HA515 Unit 10 New Manager Development Plan Example

Two Ledgers for a New Practice Manager: A Leadership Development Plan Built on the Course's Own Distinction, With Management Capabilities to Learn and One Leadership Habit, Avoiding Hard Conversations With Former Peers, That Has Resisted Change

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

HA515: Leadership and Management in Health Care

Unit 10 Leadership Development Plan

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, the clinic and every figure are composite and bracketed; the plan is a course model of a personal development plan.

The Role Change

For six years I was a medical assistant and then the lead medical assistant at a composite family medicine clinic. Four months ago I became practice manager for [26] staff: medical assistants, front desk staff, a referral coordinator and a billing specialist, reporting to the director of ambulatory operations. The [five] physicians and [two] nurse practitioners report clinically to the medical director, not to me. Katz described three kinds of administrative skill, technical, human and conceptual, and argued that the mix needed shifts as people move up: technical skill matters less, conceptual skill more and human skill throughout (Katz, 1955). My technical skill, rooming patients and running the schedule, is now the least important thing I bring.

Ledger 1: Management Capabilities

1. Budget: build and monitor the clinic's operating budget. Activity: shadow the director through one budget cycle and prepare the staffing section myself. Checkpoint: a variance report I can explain line by line by month three.

2. Staffing model: match medical assistant hours to provider schedules. Activity: model staffing for each provider template. Checkpoint: overtime below [three] percent for a quarter.

3. Payer and quality metrics: understand the measures the clinic is paid on. Activity: monthly review with the quality analyst. Checkpoint: present the clinic's results at the director's meeting.

4. Hiring: run interviews with a structured guide. Checkpoint: two hires completed with the new guide.

These are learnable through instruction and practice, and each has a concrete activity and checkpoint.

Ledger 2: A Leadership Habit

When a medical assistant I used to work beside falls behind, I do the work myself rather than talk with her. I have resolved to stop at least four times. Each time, I go back to it within a week. Hill's research on new managers found that many struggle to move from doing the work to getting work done through others, and that relationships with former peers are among the hardest parts of the transition (Hill, 2003). I already know how to hold a difficult conversation; what stops me is a commitment I did not know I was keeping.

Why the Habit Resists

Kegan and Lahey argue that some changes fail because of an immunity to change: a hidden competing commitment that our current behavior serves, protected by a big assumption we treat as true (Kegan & Lahey, 2009). Their map has four columns. Mine:

1. Commitment: to hold staff accountable fairly and directly.

2. What I do instead: I take over tasks; I avoid feedback conversations with former peers.

3. Hidden competing commitment: to remain liked by the people I used to work beside, and not to be seen as having changed.

4. Big assumption: if I correct a former peer, she will decide I have become someone else and the team will turn against me.

Testing the Big Assumption

Kegan and Lahey suggest small, safe tests of the big assumption rather than willpower. My tests:

1. Give specific, kind feedback to one former peer about one task, and note what actually happens to the relationship over the next week.

2. Ask two staff members what they expect from a manager who used to be their colleague.

3. Track how many hours a week I spend doing tasks that belong to others.

What I Have Already Tried

I read a book on difficult conversations, practiced with my director and wrote a script for one conversation. Each time, when the moment came, I found a reason to wait: the clinic was busy, the staff member was having a hard week, it was faster to do the task myself. The reasons were real, which is what made the pattern hard to see.

Why the Two Ledgers Need Different Methods

The management capabilities respond to instruction and practice: I can learn a budget by building one. The leadership habit does not respond to instruction, because I already know what to do. It responds only to examining the assumption that keeps it in place. Using the same method for both would waste effort on the second and slow the first.

Supports

My director has agreed to a monthly check-in on both ledgers. A practice manager at another clinic, promoted from within two years ago, will be my peer mentor.

How I Will Know

Ledger 1: the checkpoints above. Ledger 2: hours spent on others' tasks fall below [two] a week by month six, and I have held at least six feedback conversations.

Limits

Self-assessment can be generous. The plan depends on my director's time and my willingness to report setbacks honestly.

Conclusion

The management ledger is a list of things to learn; the leadership ledger is a habit to understand before it can change. Treating them differently is the most useful thing the course taught me.

References

Hill, L. A. (2003). Becoming a manager: How new managers master the challenges of leadership (2nd ed.). Harvard Business School Press.

Katz, R. L. (1955). Skills of an effective administrator. Harvard Business Review, 33(1), 33-42.

Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to change: How to overcome it and unlock the potential in yourself and your organization. Harvard Business Press.