Ignite Success showcases leaders who are going the extra mile each and every day. Ignite Success hosts interview team leads and the people they impact, exploring what motivates, engages and fulfills individuals and teams to be more productive, more effective, better at what they do, and happier to do it. See what’s really Igniting Success today. Today our host, Morgan Allen, spoke with Rob Deininger.
Rob Deininger
CEO of AdventHealth East Florida Division
Website Address: https://www.adventhealth.com/
Short company description:
At AdventHealth, our mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ reaches well beyond our facilities. As one of the largest faith-based health care systems in the United States, we’re deeply rooted in the communities we call home, and we never stop striving to make them healthier places to live.
With more than 50 hospitals, thousands of facilities and 100,000 team members, we’re a nationwide connected network of whole-person health care.
From the mountains of Northwest Georgia to Chicago’s western suburbs to the front range of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains to Florida’s coasts and many places in between, we’re committed to caring for the unique needs of every community we serve.
About the CEO:
Rob Deininger oversees the strategic direction, development and execution of key strategies that support the total network of care and help build influential relationships with key constituents, community partners and consumers. He also serves as the primary executive for the East Florida Division’s partnership with HealthFirst in Brevard County.
After 13 years as a commercial airline pilot, Deininger joined AdventHealth in 2008. Throughout his time with the organization, he has served in progressive leadership roles, including president and CEO of AdventHealth Fish Memorial. During his time there, Deininger helped to grow and expand services through a new hospital-based, offsite emergency room and a 140,000-square-foot expansion of the hospital campus, which opened in April 2021.
He has also previously served as vice president of operations for AdventHealth Orlando and vice president of research operations. Notably, Deininger served as system incident commander for AdventHealth’s pandemic response team. Most recently, he served as market CEO for the AdventHealth Central Florida Division’s quaternary hub, comprised of AdventHealth Orlando, AdventHealth Winter Park, AdventHealth for Women and AdventHealth for Children.
Episode Transcript:
Morgan Allen:
Welcome back to another episode of Ignite Success, where we highlight those who are igniting success and making an impact.
I’m Morgan Allen, joined today by Rob Deininger here with AdventHealth. Rob, thank you for being here.
Rob Deininger:
It’s great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Morgan Allen:
AdventHealth is a huge organization. Tell me about your affiliation with the organization.
Rob Deininger:
Yeah. We have a large, faith-based, not-for-profit healthcare system. We’re headquartered in Altamonte Springs, just outside of Orlando, and we have 35 hospitals in the state of Florida, 55 across the country in eight other states. But our largest presence is here in the state of Florida.
I have the privilege of leading what we call the East Florida Division, which is made up of all of our assets in Lake, Sumter, Marion, Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns, Clay, and Duval Counties. Basically, all of our counties on the east part of Florida.
Morgan Allen:
Wow, that’s a lot to cover.
Rob Deininger:
So I have an amazing team. That is the most beneficial part. You know, you’ve got to have a team to support you.
Morgan Allen:
Let’s talk a little bit about leadership because leadership is one of the biggest ways that success can happen. What does it look like to lead such a large organization and have so many different… fingers in everything?
Rob Deininger:
It really does start with the team that I have. I have an amazing team that I get to work with at the division level, and then we have really talented teams that work at each one of our hospitals and physician practice locations.
It starts with us spending a lot of time building our culture and defining what we want from our leaders. We believe we have a culture that’s different. We take a mind, body, spirit approach to healthcare, and we take an intentional approach to leadership that follows that.
We actually use three principles: lead self, lead others, and lead results. That’s what we teach each of our leaders. We think it really starts with them as human beings. If you don’t lead yourself first, it’s pretty hard to lead anybody else and take care of them. And if you can’t do those two, you’ll have bad results.
Morgan Allen:
It’s like the saying, you’ve got to put on your own oxygen mask first before you’re there to help others.
So when it comes to leadership and success, what is one of the biggest things you would tell your staff they need to do every single day before they come into work?
