A November article in Fortune shed light on the demand for softer CEOs. The crux of the article, which focuses on companies across various industries, is that in a post-pandemic world, recruiters are focusing less on administrative, financial and technical hard skills in CEO searches and more on empathy, humility and self-awareness. This raises the question: What does a "softer" CEO look like in healthcare?
To be clear, servant leaders have long existed, and there are many in healthcare who exhibit soft skills as part of their servant leadership. An Indeed career coach described servant leadership as "a management style in which you focus on your team's growth and well-being to put their needs first. The theory is that instead of employees serving the leader, the leader serves the employees."
Marc Gorelick, MD, president and CEO of Twin Cities-based Children's Minnesota, spoke to Becker's earlier this year about his own commitment to stay personally connected to employees.
It's the fall of 2022, and Children's Minnesota is grappling with a surge of respiratory virus cases. Dr. Gorelick is folding isolation gowns in the emergency department. It's all part of a process he and his team established to sign up for volunteer shifts to work on the front lines, whether that's folding gowns, delivering trays or helping with transport.
"We decided as an executive leadership team, including myself, that we needed to set the stage by doing it first and set an example," Dr. Gorelick told Becker's. "And then very quickly others [working at the health system] said, 'I want to be able to help out as well.' This wasn't us being begged to do it. It was us trying to step forward and take the initiative." Leaders on his team also routinely visit inpatient units to deliver food to patients and stock carts so caregivers can focus on patients.
This is just one example of many in healthcare. Deborah Bowen, president and CEO of the American College of Healthcare Executives, told Becker's business and financial expertise "remain table stakes" for CEOs in the industry. However, "at the end of the day, this is a people business, and caring for patients and supporting and developing teams requires an expanded set of skills," she said.
"Principles such as self-awareness, empathy and humility are learned behaviors that can help leaders better engage [the] workforce, strengthen their organization's culture and build trust among patients and the community."
Tom Harlow, who has more than four decades of healthcare experience and currently serves as program director at Harrisburg, Pa.-based Rural Health Redesign Center, expressed similar sentiments in a Dec. 3 LinkedIn post. He wrote that being a "soft" CEO "does not mean a pushover but rather someone who puts the interests of others (staff, patients, families and other leaders) ahead of their own interests."
He also deems "soft skills" as high-level behaviors, "sometimes honed over years through cycles of self-reflection and learning. Mentorship and coaching are invaluable adjuncts to any leader and are critical to developing a full set of 'soft skills.'"
Read his full post here.