047_Passing the Baton: Solving Healthcare’s Succession Crisis with Mentorship

Episode Overview:

In this episode, Jarvis T. Gray dives deep into the essential role of mentorship in healthcare leadership. Drawing from personal experiences, real-world examples, and practical advice, Jarvis makes a compelling case for why mentorship isn’t just a “nice to have”—it's a non-negotiable part of developing confident, competent, and future-ready leaders in the healthcare space.

Key Topics & Takeaways:

• Mentorship as an Essential, Not Optional, Tool
  • Mentorship goes beyond tools or certifications—it humanizes leadership development and sustains culture, especially in times of change.
  • "Mentorship is where theory becomes practice. It's where confidence is built, and it's where legacy is passed forward."
• The Impact of Mentorship on Emerging Leaders
  • Mentors create safe environments for questions, vulnerability, and learning from mistakes.
  • Mentorship helps future leaders see their blind spots and accelerates their readiness to take on greater challenges.
• From Organic to Structured Mentorship
  • While informal mentorship is powerful, it can be inconsistent and limited by chance.
  • Well-designed, structured mentorship programs set expectations, provide support for mentors, and create equitable access for emerging leaders from all backgrounds.
• Mentorship as the Backbone of Succession Planning
  • Mentorship improves retention, reduces burnout, and helps organizations build internal pipelines for future leaders.
  • Mentees become mentors, creating a culture of leadership that outlasts individual careers.
• Mentorship Grows Both Mentor and Mentee
  • Mentors reflect on their own journeys and gain clarity and empathy.
  • Mentorship can re-anchor leaders to their mission and create a powerful sense of community and belonging.
• Invitation & Action Steps:
  • Reach out and thank a mentor who made a difference in your life.
  • Be present and intentional in your current mentoring relationships.
  • If you’re not involved in mentoring, reflect on what’s holding you back and consider stepping into the role, regardless of your title.

Quotes to Remember:

• “Mentorship isn’t just good for the mentee. It transforms the mentor, too.”
• “When we mentor well, we lead well. And when we lead well, we build a future for healthcare together.”

Resources & How to Connect:

• Connect with Jarvis T. Gray on LinkedIn to share your mentorship stories or inquire about building a mentorship program in your organization.
• For support, tools, and frameworks to launch or enhance a mentorship program, reach out to the Excellence in Healthcare team.

Next Steps:

• Reflect: Think about a mentor who guided you and reach out with appreciation.
• Engage: Show up for your mentees with extra presence this week.
• Act: Consider stepping into mentorship and making a difference for someone else if you haven’t already.

