I recently conducted a fascinating hour and a half one-on-one interview with Peter Fine, President and CEO of Banner Health. Peter Fine has been in the healthcare business since 1977 and has few regrets. He’s come a long way since his first ‘real’ job – driving a taxi just outside of New York City in the summers during his college years. He finds his current position at Banner Health to be extremely rewarding, noting,
“I’m pretty proud of how far the organization has come during the twelve years I’ve been here. If I had to leave tomorrow, I could feel really good about the company. I think the greatest achievement for an executive is not what they did in the first couple of years in the job; it’s how they left the company. Can they walk away from the company or job and say ‘I have left it better than I got it’? I can say that today. To me that’s the legacy.”
How about you? Could you walk away from your healthcare organization or job today and honestly say, “I left it better than when I arrived?”
Leave it better than when you arrived! As Peter Fine so succinctly described, “I think the greatest achievement for an executive is not what they did in the first couple of years in the job; it’s how they left the company.” That’s the important legacy of all truly successful healthcare leaders!
How are you doing regarding your legacy? You, and all other leaders, are building, and will leave a legacy. The only question is, “what will be your legacy?”
Leave it better – much better – than when you arrived!
For more on Peter Fine and his leadership at Banner Health, please click here for a series of articles featured on the America’s Healthcare Leaders website.
