Strategies to Turn Your Health System’s Executives Into Effective Thought Leaders

Among the most important currencies in health care is trust. Meanwhile, trust in leadership today is at an all-time low.

Jamie Williams, director of executive communications at UNC Health

According to PwC’s 2022 Consumer Intelligence Series on Trust, 87 percent of executives think customers highly trust their companies. In reality, it’s roughly 30 percent.

That makes thought leadership from hospital executives a key method of cultivating stakeholder trust. The more leaders are accessible and knowable, the more employees and patients can trust the institutions they guide.

At UNC Health, a major academic health system in North Carolina, the communications team recognizes that its leaders are called upon to be exceptionally visible. But that doesn’t mean they have the skills to be effective communicators.

“Our leaders have multiple advanced degrees. But we find that many of them, even 30 years into their career and with advanced degrees, have never taken a simple communications class because it doesn’t exist in many curricula,” says Sharon Delaney McCloud, director of corporate communications.

This knowledge led her, with Jamie Williams, director of executive communications, to develop a strategy to help the hospital’s leadership stand out as experts. Together, they poured their energy into developing content in their leaders’ voices and training those leaders to become outstanding communicators.

In our new article, you’ll discover how the UNC Health communications team developed a successful strategy to turn their health care executives into effective thought leaders. You’ll also get 4 tips on how to prepare your own organization’s leaders to be effective communicators.

Read the full article here: Transform Even Reluctant Speakers Into Stars: Proven Strategies and Tactics to Use with Hospital Leaders

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Matt Humphrey
President