To execute well in a network meeting or an interview, you must present yourself in a powerful way. As most of you are aware, the elevator speech has long been utilized as a tool in this area. This presentation focuses on who you are, what you've accomplished and where you're going. At Wiederhold & Associates, we have refined the elevator speech and taken it to a different level.

We call ours the "2-Minute Presentation", and when done correctly, will connect you to your audience as well as align you with the opportunity or the situation.

The 2-Minute Presentation should be as close to 2 minutes as possible, be modified to fit different audiences and contain three distinct components:

• Humanization
• Elevator
• Differentiation

Basically, it's your elevator speech on steroids. Here's how it works.

Humanization

The goal is to make a connection. It's amazing what happens when you find a mutual connecting point to your audience. Remember, relationships are built on personal information, not business. Lastly, the power of the concept of "I, therefore, you." If I share something with you of a personal nature, you will feel compelled to share something with me. Connecting to people on a personal level is an essential part of both networking and interviewing.

Elevator

There are two key messages here:

• My career moves are logical.
• I'm clearly on the left side of the career bell curve and the best is yet to come.

The Differentiation Statement

The differentiation statement answers these two questions in a powerful way:

• Why should I hire you?
• What distinguishes you from other network connections or candidates?

Bring Your A-Game

Both networking and interviewing have become highly competitive. On top of that, people have limited time to give you. Bring your A-game with one of the most powerful tools you can put in your toolbox - a well developed 2-Minute Presentation.

Jim

Connect with us on LinkedIn and join our Active Network Program.

Landing Your Biggest Sale, Yourself!

Facilitating a successful job transition and search is a complex and intensive process. I have found most healthcare executives are trained and focused in their healthcare leadership roles, but are not experienced nor educated on how to conduct a successful job search and transition.

Frankly, most tend not to be very good at it.

Why is that? Most of us are good at things we do most of the time. None of us would be very good golfers if we golfed every two years. Job transitions are just like that. Executives don't have the opportunity to practice these skills often and there is real value in finding a coach or a partner who can accelerate the process.

Let me share a case of an executive that had tried to go it alone in her job transition and learned that with the right coach, training and navigation she could be very successful in her transition. She had the wisdom to realize she needed guidance to be successful.

To give you some insight, the client was a very high-level executive in a large health system. She had been trying to find a position on her own for approximately two years without success. Her organization had merged with another system who had the stronger position in the merger. The position they had offered her was not at the level she had been at and she decided to move on. She began conducting her own search process and was not as successful as she wanted to be. Eventually, she reached out to me for transition coaching.

What did she learn:

• I didn't know what I didn't know.
• I was not familiar with the current market and how competitive it is.
• My approach to networking was limited and therefore I didn't have a deep or substantial network.

What were her outcomes:

• My perspective on networking changed; it's much bigger and deeper than I thought it was.
• My relationship building skills improved.
• My communication skills improved.
• Jim as a coach was always available to me. Especially at high anxiety points.
• I was shown how I could do things better in the process.
• My goals for the transition needed to be broadened. I was often coached to add another needed step.

Working with this executive was a very rewarding journey for me because she had been out so long and was concerned about her ability to make a successful transition. We quickly moved her forward with the appropriate skills and were successful in helping her land a very good position. She was an excellent partner.

Transition and search is a very specific sales process – the process of selling yourself! With the right coaching, education and practice you can have a very successful result.

Here's to your success,

Jim

Connect with us on LinkedIn and join our Active Network Program.

Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Population Health Officer and Chief Experience Officer are some of the titles increasingly emerging within the healthcare industry. In a survey of 323 clinical and human resources leaders from healthcare organizations nationwide, 16% of respondents indicated they were currently recruiting or planning to recruit leadership positions with titles such as VP of Patient Experience and Chief Experience Officer, to be in charge of patient experiences across health systems with the goal of sustaining and improving loyalty.

The survey, conducted by the Center for Professional Advancement at AMN Healthcare, captured responses across 37 quantitative and 15 qualitative areas. Chief Strategy Officers and similar roles are dedicated primarily to understanding and managing the cost/value proposition as well as the risk-to-payoff ratio for each strategy. Chief Population Health Officers and similar positions are focused on identifying disease trends and risk factors, and then ensuring programs are developed to address those factors.

