As an Allied Health Business Coach, I’ve observed a compelling trend across the sector, particularly in small to medium-sized businesses. Many Allied Health Business Owners are deeply entrenched in day-to-day operations and or clinical work, often at the expense of strategic business growth and investing in leadership for their team. It’s crucial for these business owners to shift up from a clinician’s mindset and adopt a CEO mindset. This strategic shift is not just about business efficiency, it’s about reclaiming your lifestyle, creating a business team that runs with less of you and setting a sustainable direction for your business.
Current Allied Health Leadership Landscape
In many Allied Health businesses, the leadership responsibilities often remain with the owner, who juggles both clinical and administrative roles and ends up with way too many direct reports. This is understandable as the demand for services, clinicians and customer service staff have all grown steadily during past years. Then before they know it the Business Owner is all of the things, to all of the people, all of the time, feeling overwhelmed and stuck in a vicious circle holding pattern. The demand for a more structured leadership layer is becoming evident as Allied Health businesses strive for expansion and sustainability.
Key Benefits of an Effective Leadership Level
Implementing an effective leadership level offers numerous benefits – it frees up your time as an owner, allowing you to focus on strategic growth, passion projects and personal well-being, let’s think greater work life balance. A robust leadership team can drive operational efficiencies, foster a positive workplace culture, enhance decision-making, and ultimately lead to better business, team, clinician and most importantly client outcomes. Further, clear leadership roles light up the career progression opportunities available and ensure talented professionals stay with you, remain in the sector and share their wisdom to others.
Challenges in Implementing a Leadership Level
The transition to a structured leadership model is not without its challenges. Many owners struggle with delegating responsibilities, fearing that no one else can match their level of care or expertise. Possibly true – but there’s a good chance that they’ll do many tasks way better than you do when you are in time poor mode. You may even feel that you simply don’t have the time or energy to figure it all out. There’s also the financial aspect of investing in top shelf leadership talent which requires dusting off the budget and rolling up the sleeves for financial analysis to inform your decisions. Remember to put the awesome humans front and centre of your change management project as this will create a significant change for your entire team, clinical and customer service. Additionally, finding individuals who align with your business’ values and long-term goals can be daunting, however they are out there – they may even be in your team already.
Mechanics of Creating a Leadership Level
To build a leadership level, start by developing a succinct future organisational chart detailing the people, the positions and the costings per role. This chart should not only outline current positions but also forecast future roles that align with your strategic goals. Understanding the budget implications is crucial as will be the need to get crystal clear on the roles and responsibilities that the business requires from the leadership role. Recruitment, onboarding, upskilling, training, retaining and managing your leaders will all need to be thought through. We love a brilliant growth plan!
Which lands us with the question of who do you really need to be to shift up, stay up and lead your leaders?
Qualities of Potential Leaders
When scouting for potential leaders, look for individuals who demonstrate empathy, decisiveness, and an ability to inspire and motivate others. Effective communication skills and a commitment to the businesses vision, mission and values are non-negotiable. A prospective leader should also exhibit strategic thinking and the capability to manage both people and resources efficiently. Personality is key, a positive growth mindset, commercial sensibilities and a commitment to personal and professional development will also be high on the must have list.
Promote from Within or Recruit Anew?
Deciding whether to promote from within or to recruit new talent into leadership roles will take some deep thinking. I often hear of Allied Health Business Owners having a promising employee, but that they’re probably 2 years away from stepping up – sigh. Promoting from within has its advantages; these individuals already understand the operations and culture of your business. However, internal candidates may lack fresh perspectives, the required leadership skills, which may well be taught through training, but will take time. We suggest that you do both – post the role to the open market and invite internal applicants to apply. This way you will get a feel for who’s out there and may be pleasantly surprised at the quality and quantity of candidates.
Embracing the CEO Mindset
As an Allied Health Business Owner, there is a good chance that your personal transformation is the catalyst for the change you may well need within your business. By stepping back from clinical and admin duties and ‘doing all of the things’ you give yourself the chance to plan for the implementation of a leadership level team. Sounds simple – but we truly appreciate that it is not. However, these mindset and knowledge shifts are necessary to ensure you don’t get stuck in the weeds operating the business rather than directing it and thus missing opportunities and missing out on the lifestyle you went into business for in the first place.
If you’d like help in shaping your next steps, take advantage of a complimentary Power Call – a 20-minute strategy chat where we’ll help you identify your best opportunity for growth, and personalise a roadmap to get there.
