Leadership: Mike Williams on Balance and Legacy

Healthcare Leadership

with Dan Nielsen dan@americashealthcareleaders.com

 

Mike Williams on Balance and Legacy

 

In a recent America’s Healthcare Leaders interview with Mike Williams, President and CEO of Community Hospital Corporation, Williams made the following profound and wise statement:

 

“As a young leader and parent I was driven toward external success in the industry… motivated in terms of not the time I could spend with my kids, but the money I could make to provide them travel and things that they otherwise might not have had. But I’ve learned over the years that one of the most valuable things we can do for our family is to spend personal, focused, and dedicated time with them.”

 

Most leaders, particularly those 50 and above, will readily agree that they wish they had spent more time with their children and family. If they could do it over again, they would purposefully and consistently practice a more balanced life.

 

Many of the most cherished memories and moments of my entire life revolve around my son and daughter.

 

When Mike Williams made the very wise statement above, it reminded me of one of the wiser choices I made while my family was still young—my son was around 10 and my daughter was around 7.

 

As the CEO of one of the fastest growing hospitals in the state of Texas at the time, I was obviously very focused and very busy at work. I was young—in my early 30s. I was born into a financially poor family—a great family, but financially very poor. I had resolved and was absolutely determined to succeed. I was very driven, to put it mildly.

 

The wise choice I made was to buy a 1-acre lot next to the home in which I raised my family. From the day we purchased that lot until my children left for college, that lot, along with our large front yard, became “our playing field.”

 

We played with Frisbees. We played catch with a softball, a baseball, a football, or anything else that was handy. Both my son and daughter enjoyed “batting practice” on that field.

 

We had a beautiful Old English sheepdog named Maggie. Maggie would chase the children and tackle them by running into the back of their legs. I was the quarterback (not hardly, but you get the point). I would call a play and my kids would run forward and then turn left or right at the appropriate time to catch the football. Maggie would then promptly tackle them.

 

To this day, over 50 years later, if I mention these times to either of my children, they light up like Christmas trees. The people I worked with so long and diligently every day at the hospital are, for the most part, either retired or gone. Not having desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, or even the Internet or social media back then, I have lost contact with almost all of them.

 

However, I still have my children. And so do most of you! I encourage you to stop whatever you are doing right now and think carefully and deeply regarding your life balance decisions. It’s never too early, and it’s never too late to make the wisest choices regarding one of the most critical aspects of your entire life.

 

Apply the wise advice of Mike Williams in your life. “I’ve learned over the years that one of the most valuable things we can do for our family is to spend personal, focused, and dedicated time with them.”

 

Everyone will benefit and everyone will win. You will have established one of the most precious, priceless legacies possible!

 

 

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