For the past 25 years, I have been in leadership roles in health care insurance, most recently at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. My customers come to my team for solutions that address rising costs and smart use of data and technology, while demonstrating innovative thinking and responsiveness. With some frequency, I call upon earlier skills that I developed in the U.S. Army as an officer, Blackhawk helicopter pilot and paratrooper, to help meet the needs of my current clients. No surprise there: Leadership skills are transferable, and there are some skills that are essential, no matter if one is in the military or customizing health care coverage solutions for large organizations. The following five attributes are the ones I call upon consistently and put to use for customers.
 

1. Strategic Thinking

As a military leader, Dwight D. Eisenhower quipped, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Every account comes to us with unique challenges. Our solutions must be creative and innovative. Plans are simply the baseline for the engagement. We must first listen to customers and then develop a strategic plan that takes into account the BIG PICTURE — all the available data, all the tools and all the variables, knowing there is no one right approach and that the plan must be fluid to meet the changing business environments of our clients. We must deliver upon big ideas and ensure that they are strategically thoughtful, client-specific and expertly implemented.
 

2. Discipline — the Backbone of Focus

The complexities of today’s legal and regulatory environments, coupled with the fragmented organization of the U.S. health care delivery system and consumer expectations, present a daunting challenge for employers to design, administer and finance employee health benefits. Dr. Atul Gawande, who now leads the health care venture formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, demonstrates in his bestseller “The Checklist Manifesto” what the simple idea of the checklist reveals about the complexity of our lives and how we can deal with it. Avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, and the reason is simple: The volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people — consistently, correctly, safely. 

As a Blackhawk helicopter pilot and paratrooper, I learned this lesson firsthand. The only way we ensured safe and consistent execution of intricately orchestrated and timed missions from takeoff to touchdown in intense and unknown mission scenarios was through communication and verification of checklist items. To deliver complex solutions, I insist that my team takes the long view on ensuring customer needs are being met, deliverables are measured and recommendations/goals are achievable. We can get really imaginative and creative! However, to add value every day, our solutions must be able to be executed at scale.  This takes discipline to sweat the details, test, train, drill and perfect communication and system programming to operate in a complex environment with many variables.
 

3. Leadership

You have to have a vision of success. Even when I attained the rank of captain, I was still expected to lead a diverse group of individuals who sometimes knew more than me. Most importantly, the military helped me develop the skill of spotting the barriers to success, learning to think through not just one, but multiple scenarios, and to contingency plan for “breakdowns.” That experience helped me become a better leader for a team of dedicated professionals with the breadth of experience that sets our BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina team apart. Our leaders come from some of the biggest names in the industry (Mercer, Optum, Aetna, Towers Watson and more). Their experience is reflected in the thoughtfulness of their decision-making. My role as the head of that team is to let them be experts at what they do, but to keep them focused on the mission and communicating effectively with one another to achieve the customer’s goals — without casualties.
 

4. Problem-Solving Skills

Our customers must solve this dilemma: how to successfully manage the financial needs of their organization while meeting the health care coverage needs of their workers. Problem-solving and implementation are at the core of what you do in the military. Sometimes, it is just checking up to see how people are doing — customers and employees alike. At BlueCross, we are driven by data and wedded to cost-saving strategies, but we also understand that business is personal. Relationships and emotional intelligence foster trust and deepen investment in customers’ success. My team and I thrive on partnering with clients, meeting the challenge of supporting large, complex organizations, and figuring out the best ways to add value to our customers.
 

5. Adaptability 

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. The Army uses the term “field expedient.”  It means you have to use what you have available in the most efficient and effective way to accomplish the mission or stay alive. We aren’t always making life and death decisions on a day-to-day basis, but we have to make decisions that affect a great number of people. This goes back to delivering upon BIG IDEAS and ensuring that they are strategically thoughtful, client-specific and expertly implemented, sometimes on tight timelines and often with budget or resource constraints. Adaptability must be baked into the strategy of everything we do. 

Now that you know my approach, I hope in the months ahead to share insights with you on trends in health care and how BlueCross can help improve the health of your employees, and, ultimately, your community.