Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Leadership, Resilience, and Improving Community Health with Dr. David Callender

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Leadership, Resilience, and Improving Community Health with Dr. David Callender · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:02
- There's a small circle of people who truly
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- understand what it takes to lead a health
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- system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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- The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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- of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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- That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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- And it's why the most effective c suite
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- leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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- pressure test their thinking.
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- Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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- brings together more than 1,500
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- executive level attendees
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- and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
0:32
- around growth, financial sustainability,
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- workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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- have easy answers.
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- Join us November second through the fifth in
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- Chicago.
0:42
- For the agenda and event details,
0:45
- visit beckershospitalreview.com
0:47
- and click on the events tab in the
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- upper right.
0:50
- Welcome to this episode of Leadership Unscripted, a
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- Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris Sosa, your host,
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- and I'm so thrilled to be joined today
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- by doctor David Callender. He's, of course, president
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- and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System
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- down in Houston, Texas. David, thank you for
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- joining us today. Thank you, Chris. Thank you
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- for having me. Excellent. I'm so glad you
1:09
- can get in on this conversation today about
1:11
- your health care journey and, you know, what's
1:13
- made you a health care leader and all
1:16
- the advice and and wisdom that you'd like
1:18
- to impart to our audience here.
1:20
- So but first, can you give us a
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- little bit about your background and and how
1:23
- you ended up, you know, at Memorial and
1:25
- Harmon?
1:27
- Yeah.
1:28
- You know, I'll have to say at the
1:29
- outset,
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- this is not the journey that I saw
1:33
- for myself when I first entered health care.
1:36
- I, graduated from a small university in North
1:40
- Texas and came to Baylor College of Medicine
1:43
- here in Houston to go to medical school.
1:45
- Had a traditional medical school
1:48
- residency
1:49
- experience in a couple of years in general
1:51
- surgery training as a prerequisite
1:53
- for four years of otolaryngology
1:55
- training,
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- decided to pursue subspecialty training in head neck
2:00
- cancer surgery. So essentially went across the street
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- to the MD Anderson Cancer Center and did
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- two years of fellowship there
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- and was in invited to join the faculty.
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- Along the way,
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- I sort of serendipitously
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- fell into some administrative
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- roles at the urging of some of my
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- mentors,
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- and it really set me on a path
2:24
- that I didn't originally anticipate.
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- So I thought at the outset, I'm gonna
2:28
- be an academic head and neck surgeon and
2:30
- do my best to excel and make an
2:32
- impact through my activities in that sort of
2:35
- role.
2:37
- But somehow I ended up as a leader
2:39
- in administrative health care. But I'm certainly can't
2:43
- complain. It's been an incredible journey.
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- I've learned so much, and I've had the
2:47
- opportunity to meet so many great people
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- who share my personal commitment to trying to
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- improve health
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- for people all across this country.
2:58
- David, thank you so much for sharing that.
3:00
- I love what you said about,
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- how mentors kinda push you in a direction
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- you didn't expect. I think a number of
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- leaders that we've spoke to at Becker's,
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- will have similar
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- stories.
3:12
- But I wanna talk a little bit more
3:14
- about yours. So
3:15
- was was there a turning point? Was there
3:18
- a type of advice or just something about
3:21
- administration leadership that spoke to you that
3:24
- where you said yourself, hey. You know what?
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- Yeah. I was gonna be, you know, a
3:28
- physician and and that's great, but now I
3:30
- wanna go on this. What what sparked that
3:31
- in particular?
3:33
- Yeah. No. It was more I was told
3:34
- that I was gonna do this by my
3:36
- department chair.
3:39
- Okay. Good to know. He was a very
3:41
- well known,
3:43
- head neck surgeon head neck cancer surgeon at
3:45
- the time, and, again, one of my mentors
3:47
- and great teachers for a number of us
3:50
- in my specialty.
3:52
- We had
3:53
- a little bit of an unfortunate
3:55
- occurrence.
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- I had to see a combination of some
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- new people into the department
4:00
- of head and neck surgery.
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- We had just lost a couple of more
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- senior faculty members. I was a relatively
4:07
- new assistant professor.
