HR Pulse - Spring 2009 - (Page 17) [HR LEADER] Les Abercrombie L “I’m fascinated by the complexity of health care systems and the scale and scope of this industry. It truly is unlike anything else.” es Abercrombie already had two decades of HR experience under his belt when he made the conscious choice to move into the health care industry. “I got to the point in my career when it became very important to me to feel that my work had a deeper meaning,” he says. “In health care HR, what we do every day is connected to saving lives, the birth of babies, cancer research, and many other profound things. That makes for pretty rewarding work.” While the “greater good” inherent in health care was Abercrombie’s main attraction to the field, he also was drawn to it from an intellectual standpoint. “I’m fascinated by the complexity of health care systems and the scale and scope of this industry. It truly is unlike anything else. Health care issues are on the front page of newspapers every day; it’s both challenging and exciting to be part of an industry that is growing so fast and that affects everyone,” he says. Abercrombie came out of Cornell University with a master’s degree in hotel administration and went to work for Hilton Hotels Corporation as director of HR. He spent the next 15 years there as an HR generalist, with a focus on union relations. During his tenure in the hospitality industry he worked in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Orlando. When Levi Strauss & Co., went looking for a labor relations expert, it found Abercrombie. For five years, he worked as the director of industrial relations for the world-renowned company with a historic brand, spending much of his time fostering labor/management collaboration and process re-design and eventually managing a series of painful plant closings. In 2003, Abercrombie joined Tenet Healthcare in St. Louis as the senior director of HR, and two years later he moved to Las Vegas to serve as the system director of HR for Universal Health Services. In 2007, he got what he describes as “the call” to serve at the faith-based Providence Health and Services as the system director of labor relations and talent stewardship. The system has hospitals in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, and Montana. Abercrombie’s mother was a nurse in a Catholic hospital when he was growing up in Albany, N.Y. He says that working in the nonprofit health care arena—in what employees consider a ministry—feels completely natural. “I belong here,” he says. Personal Leadership When it comes to a style of personal leadership, Abercrombie adheres to the servant leader model, an approach that he says is a cultural norm in faith-based health care. In describing the model, he explains the importance of listening, engaging colleagues at all levels, and helping people find their own paths. “The leaders I have admired most and found to be most effective throughout my career are not the ones who take a classic authority stance and say, ‘I have the answers.’ I think true leaders model humility and respect for their colleagues. They lead by example, not by declaration,” says Abercrombie. HR Pulse Spring 2009 ▲ 17
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.