Building Leadership Skills to Advance your Career with Stretch@KP
Morgan Frasure’s Story
Morgan Frasure began his KP journey in payroll, while working towards his MBA in Healthcare Management. After graduating, he was hired into the Finance Fellowship to rotate through different areas of KP. Always looking for ways to expand his network, Morgan joined Stretch@KP: a program that connects employees who want to advance themselves professionally with those seeking resources. For Morgan, who was looking to accelerate his career, the opportunity to gain additional “on the job” experience was invaluable.
Joining Stretch@KP first as a participant, Morgan worked on a project that explored what it would be like if Kaiser had an incubator for startups that were focused on solving health care problems. He conducted extensive market research and connected with leaders across KP to build the framework of what the incubator could be and how to execute it. The project wrapped up with presentations of his team’s findings to senior leaders. “It provided me an opportunity to rub elbows with so many different people at different levels of the organization.” says Morgan. “Not only that, but the cross-functional networking relationships actually helped me achieve more in my own department.”
The exposure I got from Stretch@KP helped me get promoted and land my dream job.
While reaping the benefits as a participant in the program, he realized the potential managerial experience he could obtain by hosting his own project during a conversation with his mentor. Morgan joined the genKP Professional Development team and co-hosted a Stretch@KP project aimed at uncovering and implementing retention strategies for millennials in the workforce. This initiative provided an opportunity to manage two participants for over a year. His team conducted informational interviews, market research, statistical analysis, and finally proposed to leadership which work streams should be prioritized. “There was this sense of completion and comradery both during and upon completion of the project.”
Towards the conclusion of Morgan’s Stretch projects, an opportunity for a managerial position became available in the East Bay hospital Business Strategy & Finance department. He leveraged his involvement as a Stretch@KP host to help land his dream job. “The Stretch project I hosted helped me understand how to be a good leader and develop my managerial skills in the real world,” says Morgan. “In my interview, I was able to illustrate how I positively impacted the team to help them achieve results.”
I realized the potential managerial experience I could obtain by hosting my own project.
Crediting Stretch@KP with boosting his career development and leadership skills, Morgan is grateful for the opportunities it exposed him to. “I was provided such a great experience and I want more people to grow the same way that I have.” Morgan’s advice to someone looking for managerial experience through Stretch@KP, is to create a project where you could build on existing skills while teaching someone else. By coaching others, you will also gain a better understanding of yourself. If you don’t have a project to host, consider searching for existing ideas with leader sponsorship that may just need someone like you to guide the project into reality.