Every month we run an excerpt from our editor's popular blog, The Empowered Healthcare Manager.

Companies sell products. In the minds of economists, products are either "goods" (durable and non-durable) or "services." Regardless of which your employer produces, every manager sells a service that helps deliver whatever it is the company sells. Your staff is that service; your staff is your product.

What product do healthcare managers provide for their employer?

• If you manage a clinical laboratory, it's a staff that delivers test results in Six Sigma fashion. 
• If you're a phlebotomy manager, your product is a staff that draws, delivers, and processes samples capable of rendering accurate test results from patients satisfied with the encounter.
• If you're a nurse manager, your product is a staff that flawlessly implements physicians' orders and the care plan that makes and/or keeps their patients well.

Your staff produces the end product, the one customers want from your company. You produce the staff that can create it. If you find yourself creating the end product because your staff isn't capable, what do you need them for?

Worse, if you have to do the work your staff should be doing, what does your manager need you for?