When a new CEO comes on board, communicators are often thrust into the unusual position of making the new leader look good while selling their PR expertise in the process. It can be a time of anxious uncertainty and fresh opportunity, according to Pam Pohly, a veteran ex-CEO of Tennet and Columbia/HCA hospitals who now runs her own healthcare and managed care consulting and executive search firm, Pam Pohly Associates, in Hayes, Kan.
Having been a CEO for more than 10 years at two major hospital systems in Colorado, Texas and California, Pohly says that what many PR pros fail to do is arm the new CEO with "bite-size" information on the hospital's key issues.
The CEO needs to establish a strong relationship with the PR/marketing department more quickly than any other department. This relationship needs to be crystallized within the first month, according to Pohly.
Covering Home Bases First
When David Bradford took over as Family Health Plan's CEO from COO earlier this month, the communications team became his right arm within the first week prior to the public announcement. As Wisconsin's fifth largest health plan, FHP had not grown in three years, and lost an average of $2 million in each of this year's first three quarters under the CEO leadership of Conrad Sobczak. The writing was on the wall that FHP's board would be looking for new leadership, and although the local press had devoted significant ink to its financial woes, FHP's communications team, led by Phil Dougherty, made the media its last audience priority.
FHP, which has seven centers, 115 physicians, 1,100 employees and 100,000 members, is a major corporate force in Milwaukee. Dougherty's team had to communicate to three internal audiences before talking to the media.
The communications plan first targeted the senior management team, then the chief medical team at each center and lastly, Family Health System's management, which handles FHP's administrative services.
"We had to communicate to our internal publics that staff-model HMOs are not what they used to be and that we had to find new ways of doing things to be competitive," said Bradford.
By the time Bradford's announcement was made to the media, all of FHP's internal audiences were informed and tough questions regarding staffing and FHP's cost-cutting initiatives had been addressed.
Flexing PR Muscle
When Bayfront Medical Center's CEO resigned with relatively short notice in 1994, the PR team made it its mission to showcase to the board the leadership talents of Sue Brody, the COO at the time, before conducting an outside CEO search. Bayfront is the largest hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla.
When the CEO spot became available, the board of trustees was in the midst of a major reorganization, downsizing from 50 to 30 board members.
During the four-month selection process, Robert Carter, Bayfront's VP of corporate communications, and Rob Sumner, manager of public affairs, met with Sue Brody around the clock to craft a convincing image of her leadership capabilities to the board. "Although she was well-liked by employees, she was relatively unknown to the community and the board wasn't familiar with her leadership abilities and vision," said Carter.
How to Hit The Ground Running with the New CEO
To make sure that trust and respect are established upfront (first two weeks), Pam Pohly who runs her own healthcare executive recruitment firm in Hayes, Kan., suggests taking the lead on the following initiatives:
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To make her a shoo-in, the yearly board retreat was chosen as the best opportunity for Brody to show board members what she was made of. Carter and Sumner helped Brody frame her vision statements and brought national industry speakers who "endorsed" Brody's leadership style and program ideas. Largely due to this showing of authority, Brody was appointed CEO of Bayfront in May of 1994.
Brody's leadership has received national recognition by Working Mother magazine's "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" list (October issue) which recognized the hospital as being a family-friendly environment for female employees and having a female CEO. (Pam Pohly Associates, 785/625-9790; FHP, 414/256-0006; Bayfront, 813/823-1234)