Advice for Aspiring Leaders from a Former Hospital CEO

Healthcare Leadership

with Dan Nielsen dan@americashealthcareleaders.com

 

Advice for Aspiring Leaders from a Former Hospital CEO

 

A couple weeks ago I was interviewed as a guest for John Self’s blog and podcast, Self Perspective. During the interview John asked me what advice I would share with a young “up and comer” working his or her way toward becoming a hospital CEO. I responded with four main points:

 

1. Integrity first! It takes years, even decades, to build a strong record of integrity. Regardless of what happens wherever you are and in whatever organization you are serving, you can take your integrity with you. You can lose integrity in a New York minute. True, lasting integrity is more valuable than any monetary asset.
2. 

Be yourself and constantly strive to be the very best that you can be. Not the best of someone else, the best that you can be! Don’t compete with others. Be the best that you can be and everything will take care of itself. Do not try to be someone else. Be the best that you can be, because that is all that you can be.
3. 

Focus on serving others. There is no greater mission, there is no greater life, there is no greater career, there is no better use of your talents and abilities than focusing on serving others!
4. 

Identify your core 5 to 7 strengths. Then, spend your life focused on improving and leveraging your strengths. We all have hundreds of weaknesses. Don’t spend your precious time trying to eliminate a weakness unless it is a fatal flaw. Like all truly successful people, focus on and leverage your strengths. A couple years ago I wrote a book titled Presidential Leadership: Learning from United States Presidential Libraries and Museums. I visited, studied, and photographed every presidential library and museum in America, and learned from the presidents whose legacies these fascinating institutions preserve. Each and every one of the presidents had many, many weaknesses and faults. However, they all had a few core strengths and each and every one of them leveraged those strengths to become president of the United States of America.

In summary, I would tell an aspiring young leader, “Focus on and leverage your strengths and basically forget about your weaknesses. Be the best that you can be and be yourself, don’t try to be someone else. Maintain impeccable integrity. Now, go out and focus on serving others. You will have a great life, a great career, and you will build a great and lasting legacy.”

 

 

Copyright © 2016 by Dan Nielsen – www.americashealthcareleaders.com