HealthCare Voice

Customer 2.0

The nation's hospitals, which have consistently lagged behind other industries in terms of management technology and service, will soon face a new demand for MIS innovation just as they are implementing new platforms, systems, and programs to deal with electronic health records and the concept of meaningful use.

It is called Customer 2.0.

It seems like only yesterday that some hospitals ventured timidly into the 20th century with call centers to assist clients navigate their way through a myriad of questions concerning unpaid balances, paying bills, scheduling and registration.  Now we learn that other industries are looking at innovative ways to meet consumer demands that want them to incorporate new media into the customer service mix.

This will not be a change that occurs overnight.  Thank goodness, since healthcare management information systems, which are today better than ever, are still far behind retail and manufacturing.  But this is a change that will come, and once the critical mass trigger is hit in other industries, it will sweep into healthcare.

Here is a post from Christopher Elliott writing in BNET, the excellent interactive business site from CBS:

"Brett Shockley, a senior vice president at Avaya, told a recent technology conference that businesses are just coming to terms with a new kind of consumer – he called it Customer 2.0 – and defined it like this:

They’re born with a keyboard. They’re born with an attitude.

Now that they’re graduating from college, they’ve got a disposable income and there’s about 80 million of them.

We’ve got to pay attention to all the different ways that they want to communicate. We’ve got totake all of this into consideration in our companies."

READ MORE.

If you are not a regular reader of BNET, I want to encourage to check in on this site from time to time.  They have some excellent articles. 

Now add to the mix that we will have less money for the whistles and bells – aka new technology – and the fact that we are change resistant, voila, you have yet another interesting confluence of competing interests that will make the CEO’s job – already one of the most difficult on earth – even more challenging.

 Have a great weekend.  I am staying indoors, if at all possible.  It is forecast to be 100+ again in Dallas.

 © 2011 John Gregory Self

 

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Principles, Integrity and Our Enabling Bad Habits

Principles are important.  Integrity matters.

We were once a nation that admired our leaders in politics and in business – who stuck to their principles and who conducted themselves in an ethical manner. 

Here is where I – and many of you – get frustrated.  For too long, the majority of our political and business leaders have not been true to their principles. Let's not talk about integrity when it comes  to politics or Wall Street.

This week we saw the conviction of a billionaire hedge fund manager who clearly broke insider trading rules to make – not earn – even more money.  In government, members of Congress have known for a long time that this nation’s slide deeper into debt – with more than $53 trillion in unfunded liabilities – would one day spark an economic crisis unlike anything this nation has ever experienced. But for years, no one spoke with any conviction about making material reductions in spending. Both political parties were more focused on the next election cycle, not in coming to grips with this very dangerous addiction to deficit spending. It was easier, and more convenient the dire consequences notwithstanding, to simply kick the can down the street.

The chickens have come home to roost.  Next year, every penny of what U.S. residents pay in taxes – those 55 percent who actually pay anything at all – will go to fund entitlement programs and the interest on the debt.  The $1.65 trillion deficit spending for discretionary programs will simply be added to our long-term debt that is already $14,326.739.262.229 as of 1:55 AM GMT today.

No wonder our primary banker, China and several of the major fund managers, are nervous.  And you should be as well.

Now here is a bigger inconvenient truth: we are a population of enablers.  When fiscal responsibilities require that we give up a program, subsidy or benefit that impacts our lives – real or imagined– we are more likely to voice opposition with a wink of an eye or we chastise the politician who would dare cut a particular program that might be unpopular with their political base. We are enablers because while we drop phrases like “shared sacrifice” when we dish gossip at a cocktail party or church, sadly we no longer collectively understand the concept.

Over the next three to five years, many of these same politicians that we criticize today will be forced to make tough fiscal decisions that could save our nation, or send us into an irreversible not-so-slow, painful slide into the role of a debtor nation with the inevitable result that the U.S. will become a “second tier power”.  This is a very real possibility.

The key to our survival will be our ability to re-focus on those principles that made this nation great and support those political leaders who will do what is right with integrity, not necessarily what will endear them to their political base.  Finally we must be willing to passionately embrace shared sacrifice.

Forget about economic principles, the machinations of budgeting or government accounting.  Without our support of these three core principles, we will face a national financial calamity that will be more painful than anything we have known in modern history.  