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- Mhmm. And my boss, my department chair, said,
4:12
- calendar. I need you to do this. Get
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- in there and fix this.
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- I said, not knowing any better, okay. I'll
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- do my best. Fortunately,
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- he hired a great
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- consultant
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- who was an expert in organizational
4:26
- development design.
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- I learned so much in that experience. I'm
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- embarrassed to think about how many mistakes I
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- made or could have made without a lot
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- of help. But it got me started on
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- this path, and it opened doors for other
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- opportunities,
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- originally at MD Anderson, but
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- extending to other things beyond MD Anderson to
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- other facilities and organizations.
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- So in any case, it was, as I
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- said, serendipitous.
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- It was sort of forced upon me,
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- but it worked.
4:55
- Well, mistakes certainly help us learn. Obviously, as
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- a health care leader
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- of a number of years, that's something that
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- you you're able to draw from as well.
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- But I think it also speaks to, a
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- leader's character when someone puts them in a
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- position of saying, you know what? We're gonna
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- have you do this, and we're gonna challenge
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- you. Just the fact that you said, you
5:13
- know, whether it's consciously or or not, that,
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- yeah, I'm gonna accept that challenge, right, as
5:18
- opposed to going in some other direction. You
5:20
- know, I think that's really important.
5:22
- Yeah. Well, certainly, as I said, it's been
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- an incredible
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- journey, marvelous learning experience,
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- and I've just
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- encountered, met, gotten to know so many great
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- people
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- who have helped me continue to learn. So
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- it's been wonderful.
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- Well, let's dive into that journey a little
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- bit more here, David. And a question I
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- wanna start,
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- about more or less off the top here
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- is what would you consider the most memorable
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- day or period from your career?
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- You know, thank you.
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- I've never been one to think about what
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- the highlight reel of my career would look
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- like.
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- You know, again, I think mostly it's about
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- the people,
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- Chris.
6:02
- I I got to be part of a
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- really great leadership team that comprise the c
6:08
- suite at MD Anderson led by John Mendelson,
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- doctor John Mendelson,
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- who was president at the time. I learned
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- so much from John
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- From other colleagues there,
6:20
- now doctor Leon Leach, PhD,
6:22
- and doctor Margaret Kripke, who was one of
6:25
- the leading specialists
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- in
6:28
- immunological,
6:30
- challenges to cancer, which obviously now has resulted
6:33
- in a number of new therapies.
6:35
- The work of her and her colleagues,
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- they were very experienced leaders, very thoughtful.
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- You know, I was pretty young at the
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- time and inexperienced. They were very patient.
6:47
- They offered a lot of advice. They allowed
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- me to make mistakes,
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- without too many people getting hurt, helped me
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- get back up on my feet and move
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- forward.
6:56
- That was really marvelous.
6:58
- I left MD Anderson to go to UCLA,
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- met some really incredible people who are members
7:04
- of that hospital leadership team. Heidi Crooks was
7:07
- the chief nursing officer, Tom Rosenthal,
7:10
- the chief medical officer, Mark Spear,
7:13
- the chief HR officer. I could go on
7:15
- and on and on.
7:17
- They certainly understood the culture
7:19
- of UCLA.
7:20
- The people were very helpful to me in
7:22
- terms of thinking about
7:25
- where is UCLA today? Where has it been?
7:27
- Where does it need to go? What you
7:29
- can do as CEO in working with all
7:32
- of us to make sure it's on the
7:34
- right path. At the time, it had some
7:36
- financial challenges, and
7:38
- we worked together to address those to, I'll
7:41
- say, shore up a bit of the culture
7:43
- within the hospital system and move forward. And
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- so
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- in great experience for me and, you know,
7:50
- hopefully,
7:51
- they felt like that I was helpful to
7:53
- them because they certainly were experts in their
7:56
- roles.
7:57
- Left from there to go to UTMB,
7:59
- which was struggling.
8:01
- Texas First Medical School, academic medical center that
8:04
- had some of the financial challenges associated with
8:07
- being
8:08
- confined to a small geographic area.
