Name: Keri Hackendahl

Title: System Vice President, Ambulatory Patient Experience

Organisation: CommonSpirit Health

Keri Hackendahl is the System Vice President of Ambulatory Care for CommonSpirit Health Patient Experience. The largest non-profit healthcare organization in the country.

She provides leadership and strategic direction for patient experience, including over 5000 clinicians and 1500+ care sites. Keri leads and establishes patient experience goal development, reporting and implementation of key strategic and operational initiatives to facilitate optimal care delivery and goal achievement.

Keri has worked in patient experience for over 20 years and has two masters degrees in Business and Leadership.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Keri's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

My mantra is Limitless Possibilities, so my biggest challenge is prioritizing the things I want to accomplish. There is so much to do to transform the patient experience in healthcare across the country and the challenge is what to work on next that will have the biggest impact and return for our teams and patients.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I was working as a concierge supervisor in hospitality at the Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale, AZ. My department went seasonal and closed for 2 months. I was going to college at the time so needed to find another job quickly. I became a temp employee at a brand new hospital that was being built that needed help in the HR department hiring new staff. I worked in that role for a couple weeks when I was asked to cover for the Executive Assistant of the CEO while she went out on medical leave. After 2 months the hospital was about to open.

My experience working for the CEO and all the C-suite team members was such a blessing for what I learned to do and not do as a leader. I was asked to join the hospital leadership team permanently in the Service Excellence department and oversee the Medical Library. 6 months after the hospital opened I was promoted to the Director and led the Patient Relations, Medical Interpreters and Spiritual Care departments.

I am a lifelong learner and kept going to school to learn everything I could about business and leadership, achieving two masters degrees. I kept focusing on my goals and exceeding results. In no time I was overseeing the patient experience strategy across multiple hospitals. I moved to California for an even more expanded leadership role that led to 2 large non-profit healthcare systems merging, which is when I became a vice president responsible for the ambulatory clinic patient experience goals and strategic initiatives.

To me, leadership is a journey and you never stop being a leader - no matter the environment. It all starts with confidence in yourself, setting personal and professional goals and your eagerness to learn and grow every day.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I always start the day finding a quiet place to sit and reflect; on the prior day and what I hope to achieve today. I set a lot of alarms on my phone as reminders. I also sit down every morning and plan for the day. (I love the pandaplanner!) I write down what I am grateful for, what I am excited about, my personal daily affirmation and the day's priorities.

I prioritize the hardest tasks first (these are usually the ones that I don't want to do), because after you complete the hardest work, the rest of the day feels so much easier. I schedule time after work to cook a healthy meal. I spend my evenings reading a book, catching up with friends and watching a good Netflix series. I am not really into social media, which I feel like gives me more time in the day to do things that benefit me and my health.

Sleep is so important to our health and I try to get at least 8 hours a night. It's important to set boundaries on when you work so that you have time for yourself and rest your brain so that you can be at your best every day. If there is an important project going on at work, I do check-in on email about an hour before I go to sleep so that I don't wake up to any surprises. Rinse and repeat. Our bodies and minds like routines!

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

A good friend and colleague of mine recently reminded me that leadership is not about making yourself successful, it's about making the people around you successful. If your team is happy and passionate about what they are doing, achieving goals and positive outcomes just happens. Celebrating those outcomes and having fun is what keeps everyone motivated and moving forward on to the next challenge.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

"Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts" - Brené Brown This book taught me that you do not always have to have the answers. As a leader, we always want to have all the answers since everyone is looking to us to solve everything and make things better. It's OK to not know the answer.

As a leader, you have to be ok with being vulnerable. It has encouraged me be comfortable with uncertainty and to always be curious. Dare to Lead has motivated me to see power as something to be shared with others making it infinite. It has also taught me to lean into being courageous and vulnerable instead of putting things off because of fear.

Even if you try and fail, at least you tried and then you can learn from your failure and do it better the next time. By facing difficult conversations head-on and maintaining empathy and compassion you always leave the situation feeling that you did your best, no matter the outcome.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

The possibilities are limitless. Dream big and make a plan. Check one thing off at a time. Before you know it, you are halfway to your goal. And really the most fun is the middle of your leadership journey (which is where I am), that is the space where you get to create live-long relationships with people you enjoy being around, take risks, fail, try again, learn, grow and become the leader that everyone wishes they have.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

I was with a healthcare organization for over 14 years. We were going through a restructure to centralize our team function. My boss brought me into his office explaining the new structure and how I would be reporting to someone new, who had less experience than me, and doing a different job. When he asked me what I thought, I said, “No, I don’t want to do that.” I was always someone who went with the flow and did not like conflict, so this was not my normal expected response.

He replied, “Well then, what do you want?”. I said, “I want your job”. My grandpa was a big influencer in my life. I played college softball and he would always tell me never to strike-out without swinging. I put that into action in my job and life. Always “swing” even if you miss. My boss, at the time, didn’t know how to respond. He told me that he was just contacted by a recruiter for a vice president role but it was in another state and he wasn’t going anywhere.

I told him to send it to me, and I applied. Since I was not going to accept the new role in the reorganization, I was given a 3 month severance package. I enjoyed the first couple weeks “on vacation” daydreaming about what my next role would be and where it would take me. Then I started to work on my resume. Many people underestimate how important your resume is. There are thousands of people applying for the job you want and you have to make your resume stand out and really show your brand, who you are, and what you are passionate about.

I started applying for jobs all over the country; New York, Atlanta, Florida, even Hawaii. Some of them I wasn’t even that excited about, but I wanted the interview experience and it also helped me understand what organizations were looking for in a top candidate and what priorities they were working on in the industry. When I left my job, I really didn’t have a plan, which is scary and not like me at all.

As you can see, I am a planner. One of my work colleagues gave me a card at my going away party. It said “Leap and the net will appear”. That is exactly what I did…and the net did appear! I ended up dreaming big and finding the best job with the greatest leader anyone could dream of. I get to work with amazing people every day across the country to improve something that everyone needs, health care.

I tell my story to remind you that you don’t always have to have a plan, but you always have to ask for what you want and dream of. You only live once, so make the best of it! Most importantly, be happy with what you do and who you are.