Tim Bugg, the president and CEO of Capstone Health Alliance, loves his job and his team. And with two decades of leadership experience under his belt, he has learned a thing or two about being a leader. During an hour-long, in-depth interview, Bugg shared about the six values that have most positively impacted his life and leadership:
- Integrity. “Integrity is a huge value that I strive to follow every single day. The day I lose my integrity, the day I lose anyone’s trust, is probably the day that I’m done in my career.”
- Compassion. “Compassion is very compelling to me… I try to lead with compassion in everything I do.”
- Respect. “I have had the privilege to report to some excellent leaders that respected me, respected my opinion, and respected my position. I try to pass that on in my leadership.”
- Love for the job.“If you’re going to spend 40 years in a career, make sure you love what you do.”
- Drive and focus. “I believe if my team can see my drive toward my goals and my drive toward doing a great job, then hopefully they will be inspired to do the same… and if you don’t believe in what you’re doing, if you’re not driven to do it every day, then you’re never going to be satisfied. So you’ve got to figure out a way to make what you do worthwhile—to yourself first and then to others.”
- Having fun.“Lastly, I would say have fun. You’ve got to have some enjoyment in life. That’s one of the goals we strive for here at Capstone. I’m not saying that it’s always sunshine and rainbows all day, but we try to make sure that our team members are encouraged and fun is not forgotten.”
Bugg says that these values are incredibly important for accomplishing his job with excellence. “All those values are what we instill in our team at Capstone, and we want to instill that into their service to our members as well.” He went on to say that Capstone has never lost a member due to quality of service; “Our members have only left us because of system affiliations or system buyouts.”
Bugg says his parents are to thank for the positive influence they have had on his life, and for instilling in him such great values. He is especially grateful for the leadership example of his father: “I believe we take that for granted sometimes, but when you really think about it, and you sit down and you ponder on the way your life has turned out, you think, ‘wow, my father really did have an impact on me.’”
While life has had its challenges, Bugg says he strives to turn challenges into opportunities:
“I have always tried to make my own opportunities, and always attempted to meet the challenges head on. I embrace challenges and try to determine ‘how do I grow from this challenge? What do I need as a solution? And how can I be a better person to approach such challenges?’ So it’s all about how you look at things and how you look at life, and I think that the good leader will look at a challenge and see it as an opportunity rather than a challenge or obstacle.”
Asked to give some advice for aspiring leaders, Bugg listed six points:
- “Love what you do. I know this is redundant from me, but I’m a true believer, because if you don’t have a passion to do what you’re doing, then you’re never going to be happy. Don’t come to the end of your life not ever fulfilling that dream of loving what you do.”
- “Embrace change, and you really need to be a visionary about it. You can’t look at change as an obstacle. You should look at change as an opportunity.
- “Listen, learn, and lead.I think that’s critical to being at the top of your game, because if you can’t hear people and you can’t learn from people then you’ll never be able to lead. I think all three go hand in hand.”
- “Respect the performance of your team. There’s always going to be somebody that maybe doesn’t fit in your team and you’ll have to deal with that, but if you’ve got a good team, respect the performance of that team. Because just as quickly as you can get results, you can get nothing because the team doesn’t respect you or your leadership. Respect has to go both ways.”
- “Collaborate and cooperate—that is always key. You can’t always bring people to the table, but you can put the invitation out. You have to listen and understand—it’s not always about you. There will always be give and take, but to be a good leader, you’ve got to understand when to do both.”
- “Be strong, but be willing to negotiate. Similar to number five, you have to understand when to stand firm and when to negotiate. Not always the easiest path to navigate, but great leaders excel in this skill.
Bugg went on to talk about the importance of allowing his team members to be themselves and to work in the way that works best for them—which may not always be his way! “If we ever got to a point at Capstone where my way was the only way, we would be done that day. I don’t claim to have all the answers. I don’t claim to know every single problem that we’re going to run into and every single solution. And that’s why I have a team, and my job is to facilitate and lead that team to find the right answer, the right path, and the right course.”
As our interview came to a close, Bugg ended with one more piece of excellent leadership advice:
“You have to always keep in mind the most important thing is for the organization to continue to strive to bring excellence for those that it serves. Excellence equity if you will. It’s not about Tim Bugg, but rather, it’s about ensuring the organization continues to bring excellence equity to our members.”