A self-paced leadership course for healthcare practice managers
Learn to lead the practice you already run.
The Focused Leader is a complete leadership curriculum built for practice managers, office managers and clinic administrators. Eight areas of practice leadership, taught through video lessons, worksheets and companion ebooks you work through at your own pace.
Self-paced course coming January 2027.
Launching January 2027
What's inside the course
- Video lessons for all eight areas of practice leadership
- Worksheets you complete with your own team in mind
- Companion ebooks to keep as a reference
Learn at your own pace. Start wherever your assessment says you need it most.
Sound familiar?
These are the things practice managers carry quietly. The Focused Leader curriculum was built for exactly these moments.
I was promoted because I was great at operations. Nobody taught me how to manage people who used to be my peers.
I can run the schedule in my sleep. Budget meetings are where I go quiet.
My team reports to me. I'm not sure they follow me yet.
I know I want the next role. I just can't see what's holding me back.
There's a conversation I've been putting off for three weeks.
Everyone brings their problems to me. I don't have anyone to bring mine to.
Start with the course. Add coaching when you want a thinking partner.
The Focused Leader started as a complete leadership curriculum for healthcare practice management. The self-paced course gives you that curriculum directly: the frameworks, the language and the tools.
When you want those tools applied to your own team, your practice and the decision in front of you this week, one-on-one coaching is available now through HMCG. Explore leadership coaching →
What a course gives you
- The frameworks and the language for them
- Worksheets you complete on your own
- Learning at your own pace
What coaching adds
- Frameworks applied to your specific team and situation
- A thinking partner who has worked in healthcare operations
- Rehearsal before the hard conversation, and debrief after
- Commitments between sessions, and someone who asks how they went
- Honest feedback you won't get from your boss or your team
The curriculum
Forty competencies across eight areas of healthcare practice leadership. The course covers all eight, and your assessment results show you where to start.
Leading your people
Delegation, conflict, team dynamics, and managing former peers.
The business of the practice
Financial literacy, compliance, process improvement, EHR, and the metrics that matter.
Growing as a professional
Executive presence, self-awareness, adaptability, and professional relationships.
Thinking strategically
Seeing past today's schedule: priorities, planning, and solving the right problem.
Communicating with influence
Managing up, presenting data, and the difficult conversations.
Financial leadership
Business cases, revenue growth, cost management, and risk.
Building your team
Talent development, culture, engagement, and workforce planning.
Your next career move
Career direction, personal brand, visibility, and advancement strategy.
By far the best investment you can make is in yourself.Warren Buffett
Start with the free leadership assessment.
Forty competencies across the eight areas of healthcare practice leadership, in about ten minutes. You'll see where you're already strong and where the gaps are. It's free, and the results are yours to keep.
The same framework behind the course.
Short enough to do between patients.
Your results show which areas of the course to start with.
The self-paced course
All eight areas of the curriculum as video lessons, worksheets and companion ebooks. Launching January 2027.
The Focused Leader course
Who it's for
Practice managers, office managers and clinic administrators in their first few years of leading people. Usually promoted from inside the practice, usually without a development path to match the new scope.
How it works
Take the leadership assessment, then work through the modules in the order that fits your needs. Each module pairs short video lessons with worksheets you apply to your own team and practice.
What changes
You stop improvising. You have language for what you're doing, frameworks for the decisions in front of you and a plan for the conversations you've been avoiding.
All eight areas of practice leadership, in lessons short enough to watch between patients.
Apply each lesson to your real team and your real week.
A reference for every area, yours to keep.
Start anywhere. Your assessment results show where.
Want help before January?
One-on-one leadership coaching with Melissa is available now through HMCG. Bring your real week and work through it with a thinking partner who has run healthcare operations.
Explore leadership coaching →For organizations
Developing a team of managers? HMCG works with practices to sponsor coaching for high-potential managers and build a stronger management bench.
Talk with HMCG →Launching January 2027
The self-paced course opens in January 2027. Take the assessment now so you know where to begin on day one.
Take the assessment →
Your instructor
Melissa Gilkes-Smith
Founder of HMCG LLC and host of the TouchPoints Podcast
I've spent more than 15 years in hands-on healthcare operations, across multiple levels and many kinds of care settings. I know what it's like to be the person holding the schedule, the staff, the budget, and the patient experience together at once.
I built The Focused Leader because too many talented practice managers are promoted and then left to figure out leadership alone. The course puts the whole curriculum in your hands. If you want to work together one-on-one, coaching is available through HMCG.
What guides the work
Accountability. We do what we say we'll do.
Compassion. Leading is hard. That's allowed.
Empathy. For you, your team, and your patients.
Collaboration. You're the expert on your practice.
Questions people ask
Have a question about coaching? Visit the HMCG coaching page.
When does the course launch?
Who is the course for?
I'm not a clinician. Is that a problem?
How is the course different from coaching?
How much time does it take?
Want help before January?
One-on-one leadership coaching with Melissa is available now through HMCG. Bring the thing you're stuck on and work through it with someone who has run healthcare operations.
Coming January 2027.
The Focused Leader self-paced course opens in January 2027. Start with the free assessment today, and if you want a thinking partner sooner, one-on-one coaching is available now through HMCG.