Throughout his 44-year career at Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare, central region CEO Bob Anderson has learned to listen more than he speaks.
Mr. Anderson recently reflected on his career and upcoming Jan. 3 retirement in conversation with Becker's, including his experiences with mentorship and fostering trust.
Data-driven collaboration and accountability
Starting at OSF in 1980 as a student training as a medical laboratory technologist, there was not much collaboration across teams, Mr. Anderson said. Later, however, he took part in initiatives to create a more data-driven and collaborative culture, which he described as a forward-thinking move that has benefited the system greatly over the years.
More recently, he has played a significant role in construction projects, such as the behavioral health ambulatory building and the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute, which opened earlier this year.
One of his biggest accomplishments, however, was incorporating performance improvement into OSF's culture — specifically at St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill., where he previously led the hospital as president. It has allowed the system to use data to drive accountability and to maintain gains, he said.
Leadership through listening
Along with having great mentors to learn from throughout the years, Mr. Anderson has also had the opportunity to mentor up-and-coming leaders through OSF's succession planning program. Mr. Anderson has found that he learns just as much from them and they from him, and it helps him reflect on what it means to lead a team.
"When you sit down and you deliberately talk about leadership, what it takes and what works well, what doesn't work well, it just further solidifies things in your own mind," he said.
Throughout his career, Mr. Anderson found the importance of listening to his team as a leader.
"I learned early on that as you move up in leadership, what you say takes on more and more importance and weight," he said. "If you speak out too often or too much, you're not going to get the input that you really want to have from everyone in order to make the best decision possible."
This has been helpful in encouraging collaboration and fostering trust throughout his team.
"Fostering trust takes time, and it takes setting an example," Mr. Anderson said. "You earn trust each and every day, and you have the opportunity to lose a person's trust each and every day."
Mr. Anderson said he has found his time at OSF to be extremely rewarding, adding that it is "a little frightening" to come to the end of more than 44 years with an organization.
"As long as you keep the patient at the center of what you do and how you make your decisions, you're not going to go wrong," he said.