Welcome,

...to this edition of Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. This special report is for CEOs and senior executives of America's leading home care companies. This report is published every other Wednesday by Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company for our clients, friends, and advocates who want to grow their home care businesses.

Leading Home Care Report is a permission-based newsletter. It is only sent to those individuals who have requested it, or who have given permission for their address to be added to the distribution list. If you have received this report by mistake and would like to be removed from the list, we apologize for the inconvenience. Please go to the bottom of this report for instructions on how to unsubscribe.

We love what we do, and we love the people we work with in home health care. Here's our valentine card to you, to say thanks for all you do. Happy Valentines Day!

• Stephen Tweed, CSP
• Elizabeth Jeffries, RN, CSP, CPAE
• Diane West
• Jason Tweed
• Kyley Hoffman
• Kathy Clater
• Michael Giudicissi
• Diane Buckles, RN, BSN, MSN
• Annie Yoho

"Hey Tweed, can you facilitate an Executive Strategy Retreat for a hospital here in town?" he asked.

"Hey, Lottier . . . yes! I can do that."

"I was talking to the Dean of their School of Nursing, and he's been given the task of putting on a planning retreat for the executive team. He's looking for a good facilitator. I thought of you."

I worked with that hospital system over the next few years to lead their strategic planning process. The experience of planning, organizing, and facilitating that retreat led me into a career of creating executive retreats for hundreds of healthcare organizations and businesses over the next 25 years. It was that same request, leading an executive and board retreat for the Visiting Nurse Association of Venango County in Franklin, Pennsylvania, that brought me into the home health care industry that same year.

Based on having led the executive retreat process for over 500 different organizations since that day in 1982, I am convinced it's one of the very best things you can do for the future of your home health agency and your executive team. At least once a year, you should take your senior leadership team away for at least a day to:

• Assess your current reality
• Review and refine your Mission, Vision, and Values
• Examine your sources of competitive advantage in the marketplace
• Examine your economic engine to make sure it's running on all cylinders
• Develop a strategic action plan to take your agency into the future
• Set up a strategic scorecard to measure your success
• Design an implementation plan to keep you on focus and on track

The design and implementation of hundreds of Executive Strategy Retreats led me to write my first book, "Strategic Focus: A Gameplan for Developing Competitive Advantage."

Here are some steps you should consider in planning your next executive retreat:

• Set aside at least one full day. (I'd suggest a day and a half or two.)
• Pick an off-site location that is different from your usual office setting.
• Set the dates far enough in advance so that everyone on your senior team can attend.
• Develop an agenda for the day based on a sound model of Strategic Planning.
• Consider using an outside facilitator to keep the discussion focused.
• Make ideas visible.
• Separate creative thinking (brainstorming) from critical thinking.
• Keep your discussions "Strategic." It's easy to fall back into discussing operations.
• Encourage everyone to participate in the discussions. (As CEO, avoid lecturing the group.)
• Document the results. Create an action plan with goals, action steps, assignments, and target dates.

Every organization I have worked with over the past 27 years has said, "We have a communication problem." The executive strategy retreat, and the implementation of the action plan that comes from it, are two of the most powerful tools to improve communication and teamwork in your home health agency.

To grow your business, get ready for the future, improve teamwork, increase communication, and get the results you want on the bottom line, consider organizing an Executive Strategy Retreat for your senior leadership team.

For More on the Executive Strategy Retreat

Disney used storyboards to lead his team of animators through the process of creating the first Mickey Mouse cartoons. Since then, thousands of facilitators have learned to use storyboarding in leading groups through a variety of thinking, planning, and creative processes.

I first learned storyboarding from Mike Vance who once ran Disney University. Later I studied under a student of Mike's, Jerry McNellis.

Storyboarding is the most powerful tool for leading an executive retreat. Over the past 27 years, I've used this tool with Fortune 500 corporations, large hospital systems, the Detroit Lions executive team, and hundreds of home health agencies. You'll want to explore using this tool when you conduct your next home health care planning session.

For More Information on Storyboarding

By becoming a member of Home Care Sales Manager Interactive your sales manager or marketing director will get:

• A bi-weekly electronic newsletter with new ideas on improving sales & marketing
• Access to a members-only web site with articles, sales tools, and a growing list of resources from industry sales & marketing professionals
• Monthly sales manager teleconferences to share ideas and ask questions of other sales managers
• Complimentary copies of CDs from our Leading Home Care teleseminars
• Downloadable audio files of previous sales manager teleconferences
• Members only discounts on Leading Home Care's latest products
• Preview copies of white papers and research reports on sales & marketing research

If you want your sales manager or marketing director to have regular access to the latest ideas and information on home care business development, click on the link below and have that person become a member of Home Care Sales Manager Interactive.

Click here now to become a member!

If so, you'll want to join Michael G. and me for the 2007 Home Health Line Power Referrals pre-conference on Wednesday, February 21st in Las Vegas.

I'll open the pre-conference workshop on Wednesday with The Mega Marketing Mix: Top Marketing Strategies for Highly Effective Home Care Executives.

Then Michael will lead you through How to Build Your Sales & Marketing Dream Team.

You won't want to miss this exceptional opportunity to get new sales & marketing strategies and insights, interact with some of the leaders in home care sales & marketing, and network with your colleagues.

We'll see you in Las Vegas one week from today!

Don't delay! Register Today!

It takes innovation, creativity, passion, and persistence. In a brand new, down-home, practical marketing manual published by Leading Home Care, Angie Landmesser and Trisha Menoni give you the details of their innovation and creativity. They show you step by step how to apply their ideas to get more referrals that turn into admissions. They’ll stimulate your thinking to come up with your own innovative ideas that will work for you in your marketplace.

This e-Book is divided into 10 Rules. Each rule features very specific action steps and first-hand examples. You'll have all the tools, forms and ideas you'll need to launch your own expert marketing campaigns.

Last but not least, the authors have created an appendix with web links to 19 resources that will help you implement each action. They'll even tell you the best sources to buy supplies for your campaigns.

For more information, or to order your copy, click here

Stephen is a past-President of the National Speakers Association, a 3500 member international society of experts who speak professionally. He is also the father of a 37 year-old son who is physically disabled and uses the services of home care on a daily basis.

Meet the entire Leading Home Care Team