Rob Deininger:
I think before they come to work, they need to make sure they’re bringing their best selves to work.
Our patients show up in every one of our care facilities, and most of them are not having their best day. Most of healthcare is not a choice. It’s a need.
If our teams remember that as they come in and ask themselves, “How do I put myself in the frame of mind that I’m here to help people today? I’m here to be a servant. I’m here to help,” it changes the way you think about approaching your day.
We’re in the people business. We’re in the service industry in healthcare. Even though it’s hard work, it’s important work. It’s difficult work. It has high-stakes outcomes.
At the end of the day, it starts with asking: Can you bring compassion? Can you bring patience? Can you recognize that the people you interact with are having maybe their once-in-a-lifetime moment where they need healthcare, while for you it’s your everyday moment? How do you not let your everyday become something that doesn’t carry that same impact and compassion?
Morgan Allen:
Yeah.
So you have quarterly leadership meetings with everybody. Tell me a little bit about those.
Rob Deininger:
Yeah. We do a tiered system of leadership meetings.
One of the things I get to do that’s really fun is something called Leadership Unplugged. Every quarter, I get on with 1,500 of my supervisors and above in the East Division, and we have a 30-minute unscripted conversation.
I start with a couple of topics or a couple of questions, and then we spend the balance of the time just having a discussion. It could be about one of our service standards. It could be about a patient’s story that I shared with them and the impact that could come from that.
The goal is that it flattens the organization. It helps them understand who I am, what’s important to me, and what’s important to our organization as we take care of our patients.
We also do town halls at each of our facilities. These are very informal town halls. We have the C-suite teams from our hospitals lead those, and typically 65 to 70 percent of our team members at a facility will attend.
Again, it’s an important part of perpetuating our culture. As the division executive, one of my most important jobs is being a steward of the culture of the organization. That starts at the top, but then it has to play out through every level of leadership.
Morgan Allen:
Yeah. What does that look like? How do you form culture?
Rob Deininger:
Corporate culture is formed over time.
One of the things you appreciate is that you can spot a good culture and you can spot a bad culture. A bad culture can develop overnight. A great culture takes years to develop.
One of the important things as a leader is to remember that the culture you’ve inherited started before you. In the case of AdventHealth, I think we have a great culture.
So what are the key elements of that great culture that I have to make sure I don’t screw up? How am I perpetuating that?
We know for our organization it’s things like transparency, trust, compassionate leadership, and accountability. But there’s also a recognition that we show up as human beings in the workplace.
We say things like, “I care for you like my family.” I wear a heart badge that says, “I care for you like…” and it has my wife’s name on it. It’s designed to be that visible expression that we do things for other people.
There’s an impact to that that’s so special.
Morgan Allen:
So you have to be that person who cares the most from the top down so everyone feels it, and it really makes a difference in the workplace.
I have one last question for you, and this is the toughest question I ask.
Bring it.
How do you define success?
Rob Deininger:
I define personal success by feeling like, at the end of every day, I know that I made a difference in the life of someone in one of our hospitals.
That may seem odd because I’m not a clinician. I don’t even show up to an office that’s actually on a hospital campus.
But every day I look for opportunities to ask, “Where did the decision I made, or something I was involved in, make a difference in St. Augustine? A difference in Palm Coast? A difference in DeLand for the patients who live in those communities?”
Sometimes I’m lucky enough to get a letter that reaffirms that.
But for me, that’s success every day.
Morgan Allen:
Yeah. Well, I can see you really do care, and you are making an impact. Thank you for everything you’re doing with AdventHealth. It’s a pleasure to meet you.
Rob Deininger:
Well, thank you so much for having me here today. It’s been fun talking about leadership.
Morgan Allen:
Absolutely.
And viewers, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Ignite Success. If you’d like more information, head over to the Daily News Network. We have Rob’s profile and many others there.
We’ll see you in the next episode of Ignite Success.
