Community Health Center Management Principles for Boards and Senior Managers - Principle 5 – Staffing

Community Health Center Management Principles for Boards and Senior Managers - Principle 5 – Staffing

This is a continuing series for effective Community Health Center Governing Boards and Senior Management.

Today we address:
Principle 5 – Staffing
· Management ability issues:
§ Knowledge (Does he know it?)
§ Skill (Does he do it? - Does he do it effectively?)
§ Values (Does he want to be liked or respected?)
§ Manners (Does he do it courteously? - Does he disagree without being disagreeable?)
§ Temperament (His manner of thinking, behaving, reacting
- Is he efficient? [Does the thing right]
- Is he effective? [Does the right thing]
- Is he efficacious? [Gets the thing done])
§ Experience (Does he have the historical of seasoning necessary for his essential job purpose?)

· Management staffing issues:
§ Is he able to do the work? (Does he have the requisite knowledge, skills, values, manners, temperament, and experience?
§ Does he know what he is expected to contribute? (Goals, standards, timetables, etc.)
§ Has the organization taken placement responsibility? (Staffed from strengths; Placing and assignment control; etc.)
§ Has the organization considered where the person really belongs? (Outplacement)

· Staffing from strengths (Four rules):
1. Jobs are not created by nature or by God. (Forever be on guard against the impossible job)
2. Make each job demanding. (Jobs must have challenge in them to bring out staff’s strengths)
3. Start with what an employee can do rather than with what the job requires. (Do your thinking about people long before the decision on filling a job has to be made)
4. To get strengths, one has to put up with weaknesses.

· Rules for managing the prima donna:
§ The prima donna’s job is twofold: When the playbill says Tosca, sing Tosca; and fill the house. When she fulfills that job, the effective manager will treat her as a prima donna.

Next post: Community Health Center Management Principles
for Boards and Senior Managers - Principle 6 - Tools of the Manager