8:12
- I was thinking about how do we work
8:14
- with the existing leadership team
8:16
- to solve that problem.
8:18
- There was local resistance,
8:21
- to that. Then we were hit by this
8:23
- incredible hurricane called Ike in 2008
8:27
- and began a multiyear rebuilding
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- process
8:30
- that actually
8:32
- allowed us to do some things that perhaps
8:34
- we wouldn't have been allowed to do or
8:36
- consider previously.
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- So it was that, you know, silver lining
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- to the dark cloud
8:42
- in terms of the response that we had
8:43
- to mount to get beyond that natural disaster
8:46
- and get the organization in a better place
8:49
- and had the opportunity to work with people
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- really all across the state of Texas
8:54
- from elected officials
8:56
- to,
8:58
- people who,
8:59
- were very interested in UTMB status and where
9:02
- it should go and its opportunities,
9:05
- people in DC who were extraordinarily supportive of
9:08
- bringing the organization back, UT System
9:12
- leaders. So, again, marvelous opportunity.
9:15
- And then being invited by the board at
9:18
- Memorial Hermann to come here.
9:21
- Incredible group of people.
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- The board's turned over since that time, but
9:26
- that legacy of service that was established
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- with the founding of the organization in nineteen
9:31
- o seven,
9:33
- dedicated to serving all who live in Greater
9:36
- Houston, making sure that they have
9:39
- good access to great care regardless of their
9:43
- physical, working,
9:45
- financial status.
9:47
- I love that level of commitment,
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- that desire to be out in the community
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- beyond the walls of the hospitals and clinics,
9:54
- making a difference every day in some way.
9:58
- So, again,
9:59
- incredible opportunity to work with amazing
10:02
- people to create more impact and pursue my
10:05
- lifelong goal,
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- which is to create that impact that allows
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- better access to good health
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- for all that we serve.
10:14
- David, thank you again for sharing. I mean,
10:16
- it's at any organization that a person lands
10:19
- at, it it's
10:20
- part good fortune, you know, part decisions that
10:23
- a person makes, but to end up in
10:25
- a place or, in in your case, several
10:27
- places where you can say, you know what?
10:29
- We had such great teams. I mean, that
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- that's a huge level of fortune and and
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- one that is very important to becoming a
10:36
- good health care leader as well, I'm sure.
10:38
- I do wanna back up to,
10:40
- what you said about hurricane Ike and just
10:43
- I wanna ask. So when
10:46
- I understand certainly that natural disasters such as
10:49
- that are
10:50
- are fairly common in Southern Texas.
10:53
- But
10:54
- when something like hurricane Ike happens
10:57
- and you're able to look back now and
10:59
- say, you know what?
11:01
- This is what we had to do
11:03
- to get
11:04
- the system back on its feet and serve
11:07
- the patients and everyone who's in our community.
11:10
- What was so important to saying
11:12
- to your staff or what did you have
11:13
- to say to your staff? And what did
11:14
- you do to say, you know what? This
11:16
- is the direction we have to go.
11:18
- Yeah. It was really about
11:20
- preserving
11:21
- the organization's
11:22
- ability to create its impact
11:25
- through its education,
11:27
- research, and clinical programs.
11:30
- We were completely shut down. You know, I
11:33
- still remember,
11:35
- standing in our
11:37
- operational command center when we got the readings
11:40
- from the offshore buoys
11:42
- about the storm surge.
11:44
- It, turned out to be really more than
11:47
- twice what we had originally
11:49
- anticipated
11:50
- and forecast.
11:52
- And once we got those, we knew we
11:54
- were within hours of our entire facility being
11:58
- flooded.
11:59
- Now we did have a few new facilities
12:02
- that had been built to withstand the category
12:04
- four and five hurricanes. They didn't flood at
12:07
- all. They function
12:08
- as was planned.
12:10
- But many others,
12:11
- one building dated back to the early nineteen
12:14
- hundreds,
12:15
- and it took a big hit. So just
12:17
- beginning to think about what does this really
12:20
- mean? How do we protect our people? More
12:22
- importantly,
12:24
- how do we protect the ability to serve
12:26
- our mission to the people of Texas, which
12:28
- was established in the late eighteen eighties?
