Access the full conversation with William H. (Bill) Nelson below.
When William H. (Bill) Nelson, former President and CEO of Intermountain Health, looks back on what he is most proud of, he points to the people he led alongside, a group of colleagues who made decisions together and owned them together.
Bill joined Bob Clarke, Chairman of NuBrick Partners and Furst Group, for a special edition of Conversations in Leadership featuring past recipients of the Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award. In 2005, Bill became the first recipient of the award, which the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) presents to leaders who have driven meaningful, enduring improvements in health and healthcare.
Bill led in healthcare, but the team behaviors he describes apply to leadership teams in any industry, shared ownership of decisions, accountability that no one can hand off, talent that works as part of the team, and a mission clear enough to align everyone around it. He made a related point himself, noting that mission ought to work the same in commercial for-profit organizations as it does in not-for-profits.
What Shared Ownership Looks Like on a Leadership Team
Asked which accomplishment he is most proud of, Bill said he had thought a lot about the question. “I believe the best thing I did was to put together an incredible group of colleagues, focused together on our mission as an organization, focused together to work together and to accomplish what we accomplished as a team,” he said.
For Bill, the defining feature of that team was how it made decisions. “As a team, we made decisions together and we all own those decisions,” he recalled. That ownership held when results fell short. “When things didn’t go exactly as we’d wished, there was no way to lay those off to someone else. It was our decision. We decided, so how can we best accomplish those goals?”
That closing question is what shared ownership sounds like in practice. Rather than looking for who is responsible, the team turns its attention to what it will do next. Bob described the approach as moving “beyond a hierarchy” to create “a true partnership.”
Hear Bill Nelson reflect on the team he is most proud of from his years leading Intermountain.
Why Accountability Reached Beyond the Executive Team
Bill was clear that shared ownership did not stop at his direct reports. The team, he said, reached “beyond just the people that were in my reporting group, but throughout the organization,” with people involved in making decisions, carrying them out, and improving them as Intermountain learned more and set more concise objectives.
For leadership teams, this is where alignment becomes visible. Decisions carry further when the people responsible for carrying them out have a hand in shaping and improving them.
Building Teams Where Talent Works Together
Bill’s teams had exceptional people. What set them apart was where that talent was directed. “There were no chosen superstars. There were no chosen geniuses,” he said. “There were geniuses, but as part of a team, not acting on their own.”
Bill described that team as part of a broader alignment that included Intermountain’s board. “One of the great blessings we had at Intermountain was a board that expected that of us,” he said. “That’s all the board wanted to do, was improve health status, improve clinical excellence, and there was no self-service on the board.”
The result, in his words, was “a magic time in my life because the goals were united. The objective, the mission was clear, and we had people that were committed to doing that and committed to doing that as a team.”
Hear Bill Nelson describe the board, the goals, and the team that made it “a magic time.”
Mission as Common Ground for Any Team
When Bob asked what trait he most hopes to see in emerging leaders, Bill pointed to purpose. “Simply a leader who is honestly, directly focused on improving the health status, improving health in the community, improving availability and excellence in healthcare services,” he said.
He was equally clear that the principle reaches beyond not-for-profit organizations. “I think that’s not specifically focused on not-for-profit organizations,” Bill said, “because commercial for-profit organizations, with, again, the desire to best serve the people that they’ve defined as their population of service, it ought to work the same.”
In any organization, the mission defines who the team exists to serve. A clearly defined population of service gives a leadership team a shared reference point for every decision it makes.
Hear Bill Nelson explain why mission applies to for-profit and not-for-profit organizations alike.
Developing Leaders Who Build Teams
Bob connected Bill’s reflections to how leaders are developed and assessed. “When we look at leadership development programs today, we are constantly trying to assess for that trait,” Bob said. “Can this leader adapt? Can they communicate a vision that isn’t just about financial or operational margins, but about community health and their impact and the people they serve?”
Asked what he tells the leaders coming up behind him, Bill kept it simple. “Build teams, focus on mission,” he said. “Understand the needs of the people in the area that you’re serving, specialty and geographic, and then work together to accomplish those. It’s the same script, different circumstance.”
That consistency is what makes his advice useful for leadership development. The behaviors he describes travel with a leader from one role, team, or organization to the next.
Hear Bill Nelson share his advice for the leaders coming up behind him.
What Leadership Teams Can Take From Bill’s Approach
Bill’s reflections describe a leadership team that owns its decisions together, extends that ownership throughout the organization, directs individual talent toward shared goals, and stays anchored to a clearly defined mission. None of those behaviors depends on industry.
Leadership teams looking to strengthen how they work together might start with three questions drawn from his experience. When a decision doesn’t go as planned, does our team own it together? Are the people who carry out our decisions involved in shaping and improving them? And is our mission clear enough that everyone on the team knows who we serve?
At NuBrick Partners, we work with leadership teams to strengthen shared accountability and alignment around a common purpose. Learn more about NuBrick Partners.
Access the Full Conversation
Bob Clarke, Chairman of Furst Group and NuBrick Partners, in conversation with Bill Nelson, former President and CEO of Intermountain Health.
About
William H. (Bill) Nelson
Bill Nelson is the former President and CEO of Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, Utah. He joined Intermountain in the 1970s, spent more than three decades with the organization, and became President and CEO in 1999. In 2005, he became the first recipient of the Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award.
The Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award
Presented by the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL), the award honors Gail L. Warden, NCHL’s founding chair and President Emeritus of Henry Ford Health. It celebrates individuals who have driven meaningful, enduring improvements in health and healthcare through visionary leadership and a strong commitment to the wellbeing of their communities.
Conversations in Leadership
Conversations in Leadership is our series featuring candid perspectives from healthcare leaders, hosted by Bob Clarke, Chairman of NuBrick Partners and Furst Group. In a special edition of the series, Bob, who serves on the NCHL Board of Directors, connects with past recipients of the Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award to reflect on the decisions, challenges, and lessons that define great leadership.
