Value analysis has taken on a whole new role at most health systems throughout the country and with this comes many more responsibilities which include leading your VA teams. When you look beyond the mechanics of VA like managing the workflow, new product requests, teams, agendas, meeting minutes, etc., you realize that there is more to leading than just these important elements. The goal of this article is to give you some of those important yet not often spoken about qualities/skills for being a successful leader in today’s value analysis world.
1. You Have to Believe – When it comes to things like savings in the value analysis process, there is a lot of doubt and disbelief that comes from all angles in your VA teams, your C-Suite, department heads, and your end customers. It is easy to falter in your belief in your initiative when they all give knee-jerk reaction excuses as to why they don’t want to change or buy into your initiative. This comes with the territory and unless they have overwhelming evidence in real numbers, you must learn to stick to your guns and keep that initiative going.
It is great to have empathy for your fellow clinicians, department heads, and managers, but we must also hold the line on making changes happen even when our end customers and stakeholders don’t want to change.
2. Know How to Weather the Storms – You will be overwhelmed, there will be major fails, challenges to your integrity, and a whole lot more when you are leading a VA program. You must learn that what is happening today will dissipate and return to a level of normalcy sooner rather than later. Just be prepared to weather these storms from time to time. We all have them and they all pass.
3. Be a Master of the VA Process You Employ – I often say that the VA process is the shortcut to savings and value analysis evaluations. The best part about having a set process (we use a 6-step process) is that you will always know the next steps you need to follow in your VA projects. Too much goes on and quick findings happen, but they may only be the tip of the iceberg as far as savings or clinical evidence. It is best to stick to the process step by step which will help keep any and all initiatives on track and produce results.
4. Be a Good Salesperson (Yep, I said It!) – What? Be a good salesperson when we deal with salespeople all day long? How could you say this, you ask? Well, we are all selling in a way, just like sales reps sell to you and your clinicians. We need to have good sales skills in order to sell our savings/change initiatives that we want to have happen as part of our normal value analysis program. Without these sales skills, we can often find ourselves not pushing through valid savings opportunities or new products that should be adopted but aren’t because we failed to persuade the right department head or clinician that this is the right thing to do. Keep in mind, just because you lay out your whole case with perfect evidence that should do the selling for you, you must still present this in the way to be accepted. That is where the sales skills come into play. Here is a great book that is more focused on questioning skills that will better align you to your end customers.
5. Enlist Your VA Team Members in the VA Initiatives – Being a Lone Ranger is going to burn you out sooner rather than later. Remember, VA is a marathon not a sprint, so when it comes to all the product evaluations and VA initiatives, start to enlist the aid of your VA team members to assist you in these efforts. In a perfect world, especially if it is their department that the initiative is in, perhaps they could lead the evaluation and/or project themselves. It’s time to have true team members, not just committee members that only have to show up for a meeting once a month.
6. Be a Great Coach and Teacher – It is great that you have your AHVAP Certification and other skills, but you have to think about your VA teams as well as the department heads/managers that you work with on an ongoing basis. You need to be the constant coach and teacher to bring them up to the advanced level that you are at all while you are doing business in your VA program. I encourage you to develop some of your own training programs for your VA team members as well as department heads and clinicians. Remember, VA is everyone’s job in a health system.
It is great that we are seeing so many new value analysis leaders stepping up and leading their own health system’s VA programs, but keep in mind that with this new responsibility comes a whole new learning and skill curve for you. Ironically, sometimes the skills that you are already aware of are the ones that you need to get better at. Start to identify those skills that we outlined above or skills that perhaps your VP of Supply Chain may think you need to improve on. If you want to consider your VA program a mature and advanced program, then you need to lead with next level skills and you will achieve this.
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