Under pressure: Leaders shoulder heavy business demands

Development Dimensions International's Leadership Forecast 2003-2004 surveyed almost 3,000 health care leaders and associates from 14 countries. Nearly 75% of respondents say they're facing more pressure due to heightened business expectations. The Leadership Forecast set out to determine the source of the extra pressure and what practices organizations use to identify potential leaders.

Fast stats

The survey's major findings indicate:

[white diamond suit] Almost 80% of responding health care organizations experience difficulty identifying the right candidates for leadership.

[white diamond suit] Sixty-four percent of health care leaders feel they're being judged more stringently due to increased accountability, financial and regulatory pressures, staffing challenges, and patient expectations.

[white diamond suit] Though growing leaders is a priority, more than 60% of the surveyed organizations lack procedures to identify and develop managers and leaders.

[white diamond suit] Approximately 60% of the leaders surveyed exhibited the potential to be derailed at some point in their career. Both leaders and staff respondents agree that being overly concrete and micromanaging are the top two causes of career derailment.

[white diamond suit] About 38% of those surveyed have a high degree of confidence in their frontline leaders' ability. Novice leaders may experience difficulty mitigating problems because they're promoted on the basis of their clinical skills, not their leadership abilities.

Source: Development Dimensions International, Inc.: "In Health Care, Leadership Effectiveness is the Difference Between Life and Death." Press release.