© 2011 John Gregory Self

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MEMO TO LEADERS: There is No 'Magic Lottery'

I bought a lottery ticket last night.  For me it is a whim, a flight of fancy that I take every week or so knowing, of course, that my chance of winning is so statistically remote, that my decision to fork over a dollar bill is nothing more than my paying another tax to the coffers of inefficient government.

However, at the instant we buy the ticket, most of us experience, if ever so briefly, the “what if” moment where we think about all the good we could do, or all the things we could buy, if we actually won.  But alas, most of us know the truth.  The odds are so stacked against us that our chance of winning is far worse than one in a million, and that is bad enough.  The closest any of us will ever get to that jackpot is that ever so brief “what if” moment.  So, last night I felt the compelling urge of the whim, and stopped into a nearby convenience store and bought another statistically unlikely chance.  

On Sunday morning, as I looked through my overnight emails, I read Seth Godin’s very popular blog that seemed to scold me for actually acting on my impulse.  Mr. Godin, an innovative marketing consultant, best selling writer, adept self-promoter and 
author of the 15th most popular blog on the Internet, used our hopes of winning the lottery as a metaphor to expose a major failing in our present-day value system – the idea of the magic lottery to achieving success while bypassing all the tough blocking and tackling required to build a successful enterprise. 

Starbucks did not become Starbucks as the result of an Oprah Winfrey endorsement or being blessed by a Warren Buffet investment, Mr. Godin points out.  “No, they plugged along.  They raised bits of money here and there, flirted with disaster, added one store then another, tweaked and measured and improved and repeated.

“Day by day, they dripped their way to success.”

Today we are seeing a wave of young entrepreneurs and corporate executives in a hurry for success and the financial rewards to which they feel entitled.  They are looking for a shortcut to the top –the magic lottery. 

Godin’s experience, insight, and his own route to amazing success, provide a dose of reality.  “Better, I think, to avoid wasting a moment of your time hoping for a fairy godmother.  You are in a hurry and this is a dead end.”

Shortcomings, he points out, “are rarely reliable or particularly short…”

Today there is a veritable rush for the quick, simple, and painless solution.  We seem to want our problems solved in the same amount of time it takes for a 30-minute TV show to resolve its stars’ pressing crisis of the episode.  Our lifestyles need to be, apparently, as carefree and seemingly perfect and rich as those of our designated pop personalities of the moment. 

We face a crush of problems, from oil spewing into the Gulf wrecking a way of life, to the ongoing threat of another terrorist attack, to serious challenges in healthcare, to an epic deficit crisis.  Accountability is on the decline while greed is on the rise, and our leaders are more focused on politics as usual -- issuing damaging if not disingenuous sound bites and winning the next election cycle – than crafting creative solutions brought from actually engaging in the process of governing.

Now Mr. Godin provides us with an inconvenient reminder that in business as in life there is no magic lottery. 

If there is to be a next “Greatest Generation” the Baby Boomers and their offspring had best get busy. 

Mr. Self is the President and Founder of JohnGSelf Associates, Inc., a healthcare executive search and human capital advisory services firm in Dallas.  He has represented clients recruiting from Asia, Africa, Australia, the Middle East and North America

A highly rated speaker, Mr. Self has more than 30 years of healthcare experience, 16 years in executive search, and his record of talent selection is one of the best in the industry.

He is the 2010 Regent Award winner as the senior healthcare leader of the year in North Texas, an honor bestowed by the American College of Healthcare Executives.

© John G. Self, 2010

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Perfection Is The Enemy of Good

This week’s sports controversy – with a blown call at first base by umpire Jim Joyce costing Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game – ended with a level of class and authenticity that is virtually unmatched in modern sports history, especially with the huge egos so common in professional athletics today. 

 For me, this rare event is one of life’s great teachable moments. 

 I hope we do not blow the opportunity to learn something very important far beyond the raging debate about whether the baseball commissioner should reverse the call ( highly unlikely) or the future role of instant replay, an important debate for the purists of the game, but certainly not the most important issue here.

 George Will, columnist and baseball fan of the first order, summed up these events with great clarity: “Perfection is the enemy of good.”

 This story has a special interest for me.  I am a former amateur baseball umpire.  I officiated high school and community college baseball games in Northeast Texas in the 1990s.  During my tenure, there was no process for undoing a blown call.  There was certainly no instant replay.  The umpires I worked with hustled and worked hard to get the call right for the players.  Everyone knows that umpires make mistakes – they are very human – but they rarely discuss them publicly.  Until this week. 

