Grounded: How Leaders Stay Rooted in an Uncertain World

CHAPTER 13

Authenticity

Touching and Inspiring Lives

As president and CEO of MedStar Health, a $4.1 billion nonprofit regional health care system, Ken Samet leads the largest system in the Washington DC and Baltimore region. In recent years, it has expanded in the market, upgraded facilities, and created more health care options. But Ken realizes that his primary job is to connect with twenty-seven thousand associates and fifty-six hundred affiliated physicians. Ken must make these connections count as the U.S. health care system is morphing from a bunch of independent, acute hospitals into a comprehensive distributed care delivery system.

Ken has thought a lot about authenticity, perhaps because much of what he does touches lives. We've been ...