Live from the CHIME Fall CIO Forum: Bestselling Author Differentiates Good and Great Leadership

A record turnout of approximately 750 CIOs and other healthcare IT executives have gathered this week at the Westin Kierland Resort in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, for the CHIME Fall Forum, “CHIME13,” sponsored by the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. While dozens had already attended the CIO Boot Camp portion of the Fall Forum, the formal educational sessions began on Wednesday, Oct. 9, with an opening keynote address by Jim Collins, the noted business consultant and author of a number of bestselling books, including Good To Great, Great by Choice, and How the Mighty Fall.

Collins spent some time explaining to his audience of healthcare IT leaders how he and his team of researchers have studied leadership over the years, and what they’ve found that separates myth and common wisdom from researched knowledge. Creating a five-level schematic of leadership excellence, he noted that a huge gulf separates “effective” leaders from “great” leaders, and, he emphasized, it is “not personality.” The idea that personality is the key factor separating good and great leaders, and the idea that individual, personality-based leadership is the key factor separating good from great companies and organizations, he told his audience, is a myth. The fact is, Collins said, “good leaders can be made great,” though what separates them, according to his team’s research, is that great leaders find “passion” for “causes,” and compel people to follow not them, personally, but the commitment to those particular causes.

CHIME13 attendees will be listening to addresses by leaders from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and from a range of industry leaders, including their peers, and participating in educational track sessions and professional networking, through Friday, Oct 11.