What happened in Detroit – as the talking heads of ESPN and local sports broadcasts were rehashing the bad call – was nothing short of amazing and uplifting for the human soul.  Mr. Joyce publicly admitted he had made a mistake.  He did not blame it on anyone or anything else.  He did not slip away in the dead of night to “umpire rehab.”  He went to the Tigers’ dressing room and apologized.  To his enormous credit, Mr. Galarraga accepted the apology with incredible grace and a very-to-the point comment:  “Nobody is perfect.” 

 The next night, Mr. Joyce worked the game as the home plate umpire.  Mr. Galarraga represented his team at the home plate meeting with the umpires.  Mr. Joyce clearly showed his emotion.  Again, Mr. Galaraga demonstrated his forgiveness.  They both showed their class and sportsmanship to their teammates, to the fans, and the rest of the world. 

I do not know how Mr. Joyce performed on this night calling balls and strikes after his emotional roller coaster ride.  Frankly, I do not think that is important. 

 This teachable moment is what is important.  I hope players from the Little League diamonds and youth soccer fields to the professional ballparks and stadiums around the world will reflect on the responses of Messrs. Joyce and Galarraga and convert this moment to an extremely relevant life’s lesson.

 It would be nice to think that our politicians, who have perfected an excuse or blame for everything done wrong, would give this moment some thought as well.  The civility these two men showed one another is what a great many Americans want to see in the halls of government, from the county courthouse, the statehouse, and the chambers of Congress.

Pay attention.  Blind and mean spirited partisanship is the enemy of good.

© John G. Self, 2010

Mr. Self is the President and Founder of JohnGSelf Associates, Inc., a healthcare executive search and human capital advisory services firm in Dallas.  He has represented clients recruiting from Asia, Africa, Australia, Middle East and North America

A  highly rated speaker, Mr. Self has more than 30 years of healthcare experience, 16 years in executive search, and his record of talent selection is one of the best in the industry.

He is the 2010 Regent Award winner as the senior healthcare leader of the year in North Texas, an honor bestowed by the American College of Healthcare Executives.

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It's the People! The Key to Sustainable Success

When then Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas was running for President, his War Room led by political operative James Carville crafted a message that resonated with frustrated voters:

“It is the economy, stupid!”

Whether you agreed with Gov. Clinton or not, that theme made a huge difference with voters.

For healthcare today, in times of unparalleled challenge, there is a similar call to arms:

It is the people!

Those organizations who recruit, hire and retain the best people will win out in the market.

Human capital, our employees, are our most important asset. Apparently, we buy into that reality since hospitals print that very truth in their annual reports year after year.

We cannot control the actions of Congress, our physicians, or the insurance conglomerates that, for all practical purposes, dictate our financial future with the wackiest of rules. However, we can control the quality of our human capital. When we have the best people we can also control the quality of our care, patient safety, and patient and physician satisfaction.

Human capital – your employees – can differentiate you in the marketplace.

What are you doing to ensure that your people are the best?

John G. Self is Chairman and Senior Client Advisor of JohnMarch Partners. He is a Co-Founder of the Firm.

A former investigative reporter and crime writer with more than 30-years of healthcare leadership experience in public relations, national marketing, business development and as Chief Executive Officer of hospitals and consulting firms, Mr. Self is highly regarded for his keen insight into operations, business culture and for his ability to consistently select the right leaders.

You can contact Mr. Self at 214.220.1234 or [email protected]. Or you can follow him on Twitter at Self_JohnMarch. He is an active member of Linked In and a frequent editorial contributor.

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SWAN DIVE: From the Frying Pan Into the Fire

FORT WORTH, Texas (May 27, 2009) – One of the toughest career management decisions is when to leave your current organization. Chief executive officers, vice presidents, and even department directors all agonize over this call.

So many factors cloud our thinking.

Based on my interviews with senior level candidates over the past several years, I am finding that there are many reasons/excuses that give us pause when deciding to move on. Leaving when things seem to be going well at work is counter-intuitive. Perhaps our kids are in good schools, they are probably involved in sports or other activities; they have wonderful friends and they are adamant in their opposition to relocation. Or, the spouse is happy with his or her job; there is a great support group of friends and an ideal quality of life. More than likely there is some mixture of all of the above.

There are risks in staying. There are risks in leaving.

