Joshua Hartzell is a retired Army Colonel who spent 25 years in military medicine. He has delivered over 100 talks on leadership development and has written numerous papers on the topic. His latest achievement, A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership, is a must-read book that combines his years of boots-on-the-ground experience leading in medicine with his research to teach others practical strategies about how to sharpen their leadership skills.
As a selfpublishing.com Elite Author, we got the chance to ask him about the process of self-publishing his first book.
Book Title: A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership: Building a Culture of Compassion and Excellence
Genre: Nonfiction, Healthcare Leadership
Website: JoshuaHartzellMD.com
What inspired you to write about the healthcare industry?
I have spent the past 25+ years working in military medicine.
During this time, I have had the opportunity to take care of amazing patients and train some of the best medical students, residents, and faculty in the world. Throughout my career, I worked with excellent leaders and on teams dedicated to caring for others.
I learned an immense amount about leadership on my journey. Studying leadership and teaching it became a central aspect of my personal and professional life.
Over time, I realized that effective leadership is the key to success within organizations – not just for the organization but for the people. The real revelation came when I was on a podcast, and the hosts asked me what I had learned about leadership from medicine. After reflecting, the answer was that it was our job as leaders to take care of our people, just like we take care of our patients.
If we take care of our people, then they will take care of our patients and trainees.
Why was now the right time for this book?
Writing this book has been a culmination of years of practical experience leading and reading and studying about the topic. Helping others become more effective leaders to positively impact the world has become my personal mission.
If each of us impacts one person through our leadership, that has a ripple effect throughout our organizations and communities. We have an immense opportunity to change our organizations and communities by leading from a place of caring.
And so, as you can see, the decision to write the book was not a spur-of-the-moment decision but one that had been building for years.
I have read hundreds of books and love to read.
I always thought about becoming an author but, for some reason, assumed it was beyond my grasp.
I remember listening to a podcast with Chandler Bolt from selfpublishing.com. He made being an author seem so accessible. A friend of mine, Dr. Maureen Petersen, followed his process, and she published a book!
Seeing that really turned the switch and made me think this is possible. Not only that, but it felt like the Author Advantage Accelerator Elite Program was like, “here is the roadmap.” I realized the only thing keeping me from being an author was putting in the work.
Challenge accepted! From then on, I embarked on this journey to be an author.
Who should read A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership?
In short, it was written for leaders within healthcare.
This book provides a way for healthcare leaders to lead authentically by using our desire to care for others as inspiration. Many in healthcare are never trained on how to lead – this book can fill that gap.
In it, I’ve provided numerous tangible steps called Caring Acts of Leadership to help people lead more effectively and change the lives of their patients, trainees, and themselves.
Three main themes and learnings in the book are that:
- Taking care of your people as a leader is – and should always be – the priority
- Leading effectively truly changes lives
- The culture we want and deserve in health care is possible if we become caring-inspired leaders
Tell us more about the process of writing a book – what did that look like for you?
Writing the book started years ago.
I spent almost a decade in military medicine teaching leadership development to students, residents, and faculty. I developed a leadership curriculum for graduate medical education trainees for the military and had ideas stem from that. I also taught leadership and organization development at the MGH Institute for Health Professions, School of Leadership in Boston.
All of this first-hand experience teaching immersed me in leadership literature. I saw the evidence behind what works and what doesn’t.
I have also been ravenously consuming materials in the form of leadership books and podcasts for years. I love history and spent countless hours reading about history and, specifically, leaders in history.
I highlighted books and took notes on the back covers. I went back and reviewed notes and what I thought was important. I started making note cards (thanks to a tip from author Ryan Holiday) – I would put important lessons or ones that I thought I might include in the book on the note cards.
I spent a lot of time dictating into my phone when an idea would pop into my head. I wanted to be able to capture all my book ideas.
Once I started to write, I followed the guidance and steps from selfpublishing.com and their book writing courses.
I made mind maps for each chapter and then converted those into outlines.
Once I had a larger book outline, I just had to start writing. I would spend 1-2 hours a day writing – or sometimes more. depending on my schedule. I knew that if I just kept at it, I would be able to finish.
Some days I would only write for 30 minutes and maybe only get 2-3 sentences done. This was progress. Every word and every sentence was a step closer to the goal. And I finished my rough draft! I don’t remember exactly how long it took, but I think was around 9 months.
After that, I had to do professional book editing. This part could be brutal at times, but it really made the finished book so much better.
The other thing I learned along the way was how generous people were to help. I was able to interview amazing leaders for the book. I got coaching from David Smith and Brad Johson, who are both prominent authors.
I simply reached out to many people. They responded. And I am so grateful for how much they helped.
I used to say the only difference between me and the authors I loved so much was that they wrote a book. But it was simple – put in the time and effort and you can write the book.
That mantra carried me when the process was slow.
Anyone can write a book if they decide they want to be an author!
What was the hardest part of this process for you?
The hardest part about writing the book was cutting down on what I had to say. That’s why the editing process was difficult for me.
The book is still over 400 pages long, but it could easily have been longer!
Ultimately, I had to cut stories and examples even when I thought they were good ones.
The other key challenge early on was deciding that this book would be mainly for healthcare leaders. I had initially thought about writing for a general leadership audience. However, I made the decision that, while others can and should certainly read it, the primary audience would be healthcare leaders.
And what was your favorite part about writing a book?
I learned so much about leadership by writing this book.
The writing process required me to study and think about leadership at an even deeper level than I already had and was passionate about. Synthesizing all the materials has led to me having a better understanding of the evidence behind what we do as leaders.
I also have learned an enormous amount about the writing and publishing process. I so look forward to helping colleagues publish books in the future!
Now that you are a published author, what are your plans for the future?
My hope is that this book will be used by hospitals, healthcare training programs of all professions, healthcare technology companies, and the pharmaceutical industry to develop or teach leadership.
I would love to partner with them in some way to improve leadership within healthcare.
I have a passion for speaking and teaching, so I am also looking forward to the opportunity to spread the message about caring-inspired leadership in healthcare. The ability to teach people about leadership and change lives is extremely motivating for me.
Joshua D. Hartzell, MD, MS-HPEd, FACP, FIDSA, has held numerous leadership positions throughout his career, including being Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency, Assistant Chief of Graduate Medical Education at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and Assistant Dean for Faculty Development at the Uniformed Services University. He was deployed as a battalion surgeon with the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan.
Dr. Hartzell is also faculty at the MGH Institute of Health Professions School of Healthcare Leadership, where he teaches leadership development. A practicing Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases Physician, he has devoted the last decade to training and teaching thousands of students, residents, and faculty within healthcare.
Today, Dr. Hartzell is a sought-after speaker and coach on leadership development who brings the leadership lessons he has learned throughout his career to readers in this book.
Want to learn more about the book writing support, editing services, book coaching, and more he received as a part of the Author Advantage Accelerator Elite Program? Schedule a consultation today or take the quiz above to find the right program for you and your book!
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