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Innovation And Leadership : Leadership Qualities

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Innovation and Leadership

Brubaker had the foresight and leadership qualities necessary to take on an initiative that would end up serving over 250,000 new members of which 35 percent were uninsured. The social impact Brubaker and her team are a testament to doing the right thing for the right reasons. How did Brubaker make the new program so successful both politically and structurally within Aetna? By use of exemplary communication, a well thought out business plan, and superior leadership skills. It was with some challenges to be sure, competition for resources, the sharing of employees with Aetna’s other division and leaders, and once the team is assembled how to integrate the shared employees with the dedicated team. Once we …show more content…

Only by use of other divisions and their resources could her vision come to pass. Cross-departmental cooperation was a necessary step in achieving cooperation. Even though the employees were from other departments Burbank was paying their salaries out of her budget when they were working with her team. Also, having to receive help from the sales and marketing divisions would be another part of the “resource battle.”
Sales are hard enough to make, even if you know the product and can give historical data on its reliability, but now they had to sell something new and were not quite sure what that would mean for them or their customer. In conjunction with sales, marketing had to come up with a new campaign to sell the product, thus, using more personnel and man hours which were paid by Burbank’s budget. Just two more sections she had to form partnerships with and rely on their volunteer hours to accomplish her goal. Getting this shared buy-in from other department leaders ushers in the next challenge, a shared work force.
The next battle, sharing employees between departments, is always a challenge even for an experienced leader. Having to divide the employees time and energy between Burbank’s innovative initiative and their own projects, which to their leaders, seemed less important in view of to what extent resources were being

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