Leadership Lessons From Dr. David Shulkin

The below list is based on this article: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/28/trump-shuklin-veterans-obama-holdover-242047

BLUF: Nobody’s perfect, but the praise Secretary Shulkin is receiving for his work is instructive. This is an attempt to deconstruct an article that appeared in the news and extract some key lessons.

Theme I. LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

1. Keep your eye on the prize — serving the Veteran

2. Work with everyone equally

3. Stay in your lane

4. Understand that your job is to make tough calls and take bold risks at times

Theme II. STRATEGY

5. Offer more choices while building up internal capacity

6. Focus on “core” priority services, defocus on services easily available elsewhere at low cost

7. Cut the red tape

Theme III. CUSTOMER FOCUS

8. Orient your actions toward regaining the customer’s trust

9. Organize services around the human beings being served, not vice versa

Theme IV. COMMUNICATION

10. Be honest, open and direct

11. Make yourself available to answer questions

12. Offer regular transparency reports — such as waiting times, reports on positions of employees dismissed

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 By Dannielle (Dossy) Blumenthal, Ph.D. All opinions are the author’s own. This blog is hereby released into the public domain.

– By Dannielle Blumenthal, Ph.D.