Back in the year 2000 Banner’s new leader laid out his plan for the organization’s future, with no attempts to sugarcoat it. “Some people didn’t like it, and some people thought it was like, ‘wow—leadership!’” Fine admits that his strategy was risky, “I took my shots, and I took some risks of whether I was going to get run out of town on a rail or get enough people on board with the vision.” That risk was one Fine was willing to take, and looking back over the years, it’s apparent that it was a risk well worth taking. With Peter Fine at the helm, Banner Health has grown to become one of the most recognizable names in healthcare.
Fine’s passion for healthcare leadership can be seen in the wisdom he passes on to every new leader in the Banner Health organization. Any time an individual enters a new leadership position at Banner, he or she attends a three-day leader orientation program at the Banner headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. The first half hour of orientation is Fine’s opportunity to share his vision with the new leaders and pass on a few insights he’s learned over his long and successful career in healthcare leadership. Fine always shares a few key principles for performing well in healthcare—which have come to be known within Banner as “Peter-isms”—that he learned from his own mentors early in his career. These “Peter-isms” include:
- “If you’re going to survive in healthcare you have to have two things: A passion for complexity and a high tolerance for ambiguity.”
- “Plan the work and work the plan.”
- “Misery is optional—what’s forced upon you isn’t optional, but how you handle it is optional.”
- “Tune out the static,” and “Don’t let someone else’s monkey jump on your back.”
- “Visibility breeds credibility, and credibility breeds trust. So if you want to be trusted within Banner Health, you better be visible.”
Fine believes that being a good observer is really the key to finding success in healthcare leadership. He notes that his mentors were great leaders, but not necessarily great teachers; he learned the above leadership principals more through observation than anything else. Fine explains,
“I think the best way to grow as a leader in healthcare is not for somebody to teach you, but for you to be a good observer. You can’t just copy somebody’s leadership techniques, because there are some that you like and some that you don’t like, and some that feel good for you and some that don’t feel good for you. But you can observe well, and then make your judgment on what fits your style.”
There’s no doubt that Peter Fine has learned a thing or two about healthcare leadership during his long and successful career. Any healthcare leader would benefit from observing the example of Banner Health’s president and CEO who has led the organization through a remarkable transformation.