Other roles are still emerging and will continue to develop, including Clinical Transformation Officer, which includes responsibilities for managing a healthcare system’s “transition from volume to value, including care infrastructure, staff management, IT changes, care continuum partner engagement and other duties tied to system reorganization.”

Healthcare firms are at the early stage of rolling out these new positions and responsibilities. According to the report, awareness of the need for these positions continues to build across the healthcare industry.

The 25-page report can be downloaded at: http://www.amnhealthcare.com/uploadedFiles/MainSite/Content/Workforce_Solutions/Survey-Emerging-Roles-in-Healthcare-2014.pdf

Message from Jim Wiederhold, president of Wiederhold & Associates

As many of you are aware, we are in the transition business, career development and executive coaching. We believe that transition should be an holistic approach meaning not just getting people through the transition to the next opportunity but adding skills and knowledge that will make them even more productive in the next opportunity. We have been talking up for several months the introduction of three new programs. The first one is ready to launch and we want to make you aware of it. With the arrival of healthcare reform, we have developed the concept of the three-legged stool. Each one of these legs is extremely important for any healthcare executive to be successful in their careers. These are: quality, strategy and finance.

Our first program is focused on quality. The process will work as follows. Each individual that we work with at the appropriate level will be assessed by our expert. Once the assessment is completed and reviewed by our expert, she will meet with that individual by telephone one-on-one. During that meeting she will review their results and make suggestions that may include additional training in the area of quality. If any additional training is needed, this individual can create an agreement with our expert. The assessment part will fall under the Wiederhold & Associates program. Any additional training will be handled by the individual and our expert.

I do not think anyone can disagree that quality will be a major focus of healthcare reform and that anyone who lacks in that area will have his/her challenges. We are very fortunate that we have located an expert in this area who brings a long history of success in healthcare. Let me introduce you to Debra Honey.

Debra Honey is a visionary Nurse Executive with more than 30 years of progressively responsible and diversified Nursing Leadership experience. She excels at leading healthcare transformational change initiatives and promoting impeccable standards of care within the industry.

Honey Consulting, Inc.
Debra is President of Honey Consulting, Inc., a progressive, hands-on consulting firm offering practical solutions for opportunities and issues facing healthcare organizations today. She provides expertise in nursing services, nursing operations leadership, and operations support to assist and facilitate improvements in performance and outcomes. Debra also provides Chief Nursing Executive coaching and interim Executive Nursing support.

Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver, CO
Debra was previously Vice President for Clinical Operations and Clinical Leadership Development for Catholic Health Initiatives, a national not-for-profit healthcare organization comprised of 68 U.S. hospitals located in 19 states. In this role, she was responsible for nursing clinical operational support for system initiatives and market based organizations. She served as the Executive responsible for system-wide strategy for and implementation of clinical competency programs including competency assessment and staff development for all hospitals. She was a valuable clinical resource on a diverse set of national work groups and task forces.

Signature Leadership Qualifications
Debra is a member of the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow Program, 2008 cohort, and her diverse leadership experience and areas of expertise include:

• Overall Clinical Operations
• Medical Staff Operations
• Performance Improvement
• Board Communication & Collaboration
• Quality and Safety Initiatives
• Accreditation & Regulatory Compliance
• Patient and Staff Satisfaction
• Service Line Assessment & Optimization
• Staff and Leadership Assessment, Development, & Coaching

She earned valuable direct patient care experience working as a clinical nurse in critical care, emergency services, and surgical services. In addition, Debra taught Nursing at the diploma, bachelor, and masters levels.

Education and Certifications
Debra earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and graduated Magna Cum Laude. She holds a Master of Science in Health Administration from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management. She is a Registered Nurse in the states of Tennessee and California.

Debra prestigious healthcare certifications include:

• CENP - Certified in Executive Nursing Practice, American Organization of Nurse Executives
• FACHE - Fellow Status, American College of Healthcare Executives
• CPHQ - Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, Healthcare Quality Certification Board

The program that Debra Honey has designed for those individuals needing additional training in this area will include the assessment process, an individualized learning plan, the learning modules, individual coaching and consulting, and simulations.

