For top healthcare execs, leadership shapes legacy

Some healthcare organizations have histories that go back decades, if not centuries. Today’s leaders are tasked with continuing to shape those legacies amid ongoing industry struggles.

Janet Liang, executive vice president, group president and chief operating officer, care delivery at Oakland, California-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, encourages other top officials to think of their tenure as a chapter in a history book.

“What is it that you want to leave behind?” Liang asked at Modern Healthcare’s Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference. “How will you make your organization or your mission just a little bit better?”

Liang, along with other Luminary Award recipients, emphasized the importance of empowering others to take on responsibilities.

Effective leadership requires “really getting a team around you that you trust,” said Cynthia Hundorfean, president and CEO at Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network.

That way, “when you’re not standing there—like I’m not today—you know they’re going to be making the right decisions,” Hundorfean said.

Ruth Williams-Brinkley, president at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, said leadership is about training others to support the organization’s mission.

“It’s the ability to shape people, to mold them and to hold them up to do their jobs, and not do their jobs for them,” she said.

An effective leader must seek input from employees too, said Dr. Susan Turney, CEO at Marshfield Clinic Health System in Wisconsin.

Executives should have an open line of communication about workers’ concerns and be transparent about what they are realistically able to solve.

“We need to actively listen, because people are going to tell you things that are extremely important,” Turney said. “There are times when you listen and you can fix things, and times you can’t—but you also have to be willing to tell people why not.”

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Of course, being a leader also means making tough decisions. Liang said she has learned how important it is to remove someone from a managerial role when they’re not the right fit.

“You’re the leader, you’re supposed to be doing something about it,” Liang said. The effects of a poor manager can spread, leading high-performing employees to disengage, she added.

Hundorfean said she uses employee engagement surveys to identify underperformers. She notes which managers or leaders are in the bottom quartile based on employee feedback, and if they’re in that spot again next year, they’re removed from the role.

“They get one pass, that’s it,” she said. “Do we spend that whole year trying to make them better? Yes. But the second time around, if they score low, that’s reflecting on my credibility—because I’ve got them as a manager or a leader.”

“The employees will thank you for that,” she added.