Margo Hendrickson, VP of HR at athenahealth presented on preparing your people to lead at MassTLC's workforce development summit, December 2013.

1. Preparing Your People to Lead
Margo Hendrickson
Vice President, Human Resources

2. We are a high growth healthcare tech company,
focused on being caregivers' most trusted service
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3. athena’s Talent Strategy is designed to attract,
grow and retain high performers
Attract
A-Players
Compensate
Performance
Engaged,
Best-of-Breed
athenistas
Measure
Results & Give
Feedback
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Provide Tools and
Set Clear
Expectations

4. Developing leaders begins with knowing
what matters
„ We’ve defined the Competencies necessary to be successful at athena and
at each cohort
„ athena’s include:
• Teaching
• Learning
• Teamwork
And just for good measure….
• Flexibility
• Innovation
„ Know what matters in order to get the right people
Leaders of companies that go from good to great start by getting the right
people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the
right seats.
- Jim Collins, Good to Great
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5. We focus on creating an environment
that values developing people
„ Give people room to experiment
„ Offer skills training, new challenges
• Professional development programs
• Move people around…a lot
„ Share stories (especially failures)
„ Value talent management
• Regularly scheduled one-on-ones
• 90 day pulse check for new hires
• In the moment feedback
• Annual Performance Review and 360s
• Succession Planning
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6. Our leadership development programs are rooted in real
work, specific to athena, and have ongoing impact
1. We identify high-potentials across 4 cohorts and tailor programs to the
competencies at each level
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E.g. For Associates: Influence, Coordination, Execution
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Include significant VP/Executive participation
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Leadership lunches, project sponsorships, faculty, mentoring
2. Provide feedback, insights, and subject matter training on leading
self, team, company, and marketplace
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Personal assessments given at every level (e.g. LPI, Hogan Derailers)
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Executive Coaching for leadership levels
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Workshops on “How athena works” and “Know the Competition”
3. Connect program objectives to business objectives
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Managing work and talent in a high-growth company
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Growing and retaining high performers is a key element of our talent strategy
4. Engage participants in Action Learning
§ Cross-functional projects based in real problems, creating real business solutions
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7. Leadership development is embedded in the
organization: not an event but a process
Leadership development is on
a continuum that expands past
the program; not an event,
but a process
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Participants build an
individual development
plan in collaboration with
manager and HR Business
Partner
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Alumni become program
coaches, workshop faculty,
and project sponsors
Annual appraisal is 50%
competencies, extending
conversation around role
modeling
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8. End page