048_Pipeline Problems: Why Future Healthcare Leaders Slip Through the Cracks

 Episode Overview

In this episode, Jarvis T. Gray explores a crucial and often overlooked aspect of leadership development in healthcare: finding and nurturing future leaders before they take on the official title. Jarvis challenges the conventional wisdom that leadership is only for those already in formal positions and emphasizes the need for proactive, intentional investment in emerging talents already on your team.

Key Topics Covered

• Recognizing Leadership Potential Early
  • Leadership starts with posture, mindset, and potential—not a title.
  • Early signs: emotional intelligence, curiosity, ownership, and influence.
  • Real-life examples, such as a frontline phlebotomist quietly influencing her team.
• Essential Traits to Spot in Emerging Leaders
  • Coachability: How do they receive and act on feedback?
  • Accountability: Do they take responsibility, even when things go wrong?
  • Systems thinking: Can they connect dots and see patterns?
  • Collaboration: Are they building bridges and trust?
  • Growth mindset: Are they open to learning and uncomfortable conversations?
• How to Cultivate Future Leaders
  • The importance of early and intentional exposure (e.g., inviting staff to observe meetings, leading huddles, giving stretch projects).
  • Structured encouragement and mentorship make the biggest difference.
  • Example of a surgical tech whose leadership journey began with a small project and supportive coaching.
• Building a Culture of Leadership Development
  • Shift from HR owning leadership development to everyone being involved (managers, directors, executives, peers).
  • Make leadership development a part of job descriptions and performance metrics.
  • Celebrate leadership behaviors at every level, not just after a promotion.
  • Initiatives like monthly Leadership in Action awards to reinforce this culture.

Key Takeaways

• Leadership is a behavior, not a job title.
• Recognizing and developing leadership potential must be intentional—don’t wait for self-selection or job openings.
• Mentorship, feedback, and early exposure to leadership situations are game changers.
• Culture matters: organizations that celebrate and reward leadership growth at every level create stronger, more diverse pipelines.

Reflection Questions

• Who on your team already displays leadership qualities without the official title?
• What early development opportunities can you offer this week?
• Does your organization reward and recognize growth and leadership at every level?
• What changes can be made to embed leadership development into your culture?

Action Challenge

• Make a list of 2–3 people who show leadership potential and reach out to offer support or opportunity.
• Talk with your leadership team about your strategy for building your pipeline.
• Celebrate one emerging leader this week—especially if they're "not ready yet."

