Interview with Alyson Pitman Giles, FACHE, Immediate Past President and Chief Executive Officer of CMC Healthcare System and Catholic Medical Center

Alyson Pitman Giles, FACHE, is the immediate past president and CEO of CMC Healthcare System in Manchester, New Hampshire. CMC Healthcare System includes the 330-bed Catholic Medical Center and the New England Heart Institute. Prior to this role, she was executive vice president and COO of Optima Healthcare. She previously served as president and CEO of New London Hospital; president of Lake Shore Hospital, a psychiatric and substance abuse facility in Manchester; first vice president for specialty services, Catholic Medical Center; and vice president for clinical services, Easter Seal Society of New Hampshire and Vermont.Ms. Giles has served as Governor and Chairman of the American College of Healthcare Executives and is a member of ACHE's Counselors Committee and Voluntary Giving Committee. She is the recipient of ACHE's 2012 Gold Medal Award in the category of healthcare delivery organization. In 2007, she was named by Modem Healthcare magazine as one of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare in the United States. In 2002, New Hampshire magazine recognized her as New Hampshire's Most Remarkable Woman in Healthcare and in 2005, Business NH magazine recognized her as Business Leader of the Year. Ms. Giles earned a bachelor's degree from Tufts University, a master's degree from Southern New Hampshire University, and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Rivier College.Dr. O'Connor: Congratulations on being the recipient of ACHE's 2012 Gold Medal Award! You frequently refer to being a parent and a mother and have even described your leadership style as "leading as a mother. " There are all kinds of parenting styles - permusive, authoritarian, hands-off, and so on - that lead to different outcomes. What are some practices of good parenting that generalize to the healthcare executive role? Ms. Giles: As a mother you want to be loving and caring, but you also want to make your expectations clear from the beginning. People need to have autonomy to be responsible for their own behavior and performance, but expectations must be set along with this freedom. As a mother, you want your kids to have fun and to have autonomy, but you also want to know what's going on. You want to know your children's friends, and you want to invite those friends over so that you see your children and their friends in context. As a leader of an organization, you similarly want to give people autonomy and define your expectations of them, while at the same time being very caring and offering many opportunities for fun. But you also want to know what's going on. That, I think, is very motherlike. I would always make administrative rounds and stop and talk to people, getting to know them. I had a President's Cabinet, which I think is fairly unusual. We would meet every six months and I would say, "I want to know what's happening - what are your questions? You can ask me anything at all, except my weight! " These meetings allowed me to know about 12 staff-level people. What was going on, what was on their minds, what was bothering or exciting them.Being involved with my own kids - offering to drive to events and to be a coach - allowed me to see them in the context of their lives. I did the same thing at work. I ate in the cafeteria every day, sitting with physicians, nurses, or housekeepers. Sometimes I would sit with some vice presidents and then walk around the cafeteria. That is what it means to lead as a mother: setting expectations, giving people time and attention, knowing what is going on, knowing the culture, and knowing what people are thinking.Dr. O'Connor: In 2002, you became CEO of a health system that was losing $6 million annually. What motivated you to take the helm of an organization that was ready for the "wrecking ball"? What were the most difficult challenges in turning the organization around? Ms. Giles: I had been a consultant at Catholic Medical Center (CMC) in the early 1980s while I was a vice president at Easter Seals. …