The Corner Office series asks healthcare executives to answer seven questions about their life in and outside the C-suite.
In each interview, CEOs share the piece of advice they remember most clearly. Here are answers collected by Becker's Hospital Review this year, in alphabetical order.
Justin Birmele, CEO, AdventHealth Winter Park (Fla.)
I'm always reminded of a quote a former executive and mentor shared. He said, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, you go together." I'm a team player, and I think that phrase says a lot about working with a team. Healthcare is forever evolving. We have to work outside of our silos to prepare for the next industry transformation.
Roxanna Gapstur, PhD, RN, president and CEO of WellSpan Health (York, Pa.)
Since this is the year of the nurse and midwife, one of the things which has stuck with me over the years is attributed to the pioneer of hand hygiene, Florence Nightingale, whose 200th birthday was just celebrated: 'Wash your hands.' As we've seen with the pandemic, it's never been more important. By washing our hands, we can save lives and improve the health of our families and our communities.
Robert Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.)
'Leaders who don't listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.'
My wife sent me that quote, which is from Andy Stanley. I wish I had learned earlier in my career that being a good listener is key to being a leader. I think it's one of the most underrated skills of leadership. Usually when you think of leaders you think of people who are charismatic or dynamic, which is important, but curiosity and listening are equally, if not more, important.
Saju George, regional CEO, overseeing Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare's Michigan hospitals and medical groups
View all challenges as opportunities. I strongly believe after going through my journey that most lessons to be learned will come from opportunities we create and experiences we have. We face both positive and challenging situations, and these experiences will be the key in shaping and developing who we are as a person and as a leader.
Rod Hanners, interim CEO of Keck Medicine of USC (Los Angeles)
When I was in college, I was making something much more complicated than it needed to be in physics class. My professor drew a picture of a hurdle on a whiteboard. He said, you just have to clear that hurdle by 1 centimeter, not 3 feet, because you are wasting energy that needs to be devoted to the next hurdle. I had a similar experience in the submarine force. When I was going through my qualifications, there was a saying of '3.0 and go.' Perfection really is the enemy of good, especially in healthcare administration, so that guidance has stuck with me. A physician at Children's Hospital Los Angeles also shared some words of wisdom with me. He said, vision without execution is a hallucination. Many great ideas never get operationalized. You have to keep asking yourself how practical something is and whether you have the organizational energy and talent to pull it off.
Paul Hiltz, president and CEO of NCH Healthcare System (Naples, Fla.)
My mother always had a simple piece of advice: 'Be kind.'
Guy Hudson, MD, CEO of Swedish Health Services (Seattle)
Engage in lifelong learning and be a student of discovery. Self-investment and professional development should be something all of us as professionals and as people look to how we continue down our path of life. As everything changes around us, we adapt to those changes, so reading and studying and investing in oneself is a continual, lifelong process. That meant, for me, volunteer for a lot of things you don't necessarily understand or things that scare you. As I got into my journey with leadership and into the C-suite, there have been more things that I volunteered for to learn, and areas where I've looked at where can I further my education and development to be the most effective at my job.
Also, in college I swam for the now deceased James "Doc" Counsilman, one of the greatest swimming coaches of all time. And I remember specifically he was one of the first in the country to film his athletes in training because he was one of the biggest advocates of technique and swimming stroke to be faster and succeed. I remember being filmed by him when I was a sophomore in college, and the thing that he said was, 'I'm going to make some tweak to your stroke, but keep in mind that as you learn and adapt with the techniques and the changes I'm going to make, you're actually going to go slower initially. But over time, you'll notice you'll go much faster.' And indeed, it took six months to a year to work through those changes, but after that, I was able to be much more successful and swam much faster times and was able to compete on a higher level. The learnings from that was sometimes you must slow down a little and learn and adapt before you can accelerate. So be patient and be willing to learn and adapt to what is around you.
Kevin Mahoney, CEO of University of Pennsylvania Health System (Philadelphia)
You should join your organization first and your job second, because it is the people you work with that bring you intrinsic success. You may have a better title, or you may have a perceived better position at another organization. But if the organization does not match your internal ethics, and it does not have the ethos that revs your engine up, then you're going to be miserable, and you're going to jump from job to job. I counsel people to find the organization that most approximates their goals and desires, and to join that organization and make a difference.
Philip Ozuah, MD, PhD, president and CEO of Montefiore Medicine (New York City)
In Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat for directions. The cat responds, 'That depends a good deal on where you want to go." When Alice says she doesn't care much, the cat tells her, "Then it doesn't matter which way you go." The lesson is you need to have absolute clarity about your goal, your mission, your destination. This is true in every realm of life, whether you're a leader or just starting out. If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.
Cliff Robertson, MD, CEO of CHI Health and senior vice president of operations for Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health's Midwest division (Omaha, Neb.)
I tape weekly video blogs for CHI Health's front-line staff. A sticky note taped to my computer reads, 'Where are we going?' and 'What does it mean to me?'
Someone along the way in my career shared this advice with me, and it's what I remember most clearly: When you're communicating with any other human being, whether it's your spouse, your co-worker or caregivers that make up your organizations, those are the two things they care about. So when I tape the videos, I try to frame the information I'm sharing so it might answer those two questions.
Paul Rothman, MD, CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine and dean of the medical faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore)
[Internist] William Osler, [MD], one of Johns Hopkins' founding fathers and one of the true giants of American medicine, once said, 'Listen to your patient. He is telling you the diagnosis.' Of course, today we wouldn't say 'he,' but other than that, I think these two sentences remain enormously valuable and profound. For a healthcare provider, for a leader, for anyone in almost any situation, listening is such an important skill, and one that is often underappreciated. Often it is only by understanding others' views that we can truly move forward.
Terry Shaw, president and CEO of AdventHealth (Altamonte Springs, Fla.)
Throughout my career, I have been blessed to work with many great leaders and mentors. A common theme among them has always been ensuring that everything we do is done with our mission of extending the healing ministry of Christ in mind. Knowing that our mission is the reason our organization exists has always resonated heavily with the leaders I have had the pleasure of learning from, and it continues to be the anchor point for me as CEO of our organization.
Also, one thing my dad instilled in me when I was young was, essentially, to never judge a book by its cover, to treat everyone with care and respect. This is something that always resonated with me throughout my life.
Daryl Tol, president and CEO of Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth's Central Florida division
Put your heart and soul into the job you have. Don't continually scan the horizon for your next opportunity. Let the future develop naturally.