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Transcript

0:55

Hey, healthcare leaders. Welcome back to the Excellence in Healthcare podcast. I'm your host, Jarvis T. Gray, and today we're talking about one of the most powerful tools in any healthcare leader's toolkit. Not a certification, not a strategy framework, not even a piece of technology. We're talking about something that is far more human, more personal, and more transformative. Something that shapes careers, nurtures potential, and sustains culture even through the hardest seasons of change. So today, we're talking about mentorship. Now, I want to be clear about something straight on the front end. Mentorship is not optional in healthcare leadership. It's essential. In fact, I'll even go one step further. Without a strong culture of mentorship, no leadership development program, no matter how well designed, can truly thrive. Because mentorship is where theory becomes practice. It's where confidence is built, and it's where legacy is passed forward. So today, we're going to explore the real impact of mentorship. Not a buzzword, not a side project, but as a core leadership responsibility. We'll cover how mentorship builds confidence and competence in future leaders, why structured mentorship programs create scalable, sustainable impact, and how mentorship transformed both the mentee and the mentor. And of course, I'll be sharing personal stories, practical insights, and questions to help you reflect on how you're showing up in your own leadership journey. So let's get started by talking about what mentorship really does for emerging leaders. Because I think we'll all agree that leadership is tough, especially in healthcare. You're not just managing processes, you're managing people, pressures, politics, and priorities, all the while trying to hold onto your purpose. And if you're new to leadership or stepping into a bigger role, it's overwhelming. That's where mentorship steps in. A mentor isn't there to give you all the answers. They're there to create a space where questions are welcome, vulnerability is safe, and mistakes become learning. Moments. I remember early in my career, I was working on a really tough QI project involving multiple departments. I was enthusiastic. I had the data, I had the plan. But I was struggling to get the buy in. And one of my mentors pulled me to the side, not to critique my work, but to ask me questions that I hadn't even considered. What's the story behind the data? Whose voice hasn't been included yet? What assumptions are you making about the resistance? That conversation didn't just help the project. It really shifted how I approached influence overall. And I've been changed ever since that moment. That's the power of mentorship. So Mentors, they help us see blind spots when we didn't even know we had them. Mentorship. It also accelerates readiness. So formal training can teach the what. But mentorship, it teaches the how. It gives emerging leaders a glimpse into the lived experience of great leaders. The nuance, the politics, the emotions, the relational dynamics. With a mentor, a new leader might take on a bold new step much sooner than they expect. They might speak up in that meeting. They might volunteer to lead a pilot project. They might even try to take on that difficult conversation instead of avoiding it. And that's how leadership capacity grows. Not in the abstract, but in real time. Can you think of a time when a mentor helped you step into something you weren't sure that you were ready for? Take a moment and hold onto that memory. And if it shaped you, then ask yourself, who needs you to be that person for them right now, today? So let's move from the individual level to the organizational level. Because while organic mentorship is powerful, it's often inconsistent. It depends on personality. It depends on proximity. It depends on chance. But when organizations build structured mentorship programs, the impact multiplies. A well designed mentorship program does a few key things. It sets expectations. It offers tools and training for mentors. It includes checkpoints and feedback loops. It pairs people based on intentional criteria, not just those who we already know. And here's where it gets even more important. Structure creates access. Because, let's be honest, without structure, mentorship often favors those who are already connected, already confident, or already visible. That leaves behind underrepresented employees, the quiet but talented contributors, and even emerging leaders who just haven't been tapped yet. A structured program says, we see you, and we're investing in your growth on purpose. So let me share a quick example. I worked with a hospital system who created a mentorship program specifically for BIPOC clinical staff who had leadership aspirations. Each participant was matched with a senior leader, given a personal development plan, and invited into quarterly leadership roundtables. And the result? 3 times increase in the internal promotion rates for participants, higher engagement scores, and stronger executive awareness of talent that had previously been overlooked. That's the kind of equity a mentorship program can build if it's done intentionally. So let's also talk about succession planning. If your organization is struggling to fill leadership roles or losing talent to burnout or disengagement, mentorship is part of the solution. Because when people feel seen, supported, and stretched, they stay. They grow. They envision a future inside the organization, not on the outside of it. And here's Something beautiful that I've seen happen over and over again. Mentees become mentors. They pass it on, they pay it forward, and they become multipliers. So that's how you build a culture of leadership, not just a few shining stars. So what would it take to move your mentorship culture from we hope it happens to we make it happen? If you're not sure, start by asking this. Who in your organization is currently developing future leaders and who needs support to do it better? And finally, here's something that often gets overlooked. Mentorship isn't just good for the mentee. It also transforms the mentor, too. If you've ever mentored someone deeply, you know exactly what I mean. When you mentor someone, you're forced to reflect on your own journey, articulate your leadership philosophy, revisit lessons you've learned, and examine your own blind spots. Mentoring, it sharpens your communication. It deepens your empathy and clarifies your own legacy. I'll never forget once, while mentoring a young project manager a few years back, he asked me a question one day. How do you know when to push versus when to pause when you're working with a struggling team? And it stopped me in my tracks right there because I had never really put that thought process into words before. But when I replied, I clarified something that I didn't even realize was core to my own leadership style. Mentors don't just pour out. They wake up to their own growth all over again. And in the healthcare space, where burnout is real and mission drift is common, mentorship, that can be your anchor. It reminds people why they do what they do, it reconnects them to the meaning, and it replaces isolation with community. And it generates a generational thread where wisdom, hope, and culture are all passed through the relationship. One of the most powerful stories that I've ever heard came from a nurse who mentored a first year nurse during the pandemic. She said that every time I showed up to mentor her, she reminded me why I stay in this profession, even through the hardest days. And that's what mentorship can do. If you're mentoring someone right now, how is that experience going for you? And if you're not, who in your world might be ready for your guidance, your story, and your steady hand? So let's bring it all together. We started today with a simple but powerful idea that mentorship, it isn't optional, it's essential. And we've seen why. It builds confidence and competence for future leaders. Structured mentorship programs scale impact, increase equity, and strengthen succession and mentorship transforms both the mentor and the mentee, creating connection, reflection, and belonging in the process. So here's my invitation to you for this week. If you've had a mentor who shaped you, then reach out to them. Go ahead and say thank you. Let them know they made a difference. If you're currently mentoring someone, show up this week with extra presence and intentionality. And if you're not mentoring or being mentored, then ask yourself what's holding you back. You don't have to wait for a title. You don't need a formal invite. You just need a heart for growth and the courage to show up. And if this episode resonated with you, then I love to hear from you. Send me a message on LinkedIn. Share a story about a mentor who made a difference or how you're mentoring someone today. And if your organization is ready to build or strengthen a mentorship program, then reach out. We have the tools, the frameworks and support and to help you build something that lasts. Because when we mentor well, we lead well. And when we lead well, we build a future for healthcare together. So until next time, keep growing, keep giving, and keep leading with courage, clarity and purpose. This is Jarvis T. Gray, and I'll see you on the next episode of the Excellence in Healthcare podcast.