Business is changing. So, it is not surprising that there are non-family factors that are equally important to consider when making a decision to stay or leave. Let us look at the CEO turnover rate. The average CEO tenure is 2.5 years over all sectors, according to several recent studies. If that is not disconcerting enough, the average recruitment “stick rate” – the average tenure of all executives and managers who are recruited to new jobs – is a shockingly short 18 months. This number covers all facets of recruitment – from retained and contingency contracts to internal recruitment. Presumably, the contingent recruitment of lower level department directors or managers is driving the overall stick rate down. Nonetheless, these are troubling numbers if you sit on a board selection committee or run a company, and worrisome if you are a CEO or other executive or manager who is trying to plan the right time to move on.

No one wants to execute the perfect swan dive from the frying pan to the fire.

When I entered healthcare in the mid-1970s, the gold standard for stability in employment – and thus making you more attractive to executive search consultants – was 7 to 10 years in one job. That tenure reflected a level of stability and accomplishment, recruiters thought. Today, if you are seeking a senior level position in a healthy system or larger hospital, recruiters want to see diversity in experience and accomplishment – between five and seven years. They reason that this demonstrates that you can master a multiple of cultures and challenges, thus increasing your chances for success in a new environment. Candidates who have stayed in one job for more than 15 years could be in trouble, one career coach said recently. After 20 years in one job, pray that you can retire because your desirability as a CEO or other senior level executive is greatly diminished.

The trick is to have a career plan that is married to reasonable, grounded expectations. It is critical to have your family on board with these new career realities. They are frequently the reason a CEO stays too long. One bad departure – with nasty press reports that will almost certainly find their way on to Google – is a career limiting or ending event.

I know this sounds very unfair, even uncivilized, when it comes to what is in our family’s best interest. After all, these were not the career rules 15-20 years ago when most senior executives began their climb to leadership.

Regrettably, the market is changing. This change, especially as it relates to career management, is accelerating. If you are a healthcare executive leading a not-for-profit hospital, the challenge of managing your career is going to change again as we emerge from this deep recession. These CEOs will probably find themselves in an environment that is akin to working in a public company – more pressure to produce solid financial results and to meet rising community benefit expectations that is now a hot button with the IRS and Congress. And to do it every quarter.

Now here is the kicker. As Medicare and Medicaid payments are reduced, which will occur regardless of what happens with healthcare reform, the demands on not-for-profit hospitals for charity or deeply discounted care will only intensify.

All of these issues are forcing the CEOs of tomorrow to adjust their life and career plans. Twenty plus years in one organization may be a thing of the past.

John G. Self is Chairman and Senior Client Advisor of JohnMarch Partners. He is a Co-Founder of the Firm. A former investigative reporter and crime writer with more than 30-years of healthcare leadership experience in public relations, national marketing, business development and as Chief Executive Officer of hospitals and consulting firms, Mr. Self is highly regarded for his keen insight into operations, business culture and for his ability to consistently select the right leaders. You can contact Mr. Self at 214.220.1234 or [email protected]. Or you can follow him on Twitter at Self_JohnMarch

Healthcare Leadership, John Griffith and Much More...

ANN ARBOR, Michigan (March 19, 2009) – One of the great parts of my job is speaking to healthcare executives, early careerists and graduate management students across the country. For me, the real value is the opportunity to spend time with some very bright people like Dr. Christy Harris Lemak and discuss how we can improve our leadership and the performance of the organizations that we lead.

Today I spoke to a large group of graduate students at the University of Michigan’s top-rated health services administration program – the home of the legendary John Griffith, teacher, mentor, author, and renowned thought leader on the management of healthcare organizations. In so many ways, for so many years, Professor Griffith has set the standard for educating future healthcare leaders and for setting important standards for running a well managed hospital.

The University is paying tribute to his accomplishments through the development of the Griffith Leadership Center that will focus on health management and policy. Linda Grosh, the Center’s Managing Director, and other faculty members are planning some exciting and innovative initiatives. I will not step on the Center’s public relations thunder because so much of what they hope to do in the future is in active development. Suffice it to say that I think this Center will become an invaluable resource for healthcare CEOs who seek to adjust their leadership styles, values, and priorities to the varied challenges that will change and/or intensify with lightning speed during the span of their careers.

The University of Michigan is working hard to educate exceptional graduates – our future leaders – who will be less siloed, who will be more aggressive in challenging accepted systems and outcomes, and who will see opportunity that no one else sees. How timely, since we cannot afford to operate the world’s most expensive healthcare system with clinical and safety outcomes that are far from cutting edge.

