Research: Understanding Formal Mentorship for Emerging Administrative Leaders in Health Care

The following research is the result of former CAHL member Matthew Fry’s interviews and work with our CAHL membership as part of his doctoral dissertation study on mentorship.

By Matthew Fry

In 2023, I earned my Doctor of Health Administration from the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Attending that program while growing my family, commuting a long distance each day to and from work, and working really long hours was a major challenge. I learned a tremendous amount about the healthcare industry and myself as a leader through this program, however the sacrifices required were rather steep. All that being said, it was an incredible experience that I am eternally grateful for. 

As with most doctoral programs, I was required to complete a doctoral project as a capstone exercise. The doctoral project, similar to a dissertation, is a comprehensive research study that focuses on a topic in healthcare that is both germane to the program content and of particular interest of the doctoral candidate. For my doctoral project, I decided that I wanted to conduct a study that was near and dear to my heart, mentorship. I have been the recipient of mentorship throughout my career and I have benefited immensely as a result. I have had some highly effective mentors and I have had some fairly toxic mentors. Through each mentorship engagement, I have tried to learn something about myself, my leadership style, my approach toward my career, and/or my approach toward leading others. I have also served as a mentor for several people over the course of my career. I have had highly engaged and thoughtful mentees and I have had aloof and noncommittal mentees. Again, through each of these experiences, I try and always learn something about myself and the world around me. To be clear, I am still actively engaged in mentorship engagements, both as a mentee and a mentor, and I feel as passionate about mentorship today as I did at the beginning of my career when I experienced my first mentorship engagement. 

Study Purpose and Structure

My dissertation research was a single-phase qualitative study titled Understanding Formal Mentorship for Emerging Administrative Leaders in Health Care. The purpose of this study was to determine current perceptions of formal mentorship programs from the emerging leader and established leader perspectives. Additionally, this study aimed to better understand the extent that formal, structured mentorship programs for emerging administrative leaders are being utilized in health care organizations today. To gather the qualitative data for this study, I conducted 19 interviews with emerging and established health care leaders. The research participants were all current members of the California Association of Healthcare Leaders (CAHL), one of the largest chapters of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). All participant interviews were conducted face-to-face through the virtual meeting platform Zoom. I used an interview guide to facilitate the interviews and to ensure data integrity and consistency. The interview guide was structured to explore the interview participants’ perceptions of the value of formal mentorship, their personal experiences with formal mentorship programs, their likelihood to engage in formal mentorship, and any career growth they have experienced that they attribute to formal mentorship. Additionally, I attempted to understand which characteristics participants would recommend incorporating into a formal mentorship program if they had the ability to design an ideal program. I found the interview results to be both enlightening and informative. 

To establish the basis criteria for this study, I needed to define “emerging” and “established” leader definitions. For this purposes of this study, an emerging leader was defined as someone with 0-10 years of experience in their field, some degree of leadership responsibility, and a desire to attain higher levels of leadership in their career. Conversely, for the purposes of this study, an established leader was defined as someone with more than 10 years of experience, a mid to senior-level leadership position, and organizational influence over policy, strategy, or both. Of the 19 interview participants in this study, 9 were identified as emerging leaders (47.37%) and 10 were identified as established leaders (52.63%). It is also important to note that I deidentified each participant to provide anonymity and confidentiality. For reference, I have included the participant grouping and their associated participant identifier below (see Table 1) and a breakdown of the participant type as a percent of the sample population (see Figure 1).

Table 1
Participant Grouping: Emerging and Established Leader

Figure 1
Emerging and Established Leader Designation as a Percent of Total Sample Population

I was also interested in understanding the perspectives of leaders with varied years of experience in the health care field. The years of experience for the 19 participants ranged from six to forty-one years. For the purposes of this study, participants with 10 or fewer years of experience in the field were automatically classified as emerging leaders (see Table 2 and Figure 2). 

