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Happy Monday, Healthcare Leaders!
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Healthcare Leader, where we’ll look at leading through the human, messy, and occasionally weird work we do in healthcare.
Today’s content is built around three questions:
Do you try to smooth out the quirks?
Do you demand results without control?
Do you assume you’ve “figured it out”?
Let’s dive in.
In Today's Issue
🧠 Leadership: Keep the Characters
I was talking with my COO, Bryan Rogers, and we were laughing about the cast of personalities you meet in healthcare. He said something simple that stuck with me:
“I’ve known leaders who try to get rid of anyone who thinks or acts differently. I kind of like keeping some of the characters around. They make work fun.”
He said this in passing, but it’s deep. And it aligns perfectly with Bryan’s relationship-first leadership style that makes him effective.
Good leaders standardize performance, not personality.
Healthcare involves a diverse set of skills – which inevitably lead to a diverse set of personalities:
The meticulous accountant.
The creative and outgoing marketer.
The blunt ED nurse.
The quiet and analytical lab tech.
The quirks others find annoying about people in these roles may be the exact traits necessary to do the work well.
Next time you find yourself frustrated by someone and tempted to have a performance discussion, pause.
Ask: Is this truly a performance issue, or just a quirk that makes them good at their job?
Great leaders don’t eliminate differences. They harness them.
Discussion & Reflection
Who on your team frustrates you, and could that trait actually be part of their strength?
Are you holding people accountable to outcomes, or to acting like you?
⚙️ Operations: High Expectations + Low Control = Burnout
I’d like to thank Zach McGeorge, a past colleague, for sharing this clip from The Diary of a CEO that I have been pondering for the last week.
In the interview, behavioral expert Nir Eyal explained something profound:
“High expectations coupled with low control” is what drives anxiety and depression at work.
High expectations + high control? People rise to the occasion.
High expectations + low control? Burnout. People give up.
And this type of failed leadership can occur at every level of a healthcare organization:
The manager who tries to save on salaries by bringing in new grads without an effective training program.
The director who doesn’t want to deal with per diem employees on the schedule, leaving the team short staffed and working overtime.
The executive who delays critical capital purchases to make the budget look better, but creates unnecessary operational risks.
A leader’s job isn’t to have every answer. It’s to increase agency for those with earned trust who can create the solutions.
Remove friction. Accelerate decisions. Connect people to resources. Clarify what they can actually control.
Great leaders create hope by showing the team there’s a path forward.
If your team feels stuck, ask yourself: Have I raised expectations without increasing control?
You can watch the full 2-minute clip here:
Discussion & Reflection
Where might your team feel high pressure but low agency?
What is one barrier you could remove this month that would meaningfully increase control?
🚀 Career: The Leaders Who Improve Fastest Get Coached
The higher you rise, the easier it is to believe “I’m doing fine.”
But what got you here rarely gets you to the next level.
Recently, I was speaking with a former leader of mine, Jamie Couch, about struggling to tell my story clearly to senior executives during brief interactions.
He asked: “You write well. How do you structure a strong article?”
I said: Start with a hook to create curiosity, and make it skimmable so the reader can get the main points quickly and choose what sections they want to read into further.
He replied: “Why can’t you structure your speaking the same way?”
That one question reframed how I think about telling the story of my work.
Another example: after I posted a roundup of ACHE speakers, Tammy Gooler Loeb sent me a few suggestions to improve the readability and engagement of the LinkedIn post.
I applied them. Engagement improved immediately.
Note: If you’re going to be at the 2026 ACHE Congress and want to improve your LinkedIn game, sit in on Tammy’s talk.
Coaching isn’t counseling. It’s not classroom learning.
It’s someone helping you connect strengths you already have to areas you haven’t mastered yet.
Elite athletes don’t outgrow coaching. They seek better coaches as they advance in their career.
Why should executives be any different?
Discussion & Reflection
What skill will your next role require that you haven’t fully developed yet?
Who is one person who could accelerate your growth if you asked for feedback?
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Until next time, stay inspired!
Rob Erich, MBA, FACHE