To prepare for the new mandates of the Affordable Care Act, and to ensure that organizations can adequately provide quality care, medical facilities must prioritize cooperation and collaboration between different divisions. In an effort to transition to the changes being brought forth by the Affordable Care Act, you may need to reconsider how your organization defines leadership.

Consider this study by Gallup. According to their study, which assessed information collected over the past 40 years and pulled leadership data from over 50,000 leaders in different industries (including healthcare), the capacity for leadership can be judged on two crucial criteria.  This in turn can serve as a two-pronged approach to assessing potential hires or employees for leadership roles.  In sum, the first aspect of their conclusion organizes leadership by the roles the hospital needs, while the second gives a model for assessing the fit of an individual by whether they possess the qualities needed for that specific role.

Appointing specialized, capable leaders is especially important in the healthcare field, as Gallup’s studies of thousands of leaders emphasize the point that there is no “one size fits all” leadership role. Each leadership role communicates different information, resources, and direction.

“As a major initiative of the Affordable Care Act went into effect on Oct. 1^st, the need for leaders within medical facilities has become even stronger,” says Jennifer Nyman, a Director of The Execu|Search Group’s Health Services Division. “Affordable Care Act mandates and programs are creating many changes across the healthcare industry, ranging from the number of insured patients to the care an organization is responsible for providing, that medical facilities need to prepare for. Change can be challenging, so this is why it is vital that talented leaders are placed in the right positions to ensure all new requirements can be met while operations continue to run smoothly.”

In determining an individual’s capacity for leadership within the healthcare field, the survey found that most organizations have four distinct types of leaders. Here are the four healthcare leaders with the capacity to lead your facility through the transition:

• The leader who navigates the facility to its desired future vision by outlining a plan and collaborating with other leaders to make the vision a reality, is known as the ‘Executive Leader’. This person adjusts the hospital’s activities, and aligns formula, strategy, and resources, in order to reach the overall goal.

• ‘Senior Leaders’ work across departments to achieve business aims, such as strategizing the company’s profit and loss. These leaders plan and execute as commanders, overseeing the external factors affecting the facility, and recognizing market trends with the potential to capitalize on. This type of figure is the point person for various teams and workgroups to communicate information through, ensuring a continuous flow of information to the executive leadership team’s point of visibility.

• ‘People Performance Leaders,’ such as nurse supervisors, coach and mentor others, and are responsible for promoting a positive and productive work environment. These figures drive employee engagement by creating bonds between team members and developing clear goals for managers. The guidance of these leaders is integral in running the day to day operations of the team, and vital in affecting workplace satisfaction, as team members look to these figures for clarity regarding their career path and future opportunities within the organization.

• ‘Operational Performance Leaders’ grow the organization by improving efficiencies, troubleshooting operations, and keeping the company on track to meet business goals. These technologically-geared leaders monitor key metrics and act as innovators to consistently keep operations running.

As the survey illustrates, healthcare institutions will need key team members who understand different dimensions of their organization to ensure every level of management is progressing forward. Restructuring your team to run more efficiently by instituting the right leaders will make handling the new workload brought on by the Affordable Care Act easier to tackle (and less stressful).