At our annual conference, CONNECT 2024, where we heard from our Practicing Excellence community partners and top industry executives, we were privileged to have three dynamic healthcare leaders speak on our Day 1 executive panel, facilitated by Dr. Mark Shapiro, hospitalist at Providence Medical Group, Sonoma County.
Debbie Dover, Chief Human Resource Officer at Ballad Health, Dr. John Matsinger, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer at Virtua Health, and Dr. Pranav Parikh, Chief Medical Officer from Hannibal Regional Healthcare System, gathered to share a powerful conversation about the differences that skill-building has made on their own leadership journeys. They identified the leadership behaviors that have been essential to navigating complex healthcare situations, inspiring their teams, and driving positive change.
Here are five takeaways from the conversation that all leaders in healthcare can apply:
1. Engage With Teams To Create Authentic Relationships
Engagement goes deeper than praise; it means acknowledging the full spectrum of team experiences, including challenges and struggles. Employees look to their leader as a model for how to act and react in any given situation. When leaders are transparent about what’s going well and what’s not, it fosters an environment of trust, open communication, and a collective willingness to take risks and push the boundaries of what’s possible. Great leaders understand this and make a concerted effort to genuinely engage with their people. This means looking employees in the eye, acknowledging their work—both the successes and the challenges–-and being fully present in the moment.
2. Embrace Multiple Perspectives
Though aligning on a common vision is critical, extraordinary leaders also recognize the value of diverse perspectives. They cultivate a “brain trust” of advisors—not just “yes-people” who think like them but individuals with distinct backgrounds, experiences, and ways of viewing the world. This broader range of voices helps leaders avoid blind spots, consider novel solutions, and make more informed decisions.
3. Foster a Culture of Continuous Learning
At the same time, great leaders are secure enough in themselves to admit when they’re wrong and actively solicit feedback, even if it’s uncomfortable. They understand that growth and progress require a willingness to experiment, take risks, and sometimes fall short. As such, they give their teams the freedom to make mistakes, knowing that this is essential for driving innovation. Great leaders also recognize that true high performance comes not when everything is going well but when teams are proactively addressing challenges and course-correcting. They foster an environment where people feel empowered to bring up problems, be transparent about what’s not working, and collaborate on solutions.
4. Model Steadfast Composure
Of course, the best-laid plans often go awry, and healthcare is no exception. When the inevitable crisis or setback arises, exceptional leaders remain a calming, stabilizing force. They refuse to get swept up in the chaos and instead model the type of composure and level-headedness they want to see from their teams. In challenging moments, the leader’s role is to provide a steady hand, remove roadblocks, and empower their people to do their best work.
5. Lead with Empathy and Intent
Ultimately, the most impactful healthcare leaders are those who combine strategic vision with a deep understanding of and commitment to their people. They make a conscious effort to “meet their teams where they are,” whether that means physically visiting their workspace, taking a genuine interest in their lives outside of work, or simply making time for one-on-one conversations.
At the same time, these leaders are intentional about the small gestures that can have an outsized impact—a word of encouragement, a handwritten note of appreciation, or simply an acknowledgment of a job well done. In an industry where the stakes are high and the workload is immense, these simple acts of humanity can be tremendously powerful in boosting morale, strengthening bonds, and reminding people of the deeper meaning and purpose behind their efforts.
At Practicing Excellence, we believe that leaders who embody these behaviors can cultivate the high-performing, resilient teams needed to navigate the ever-evolving continuum of modern healthcare.
Learn more about how we can help leaders grow and develop to lead teams that are engaged, innovative, and committed to delivering exceptional care.
Practicing Excellence builds skills to drive outcomes in well-being, patient experience, and leadership effectiveness. Built for busy clinicians, our micro-learning solution delivers short, evidence-derived, video-based coaching to clinicians, leaders, and teams through our mobile app. We partner with some of the nations’ most prominent health systems and medical groups to deliver coordinated skill-building programs that provide measurable results. Learn more at practicingexcellence.com.
