Daryn Kumar, President and CEO of Dignity Health’s Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco, sat down with past CAHL president Michael O’Connell to discuss what it means to be an authentic leader. Listen to the full podcast on CAHL’s YouTube channel.
Daryn Kumar’s journey in healthcare and leadership was deeply influenced by his parents, both Registered Nurses. He embarked on his healthcare career as a Radiological Technologist in the United States Air Force. Over nearly a decade of active duty, he honed his skills and later transitioned into leadership roles with Tenet Health and Sutter Health. Currently, Daryn serves as the President and CEO of Dignity Health’s Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco. With over 30 years of healthcare experience, most notably in C-Suite positions, Daryn brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role. A member of ACHE since 2004, Daryn is dedicated to advancing healthcare leadership.
Moderated by Michael O’Connell. This Q&A has been condensed and edited for clarity. Listen to the full interview here.
CAHL: You bring a very interesting perspective on authentic leadership since you’ve worked in military, non-profit, and faith-based organizations. As a leader you’ve needed to pivot to be able to work in these different environments. What does an authentic leader mean for you?
Kumar: Authentic leadership is based on who you are as a person. It’s what your morals are, what you values are, what your experiences are, and utilizing the way within an organization and to connect with leaders, staff, and physicians. To be an authentic leader, to really pull on your experiences, you must help drive the organization.
CAHL: In the military, it has a very different command and control approach whereas in some of the other settings, it’s more of a shared leadership perspective. How does being an authentic leader change when you’re working in some of the different organizations you’ve worked in?
Kumar: I am not sure it necessarily changes. I think it’s how you utilize it that changes. I think it’s important to be an authentic leader and lead with your morals. One example is that I hired a person with a military background to work in a non-profit healthcare setting. People were concerned that his approach would not be a good fit. As a captain of the Navy, he had to influence and motivate 18-year-old kids who just left home to be focused around the mission and do the job that they needed to be effective. And coming into the hospital setting, he had to motivate neurosurgeons with many years of experience as well. And he came to it as an authentic leader. Authentic leadership is truly based on who you are, what your morals are, what your values are, and regardless of the organization you’re in, you’ve going to be successful if you lead with that and motivate with that.
CAHL: Share with me some of the differences you’re encountered.
Kumar: Regardless of the organization you’re in, it’s important to put the patient in the middle of every decision that you make. You have to lead with that premise.
CAHL: Can you share with me a time when your authenticity was challenged because of a difficult decision you had to make?
Kumar: Most of the challenges I’ve had around being an authentic leader are when transparency is a key issue and I couldn’t be as transparent as I wanted to be. I always want to move towards being more transparent as possible and sometimes it’s just not possible. And when I can’t I need to be able to determine what I can share and what I can’t. And if those types of circumstances become more common, then I have to decide how to address it with the team.
CAHL: How do you foster a culture of authenticity?
Kumar: I always lead with being a product of my parents who became nurses later on in life. And role modeling. And I’ve led Highly Reliable Organization (HRO) initiatives where people can be vulnerable, make mistakes, learn from them, and be successful moving forward. It helps us to talk about our values and figure out how we can work together to achieve the goals of the organization.
CAHL: Share with me how you are an authentic leader as you go through the organizational changes at St. Mary’s and St. Francis Hospitals becoming part of UCSF Health.
Kumar: (Listen to the full interview on CAHL’s YouTube channel)