Service.

Service

The best leaders are first servants. This concept was introduced about 12 years ago by Robert Greenleaf in his book, Servant Leadership.

According to Greenleaf, the difference between a servant-first leader and a leader-first leader is "the care taken by the servant-first

Recently, Peter Drucker, management author and educator, emphasized Greenleaf's concept, saying, "The leader's job is to be a servant. The position is not a privilege, but a responsibility."

Service also is a responsibility of leaders in healthcare financial management. As a servant, the financial manager assists in the development of persons with whom he or she works. We need to help others progress in their careers by offering our encouragement and guidance.

As Greenleaf suggests, we also must be prepared to assess our effectiveness as servants. We can do so by evaluating the development of those we serve. Have they become more effective and more independent? As a result of our service to them, are they better prepared to contribute more to the healthcare organization?

By serving others, we share the resources and knowledge entrusted to us as financial managers. This concept of service is similar to a concern for people, a trait our chief financial officer (CFO) members have noted as significant.

In a CFO study published in the July issue of HEALTHCARE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, "concern for people" was one of the important traits cited by CFOs as enhancing their career success. A study two years earlier produced similar results.

Through service to others and concern for them, healthcare financial managers become better leaders. And effective leaders manage healthcare organizations with attention to community service.

One example of quality service to the community is the healthcare organization's resourceful delivery of services. To serve the organization and the community in a resourceful and effective manner, financial managers need to supplement finance and accounting expertise with more knowledge of healthcare delivery, technology, and patients' demands for quality and access to health care.

Tomorrow's successful financial manager will know more about demography, economic conditions, disease patterns and their causes, and local industrial health needs.

Through education, information, and issues analysis programs, HFMA serves as a resource to financial managers. In its values statement, HFMA states, "We believe that service to members is our highest priority. Programs are evaluated and provided from the perspective of filling member needs."

Importantly, service to members is guided by HFMA's voluntary leadership. The servant-first leadership of the Board of Directors, National Matrix, and region and chapter leaders makes it possible for HFMA to provide extensive services to members and the industry. Some examples are regional institutes, chapter newsletters, and analysis of national issues through chapter task forces.

We add service to concepts, including vision, creativity, and balance, that are important to financial managers and our industry in a new decade.

Service--to give to others from the greatness and plenty given to us.

(a)Greenleaf, Robert K., Servant Leadership, (New York: Pavlist Press, 1977), p. 13.