Provide insight and examples that would assist to enhance the effectiveness of their leadership style and strategy based on research and performance metrics data. Include the following:

• Relate your suggestions to the example from the two responses.
• Describe specific performance data and/or research you would use.
• Recommend leadership style and/or strategy changes to improve the situation.

List any references that is used

Response # 1

Data can be interpreted in many ways and assist with decision-making in healthcare organizations. Healthcare is a very data-driven industry, from health insurance payments that need documentation of the patient care being provided to the burn rate or use rate of hospital linens.

Supply chain disruptions and delivery delays can cost healthcare organizations a significant amount of money, including increased costs due to shortages and lost revenue from canceled procedures because of missing supplies. I remember at my organization, back in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were fighting tooth and nail to get N-95 masks to protect our healthcare workers and just when you thought you found a pallet of masks, someone else had already purchased them, and sometimes for significantly higher costs to the hospital. When this happened, my organization dedicated personnel to several different groups to identify several different options to keeping masks available to our staff, including developing a process to clean them, researching how long the masks could really be worn before they were truly ineffective, and lastly, forming a group whose job it was to spend their day searching far and wide for more masks.

I was part of the group that was tasked with cleaning the masks. We first gathered used masks from healthcare workers, hung them much like hanging clothes from a clothesline in an airtight room, ran a room sterilizer for the appropriate amount of time, and then allowed the masks to air out before packaging them up again for use. The data that we presented to the hospital executives was:

• Time to gather the masks from different units around the hospital.
• Time to prepare the masks for cleaning, including hanging them in the room.
• Time to run a cleaning cycle and air out.
• Time re-package and re-distribute the masks back to the units they came from.
• Number of staff involved in the process; and
• Total cost per hour per employee to manage the process.

Once data was compiled from all these processes, we all had to present our findings to hospital executives, and they made decisions based upon our recommendations. Spoiler alert, we did not have the most cost-effective process and we did not have the most time efficient process. According to Dublino (2023), big data is changing how we do business, including building business intelligence, understanding improvements in the efficiency of processes, and enhancing supply chain risk mitigations. Those three items were all a part of the process used to determine how best and how financially practical each of the options was.

For the executive leadership team, they were able to use the data to compare alternatives that were used to make the most beneficial decisions for the organization. This was an example of evidence-based management or EBM. The organization was able to measure data against a pre-determined value, make an assessment with the results, and then optimize the financial standing of the organization by making evidence-based decisions (Lauenroth, 2023).

Response # 2

The role of assessment in leadership is to determine what is working and what is in need of change. Assessments can be used for a multitude of tasks. In education, we use data points from assessments to determine student success, student persistence, and student engagement along with employee data points as well. Employee data points can include the impact they have on student gains, the amount of contact between employee and student, and the level of engagement between employee and student. I don't like to make decisions on a whim. I am a classic overthinker who will look at the data and analyze it for any and all possible causes and solutions.

While leading those who are interacting with students, I need to review the student data along with the employee data. Students may be high performing and high achieving while the employees that work with them are showing low engagement rates. If I was to just look at the student data, I would assume the employee is engaged with the student because the student is doing well. I would have misinterpreted the data and made decisions that impact student success poorly.

I will use data to influence how I lead in several ways. I will be aware of the connection between various data points. I will review the connections before basing any decisions on certain data points. I will use data as a starting point for conversations to encourage growth and develop along with offering praise with employees. I will use data to influence how I lead students in a different way. I will be able to use the data to provide a proactive level of support and engagement and to provide the right interventions to those students who are not seeing success.

Utilizing data allows me to lead with an evidence-based management approach. Using an evidence-based management approach in turn allows me to measure the performance indicators and values that are important in an effort to reach our strategic goals (Lauenroth, 2023). Evidence-based management allows companies to remain agile and able to pivot to remain competitive. Decisions are made based on data not a gut feeling and this reduces the likelihood of poor decision making (Lauenroth, 2023).