In our world today, hospital CEOs are frustrated, doctors are unhappy, and employees are stressed. The current economic peril in which we find ourselves threatens to blur our focus on improving quality and ensuring safety. To make matters just a bit more interesting, business leaders, unions, pro-business trade groups and even industry insurance lobbyists all now agree that we can no longer afford our brand of healthcare. To make matters more interesting, some members of Congress seem to be trying to exert more control over the solution.

So to the many students and healthcare professionals that I have seen this year, and to the hundreds more that I will meet next week in Chicago when I speak at three sessions of the American College of Healthcare Executives annual Congress, I urge you to think critically about how we can reform our industry in a way that improves quality, safety and access while reducing costs. Speak out here, on the HealthCare Voice site, or any and all available venues. Please do not stand on the sideline while our trade association policy gurus, the Washington policy wonks, economists, business roundtable types, unions,insurance lobbyists and the other usual cast of suspects make decisions concerning the structure, delivery, and reimbursement of healthcare.

The vast majority who will weigh in on healthcare reform have never taken care of a patient, run a hospital or a long term care facility or managed a medical practice. It is extremely important that the aforemention list of healthcare reformers listen carefully to those of you who are in the trenches – those of you who can make considered and thoughtful recommendations.

John G. Self, Chairman and Founder of JohnMarch Partners, is the Firm’s senior client advisor. A 32-year veteran of the healthcare industry, he is a former investigative reporter and crime writer for a major daily newspaper. Candidates and clients say he is one of the most thorough executive recruiters working in the healthcare industry. You can reach John at 214.220.1234 or email him at [email protected].

Your Resume, Your Brand

GAINVESVILLE, Florida (Jan. 30, 2009) -- Today I spoke to graduate healthcare management students at the University of Florida. The seminar room was located not far from “The Swamp” – Ben Hill Griffith Stadium, home of the University of Florida Gators, our current national champions of college football. These are bright, motivated students, the future leaders of the U.S. healthcare system.

The topic of my talk was Career Management – Your Brand, Your Success, Your Life. At first, I sensed they were not really connecting with part of my title – the Your Life, Your Success part. After all they are young, attractive/handsome, energetic and bullet proof. What’s up with this talk on success? Isn’t success for a well educated graduate student a foregone conclusion? Not really, and I said so. They smiled, most nodded, but few were buying! I continued to try to make the connection, however, a certain sinking feeling led me to believe that I was sounding like someone’s father, a deadly comparison. They were polite. I plowed on and they begin to engage.

I spent a lot of time talking about the resume, that document which I describe as the core element of an individual’s brand statement. As senior executives we continually add to our brand through books published, articles written, blogs posted, and speeches presented, as we move through life. But the resume will forever be the root document of an individual’s professional brand.

Since the resume is so important, and given the vast amount of misinformation floating on the Internet and through so-called resume doctor consultants, I have decided that over the next several blog posts to offer my perspective on the resume – that of a partner in an executive search firm.

Let’s begin with an overview:

The resume is the candidate’s first interview.

OK, I have said this already, but let me blast this into your psyche one more time: the resume is the core document in clearly defining a candidate’s professional brand.

That is why the resume must be constructed with clarity and accuracy while emphasizing the candidate’s progressive scope of responsibility and record of accomplishment. The ideal resume should detail the career progression and accomplishments, beginning with the most recent position. The resume should include all positions of employment. It is critical that the resume be accurate concerning title, dates of employment, scope of responsibility and accomplishments. The standard of honesty and clarity applies to the listing of academic and professional credentials and affiliations as well. Statements that are cleverly (ambiguously) worded – designed to allow the employer or recruiter to make their own assumptions concerning degrees earned or credentials held, are in today’s market easily vetted and almost a certain guarantee of elimination from future consideration.

It is imperative, when sending a resume to a recruiter or potential employer, that the resume be current as of the date it is transmitted. One of the most common mistakes is to send a resume indicating current employment even though tenure with that organization has ended. This speaks to integrity and/or lack of attention to detail.

There are no hard and fast rules concerning the length of a candidate’s resume. It should be proportional to the years of experience, number of positions held and accomplishments. It is silly to suggest that a 30-year executive with a successful record of accomplishment can incorporate all relevant information into a two-page resume.