12:32
- So a lot of difficult decisions, a lot
12:34
- of hard work
12:37
- by my team, the people around us, people
12:39
- beyond us, UT System at the level of
12:41
- the state of Texas and its government,
12:44
- but we got through it. We pulled together.
12:47
- But not that we didn't
12:49
- lose some people, make some people angry along
12:51
- the way, make some difficult decisions that
12:54
- disenfranchised
12:55
- some people,
12:57
- but we preserved our ability to serve that
12:59
- mission. So I'll I'll always remember that and,
13:03
- you know, again, how much I learned and,
13:06
- you know, where we ended up despite the
13:08
- fact that we were very concerned that we
13:11
- might not be able to get through. The
13:12
- organization
13:13
- might not be able to survive. We did.
13:16
- And to me, that's a wonderful accomplishment
13:20
- by that group of people, not attributable to
13:22
- me,
13:23
- but to that entire large team
13:26
- that pulled together, considered the opportunities,
13:29
- the possibilities,
13:31
- and chose a path to get UTMB back
13:34
- on its feet and actually off Galveston Island
13:37
- into Southern Greater Houston
13:39
- and establish a a broader,
13:41
- more capable clinical base to serve its clinical
13:44
- mission.
13:46
- When you look back at those accomplishments
13:49
- in particular,
13:50
- do you see that knowledge spreading to other,
13:54
- systems in in the Houston area and beyond?
13:57
- Yeah. I think UTMB plays a very important
14:00
- role in the University of Texas universe,
14:03
- certainly in the medical education
14:05
- system for Texas.
14:07
- And so, you know, we had to think
14:10
- about getting that reestablished, getting our schools open
14:13
- again.
14:14
- I think considering the workforce shortage we have
14:17
- for health care professionals, for physicians, nurses,
14:21
- you know, what we used to call allied
14:23
- health professionals, all the therapists,
14:26
- and and also biomedical scientists.
14:29
- Getting the academic
14:31
- mission back on track was absolutely critical. Clearly,
14:34
- getting the hospital and clinics reopened to serve
14:37
- the large proportion of
14:39
- underserved communities in Southern Houston was also important.
14:43
- So, yeah, I think I think it had
14:45
- impact that was important for the greater Houston
14:47
- area in the state of Texas.
14:49
- Yeah. And I think a lot of patients
14:50
- or even a lot of your peers don't
14:52
- necessarily know
14:54
- in that moment where you'll where you think
14:56
- to yourself, yeah, we might not survive this.
14:59
- But what gave you confidence that you were
15:02
- going to survive?
15:04
- You know, I have to say that, you
15:05
- know, part of that spectrum of activities for
15:08
- me was actually creating an exit plan, the
15:10
- ability for UTMB to either close,
15:13
- be absorbed by another
15:15
- big academic system,
15:17
- or be absorbed by another University of Texas
15:20
- institution.
15:21
- So
15:22
- that's I think part of our role as
15:25
- health care leaders is to consider
15:28
- all the needs, all the opportunities,
15:31
- all the challenges, and be prepared.
15:33
- One of my favorite quotes attributable to Louis
15:36
- Pasteur, and he was really talking about
15:39
- investigation.
15:40
- And what he said was
15:41
- chance favors the prepared
15:44
- mind.
15:45
- And, of course, what he was talking about
15:47
- is forming hypotheses,
15:49
- understanding
15:51
- different variations in terms of outcomes of research.
15:55
- But I think, you know, very important thought
15:57
- that transcends
15:59
- research and investigation
16:01
- really into leadership,
16:03
- We constantly should be thinking about the full
16:07
- array,
16:08
- the full spectrum of the challenges before us,
16:11
- all the possible outcomes, be prepared,
16:14
- be thinking about what we think are the
16:16
- greatest opportunities for success, the best path to
16:19
- pursue, and clearly focus on those
16:22
- and trying to stay on that path. But
16:24
- when we don't, be prepared for others
16:27
- and keep the organization,
16:29
- keep our colleagues moving forward, focused on the
16:32
- next steps
16:33
- that we can accomplish to ultimately create success.
