Pat Williams is senior vice president of the NBA's Orlando Magic and an author and speaker on leadership. He will be speaking at HFMA's forthcoming Annual National Institute. Recently, we asked Pat some questions about leadership. Here is part of what he told us:
Q. In your writing, you talk about leading from the middle. What is one successful technique that healthcare financial managers can use to lead from the middle?
A. Reach out to people. When you’re a leader, and not the top guy, but you’re leading in divisions and departments, you have to have people skills in abundance, and a wide range of them. You’ve got to be able to relate to the men or women who own the company or are running the company. On the other hand, you’ve got to be able to relate to the janitors and the hourly wage earners. When you’re leading from the middle, the most vital leadership skill is the ability to relate to a wide range of people.
In sports, the successful coaches and general managers have to relate to the person who owns the team. They also have to be able to relate to the equipment manager and the ball boys, on the other end of the spectrum, in addition to the assistant coaches and the scouts and all the other people they’re working with. So leading from the middle is the ultimate test of people skills.
