Reviving the Heart of Leadership

Jim Decker's gentle storytelling empowers the reader to embrace a greater challenge, as healthcare is at a point of no return in America. Written for corporate leaders in every field, Jim calmly offers the basics of compassion and servant leadership as a better way. His non-healthcare friends say that the pressures he has experienced in his forty-seven year career are significantly more intense than those in the typical corporate world. Considering the notion "that which does not kill me, only makes me stronger," he tells the story of his journey. Immersed in healthcare for five decades, Jim is hearing more frequent complaints from friends and neighbors about how difficult it is to navigate the healthcare maze. Everything from understanding the health insurance quagmire and watching healthcare costs continue to rise, to the impersonal feeling of just being a "number" and being shuffled through the system in assembly line fashion. Something is wrong. And the problem, Jim suggests, is that these well-meaning leaders may not realize the damage of an authoritarian style of leadership. Talk to nurses. Talk to long-term employees. They are not happy. They are unfulfilled. Company loyalty is gone. Exercising good "judgment in administration" is a trait that all good leaders should possess. But Jim asks if that is always the case. He fears that some of the problems the US healthcare system is experiencing today result from poor judgment by key decision-makers. Me too, he notes. He has been in pressure-filled situations where he felt no escape from brutal management decisions. "Twenty-twenty hindsight would suggest that I should have handled certain situations differently. Hopefully, I learned from those experiences." Jim seeks to get the attention of Board leadership as well. The local business leaders serving on boards across America need to ask themselves the same questions. They make decisions without regard to their employee morale and failing loyalty, the vast majority of which have lost respect for their company leadership. It is time for those in leadership positions to change course before we reach the point of no return. A different focus might be the best remedy for what ails us. Could a healthy dose of compassion, servant leadership, and better judgment be just what the doctor has ordered? Jim Decker adds that the price we are paying is impacting the healthcare quality in America.

JIM DECKER enjoyed a forty-seven-year career in healthcare leadership. He has a litany of stories about the challenges and hard-fought wins of proving yourself and learning the profound value of servant leadership and compassionate healthcare. He served as CEO and senior executive roles for five different hospitals, health systems, and a regional blood center. Jim currently lives with his wife in Knoxville, Tennessee near his three children and three grandchildren.