As health systems advance AI, expand digital capabilities and rethink care delivery models, a critical question remains: Are leaders prepared to operate differently?
That question led Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic to overhaul its leadership competency model, a multiyear effort that began in 2022 and culminated in board approval in 2024 of a new framework designed to support leaders navigating a healthcare environment increasingly shaped by technology, data and cross-functional collaboration. The work was driven in part by what Mayo calls “platform thinking,” or moving from traditional, siloed healthcare to a more connected, AI-enabled model of care.
“The idea was that we need to move from a more linear model — taking patients one by one — to a more platform-based model where we are connecting data, knowledge, resources and care systems for patients,” Karen Mellum, PhD, Mayo Clinic’s administrator for leader assessment and development and lead author of a February study published in BMJ Leader, told Becker’s.
“That really led to asking our doctors and nurses to be thinking and doing things differently than they have been in the past in medicine,” she said. “It would mean involvement outside our doors more intentionally, in technology, in innovation, in big data and even in business acumen.”
Why Mayo rebuilt its leadership model
The effort began when Mayo Clinic CEO Gianrico Farrugia, MD, asked leaders to rethink the organization’s leadership model in 2022.
Mayo’s mission and values were not changing, Dr. Mellum said. The question was how leaders would deliver on them in a rapidly evolving healthcare environment.
“It was really the how,” she said. “How would we deliver on that, and that meant rethinking how we prepared our leaders.”
To build the new framework, Mayo reviewed healthcare leadership literature, conducted interviews and focus groups with physician, nursing and administrative leaders, and evaluated which elements of its existing leadership model should remain. The organization ultimately surveyed leaders across Mayo to determine which competencies were most important for leadership success and which most differentiated high performers.
The result was a framework known as LLIFE: Leads self, Leads others, Inspires others, Forward thinking and Engages others. Twenty-three behaviors sit beneath those five competencies.
Two findings that stood out
Dr. Mellum said two findings from the process surprised the team. The first was critical thinking.
“Critical thinking was a newer one that emerged as we went through this process, and I think it’s very timely for where we are with all the information people are consuming, the decisions they are making, the algorithms that are being decided on and the data feeding into those,” she said.
The second was trust. Trust was part of Mayo’s previous leadership model, but Dr. Mellum said it emerged as one of the strongest differentiators of leadership performance during the validation process.
“I would say it’s even more relevant today, given the world we are in,” she added.
Where Mayo found gaps
One area where Mayo identified an opportunity was “forward thinking,” a competency that includes strategic thinking, transformation, entrepreneurial mindset and critical thinking.
Dr. Mellum said the organization had fewer existing programs and resources in that area than it did for other leadership competencies.
“We didn’t have a lot of programs, classes or resources around that,” she said.
That finding helped shape Mayo’s leadership development priorities.
Since the framework was approved, Mayo has aligned its 360-degree leadership assessments with the competencies, added a critical-thinking assessment, incorporated the framework into succession planning efforts and begun tailoring development plans based on assessment results. The competencies are also being used in performance reviews.
What other health systems can take away
Dr. Mellum said health systems do not need Mayo’s resources or formal assessment infrastructure to begin evaluating leadership competencies.
“Organizations that have their own existing leadership models could look at this and either adopt it or adapt it,” she said. “I also know many health systems don’t have leadership models at all, based on where their resources are. The simple place to start is: Is there one or two elements that resonate with their environment and their system? They could start small with a few critical behaviors they know they want to grow.
“The new AI is coming out all the time, and having that learning mindset and orientation will help us continue to navigate the changes that keep coming.”
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