AdventHealth structures its leadership development around a three-part framework: lead self, lead others, lead results. AdventHealth’s Audrey Gregory said the order isn’t incidental — it’s the whole argument.
Most health systems build development programs aimed at the third stage and wonder why results don’t hold. The first two steps often get compressed or omitted entirely.
“A lot of programs skip to the third piece, to the results, and sometimes wonder why there’s fragmentation or it doesn’t stick,” said Dr. Gregory, senior executive vice president and CEO of the multi-division delivery network at Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth. “It is because we haven’t worked through the lead self first. So do the work on yourself first.”
The sequence is deliberate. Self-awareness — understanding what drives you, where your blind spots are and how you show up for others — comes before you can lead anyone else effectively. Leading others well is what produces results that last.
“Philosophically, as an organization, we believe that you have to be able to lead yourself in order to lead others well, and it is through those others that you’re able to get those sustainable results,” Dr. Gregory said during a Becker’s Healthcare Podcast interview.
Dr. Gregory oversees AdventHealth’s presence across eight states outside of Florida, along with the system’s primary health division, post-acute assets and ambulatory surgery platform. She is close to the organizational pressure points where leadership gaps show up most visibly — regional systems, smaller markets and clinical leadership transitions where the bench either holds or it doesn’t.
The infrastructure AdventHealth has built around this philosophy is its leadership institute, designed as a continuum rather than a series of disconnected programs. It begins with college interns and residency tracks at the early-career stage and runs through an executive leadership program and a track specifically built for new CEOs. Clinical leaders — chief medical officers and physician leaders — have their own dedicated pathways. The aim is not to produce graduates but to build a supply of leaders who are ready before the vacancy exists.
“It’s the recognition that everyone is ready to grow,” Dr. Gregory said. “It’s not necessarily going to be at the same pace or in the same way.”
One commitment the system makes explicit to team members is what Dr. Gregory called a lighted career path — the expectation that where you can go from where you are is visible and intentional. The investment begins earlier than most organizations would consider practical, with leaders identified and developed well ahead of the moment when the organization would formally need them, and often before the individual feels ready for the responsibility.
“The leadership institute identifies and develops leadership capacity earlier so people may be stepping into bigger roles earlier,” she said. “They’re learning to lead. They’re learning jobs, and what I love about the leadership institute is that the programs are designed around the continuum.”
The principle Dr. Gregory shares most often with leaders struggling with that readiness gap is a familiar mantra: “You are enough.”
“It doesn’t mean that you don’t need to continue to learn. It doesn’t mean that you don’t need to continue to develop core competencies and continue to develop skills,” she said. “But it’s the understanding that foundationally you’re absolutely enough.”
Leaders who don’t believe they belong in a room don’t ask the questions or take the risks that build capability over time. That’s what she’s trying to dispel as she supports emerging leaders and helps them build confidence.
“When someone treats your voice as valuable, you start to use your voice more intentionally,” she said.
The program design only works inside the right cultural container. Without shared language and expectations, leadership development becomes a parallel initiative that sits beside the culture rather than flowing from it. Then the organization stops chasing leaders and starts producing them.
“When our people feel seen, when they feel valued, when they feel heard, and when they feel developed, and therefore they have the ability to be called into a bigger role, I think at that juncture, you will see that the pipeline takes care of itself,” she said.
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