Hospital or health system leaders have many traits in common, and some have abilities that set them apart. For example, David Herman, MD, CEO of Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health, swears by the power nap.
Dr. Herman has helmed Essentia Health since 2015. Before that, he served as CEO of Vidant Health, which, in 2022, entered a joint operating agreement with East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine to form Greenville, N.C.-based ECU Health.
In conversation with Becker's, Dr. Herman shared more about his leadership superpower. He also discussed his first job, what he is reading up on to prepare for the future, and the healthcare topic he believes the industry is not discussing enough.
Editor's note: This is a regular series of conversations with CEOs of the nation's health systems. Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What's something the healthcare industry isn't talking about enough?
Dr. David Herman: The fragility of healthcare. I believe that truth-telling and communication is very, very important. Earlier this year, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, there was an op-ed called "On Death and Courtship." A woman wrote about the death of her brother, and as she reflected upon that, it seemed that everybody on the healthcare team knew that her brother was unlikely to survive his illness. But that's not something that the family knew at the beginning. And her point of that was saying, "If we had known that he was unlikely to survive, we would have spent our time with him differently."
I believe that acknowledging the fragility of the healthcare industry, and then sharing that information as broadly as possible, allows people to be informed. So if there is something that they could do differently now to make healthcare more sustainable and more durable, let's tell them the truth now, and let's give them the opportunity to take those actions, have those conversations and gain that knowledge. Because I believe that the fragilities that we're experiencing in healthcare right now can't be addressed solely by those of us in healthcare. It needs to be addressed more broadly across society. And to build that will, and to engage and empower broader society to help solve this incredibly important dilemma we find ourselves in, we need to be telling more of the truth, and in a manner that people can well understand and also make suggestions and empower them to take actions to make healthcare more durable and more sustainable.
Q: What was your first job? How old were you? Biggest thing you learned?
DH: My family had a construction company. So my first job was inside the family, picking up the stuff around a job site. But my first job outside of the family was at a sporting goods store, back in the 1970s, building bicycles. And this was in the bicycle boom of the 1970s. I'm sure I've built more than 1,000 bicycles. I lived in International Falls, Minn., right on the Canadian border, and had very short summers. And they would deliver 300 bicycles in boxes at a time. I would have to carry them up two stories, and assemble them and then carry them back down. But if I didn't get all those bikes done very, very quickly, you couldn't sell a bike after Aug. 1. If you're going to sell a bike, you had to sell it between May 15 and probably July 15. So I learned that opportunity is time limited, and that you need to do everything you possibly can on every given day. Otherwise, you will miss opportunities, because they are time limited. Opportunity has an expiration date on it. I think that was a useful thing for me.
Q: What is one of your lesser-known talents or leadership superpowers?
DH: I'm a power napper. If I'm talking and I've had a long week, I can sit down in a chair and literally fall asleep, put my feet up, fall asleep within 30 seconds. Sleep for 15 to 20 minutes without setting an alarm, actually dream during that time, and wake up refreshed and ready to go. It drives my wife crazy. I can do the same thing at night. My wife and I will be chatting in bed, and I'll say, "I'm going to go to sleep now." And I just go to sleep. But I've never fallen asleep reading or watching TV or at a movie. I just kind of decide when it's time to go to sleep, and I can do it.
Q: What are you reading up on now to prepare for the next three to 10 years?
DH: I'm a history buff, and I'm reading the history of societies and their leaders. Everything from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to Napoleon. There's a book that came out in the 1980s called "The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made." I'm reading that again. And the reason I'm reading that now is because I truly believe, particularly in times of stress, that leadership matters, and that there are times that are made for different types of leadership. And one of the reasons I'm reading those books is because I'm not sunsetting my career, but in several years, I'll be handing the reins of this organization off to someone else. And I need to be developing a diverse group of young leaders, who will be ready to lead for the times in which they lead. So I will need somebody that perhaps is strategic, or someone that's a hard driver, or someone that is a calming hand, in times of turmoil. And I need to have all those people ready for my board to select from as they choose the next leader of this organization. And I find that reading about the history of society, societies and leaders, and learning about the characteristics of different leaders, helps me frame on a daily basis what I need to do to develop the leaders for the future of my organization.