The Healthcare Manager's Playbook

In a previous post, I discussed how getting to know your team is a strong way to begin your management journey. As you build understanding, relationships, and trust, however, it is natural to want to plan what comes next.

The next step in leadership onboarding is rarely straightforward. Every leader, team, and workplace is different. Some managers are stepping into leadership for the first time; others bring years of experience. Some teams are fragmented and disengaged; others are cohesive and high-performing. Some workplaces are well organized, while others lack structure. Because of this variation, it is difficult to recommend a definitive, step-by-step approach for every new leader.

Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all mindset, consider a more flexible, pick-and-choose approach. Depending on your experience and the needs of the team you are leading, your next best step will vary.

For example, if you are a new manager inheriting a strong team, your priority may be strengthening your ability to manage yourself. The focus shifts inward—building the internal skill set required for effective leadership. This may include improving time management, developing emotional intelligence, and increasing communication effectiveness.

Top five suggested books for managing yourself:

• The Focus Project by Erik Qualman
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
• Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

However, if you are an experienced manager inheriting a fragmented or disengaged team, your focus may need to shift toward rebuilding and leading the team itself. This could involve strengthening your approach to feedback, coaching, interviewing, retention, and change management.

Top five suggested books for managing teams:

• The Effective Manager by Mark Horstman
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• Dealing with People You Can’t Stand by Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirschner
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
• Change Management by Barb Grant

Finally, if you are an experienced manager inheriting a strong team, your greatest opportunity for impact may lie in improving systems and processes. The focus shifts to how and where work happens. Areas of attention may include workplace organization, lean thinking, process or value stream mapping, flow, and mistake-proofing.

Top five suggested books for managing processes:

• Learning to See by Mike Rother and John Shook
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
• Lean Thinking by James Womack and Daniel Jones
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Good to Great by Jim Collins

In reality, most new leadership situations involve a mixture of strengths and weaknesses across all three dimensions: self, team, and systems. The challenge is to determine where focused effort will produce the greatest return for the least amount of time and energy. Those returns may include improved departmental outcomes, higher patient satisfaction, less frustration for clinicians, or fewer mistakes.

Leadership, like continuous improvement, is never finished. The longer you serve in leadership, the more you should study, learn, and grow. Leadership is not easy. It is a complex craft that requires intention and consistent refinement. Resist complacency. Reject mediocrity. Do not accept being the same leader year after year. Identify your next best step—and continue the journey toward becoming a great leader. Healthcare needs you.

About the Author: Shane Haas serves as the National Director of Outpatient Services at Ernest Health, a leading provider of inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. He enjoys learning and sharing leadership and management principles. His backgrounds in Physical Therapy (UF ’96) and Industrial Engineering (TTU ’02) provide a balanced heart and head perspective that shapes the Healthcare Managers’ Playbook.

Recommended reading list:

Babin, L., & Willink, J. (2018). The dichotomy of leadership: Balancing the challenges of extreme ownership to lead and win. St. Martin’s Press.

Brinkman, R., & Kirschner, R. (2012). Dealing with people you can’t stand: How to bring out the best in people at their worst (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. Random House.

Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Avery.

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap—and others don’t. HarperBusiness.

Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change. Free Press.

Duhigg, C. (2024). Supercommunicators: How to unlock the secret language of connection. Random House.

Gerber, M. E. (1995). The E-Myth revisited: Why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it. HarperBusiness.

Goldsmith, M. (2007). What got you here won’t get you there: How successful people become even more successful. Hyperion.

Grant, B. (2017). Change management: How to achieve results through people and projects. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Horstman, M. (2016). The effective manager. Wiley.

Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. Jossey-Bass.

Qualman, E. (2018). The focus project: The not-so-simple art of doing less. Ideapress Publishing.

Rother, M., & Shook, J. (1999). Learning to see: Value-stream mapping to add value and eliminate muda. Lean Enterprise Institute.

Womack, J. P., & Jones, D. T. (1996). Lean thinking: Banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. Simon & Schuster.