Baylor Scott & White Health CEO Joel Allison on humility

Kelly Gooch -

Joel Allison, president and CEO of Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health, is set to step down from his leadership role early next year.

Mr. Allison joined Dallas-based Baylor Health Care System as senior executive vice president and COO in 1993, and was promoted to president and CEO in 2000. He became CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health following the 2013 merger of Baylor Health Care System and Temple, Texas-based Scott & White Healthcare.

He will soon leave his position to become senior advisor to the chairman of the Baylor Scott & White Holdings Board of Trustees, effective Feb. 1, 2017.

During a video interview with Dan Nielsen, founder and CEO of America's Healthcare Leaders, Mr. Allison reflected on how he learned to stay humble.

"My mother — a wonderful Christian — the Scripture, the Bible, my faith, taught me a lot about humility. My mother reinforced that, and she would remind us of where we came from. But she always said: 'The Scripture will tell you to walk humbly.' She'd always say: 'Pride comes before the fall.' And that just kind of kept me balanced."

As a youth, Mr. Allison developed a sermon around Andrew, a disciple of Jesus in the Bible. He recalled how the experience taught him about being humble. "A story I told as I was doing the message is two people were walking down the road — an old farmer and a young man — and they're going by a wheat field and some of the wheat stalks were all bowed over and almost on the ground, and others were standing straight up and tall. And the young man said to the farmer: 'I guess the ones that stand tallest are the best and that's why they stand tall' ... He said: 'No, the ones that have the most grain and are the best are the ones that are humbled and are standing lowly. The ones that are standing tall have very little grain and are not as important. And that kind of stuck with me, too. And it goes back to being humble, walk humbly, and it kind of stuck with me."

To view the full video interview with Mr. Allison, click here.

 

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