CLARITY. COMPASSION. CONFIDENCE.
PETER D. BANKO
Nurturing High-Performing Teams for Relationships and Results:
Lessons about Hiring and Firing from a Seasoned CEO
As Seen in
About the author
Peter D. Banko is a seasoned CEO with over 40 years of experience in the healthcare industry. He has built a reputation for driving cultural and operational change in complex health organizations. A key aspect of his success, both financially and in terms of stakeholder satisfaction, is leadership development through effective team building. This often involves managing underperformance and making tough executive decisions, including leader termination when necessary.
Now living a distance from his micro-ranch, where he raised heritage breed Belted Galloway, Peter is fueling his creativity with spray paint art, inspired by the expressions on the Berlin Wall. Additionally, Peter enjoys mentoring young healthcare executives from his alma maters, focusing on leadership development and managing relationships and results, while also returning to teach at Cornell and Notre Dame.
Leadership Lessons
Leadership grounded in humility, relationships, and self-awareness
Leadership grounded in humility, relationships, and self-awareness
Leadership grounded in humility, relationships, and self-awareness
Leadership is not a quest for power; it requires a healthy balance of ego and graciousness, grounded in relationships.
Operational discipline and simplifying decision-making
Leadership grounded in humility, relationships, and self-awareness
Leadership grounded in humility, relationships, and self-awareness
Discipline yourself to remove bureaucratic barriers and simplify decision-making across the board to eliminate the friction that slows meaningful progress.
Access, community- oriented care, and sustainable growth
Leadership grounded in humility, relationships, and self-awareness
Access, community- oriented care, and sustainable growth
Make mission and core values a cornerstone in everything you say and do. Be in service to others. Ensure a balanced approach to community need, engagement, quality and safety, growth, and the bottom line.
Enduring System & Communities
Enduring System & Communities
Access, community- oriented care, and sustainable growth
True stewardship reaches beyond organizational infrastructure to community impact. Only high-performing teams can sustainably execute strategic and operational imperatives well, and with far-reaching effects.
Empathetic Leadership
Enduring System & Communities
Clarity and Compassion
Especially when faced with organizational challenges such as financial turnarounds, leading with authenticity and empathy fosters greater trust and resilience.
Clarity and Compassion
Enduring System & Communities
Clarity and Compassion
In the words of Brene Brown, "Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind." Practice kindness. Be patient. Compassion is not passive. It requires action.
Your team will appreciate clarity and compassion with confidence. You will sleep easier at night.
FORBES BLOGS
The High Price Of Underperforming Employees: Have The Conversation
Organizations are simply a collection of people. People drive results, so organizational issues are people issues. If only one cog is performing inconsistently with expectations, they drag down the entire team. They drag down the operating unit. They can drag down the whole organization. If they report to you, they will drag you down with them.
What Do You Do When You Can’t Terminate A Problem Employee?
You can’t always get what you want, not even when you’re justified in terminating someone on your team. Maybe they have connections to your board members. Maybe you’re new to your position and can’t eliminate the entire department because you need people to do the work.
The No. 1 Thing A Leader Must Learn: It’s Not A Popularity Contest
The truth is, you’ve got a business to run, more than a country club to support. You always need to be able to step away from a relationship if it’s best for the organization. Will these decisions make you unpopular?
What Sets Successful CEOs Apart From The Average
If you want to be a great CEO, not to mention if you want to survive and thrive as one, you have to execute. Maybe (just maybe) all this has something to do with people, teams, culture, and changing out (or not) team members. Ultimately, decisions—including tough decisions—are going to be an important part of what makes you a great CEO, so that you can keep that bus on the road.
media
Gridiron and Growth
Gridiron and Growth
Gridiron and Growth
Co-hosts Ryan Harris and Bennie Fowler sit down with Peter Banko, the CEO of Baystate Health. Peter shares his journey as a CEO and the lessons learned along the way as a titan in the healthcare industry. He opens up about leadership development, the importance of executive decision making, and managing underperformance while building successful teams. Peter emphasizes the significance of staying on top of details, being consumer-friendly, and fostering a culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. Throughout the conversation, Peter shares personal anecdotes and experiences that have shaped his leadership style, including the impact of having a supportive family and the value of self-awareness. Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to be an effective CEO and how to navigate the challenges that come with leading a large organization.
Cedar Group
Gridiron and Growth
Gridiron and Growth
Peter discusses the driving forces that win consumer loyalty in healthcare and honestly reflects on the biggest challenges in the system he just joined.
THINK ND
Gridiron and Growth
Massachusetts Hospital Association
The latest installment of Where We’re Going will invite Notre Dame faculty and global experts to focus on healthcare and timely issues like public health and healthcare technology. Participants will be invited to join three weekly events to hear from faculty and industry practitioners and participate in discussions to enhance their understanding of the topics. Featured Speakers:
- Peter D. Banko, President & Chief Executive Officer, Centura Health
- Jane Lee, Assistant Professor, University of Washington
- Dr. Bernard Nahlen, Director, Eck Institute for Global Health, University of Notre Dame
Massachusetts Hospital Association
Massachusetts Hospital Association
Watch the one-on-one conversation with Baystate Health's Peter Banko as he discusses his career journey, insights on executive decision making during employee termination processes, his first six months with the system, and his vision for leadership development and managing underperformance in the future of healthcare.
HR Executive
HR Executive
Peter Banko, longtime health system CEO and author of The Necessary Goodbye: How Great Leaders Fire with Clarity, Confidence, and Compassion, says that as AI influences workforce planning across industries, leaders are going to continue to be faced with “recalibrating their workforce and operating models.” Unfortunately, he says, there is “no graceful way to embark on such a change at this scale that impacts so many individuals and their families,” yet leadership needs to be intentional about how the news is delivered because everyone, particularly remaining employees, is watching.
“How you do it, what you do with it and what you say matter,” Banko says