Table 2
Participant Years of Experience in Health Care Field

Figure 2
Participant Years of Experience in Health Care Field

The participants in this study held a wide range of positions within their respective organizations. Participant job titles ranged from entry-level positions such as Data Analyst II to senior-level positions such as President and Chief Executive Officer. To be considered an established leader, the participant must currently possess a mid- to senior-level leadership position. The number of years in these positions was not measured as part of this study (see Table 4). 

Table 3
Participant Job Titles

The sample population for this study was almost evenly split between male and female participants, 52.63% and 47.37% respectively. All gender demographic data were provided by the research participants and were not assumed by the investigator. Further analysis of the participants by gender shows that of the nine participants that identify as female, 55.56% were categorized as emerging leaders (26% of the total sample population) and 44.45% were categorized as established leaders (21% of the total sample population). Similarly, of the 10 participants that identify as male, 40% were categorized as emerging leaders (21% of the total sample population) and 60% were categorized as established leaders (32% of the total sample population) (see Figure 3).

Figure 3
Gender and Leader Designation as a Percentage of the Total Sample Population

Study Findings

Through this investigation, I found that the emerging leaders and the established leaders had consistent attitudes toward mentorship in every regard. This finding was unexpected, as the I anticipated varying perceptions of mentorship among the two leader types. Interestingly, this attitudinal consistency was present throughout all interviews. For this reason, the themes are not delineated by the leader group, rather the themes are presented as uniform amongst the sample population. The four primary themes identified in the data are: 

• Theme 1: Mentorship Promotes Growth and Development Opportunities for the Mentor, Protégé, and the Organization
• Theme 2: Organizational Culture is Important for Establishing Effective Mentorship Programs
• Theme 3: Relationships Matter
• Theme 4: Customizing Mentorship Programs to Meet the Needs of the Protégé is Critical to Success

Theme 1: Mentorship Provides Growth and Development Opportunities for the Mentor, Protégé, and the Organization

The interview participants almost unanimously felt that mentorship provides an opportunity for growth and development for the mentor, the protégé, and the organization in which the mentorship program is being conducted. One of the participants (Participant E) did not feel that formal mentorship programs were beneficial for entry-level leaders because they don’t possess the authority or autonomy to practice the lessons they learn from their mentor. With the exception of Participant E, all other participants felt that formal mentorship programs provided benefit to the mentor, the protégé, and the organization. Several of the respondents provided personal examples of how this benefit was manifested through their mentorship engagements. 

“Mentorship really allows me to help others grow and give back in their own way…it is a way for me to contribute to someone’s success and outcome in life.” (Participant B)

“Even though an established leader has years of experience, they can still continue to develop in their field…mentorship really does provide that different lens for growth.” (Participant D)

“They have the experience and insights that can be useful for someone who is younger or earlier in their career. I feel like it offers tremendous value. Especially for people who come from underrepresented backgrounds and don’t come from heavily educated families.” (Participant E)

“I can’t stress how much I think that can benefit emerging leaders. I think it’s critical. And this in turn benefits the organization because the leader bench strength is magnified, and these things carry forward.” (Participant G)

The growth and development opportunities that mentorship yields are a byproduct of transparent feedback, trust, engagement, and a supportive culture. One of the key attributes of a successful mentorship program is establishing an environment for the free exchange of ideas, challenges, questions, and successes. The growth of mentors and protégés relies on the ability to be vulnerable and honest with one another. 

“My experience has been that mentoring provides a safe space to share challenges and concerns about one’s current role. And, even established leaders have potential career aspiration moves that they would like to make. And so, there are, again, things to learn both about career journey and leadership. It’s difficult sometimes to discuss challenging issues with peers who have a vested stake in the outcome. And so, mentorship can provide that neutral party who can be a thought partner to emerging or established leaders as they take on the challenges in their jobs.” (Participant N)

Organizational growth results as mentors and protégés establish their leadership competencies and begin to proliferate these learnings through their actions in the workplace. These participant perspectives are consistent with findings from Blake-Beard et al. (2021) and Glassman (2020). 