One final comment today: Always keep your resume up to date. You never know when that dream job will come along or, in this economy, when you get word that your job is being eliminated.

On Tuesday: Organizing the Resume
John G. Self, Chairman and Founder of JohnMarch Partners, is the Firm’s senior client advisor. A 32-year veteran of the healthcare industry, he is a former investigative reporter and crime writer for a major daily newspaper. Candidates and clients say he is one of the most thorough executive recruiters working in the healthcare industry

To Journal Or Not To Journal

DALLAS, Texas (Dec. 28, 2008) -- Journaling is a trendy sort of thing. I know people who have been doing it, religiously, for years. Others started but did not stay with it. It is like a routine of physical exercise, I guess. I know others who have started after taking a journaling class. Interesting. I did not know there was a class for something like this – teaching you to write thoughts and ideas in a book.

My interest in journaling did not come from a lofty notion that I had something important to say, recall or reflect upon. No, it was much more superficial. It was a picture in a magazine of a great looking leather notebook and a beautiful pen (in what you write, and with what you write, is very important to some journalists). A rugged looking model posing as one of the world’s great adventurers/writers was making notes while sipping what looked to be a glass of expensive single malt scotch. That was the purpose of the magazine advertisement, not the merits of journaling. That leather journal and the pen made an impression. Then during one of my frequent business trips – not to Africa or some exotic Far East destination, but Wichita -- I saw someone else making notes in an interesting notebook. He, too, was using an interesting looking pen. Then I heard a speaker at a leadership conference talk about the value of reflective journaling. I learned that some of the most celebrated leaders in the nation -- in business and the military -- journal on a regular basis

I began to think about the idea from time-to-time. As a former crime writer and investigative reporter for a major Texas newspaper, I missed the “art” of writing although there are those who would argue that this type of writing – a report on some bloody killing or bizarre auto accident – is really 250 words in short declarative sentences organized in three or so paragraphs masquerading as tomorrow’s history. About seven or eight years ago, I began to make notes in the classic spiral notebook on how I could improve my business and my life, as well as notes on tasks for the next day – something that I do more and more frequently as my hair continues its march to total grayness. Occasionally I wrote something that was good but most of the time I rarely went back and reread the previous entry's musings, except to look at my notes for the Outlook calendar. Then I met Rand Stagen,Senior Partner at Stagen, a Dallas-based management consultancy. Mr. Stagen helped me connect the concept of reflective journaling and improving as a leader – Chairman and Founder of a JohnMarch Partners -- an executive search firm. He believes, and I am now a Stagen devotee on this issue, that there is a correlation between the discipline of reflective journaling and an executive’s ability to master the art of next-level leadership. To read more about this deeply important leadership concept and download a copy of this white paper, visit his web site.

I am no next-level leadership expert as I am clearly about to demonstrate, but borrowing from Mr. Stagen’s excellent work is very helpful when I talk to students in graduate healthcare management programs. I frequently use one of Rand’s great examples: the head football coach. Television cameras cut to a close-up of the head coach on the sideline at crucial times during the game, plotting his next move. Stagen makes an important point – that he may have the final say in calling the next play, but the coach has the worst seat in the house – at field level, which precludes him from gaining any perspective with regard to how his offense is being defensed. However, he does have a headset and he is talking to a member of his coaching staff who is located in the press box high above the playing field, Stagen writes. That coach may not be as smart or as experienced as the head coach, but he does have a different perspective and he (rarely, if ever, a she) can see opportunities the head coach cannot see. That, briefly, made the case for why every leader should keep a journal.

The discipline of reflective journaling allows a leader to move high above the playing field to revisit key decisions or events, and think about how a decision was made and executed. To gain a sense of perspective of what was overlooked or misjudged when the actual decision was made. And to learn from the experience.

My journal entries today cover my Firm's efforts to reach next-level recruiting, on the critical decisions we make in our searches as well as ideas for future blogs. As the birthdays fly by, and I am required to make more notes on day-to-day operations, I keep a separate log to update my Outlook Tasks list and calendar.

Today I have graduated from the spiral notebook. I journal in the classic Moleskine and I have a really good pen.

John G. Self, Chairman and Founder of JohnMarch Partners, is the Firm’s senior client advisor. A 32-year veteran of the healthcare industry, he is a former investigative reporter and crime writer for a major daily newspaper. Candidates and clients say he is one of the most thorough executive recruiters working in the healthcare industry.