16:38
- That makes an incredible amount of sense, David,
16:41
- and does lead me nicely into my next
16:43
- question for you. And that is, I understand
16:46
- you've been
16:47
- at, Memorial Hermann for about seven years now,
16:49
- and by no means is anyone
16:52
- at Becker's or anywhere else pushing you out
16:54
- the door. Right? But, you know, given, the
16:56
- path that you've just led us on so
16:58
- far in this conversation, what would you tell
17:00
- your successor?
17:01
- Right? And that and that could be the
17:03
- pet pastor quote. I'm sure you're gonna wanna
17:05
- share that with them if you haven't already.
17:08
- Or or anything else that you think, you
17:09
- know what? This is important for you to
17:11
- succeed at this job.
17:13
- Yeah. I've gotten so much great advice from
17:16
- teachers and mentors and colleagues through the course
17:19
- of the years, and,
17:20
- you know, one of the major
17:22
- task for any CEO
17:24
- is preparing
17:25
- for a successor.
17:27
- And we've been at that here at Memorial
17:29
- Hermann now for several years, and my time's
17:33
- close. You know? I I'm ready to hand
17:35
- over the reins. I'm not making any announcements
17:38
- right now, but, you know, that time is
17:41
- coming. And and I'm so
17:43
- proud and pleased that
17:45
- we've got at least three
17:47
- strong
17:48
- internal candidates here, and I get to work
17:51
- with them every day. They're brilliant.
17:54
- Alec King, doctor Jamie McCarthy, Aaron Asprick, our
17:58
- CFO, our chief physician executive, and our COO.
18:02
- To me, any one of those three could
18:04
- very capably step into this role and keep
18:07
- the organization moving forward.
18:09
- You know, the things that that I say
18:12
- to them,
18:13
- and I think I learned more from them
18:15
- than they learned from me,
18:17
- but, you know, it's all about the mission.
18:19
- Our mission is to improve health, not improve
18:22
- health care, but to improve health
18:24
- for all we serve.
18:27
- And so
18:28
- constantly think about that. That's what we're here
18:31
- to do.
18:32
- How do we
18:33
- configure,
18:35
- guide,
18:36
- shape,
18:37
- change
18:38
- the organization
18:40
- so that that mission pursued is sustainable.
18:44
- We've been doing it for a hundred nineteen
18:46
- years. We wanna do it at least for
18:48
- another hundred nineteen.
18:50
- So what do we need to do in
18:52
- the face of current or what we believe
18:54
- are future
18:55
- challenges or future potential challenges to make sure
18:59
- that that mission pursuit is sustained?
19:02
- And, you know, I tell them things like,
19:04
- well,
19:05
- you know, some of the greatest advice I've
19:07
- gotten, sell,
19:09
- don't tell.
19:10
- You know, listen,
19:12
- engage
19:13
- brain before putting mouth into gear. I mean,
19:16
- all of these little sort of leadership adages
19:18
- that you get over the course of time,
19:20
- and they're fun. That up, up, though.
19:22
- Yeah. And and they're you know, that you
19:24
- can remember them.
19:26
- And so, you know, more than anything else,
19:28
- always
19:29
- listen.
19:30
- Listen within the organization
19:33
- to what people are thinking about what's happening,
19:36
- what their current challenges are across all the
19:39
- different work groups and work scenarios across our
19:42
- system,
19:44
- hear what they're saying about how they're responding
19:47
- and how they think the organization
19:48
- can best help them,
19:51
- Roll that up, constantly
19:53
- challenging
19:54
- the process. What can we do differently? How
19:56
- can we do it better?
19:58
- Think about our role in these executive roles
20:02
- to serve the work that's really being done
20:05
- on forefront up lines lines of the organization.
20:09
- And, again, thinking about that mission goal, improve
20:11
- health, that means we can't just be satisfied
20:13
- to sit back and wait in our hospitals
20:15
- and clinics.
20:16
- We need to be in the community. We
20:18
- need to be engaging
20:20
- business leaders, community leaders,
20:23
- people who are challenged,
20:26
- by,
20:28
- barriers that stand in the way of their
20:29
- access to good health.