Theme 2: Organizational Culture is Important for Establishing Effective Mentorship Programs

Organizational commitment to formal mentorship programs is essential to the success of the program. Participants felt that organizations demonstrate commitment in varying ways, however the crux of the matter is that organizations must invest in the formal mentorship program in a material way, either through time allocation, senior leadership engagement, or financially.

“How do they demonstrate? I guess when managers let their direct reports know that there is time allocated towards professional development and ensuring professional development is building those relationships through a mentorship type of arrangement. I even do have it within my development goals within my team, to have some time allocated, throughout the quarter to speak to people more seasoned in my branch to learn their skills so they can further level up…” (Participant L)

“Our organization does not [have a formal mentorship program] at the moment, they only do it in the nursing space, which is because we’re a magnet organization. So just in this last year, something that I’ve done is utilize the ACHE mentorship guides, the CAHL one and the larger ACHE one, and sort of started developing something for all the other disciplines that are in the organization aside from nursing. So, we started a pilot in one of my areas to see how that would work, and then we’re going to present it to our executive leadership team next year.” (Participant Q)

“The Cleveland Clinic that I worked in had an extensive leadership development program where I served as a mentor for five individuals that went through a formal program where I served as their mentor for a leadership development program that they were going through. That was comprised of me as well as maybe 30 other individuals that were doing the same thing. Recognizing that building relationships builds trust, respect, bandwidth, skill sets, so that we can collectively all work together to accomplish the goals and objectives of the organization.” (Participant M)

“At Sutter Health, we are working with a number of operations executives to develop a formal mentorship program really aimed at pairing emerging leaders with senior leaders to help them grow and build talent in the organization. But there is more we can do so this is just the very beginning, and I think I am glad the organization has recognized this as a priority.” (Participant A)

Resoundingly, interview participants felt that a fundamental component of establishing the organizational culture to foster a successful formal mentorship program required the investment into resources to ensure that mentors and protégés were prepared to take full advantage of their mentorship engagement. 

“My organization is very concerned with ensuring our leaders have the tools to be successful in their roles. At the leadership level, when somebody new comes in, the organization…finds another leader through various means figuring out who’s available and who would be a good match… And then it’s a one-year program that you’re assigned to. And then in addition, some leaders are provided an executive mentor as well… So, everyone’s kind of connected into somebody when they get here, or if they’re emerging leader in the organization, they may be assigned to a senior leader. It’s a five-year rotation. So, every year, I’d be assigned to another senior leader and then go through the team over multiple years…on the second half of the six months we have a coaching session for executive presence…” (Participant K)

“Making it a regular part of growth conversations and encouraging managers and directors or VPs or whomever, that mentorship is a key piece to get to that next role or to progress or develop or to learn a new skill. And I think that if organizations signal that and give leaders the resources to have that conversation, and by having a program in place, that makes that much easier.” (Participant A)

To establish a culture conducive to establishing sustained formal mentorship programs, senior leaders need to embrace and even participate in the organization’s mentorship programs.

“In the Administrative Fellowship program, emerging leaders are paired with senior leaders to provide sustained mentorship through a one-year, highly structured program. And they’re paired with preceptors who are typically CEOs at hospitals. So that is one of the mentorship programs where a very, very young emerging leader is paired with a senior leader within Sutter Health.” (Participant H)

“I had a mentor once that was a CEO and he took a very involved approach with me. One day he said, hey, do you want to interview with my senior leadership team? That was a nice part of it, to get to meet a senior leadership team and explore what they are looking for in a team member.” (Participant K)

Theme 3: Relationships Matter

Relationships are important for building leadership strength, establishing organizational loyalty, and enhancing employee experience. The research participants felt that relationships were primarily driven through the willingness of mentors to engage in the mentor-protégé relationship, the trust established between mentors and protégés, and the connection mentors and protégés felt toward each other. This in turn established strong connections to the organization. These observations are consistent with research conducted by Hawkins & Fontenot (2010) and Inzer & Crawford (2005).

