Thoughts on leadership by Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions’ Dr. Richard Nielsen and Jessica Egbert
When it comes to university leadership, two of the key executives of Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMUoHP) agree, an organizational culture of service is the key to success.
“My mother taught me from a young age to have a service minded attitude,” said Dr. Richard P. Nielsen, founding president and CEO of RMUoHP. “She taught me how to serve other people. Service is at the core of who I am and what my mother taught me and what I’ve learned along the way from other great people.”
“There is a difference between a leader and a servant leader,” said Nielsen.
Nielsen often thinks of U.S. President John F. Kennedy as a good example of promoting service among people. “JFK was a great example to me growing up,” he said. “I remember when he gave that talk that by the end of the decade, we will put man on the moon and return him safely back to Earth.
“And then the next sentence has always run very deep into my soul when he said it will not be the man himself who lays the first footprint on the moon, it will be the entire nation. I realized that what he was doing was servant leadership. JFK was the one who brought everybody into that vision. Everybody was excited about what we [our nation] were embarking on,” said Nielsen.
Based on JFK’s one vision more than 500 astronauts have gone to space and there are over 2,500 satellites in orbit. “I also learned from my mother to be visionary. She would say, ‘it matters not if you try and fail – what matters most is if you try and fail and fail to try again. My mother was always there trying to teach me principles of reaching down and going the second mile, serving others [and to have a vision].”
Jessica D. Egbert, Ph.D., and executive vice president of Strategy and Engagement at RMUoHP said, “I would say one of the most important aspects of leadership with RMUoHP, and where we see our success, is with the culture. Culture really starts at the top. You have to have someone who is the leader of the institution who establishes and models what the behavior should be for our culture.
“For us, we have a leader in President Nielsen who is visionary, who inspires, and who develops others and sees their potential quite often before they can even see it in themselves. There is this concept of valuing people more than anything else and that translates into healthcare and the quality of healthcare that we teach here – and the concept of evidence-based practices so our students provide people the best possible healthcare they can,” she said.
Egbert points out that establishing leadership within an organization requires a vision; a vision where everyone can hop on board and see where you’re going. “You have to inspire people with it [the vision], but you also need to invest in people. I think that’s one of the lost opportunities many organizations have, it costs something to invest in people,” she said. “And yet the quality of work you get out of people the increased skills, the loyalty, the camaraderie, and the trust you build when you invest in people really enhances the ability of the organization to deliver on its mission as well as provide a quality product or service.”
As an example of investing in people, Egbert points out her own experience with RMUoHP. “The founders of the university really helped me and supported me through my educational process through my master’s degree, my doctorate, and the things I’ve engaged in with the community. That’s expected of all employees, that we’ll participate in and monitor. We want [people] to learn, we want [people] to grow, and it takes a few hours out of the week, but we know [people] are going to be at their best when they continue to learn. That’s where the passion is. That’s where we want to keep the culture and vision.”
When responding to questions from other university presidents et al about the success of RMUoHP, Nielsen says, “[We] do simple things in great ways that has helped shape the culture [we have] at the university.” He said that is what sets RMUoHP apart from other universities.
“There is a quote from somewhere that says, ‘so is the leader, so is the culture, so is the company.’ The culture at RMUoHP is different from any culture you’ll ever find in any other university,’ said Nielsen.
“Our culture consists of collaboration with each other as well as cooperation and communication. Civility is a very important ingredient to our culture – that and kindness. We also like to have fun in our culture,” said Nielsen.
“One of the things I love about RMUoHP is that we solve problems. We have an attitude that we can do anything,” said Egbert. “I remember early on as we were just trying to exist, there were times where we’d sit around the table and have a conversation on whether we could even do this, was it possible. We would rally together and say, ‘you know what? Bring it on!’”
Regarding culture, Nielsen sums it up this way regarding the service provided by graduates, “[There are] about 8 million patients that will be seen, but not just being see, but are there effecting change in the way that these patients are treated. That’s about 30,000 patients per day being seen by our graduates. That’s what makes me so proud.”
Listen to the full RMUpload podcast episode here.