20:31
- What can we do on our own as
20:33
- a system to help them overcome those barriers?
20:35
- What partners do we need, or what partners
20:37
- are available
20:39
- to help us break down some of those
20:40
- barriers?
20:41
- Ultimately, it's about creating value.
20:44
- We spend a lot of money on offering
20:46
- very
20:47
- advanced
20:48
- health care
20:49
- and solving very advanced diseases as, chronic disease
20:54
- problems, acute injury problems, acute illness problems.
20:58
- But if we could do more with prevention,
21:01
- more engagement, even focused on some of the,
21:03
- you know, say the five most common diseases,
21:06
- which is where we're focused in Greater Houston
21:08
- out in the community,
21:10
- think how much we could do to reduce
21:12
- those costs, improve the delivery of value with
21:16
- the dollars that we have to spend for
21:19
- health care today.
21:21
- So constantly
21:22
- laying out that challenge, encouraging
21:25
- those
21:26
- marvelously
21:27
- intelligent leaders to think about that, to engage
21:29
- the organization
21:30
- to think about, and, again, keep us on
21:32
- a sustainable path to ultimately
21:35
- solving that mission goal, being able to achieve
21:37
- it. I mean, that's what makes the job
21:39
- fun. It's also my principal task. It's what
21:42
- I'm supposed to do.
21:44
- Yeah. David, that approach of looking beyond
21:48
- the hospital and health system walls and and
21:50
- improving the health of their community, that that's
21:52
- become a much more prominent
21:55
- avenue that I think that health care leaders
21:57
- are pursuing over the last certainly over the
21:59
- last five years, but probably a little bit
22:01
- longer than that.
22:03
- But, yeah, it's it's certainly very important to
22:05
- everything you're doing down at Memorial Hermann and
22:07
- and the mission that you're trying to pursue
22:10
- and and be successful at every day.
22:13
- It does lead me to my next question,
22:15
- which is you you're dealing you deal with
22:17
- a lot as a health system CEO. That's
22:20
- in the understatement of the century, perhaps.
22:23
- But what issue or aspects
22:25
- of health care do you think deserves a
22:26
- brighter spotlight at this moment in time, and
22:28
- who needs to be shining that spotlight?
22:31
- You know, it's something that I talk about
22:34
- a lot
22:35
- with colleagues in national meetings,
22:38
- colleagues at all levels within health care.
22:41
- And, again, it's this idea that
22:43
- we can't just sit back in our clinics
22:46
- and wait for people to come to us.
22:49
- We as
22:50
- health systems,
22:52
- as health care providers,
22:54
- as administrators,
22:57
- for the use of resources
22:59
- that are allocated
23:00
- to provide health care, no more
23:03
- than just about any other group
23:05
- about the health doubt challenges in the communities
23:08
- in which we live and work.
23:10
- We have a role
23:12
- to talk about those,
23:14
- to talk about how
23:16
- that we can get more engaged with our
23:20
- communities,
23:21
- get to some of those core issues on
23:24
- our own and working with others. We have
23:26
- to do that.
23:27
- If we really want to enhance
23:31
- value delivery
23:32
- with the health care dollars that are available,
23:34
- I go on to talk about, you know,
23:35
- we spend
23:37
- $5,000,000,000,000
23:38
- per year in The US now for health
23:40
- care.
23:41
- Think about
23:42
- if we how we could if we really
23:44
- got into the community,
23:46
- understood the true barriers to good health,
23:49
- and reallocated some of those dollars, what an
23:51
- impact that would create over the course of
23:53
- time, how that would drive value.
23:55
- So I think that's something we all just
23:57
- need to talk about.
23:59
- But, you know, what I I really want,
24:02
- particularly younger colleagues, to
24:05
- feel is that we can't maintain the status
24:09
- quo
24:10
- and help the country be as great as
24:13
- it can be if people are healthier
24:15
- and have more
24:17
- access
24:18
- better access to good health.
24:21
- That also makes a ton of sense, David.
24:22
- I'm glad you were able to articulate that
24:24
- for us today.