“I enjoy sharing with them how I arrived at my current role through my path…I want to help them find out what fills their cup every day and help them get closer to discovering what fulfills them.” (Participant A)

“I am forever indebted to my mentors. They recognized my skills and talent more than I did and gave me the courage to pursue my true calling, my passion. I still reach out to those same mentors today when I run into issues or just need some encouragement. I will maintain those relationships forever.” (Participant D)

“Some of the things that made such a difference for me is just, you know, her willingness to be really open and transparent with feedback. She would talk to me about where she thought my strengths and weaknesses were. She was just really honest. She was willing to talk about all of those things and be really transparent about, you know, where her successes and failures were too…it’s so important to keep those relationships.” (Participant G)

“…we had a better connection because we had a lot of similarities…I just really appreciated that honesty and that willingness to serve…I understand that executives are busy and he must have missed birthdays, baseball games and dates to spend time mentoring me. I will never forget that sacrifice and I will always try and maintain that relationship.” (Participant E)

Interview participants felt that personal connection and organizational commitment are interrelated to positive relationships that are formed through mentorship programs. This observation is consistent with research conducted by Barrett et al. (2017) and Eller et al. (2014) and supported through the personal experiences of both the emerging and the established leaders that participated in this study.

Theme 4: Customizing Mentorship Programs to Meet the Needs of the Protégé is Critical to Success

Not every protégé will have the same needs and not every mentor will have the same style. Additionally, mentor and protégé professional and personal commitments might hinder the time they can allocate to a mentorship engagement. For these reasons, the ability to customize the mentor-protégé engagement is important. Montgomery (2017) determined that providing the elements of a structured, formal mentorship should not inhibit the mentor or the protégé to customize the program to fit their needs, assuming they don’t negate any of the fundamental structural components of the program. Similarly, the interview participants felt that customizing the mentorship program to fit the needs of both the mentor and the protégé would allow for a more effective and natural engagement.

“Because I think sometimes people, especially when they’re a mentee, ask for a mentor because they’re seeking development, they’re seeking experience and knowledge, but sometimes they don’t always know exactly what they want. So being able to kind of have this menu of things that they could choose from, depending on where they want to go and what they feel like they need to do and what they’re interested in, I think would be ideal because then it’s their built-in for them, easy to access, but it also lets them kind of, them and their mentor kind of develop this customized plan.” (Participant G)

“I think just making it widely available, having some structure to it, mining the organization for those who truly do want to be mentors or are going to be willing to be mentors and mentees and just making it very widely available and publicly known so that, you know, so that it’s easy for people who do want to raise their hand on both sides of the mentor-mentee relationship. You provide the structure and the tools, and you let them define the relationship.” (Participant I)

“The ideal mentorship experience would be where you have set objectives and you are able to meet those objectives during the time that you are engaged with the mentee. And the engagement has to be bidirectional. And that’s very, very important and more on the mentee side because the mentor can only give you so much. So that to me is like a perfect scenario or experience for a mentorship session. There has to be fulfillment of objectives that you meet, the objectives that you actually sit down and discuss and decide on. How they solve those issues should be up to them to define.” (Participant O)

“It should be very natural and self-directed by the mentor and mentee. First just in person, walk and talk and being in a non-workspace environment. Let’s say a café or in a place where, in a park where people are surrounded with nature, but you have no connection with them and so on, where the freedom of thinking or the transparency is much more.” (Participant S)

“Understanding and connecting with a person’s individual opportunities. Form coaching and development catered to the individual. Getting and giving feedback, tangible things to work on. It would be wonderful to identify areas for growth and opportunity within your own life and career.  It would be wonderful to design a program to address those specific items.” (Participant B)

Question 1: What Perceptions do Emerging Leaders Have of Formal Mentorship Programs for Emerging Administrative Leaders in Health Care Organizations?

