“I’ve been a compliance officer for two years… shouldn’t I feel more confident by now?”
Does that sound familiar?
I know it does for me. That was a question I struggled with early in my career, on more than one occasion. It’s also one that I consistently hear from new healthcare compliance officers, which tells me that feeling “stuck” continues to be a challenge.
If you’ve got a firm grasp on compliance programs and the regulations, but still leave meetings wondering why your recommendations aren’t gaining traction, then I know why. You’re not doing anything wrong, you’re just investing a disproportionate amount of time focusing on the wrong part of your career.
This article will cover the number #1 career mistake I see new compliance officers make, and offer some strategies to overcome it.
The Trap Most New Compliance Officers Fall Into
When you’re new-to-compliance, the path for career advancement may seem pretty straightforward. You learn the requirements (e.g., policies and regulations), you earn a certification or two, and you pursue continuing education (e.g., webinars, trade conferences). It feels productive because technical knowledge is measurable. And that makes sense because you can point to these things and feel a sense of accomplishment.
While technical education is very important and essential to your career, don’t lose sight of the fact that once you understand the fundamentals, career advancement actually operates under a completely different set of rules.
(And in my experience, these are unwritten rules that nobody tells you about.)
Which is why I’m telling you now.
The Real Reason Some Compliance Officers Get Promoted
Most new compliance professionals assume promotions are based on who knows the most about the technical side of compliance work (e.g., the Stark In-Office Ancillary Services exception, the Seven Elements of an Effective Compliance Program, or the latest NCD requirements for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)).
In my experience, most healthcare organizations don’t work that way.
Think about the compliance officers you’ve seen become directors, vice presidents, or chief compliance officers. Are they walking encyclopedias of regulatory knowledge? To be fair, I would say “sometimes yes”, but more often than not, something else that got them to where they are in their career.
Healthcare leaders trusted them.
Why?
Because these seasoned folks know how to look beyond the rules to understand the business side of the organization. They also know how to build credibility before they need it, and how to build relationships before problems occur. In other words, it was their technical knowledge that got them a seat at the decision-making table, but what kept them there is their ability to connect with people.
Something that I think tends to get overlooked with new compliance officers is that healthcare leaders aren’t just evaluating whether you’re correct, they’re evaluating whether you’re someone they can trust to solve their problems. To me, that’s a very different skillset, and one that makes you effective as a compliance officer.
So, how do you pull this off?
By focusing on the promotion formula that nobody explains.
The Promotion Formula Nobody Explains
Career Advancement = Technical Knowledge + Knowing the People Part of the Job.
That’s the secret sauce for career advancement. And I would emphasize that it’s the first half of that equation that new compliance officers tend to focus on, while the second half is what actually positions them for advancement.
In my experience, every compliance success was a result of operational staff who chose compliant behavior, not the requirement itself. And those folks made decisions based on number of people-related factors such as relationships, competing priorities, and operational realities. For example, if you’re working on a post-audit corrective action plan, and a clinical director hears your process improvement recommendation, she’s wondering, “Can my staff realistically do this?”
Having an answer to that question is knowing the people part of the job. It also includes things like:
How to identify and navigate organizational and corporate political dynamics;
How to navigate difficult conversations;
How to rebuild trust after a difficult meeting;
How to get a resistant physician to take action; and
How to disagree with an executive without damaging the relationship.
The above is not intended to be an all-inclusive list. Instead, it’s to demonstrate there is a whole other side of compliance work that compliance professionals need to be skilled at beyond what can be studied.
I can’t pinpoint when it happened, but I do know at some point, I picked up on the fact that healthcare leaders were coming back to me because I was a person they trusted to solve their problems. That realization completely changed how I approached my career, and ironically, the more I focused on learning about the people part of the job, the more effective I became as a compliance officer.
The good news is that knowing the people part of the job is a skill you can develop.
Your Next Career Goal
If the people part of the job has been a struggle for you, or something you want to become more adept at, then below are three strategies you can implement today that will help.
Learn How Healthcare Leaders Think and Make Decisions. Here, you want to utilize a combination of personal research and talking with others who are in various leadership roles. To this day, when a question comes up related to a specific role in the organization (e.g., Periop Director, CFO, CMO), I have contacts that I reach out to help me understand that leader’s perspective.)
Learn How Business Decisions Are Made in Your Organization. Since this strategy is circumstance-specific to your organization, my best advice here is to: A) Start paying attention to how decisions are made (e.g., who needs to weigh in before a business decision is made), and B) Talk with your supervisor about this topic going forward when positioning your next compliance recommendation for buy-in.
Build Relationships Before You Need Them. I probably should’ve put this up above as the first item on the list. I can’t begin to tell you how much this one strategy will improve your ability to obtain buy-in and create an environment of proactive reporting. If you’re new to an organization, set up meet & greets with as many operational leaders as you can and get to know them as a person. Take a curious and active interest in their particular role. If you’ve been with an organization for some time, leaders come and go, so you can always reach out and introduce yourself. Don’t wait until a problem surfaces.
Pulling it All Together
If you’ve spent the last couple years focusing primarily on learning about compliance programs and the regulations, don’t be discouraged. Most compliance professionals follow that path, and the good news is you’ve already built that technical foundation.
If you want to accelerate your career though, focus on learning as much as you can about the people part of the job. These are skills that determine whether healthcare leaders see you as a just a rule enforcer or someone they can trust.
Sidenote: For more strategies, check out other articles in this blog series, Navigating the Politics of Healthcare, and How to Successfully Sell Compliance to Healthcare leaders. I have a passion for the people part of our work and helping new compliance officers accelerate their careers. You can also reach out to me at anytime, even if you want to just chat. I can be reached at janstine@bluebirdhealth.com.
