Successful leaders are great communicators, they are respected for their honesty and transparency, they know how to select and motivate people and, above all else, they know how to sell ideas.  These are five essential leadership competencies.

Every industry and every company faces challenges.  They all deal with resistance to change.  The good leaders distinguish themselves because they know how to overcome or neutralize the pushback.

You can be the smartest executive in the room when it comes to industry or subject matter expertise, but unless you are a master of these competencies, most especially the ability to sell people on change, the impending market transformation in healthcare will become a big hill to climb.

System CEOs overseeing multiple locations across numerous states face unique challenges in driving communication, building goodwill, and selling ideas.  They must be very adept, and have a supporting leadership team at the various sites that excel as well.

Employee intranet platforms and social media are both playing an increasingly important role as companies and health systems master the technology to push corporate messaging, including targeted video, to their employees and their email accounts.  But in the end, the technology is no substitute for—with credit to Hewlett Packard and to Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman of In Search of Excellence fame—leading by wandering around, interacting with executives, managers and employees, communicating, explaining and selling.

Even in the best of modern times, a phantom chief executive issuing dictates from the safety of the corner office, free from the messiness of employee pushback, was a really terrible idea, and there are plenty of failed CEO tenures to show for it.

Those five competencies are at the core of effective employee engagement.  In times of tough decisions, cutbacks and foundational change, having a supportive team of engaged and informed employees who are true believers is a powerful force. 

© 2012 John Gregory Self