Consistent with Theme 1, Mentorship Provides Growth and Development Opportunities for the Mentor, Protégé, and the Organization, the data from this research suggests that emerging leaders overwhelmingly have a positive attitude toward mentorship programs for emerging administrative leaders in health care. Many emerging leader participants mentioned that their organizations currently had formal mentorship programs for nursing teams but lacked the same commitment or investment for non-nursing teams in their organizations. Emerging leader participants felt that senior leaders tend to express support for formal mentorship programs for non-clinical emerging leaders but seldomly reinforce that strategy with the necessary resources to establish and support sustainable mentorship programs for administrative leaders. Nearly every emerging leader participant felt that formal mentorships garner significant benefit for all parties involved. This presents an opportunity for enhancing the commitment toward mentorship in those organizations that currently lack investment in this area. 

The lack of investment by health care organizations in administrative mentorship programs is multifaceted and complex. McAlearney (2006) conducted a robust qualitative study with 35 expert interviews and 55 organizational case studies across several health care organizations. The data suggested that health care industry leaders were most acutely concerned with leadership development, but the majority had unfavorable perceptions of formal mentor or leadership development programs. The researcher concluded that the relative newness of leadership development and formal mentorship programs in health care organizations led to the perception by health care leaders that these programs were substandard and yielded little value. Around that same time, Gentry et al. (2008) conducted a quantitative study of 30,365 managers in 4000 different companies across 33 countries. The researchers found that mentors engaged in mentorship relationships had greater job performance relative to non-mentors and that mentors that had more experience serving in mentor relationships were perceived to be more effective leaders by their subordinates. Additionally, the researchers determined that cultures with greater performance orientation placed increased importance on training, development, and career growth. 

Similarly, Ghosh and Reio (2013) performed a comprehensive literature search of ProQuest, PsycINFO, and ABI/INFORM databases using several mentor-related keywords with the research objective of identifying studies and dissertations with statistical data on mentor outcomes. The research findings indicate that mentors have a statistically significant benefit from engaging in mentorship relationships, including greater job satisfaction, reduced turnover intent, and higher job performance when compared to individuals that have not served in a mentor capacity. The researchers determined that organizational awareness of mentor benefits from formal mentorship relationships can improve organizational performance and mentor engagement.

Although the investment in administrative formal mentorship programs has been stymied by several factors, some of which cultural and others resource based, the benefits from these programs are largely supported by the literature. Additionally, the emerging leader participants in this study overwhelmingly felt that formal mentorship programs are beneficial and should be supported by health care organizations. 

Question 2: What Perceptions do Established Leaders Have of Formal Mentorship Programs for Emerging Administrative Leaders in Health Care Organizations?

Consistent with Theme 1, Mentorship Provides Growth and Development Opportunities for the Mentor, Protégé, and the Organization, the data from this research suggests that established leaders overwhelmingly have a positive attitude toward mentorship programs for emerging administrative leaders in health care. This is fully consistent with the data collected from emerging leader participants and demonstrates that both emerging and established leaders uniformly believe that formal mentorship programs for emerging administrative leaders provide value and are beneficial. Established leaders expressed longitudinal value that they have realized over decades of formal and informal mentorship. Additionally, established leaders emphasized that formal mentorship programs for emerging leaders demonstrate an organization’s commitment to developing and growing internal talent. This then results in improved organizational culture and staff retention, reducing recruitment and training expenses for the organization while building organizational resiliency.  Established leader participants felt that formal mentorships garner significant benefit for all parties involved, the mentor, protégé, and the organization. This finding is consistent across both emerging and established leader participants.  

