15 Seconds

This summer I had the amazing opportunity to serve as a Clinical Effectiveness intern at Louisville’s 3rd largest employer, Norton Healthcare. With aspirations of becoming a world-class software engineer, I was hesitant to accept the role as I knew it would take my focus away from the tech world. In the end, I am eternally grateful for the experience not only because of the technical skills I learned, but also because of the leadership qualities I accumulated.

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Throughout the internship, I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work alongside my mentor, Jeremy White . Together, we constructed a database filled with information designed to quantify the net benefit that Norton Children's Hospital accrues through participation in each registry they are a part of. This way, Norton Healthcare can ensure, just like a hospital would with medical supplies, proper resource allocation and capital commitment to each individual registry. This was a great hands-on opportunity to work with data and play my hand in primary data collection. Throughout this journey, I learned valuable skills relating to data science, but the most important lessons I learned came elsewhere.

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Every week, the internship class met with a different member of the executive team. At the last meeting, we found ourselves face-to-face with the CEO, Russ Cox and COO, Mike Gough. At the end of the meeting, Russ asked the group to share any “A-ha” moments that we experienced as interns. Without hesitation, my hand shot up and I began to paint the picture of my first “A-ha!” moment.

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Every year, the mayor of Louisville hosts a networking event for interns at different Louisville-based companies. Mid way through this year’s event, I eagerly pulled Riggs Lewis , Norton’s System Vice President for Health Policy, off to the side to learn more about the creation of his own law firm, Rotunda Group LLC. After 10 minutes of me nodding my head and acting like I was familiar with half of the legal jargon coming out of his mouth, the conversation ended, and I thought nothing else of it. During the one-sided conversation, it was almost as if he was punishing me for having the audacity to pull a VP into a one-on-one conversation during such a prestigious networking event. It was almost as if he said, oh yeah, you wanna’ pull me off into a one-on-one conversation? Well then you are going to sit there and listen to every little detail about what you wanted to know, and you are going to like it, young man. In the end, I learned a ton from him about leadership, entrepreneurship, and what it takes to build a successful company. After the conversation ended, we went on our separate paths throughout the event, and I thought nothing else of it. As the event dwindled down and interns went home, I found myself in a huddled conversation with two other Norton interns. Minutes before I was about to leave, Kayla Kraske, MHA , the Coordinator for the Clinical Effectiveness Internship program, came to us and asked each one of us individually if she could personally connect us with anybody within Norton Healthcare. In particular, she asked me if she could connect me further with Riggs Lewis. She came up and asked me if I wanted to connect further with somebody that she spotted me having a conversation with over 40 minutes ago. With 40 interns under her wing, countless meetings to attend to, and groundbreaking projects in progress such as LOUMED, she still managed to take 15 seconds out of her day to ask how she could help me. 15 seconds. She did the same for the two other interns. As I drove home into the sunset that evening, I couldn’t stop thinking about what probably seemed like a regular thing to do for Kayla. That moment had a profound impact on me. 15 seconds was all it took for my trust and confidence in Kayla to skyrocket. She demonstrated servant leadership at its finest, and I had my first “A-ha!” moment because of it.

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My second “A-ha!” moment came as I sat down with the System Vice President of Performance Excellence and Care, Kathleen Exline . As we sat, we went back and forth with questions. She wanted to know ways that the internship can be improved, and I wanted to know more about how she operates as a leader. I’ll never forget when I asked her if there is a definitive monetary benefit that Norton Healthcare receives by putting on the internship. In response to the question, Kathleen pulled out her phone and showed me an e-mail from the Chief Medical Officer, Steve Hester, MD, MBA that was sent to Claire O'Daniel, MSHA, MBA , the Administrative Fellow and lead internship coordinator. The email reflected Dr. Hester’s appreciation and respect for the internship program and how it creates such an amazing experience and growth opportunity for students in the community. She showed me the message to kindly tell me that not every good deed’s return needs to be quantified. Norton Healthcare is making waves within the community and providing an opportunity for students, what more is there to prove?

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In a world where literally everything is quantified, in that moment, I realized that not everything needs to be, nor should it be. Eventually, that becomes a very draining way to look at life. The funny thing about values is that they are not always quantifiable, and that’s OK. It’s not necessarily about what Norton Healthcare stands to gain from providing an internship opportunity for students, but more about what they avoid losing. It’s not necessarily about what Norton Healthcare stands to gain from making the decision to continue to pay all employees during the midst of a global pandemic and economic slowdown, but more about what they avoid losing. It’s not necessarily about what Norton Healthcare stands to gain from their countless philanthropic events throughout the community, but more about what they avoid losing. It’s not necessarily about what Norton Healthcare stands to gain when executives and upper-level managers decide to stop on a dime to meet the needs of an intern, but more about what they avoid losing. It’s not about what the monetary reward Norton stands to gain, but more about the trust and connection they have built within the community for decades that they stand to lose. Never again will I attempt to put a dollar value on values. At the end of the day, you’re building trust, making connections, and doing the right thing. That's all that matters. This post will have hundreds of impressions. Those impressions will have impressions. How does Norton quantify that outreach? After spending an entire summer at Norton, I now have complete trust in the company’s values. That’s where I’ll go for medical emergencies. That’s where my kids will go. That’s where my kid’s kids will go. I trust Norton Healthcare. How does Norton quantify the seed of trust they planted in me 50 years from now? They can’t, nor should they. The money Norton stands to make in a given quarter will never be as valuable as the trust they stand to lose over time. This principle holds true for any company, and it holds true for people, as well. The money or respect we stand to gain in any given moment should never outweigh the trust we stand to build in a lifetime.

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This summer I learned what servant leadership is all about while serving as an intern at a company that demonstrates servant leadership at the highest level. I spent many Saturdays’ volunteering for Norton Healthcare sponsored events, and it was the best I’ve felt about what I was doing in a while. I encourage you, if you’ve made it this far in the article, to go serve, give back, and pay forward what somebody else paid for you. You never know, 15 small seconds might help foster a lifetime of trust.