Dave Sneddon

ASK questions. No matter how new (or not) you are. One of my early career mentors had been in his role for 20 years. Every day he asked questions and admitted to not knowing something. He did it for 2 reasons: 1. Continuous learning - You will never know everything so keep on expanding your knowledge by learning from everyone - C suite to front line all have something to teach you if you take the time to look. 2. Setting an example and driving out fear. By showing every day that even as the boss and 20 yr veteran he was still learning and did not know everything, he made it safe for others to do the same.

Resist the temptation! People will bring you problems and expect you to fix it. DONT. While you likely know the answer (that's why they promoted you after all) It is not your job anymore. It is tempting to go back to what is familiar and just fix it - usually faster than showing them how. But your job now is to develop the people who report to you - not to do the job for them and burn yourself out in the process. Helping them ask the right questions and think through solutions, while time consuming at first, will create better employees, better teams, and better outcomes. When you develop people you create sustainable improvements. When you don't? The wheels will fall off the bus as soon as you leave.

Look to your local leaders for opportunities to expand services. The best opportunities I have had all came from local healthcare leaders. They know their area. The needs, demographics, politics, and competitors in any region are best known by the people living there. Is your competitor about to collapse? The locals will know. Is there an urgent need for a service (mental health? outpatient rehab? behavioral therapy?) The local team will know. Are key people leaving or joining competitors or state agencies? The locals will know. I have completed acquisitions and switched service lines in multiple states - all because of information from local teams. If you are not tapping the resource of local leaders - you are leaving money on the table

Don't aim where it is - aim where it is going. And don't chase shiny objects - where there is muck there is money. For example - post acute healthcare has a national staffing shortage. Demographics of aging suggest this will get much worse over the next 5-10 years. Many companies are trying to make the existing models work - often with promises of what is possible from shiny new tech companies. People will still need care even if the staffing does not exist, so tech is a current urgent need to fill the gap. But there are many alternate models (shared living, self directed supports, telehealth, group therapies etc) Using tech as part of developing the new models instead of propping up the old is the path forward.

In creative endeavors I find I am ALWAYS working on it. I wake up with new ideas. In fact most creative ideas seem to come when I am NOT actively working on the project. It is important to do other creative things not related to your project - gets your brain moving. I travel a lot with work and usually check which bands are playing in the city I am going to. Those are like short compressed concentrated breaks that help me avoid burnout. Last year around 20 bands. Find the thing that you enjoy that you can do on work trips or take as mini breaks in an evening.

This may sound silly but … schedule meetings in 15 min increments only. With so many video calls people default to 30 or 60 min meetings and then fill up the time. Most meetings can be an email. And when you do have meetings they can be a lot shorter.