As previously mentioned, the investment in administrative formal mentorship programs has been stymied by several factors, some of which cultural and others resource based. However, the benefits from these programs are largely supported by the literature and both emerging and established leaders uniformly feel that these programs provide value to the mentor, protégé, and organization. The significance of established leaders sharing the belief that formal mentorship programs are beneficial resides in the organizational influence they possess. With established leader support, the establishment of formal mentorship programs becomes possible.

Question 3: What Should be Considered When Developing a Mentorship Program for Emerging Administrative Leaders in Health Care?

Consistent with Theme 2, Organizational Culture is Important for Establishing Effective Mentorship Programs, Theme 3, Relationships Matter, and Theme 4, Customizing Mentorship Programs to Meet the Needs of the Protégé is Critical to Success, this research suggests that mentorship programs should be unique to the needs of the mentor and the protégé while still providing the structure of a formal mentorship program. Additionally, study participants suggested that the mentor and the protégé should be paired through a formal matching process that aligned values and motivations to increase the chances of establishing a successful relationship. Following the matching process, an effective formal mentorship program should have a defined starting point, regular check points, a defined end point, and a feedback mechanism. Finally, this research proposes that adequate investment must be made by the sponsoring organization to ensure that the mentor receives training and supporting tools, the protégé has time to dedicate to their growth and development, and the mentor and protégé will be recognized for engaging in the process.

Organizations must invest in formal mentorship programs through time, resources, and senior leadership involvement to allow the programs to be successful. One of the most pronounced hindrances to establishing effective formal mentorship programs for administrative leaders is a lack of willingness from organizations to make these programs a priority. Eby and Robertson (2020) conducted a literature review with the purpose of understanding the impact of mentorship on workplace development. The researchers explain that the effect of workplace mentorship on career growth is moderate, but they point out that the research suggests this might be a byproduct of low engagement by the mentor, protégé, or both. The researchers consider this to be a challenge in the health care sector because caregivers and administrators might not have the opportunity to spend enough time together to develop strong attachments.

Giancola et al. (2020) conducted an explanatory mixed methods study to evaluate a formal mentorship program implemented in a pediatrics department at St. Louis University. The study participants were comprised of 36 mentors and 40 protégés. Participants reported growth in all five areas of measure, and 97% of program participants stated they would recommend the mentorship program to colleagues. There were 139 focus group participants gathered from seven mentorship cohorts. The focus group participants identified six elements that made a successful mentorship program: “providing structure and resources; visibly championing mentorship; integrating mentorship into recruitment and hiring practices; providing education and professional development regarding mentorship; encouraging and recognizing mentors and mentees; and measuring, communicating, and celebrating success” (p. 6). The researchers concluded that the most effective formal mentorship programs integrate the intended outcomes into the organizational culture and openly recognize participants to encourage participation.

These studies align closely with all of the themes derived through the interview data, particularly Organizational Culture is Important for Establishing Effective Mentorship Programs, Relationships Matter, and Customizing Mentorship Programs to Meet the Needs of the Protégé is Critical to Success. 

Question 4: What Influence do Formal Mentorship Programs Have on Career Progression for Emerging Administrative Leaders in Health Care?

Consistent with Theme 1, Mentorship Provides Growth and Development Opportunities for the Mentor, Protégé, and the Organization, and Theme 3, Relationships Matter, this research suggests that formal mentorship programs allow for career advancement, critical skill development, and facilitation of sponsorship through key relationships. Many research participants explained that mentors throughout their professional careers have helped them change careers, pursue stretch opportunities, and advocate for themselves in their current roles. Additionally, they described the more impactful mentor relationships as being longitudinal, many describing relationships that have existed over several decades. Both emerging and established leader participants stated that their professional achievements would not have been possible without the aid and assistance from the mentors that have served them in their career.

