the typical workday consists largely of putting out fires. But to Drucker, such activity is almost beside the point. Instead, leaders need to make a handful of critical decisions that help define the organization and its purpose.
But is well-considered, critical decision-making what we’re typically getting from executives in this field today? I would say that all too often the answer is a hard no.
According to Drucker, it starts with time management. He argues that those who get it done know exactly how their hours and minutes are spent. But more than that, they zealously protect the small sliver of time that is truly theirs.
Where the rubber really hits the road is not a focus on efforts, but results. Drucker maintains that effective executives repeatedly ask themselves: “What contribution can I make?”
Drucker noted that effective executives must also do these well: Know where and how to mobilize strength for best effect; set the right priorities; and knit all of them together with effective decision-making.
These are not exactly earth-shattering insights. Yet all too often in long-term care, they are given a low priority. Or
worse, ignored.
From the January/February 2023 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