The program is designed to be customizable to best meet the needs and goals of the individual executive. Gaining expanded competencies and quality and safety in healthcare provides a demonstrable competitive advantage to senior executives in the field.

If you have any questions or comments. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us. On an additional note, we will offer Debra's services beyond just those individuals involved in the Wiederhold & Associates transition/career development program.

Kyle and I just returned from an eight-day engagement with an organization that will probably be purchased by a for-profit system. This particular hospital is faith-based and has been part of this community for a very long time. I have had the privilege of working with their VP of HR over the last 5+ years with individuals who transitioned out from this organization. He had the foresight to bring us in to work with his executive team and key vice presidents and directors facing an uncertain future. Our focus was to give reassurance, provide new options and give them superior knowledge of the transition process both external and internal. This involved two days of group sessions and 17 individual video interviews with specific feedback for each individual. This not only required a great deal of hours during the workday as well as many hours afterward burning these DVDs and preparing for the next day.

Our takeaways:

• We made a difference. The journey may not always be what we want it to be, but knowing what will happen and how to prepare will make it that much easier. Going into this journey with a positive attitude makes it even better.
• If the way these individuals welcomed us and went out of their way to make our visit comfortable is the way they treat their patients, then the next time I have to be in a hospital as a patient, this is the place I want to be.
• Communication is the key on all levels. People can accept most anything when they are effectively communicated with in a timely manner, without information gaps, and with a focus on sending the right message.
• You would think that 17 people would all look the same after a while, but they all had a unique story worth our attention. Those differences made it easy for us to not become repetitive in our counsel, but to find something unique for every individual. That made the experience even more exhilarating.
• We all need to better understand the difference between what we can control and what we cannot. There are times that we have done all we can do and still the final outcome is not what we hoped. By not understanding this delicate balance we can do irreparable damage to ourselves and our careers.
• What I have always know, but was again reinforced, is there is no more powerful relationship builder than the face-to-face meeting. Other communication options pale in comparison.
• We can always continue to learn. Interviewing has always been the strongest part of my repertoire and doing these 17 interviews back-to-back I learned some things that will make me even more effective.
• The leader sets the tone for the organization. His/her personality is reflected in the leadership team. The leader here, in my estimation, set the right tone.
• These individuals and this organization have faced some serious challenges, much of which have been outside their control yet they have never given up. They have much to be proud of and I wish them the best and we will continue to help them in any way we can. With these individuals this is not the end, but a new beginning.

Both Kyle and I are returning home, feeling good about our efforts. We are hopeful that our newfound friends will end up exactly where they want to be.

Whether you're in transition or not, the concept of controllable versus non-controllable and desires versus goals is key to your success. When people are frustrated more than likely what they're doing is focusing on what's not controllable versus what's controllable. Here's a simple example; I can control the phone calls I make. The number of calls, the frequency of follow-up, the message I deliver, and the attitude I convey, but I can't control somebody calling me back, I can only influence them. If we would learn to focus this way, we would be much more successful and much less frustrated. I think we can all agree that frustration is a pretty useless emotion.

So the first thing we work on with our clients in transition is to start defining what controllable and uncontrollable is by the use of very definitive examples like making phone calls and receiving phone calls, asking somebody to expand your network and having them deliver a name. We need to stay focused on what we can control and not on what we can only influence. This applies to transition and everything else whether it’s business or personal.

Now let's add goals versus desires. When someone begins their transition we talk about goals that we can control versus desires, which we can only influence, and are not controllable. How does that translate into transition? We focus on four things which are controllable. First, the number of hours you dedicate each week to the search. Second, the number of calls you make each week which does not include those you receive. Third, asking for people to expand your network and not necessarily receiving a name, you can't control that and finally, getting out pieces of paper which translates into resumes and cover letters to recruiters and employers for specific openings. This also includes direct marketing letters to organizations you may have an interest in working with.

If something is a desire, it can always be broken down into specific controllable goals that will get you there. It can apply to anything business or personal. Try it on and see if it fits.