Healthcare Empathy: Why It Matters | healthsystemcio.com

Most people know what good leadership looks like—far fewer seem able to deliver it.

Anthony Guerra, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, healthsystemCIO

When I was young, I got my first real opportunity to lead something on my own. I was asked to launch a magazine focused on IT use in physician group practices. I developed editorial sections, mocked up layouts, and built a comprehensive plan from the ground up. I was excited, motivated, and confident this new publication would become something meaningful and lasting. Then, after weeks of work, I was told the project wouldn’t be moving forward. No explanation, no acknowledgment—just a quiet end to something I had poured myself into. Yes, I was paid for that time—but that wasn’t enough to dull the disappointment. Only then did I understand what many leaders never seem to figure out themselves. People need to feel that their work matters, not just that their time is billable.

That lesson stuck with me and grew sharper with every story I’ve heard since. Professionally, I interview many people who speak fluently about what leadership should look like. They often echo things I’ve read in biographies. They speak of trust, empathy, consistency, communication, development, and earning the right to be followed. These are the right ideas, and most people in leadership know how to describe them. But knowing and doing are two very different things—something increasingly obvious in my personal life.

When I talk to friends about their workplace leaders, I rarely hear stories of inspiration. I hear about bosses who criticize endlessly, micromanage daily, and communicate poorly if at all. The workflows are incoherent, the meetings bloated, and the accountability scattered or completely nonexistent. Decision-making becomes a game of hot potato, with responsibility passed like a burden, not owned. People feel ignored, second-guessed, and sometimes outright diminished by those who should be building them up. Despite the vast knowledge available on leadership, its practical application seems remarkably difficult to find.

So why do so many ineffective leaders keep rising through the ranks and securing promotions? One reason, I believe, is the skill of managing up while neglecting everything below. These individuals know how to impress their bosses, not how to support their teams. They seek credit without providing support, and deflect blame without accepting responsibility for their actions. Their focus is upward mobility, not organizational cohesion or the success of those they supervise. They can appear competent to those above while creating chaos among those they manage.

At the core of this problem lies something much simpler than most leadership theories suggest. Either you care about your people, or you do not—it really is that fundamental. If you care, your decisions will reflect that concern in both large and small ways. You will ask questions, not to criticize, but to understand what’s working and what isn’t. You will listen when concerns are raised and make changes when those concerns are justified. You’ll still demand excellence, but you’ll balance it with fairness, clarity, and personal accountability.

Leaders who don’t care operate differently. They focus entirely on outcomes, not on human cost. They assign work with no context, shift priorities constantly, and leave people scrambling without direction. They provide no support, ignore personal struggles, and assume payment equals satisfaction and ongoing engagement. They often dismiss morale problems as weakness rather than signs of a collapsing internal culture. These leaders may perform acceptably in metrics, but only for a short and costly time.

What do people want from their boss? They want their work to have meaning. They want to give input and be heard, not overridden or constantly second-guessed. They want to be treated with basic dignity, given room to grow and improve. When they succeed, they want acknowledgment; when they struggle, they want guidance. In short, they want to be led, not managed like replaceable cogs in a system.

I used to think leadership was about issuing directives and enforcing accountability without exception. Now I understand it’s about care—about asking how your actions affect those you direct. If you care, you’ll build clarity into your plans and flexibility into your execution. You’ll check in not just on progress but on morale, bandwidth, and long-term engagement. You’ll avoid needless bureaucracy, encourage useful suggestions, and share credit generously when things go right.

Failing that, even your most talented team members will eventually head for the exits. They’ll leave behind those with fewer options, those resigned to dysfunction and depleted of energy. Over time, performance drops, innovation vanishes, and even external results begin to show the decay. That’s when the leader, once celebrated, finally gets noticed—but for all the wrong reasons.

The real question for every leader is this: do you actually care about your people? If you do, you’ll ask the right questions and fix what you’re able to fix. If you don’t, your team will eventually figure that out—and they won’t forget it.

It’s not complicated, but it is rare, and rarity often reveals what people value least. So if you’re leading anything—anything at all—ask yourself what kind of boss you really are. And strive to be a leader people actually want to follow.