When the CEO of a hospital attends the kickoff meeting for an IT project, the entire team notices. It’s a simple way to express that information technology is a priority. That’s what Christopher J. Durovich, CEO of Children’s Medical Center Dallas, did as the organization launched a new electronic medical record.
Like financial and clinical leadership, IT leadership is built on basic tenets but reflects the core goals and challenges of the discipline. In “Effective Leadership: An IT Perspective,” Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Debra L. Pahal presents 19 characteristics of IT leadership culled from academic literature. Those characteristics can be grouped into three core attributes. They are:
• Dedication to ideals, which includes: vision, knowing the future and how to get there; integrity, dedication to doing what is right; commitment, passion as seen through caring and concern; intuition, trusting new insights and perspectives; inquisitiveness, constant questioning and probing for answers; trust, the ability to nurture the “leader” in others; selflessness, the idea that the leader’s role is to serve his or her followers; and tenacity, the refusal to give up or to let others give up.
• Dedication to success, which includes: creativity, seeing the world as a series of opportunities; innovative, creating new solutions without fear of failure; risk-taking, open to possibilities, questioning assumptions and taking a stand; and action-oriented, willing to work for the good of the organization.
• Dedication to the dream, which includes: the ability to communicate, listen and network, keeping abreast of what’s going on, knowing how to hear and building teams; candor, the ability to be forthright yet compassionate; visibility, maintaining a sense of community; open-mindedness, the willingness to try new ways of doing things; and toughness, knowing what is needed and demanding that it be done.
Our cover story is about leadership. It’s one of the attributes that the 100 Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems have in common.
This article first appeared in the Spring issue of HHN's Most Wired Magazine.
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