24:26
- Yeah.
24:28
- It it's fascinating
24:30
- to hear yourself and other
24:32
- health care leaders
24:33
- think this way in in such positive
24:36
- environment. Right? So you know what? What else
24:38
- can we do? You know? Yes. You come
24:40
- here. You have you're sick. You you need
24:42
- an a surgery.
24:43
- Yeah. We can do that. But okay. Let's
24:45
- see what else we can do. It's such
24:46
- an important mindset to have, I think.
24:50
- David, you've also been able to share with
24:52
- us
24:53
- a number of the people that have made
24:55
- difference to you and to the people,
24:58
- that you serve.
24:59
- Last question I wanna ask you is simply,
25:01
- what have you found is an underrated leadership
25:04
- trait,
25:05
- and who have you seen embody it? And
25:06
- that could be one person or a group
25:08
- of people, whatever you find, most applicable.
25:12
- Yeah. You know, again, I've had the opportunity
25:14
- to work with so many great leaders.
25:17
- A gentleman named doctor Bobby Alford, who was
25:19
- executive vice chancellor
25:22
- at at Baylor College of Medicine when I
25:24
- was a student and resident. My department chair,
25:27
- John Mendelson, I mentioned, Andy Von Eschenbach,
25:32
- Jerry Levy
25:33
- at UCLA,
25:36
- number of great leaders in the UT system.
25:38
- But the one who really stands out is
25:40
- admiral Bill McRaven,
25:41
- who was chancellor
25:43
- during,
25:44
- some of my service as president of UTMB.
25:48
- But the one who stands out the most
25:49
- in my mind is former president George h
25:52
- w Bush,
25:54
- who was the leader of what we call
25:57
- the board of visitors at MD Anderson when
25:59
- I was
26:00
- a up and coming
26:02
- executive leader there.
26:04
- And the two qualities
26:06
- that I saw president Bush,
26:09
- display
26:10
- time and time and time again were
26:13
- humility
26:14
- and respect for all.
26:17
- Everyone he met,
26:19
- at least in my experience, he treated with
26:22
- the greatest respect.
26:24
- He would never talk about himself.
26:26
- He wanted to know about you when you
26:28
- were standing in front of him
26:30
- and what you did.
26:32
- And almost always, he was encouraging in some
26:35
- way or
26:36
- wanna know how he could help, what he
26:38
- could do.
26:40
- And as I learned more about
26:43
- leadership
26:44
- and the role of the importance of establishing
26:47
- a shared vision
26:49
- among all involved
26:51
- in the pursuit of a particular goal or
26:55
- set of goals,
26:56
- I began to understand
26:58
- how important
26:59
- that humility and respect are for leaders.
27:03
- If you respect all
27:05
- and you're humble,
27:07
- you listen carefully,
27:09
- you play back what you've heard,
27:12
- it's critical,
27:14
- in terms of being able to establish that
27:16
- shared vision,
27:18
- which motivates all to strive
27:21
- together
27:23
- to establish that shared goal.
27:25
- So, again,
27:26
- number of great leaders who have taught me
27:28
- so much, but
27:30
- really
27:31
- tremendous,
27:33
- admiration
27:34
- for president Bush, h w Bush,
27:37
- and how he worked even beyond his role
27:40
- as president
27:42
- to play a leadership role and bring people
27:44
- together
27:46
- to struggle
27:47
- together to achieve something that was greater than
27:50
- any of the individuals in their own respective
27:53
- set of goals or ideas.
27:56
- That is extremely well said, David. I think
27:59
- that's humility and respect for all will take
28:02
- you a very long way in life, whether
28:04
- you are a hospital CEO
28:06
- or whether you are a podcast host or
28:09
- whatever it is you happen to be doing.
28:10
- I think that's the perfect place to to
28:12
- end the podcast. David, thank you again,
28:15
- for just coming on to this podcast and,
28:17
- you know, laying out what it is that's
28:19
- made you who you are as a leader
28:20
- and how we can all just help our
28:22
- communities be better.
28:24
- Yeah. Well, thank you very much for the
28:25
- opportunity, Chris.