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Transcript

0:55

Hey, healthcare leaders. Welcome back to the Excellence in Healthcare Podcast. I'm your host, Jarvis T. Gray, and I've got a question to open today's episode. What if the next great leader in your organization is already there right now, but nobody's looking for them? Too often we focus our leadership development efforts on those who are already wearing the title, already in the role, and already visible on the org chart. But leadership doesn't have to start with a title. It starts with a posture. It starts with a mindset. It starts with potential. So today's episode is about something that's deeply strategic and deeply human. How do we identify and cultivate future leaders before they're officially leaders? Because spotting potential early, that can change everything. It can prevent burnout, it can retain talent, it can accelerate transformations, and it can build a leadership pipeline that's strong, that diverse, and future ready. So here's what we're going to cover. How to recognize leadership potential before the title, why leadership development and exposure matter more than you think, and how to build a culture that consistently nurtures leadership growth from the inside out. I'll also share stories from the field, personal experiences, and plenty of reflective questions to help you take action starting today. So let's begin with how do we recognize future leaders before they even have the title? This is one of the biggest blind spots in healthcare leadership today. We often wait until someone applies for a role or starts managing people or takes a training course, but by then the opportunity to shape them has already passed us by. Leadership potential shows up long before the leadership roles. It shows up in how someone steps in during a tough shift, how they navigate different difficult personalities, how they ask thoughtful questions and meetings, or how they even give credit to others, how they stay calm and pressure, and most importantly, how they support colleagues in distress. In large part, leadership potential looks like emotional intelligence, curiosity, ownership, and influence. I remember working with the frontline phlebotomist Patrisse, and she wasn't in any formal leadership track. She wasn't loud, she wasn't flashy. But she did have this quiet influence on her entire team. She noticed workflow breakdowns to suggest fixes. She'd check in on the newer text before anyone even asked. She even kept a notebook where she tracked what helped her navigate tough patient encounters. She wasn't managing people yet, but she was leading. That's the kind of potential we overlook when we assume leadership starts with a promotion. So here's where most organizations go wrong. They have no shared language for what potential looks like. We need intentional behavior based Criteria to recognize future leaders now, not just the ones we like, not just the ones who are charismatic, not just the ones who seem like a good fit. So here are a few indicators that I often recommend. The first is coachability. Do they seek and respond to feedback? Then accountability. Do they take responsibility even when things go wrong? Systems thinking. Do they see patterns and connect the dots? Collaboration? Do they build bridges and foster trust growth? Mindset? So are they open to learning and uncomfortable conversations? These aren't just leadership traits. These are the foundational capabilities that make someone ready to grow into leadership. So reflect on this. Who on your team is already demonstrating these behaviors even if they're not in a formal leadership position? Just take a second, write down at least two names, because those people might just be your next generation leaders waiting to be seen. Okay, so now that we talked about identifying potential, let's talk about what happens next. How do we begin to cultivate that potential into actual leadership capacity? Here's the truth. By the time someone is ready for a leadership role, it's basically too late to start developing them. We need to begin much earlier. So one of the biggest mistakes that I see organizations make is assuming that people will naturally grow into leadership if they want it badly enough. But the reality is many high potential individuals, they don't know they're being seen. They don't know how to navigate the internal politics. They don't see themselves as leadership material. So that's where early investments can change everything. It might look like inviting them to observe leadership meetings, giving them a stretch project with coaching support, asking them to lead a huddle or a staff meeting, pairing them with a peer mentor, giving them a book, a podcast episode, or a model to explore. It doesn't have to be complex, but it just has to be intentional. And the earlier you invest, the sooner they start believing in their own capacity. So let me share a quick story. I was consulting with a hospital that had a fantastic surgical tech named Kevin. He was incredibly smart, phenomenal work ethic. But he'd never picture himself as anything more than just a tech. One of his managers saw the potential and gave him a process improvement project. Just a small one, right? So improving the turnaround times in between cases. She coached him through it and then gave him access to the OR utilization data, connected him with the right folks in admin. And by the end of the quarter, his team's turnaround time times had improved by 18%. More importantly, Kevin started seeing himself differently. Within two years, he was already leading process improvement initiatives across multiple units that never would have happened without early exposure and structured encouragement. And that brings me to one of the most important parts of cultivation mentorship. We just talked about this in one of our recent episodes, but let me say it again here. Emerging leaders need safe, consistent relationships with experienced leaders who can normalize the learning curve, share the unspoken rules of leadership culture, provide honest feedback, encourage when imposter syndrome starts to set in, hold a space for trial and error. Without that type of support, high potential people will either burn out, get discouraged, or they'll opt out of leadership altogether. And we just can't afford that nowadays. So what development opportunities, whether formal or informal, are you currently offering for high potential team members? And are they enough? If not, what's one thing that you could offer this week? It might be a conversation, a book, a shadowing opportunity, or a simple hey, I see something special in you, but take that moment because it can make all the difference in the world to your team member. Finally, let's zoom out and talk about the broader picture. How do we create a culture where identifying and developing future leaders is the norm, not the exception? Because again, the truth is this work, it just can't be left to chance. It has to be baked into the culture of the organization. One of the most powerful things an organization can do is shift from the idea that HR or organizational development owns leadership development process and the belief that everyone owns a part of it. That means managers are expected to scout for talent, directors are expected to mentor, executives are expected to sponsor, and peers they're encouraged to lift as they climb. It's not just about identifying the stars and it's about building an ecosystem where leadership grows at every level. I once worked with a healthcare system that built a leadership cultivation into every leader's job description. Each manager was expected to nominate at least one team member per quarter for development opportunities, and part of their performance review included metrics tied to talent development. You better believe the leadership pipeline stayed filling up and with more diversity, more energy and more buy in the other big piece of the culture, what you recognize gets repeated. If you only celebrate leadership once someone gets a title, then you're reinforcing this idea that leadership is positional. But if you celebrate things like speaking up with a systems oriented solution, coaching a peer, leading a meeting, effectively, modeling resilience through a tough month, creating a safer environment for patients or staff, then you're reinforcing a culture of leadership behaviors. One organization I worked with created a monthly Leadership in Action award. Nominees could be in any role, any level. What mattered was the behavior that they shared. And you know what? People started asking, how do I show up like that? How can I nominate someone next month? Do you think that I could lead the next initiative? That's what happened when culture says, we see leadership everywhere, not just in our job titles. So is your organization set up to reward growth before someone becomes a formal leader? And if not, what changes are needed to make that happen today? So let's wrap this up where we've been today. We've talked about how to recognize emerging leaders before they have the titles. How to cultivate that potential early with exposure, support, and feedback. And how to build a culture that makes leadership development everyone's responsibility. So here's the big takeaway. Leadership isn't something people grow into by accident. It's something they grow into because someone saw them or early and then invested in them with intention. So here's my challenge for you this week. Make a list of two or three people in your world who you believe have leadership potential. Reach out to them and invite them into something more. Offer support, encouragement, or an opportunity. Talk with your leadership team about how you're building your future pipeline. Do you have clarity? Do you have a strategy? Or are you just out there hoping for the next generation to figure it out on their own? Next celebrate growth. Find one emerging leader this week and affirm what you see in them, even if they're not ready yet. But especially if they're not ready yet. Because sometimes the most powerful moment on a leader's journey is when someone says, I see something in you and I want to help you grow. So go ahead and be that voice. If this episode gave you something to think about, then please share it with your team or message me directly on LinkedIn. I love to hear from you, who you're investing in and what you're building. Until next time, keep growing, keep leading, and keep investing in the future of healthcare leadership. This is Jarvis Gray, and I'll see you on the next episode of the Excellence in Healthcare podcast.