Investing in formal mentorship programs extends far beyond the instant return on investment. Rather, it demonstrates an organization’s commitment to the longitudinal success of their colleagues. Interestingly, this does not need to be an altruistic endeavor for organizations. Formal mentorship programs, including leadership development programs, are likely to produce a positive return on investment that grows over time (Avolio et al., 2010). The return on development investment (RODI) is a calculation that measures the financial return realized relative to the personnel development investment over a set period of time. After conducting a comprehensive meta-analysis of 83 quantitative studies published from 1982 through 2001, Avolio et al. (2010) determined that the conservative average RODI of a 1.5-day leadership intervention for mid-level leaders was 72% and an upper-level leaders was 61% after just three months. However, the researchers contend the financial benefits of these development programs likely extend far beyond these estimates, with less conservative RODI estimates for both mid-level and upper-level leaders for a 1.5-day leadership intervention in excess of 200% after just three months. Much like compounding interest, the return on investment grows over time as other cost drivers are indirectly impacted by these investments, such as retention, improved productivity, increased engagement, and greater proficiency (Avolio et al., 2010).

Similarly, Ragins and Cotton (1999) conducted a quantitative study with 614 participants in three industries, engineering (male-dominated), social work (female-dominated), and journalism (gender-integrated), with the goal of providing a comparison of informal and formal mentorship for males and females in the United States. The researchers found that both male and female protégés in informal mentorship relationships viewed their mentors as more effective compared to protégés in formal mentor relationships. Additionally, male and female protégés realized greater career growth, higher job satisfaction, and stronger relationships with informal mentors compared to formal mentors. The researchers determined that formal mentor relationships yielded less benefit than informal mentor relationships, primarily due to poor mentor-protégé matching, lack of commitment to long-term relationship development, and misaligned mentor-protégé motivations. However, it should be noted that although informal mentorship was viewed more favorably in this study, formal mentorship was still considered positive and beneficial, just less so than informal mentorship.

Conclusion

Although the literature is mixed on the direct impact of formal mentorship on wage earnings or career progression, participants from this study had an overwhelmingly positive attitude toward the influence of formal mentorship on their career progression. Consistent with the literature, this study found that those that have engaged in formal mentorship tend to have a positive attitude toward formal mentorship. Further, those that have engaged in mentorship, formal or informal, tend to attribute at least some of their success to those mentorship relationships. Additionally, formal mentorship programs provide growth and development opportunities for mentors, protégés, and sponsoring organizations. Finally, formal mentorship programs for administrative leadership roles are inconsistent and sparse suggesting that health care organizations still do not see the imperative to invest in establishing these programs.

Formal mentorship programs allow for mentors and protégés to establish transparent, open, and honest relationships, fostering a healthy culture and leadership development. This then enhances growth in human equity within the sponsoring organization, producing increased productivity, loyalty, engagement, and job satisfaction. To remain viable and accessible, mentorship programs need to be flexible and adaptable to fit the needs of the mentor and the protégé. Similarly, to establish sustainable formal mentorship programs organizations must invest through financial support, time allocation, and senior leadership engagement.  

Matthew Fry, DHA, MHA, MBA, FACHE, is incoming President and CEO of Freeman Health System based in Joplin, Missouri. Previous to this role, Fry served as a Market President and CEO for the Central Illinois Market and President and CEO of St. John’s Hospital and St. John’s Children’s Hospital for Hospital Sisters Health System based in Springfield, Illinois. Prior to that, Fry spent nearly a decade in various executive roles with Sutter Health in Northern California. Fry holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Nevada, Reno, a Master of Healthcare Administration from the Louisiana State University, Shreveport, and a Doctor of Health Administration from the University of Mississippi. Fry holds a Green Belt and a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma from San Diego State University and he is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Fry has participated in numerous formal and informal mentorship programs through ACHE and other organizations, and he has designed and implemented several mentorship programs in health systems across the country. Fry and his wife Amanda share four beautiful children and they enjoy spending time outdoors, traveling to new places, and eating at new restaurants.