Leading with a Servant's Heart: Faith, Family, and Healthcare Resilience with John Bowen

Embracing the heart of servant leadership, John Bowen illustrates through his own life how faith and dedication to service can shape one's approach to the demanding world of healthcare. As John peels back the layers of his journey, inspired by his father's ministry and his mother's teaching, he reveals the intricate dance of fulfilling professional obligations while cherishing family moments, such as the simple joys of morning coffee with his wife, or the school runs with his children. His narratives are a testament to the power of strong family ties and the importance of nurturing relationships at home to support a life of service.

The art of connection takes center stage as John delves into the transformative nature of networking within leadership spaces like the Global Leadership Summit. He paints a vivid picture of the resilience displayed by healthcare professionals, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how Parkview has invested in its people through initiatives like the Leadership Institute. Initiatives that have facilitated bonding and growth in the midst of crisis, with virtual huddles becoming an unexpected beacon of unity and progress. These stories serve as a reminder that even in the face of adversity, there is an opportunity to strengthen the bonds that hold teams together.

Our conversation with John culminates in a reflection on the profound lessons of leadership that resonate beyond the corridors of healthcare. John urges us to carry these gems into our daily lives, encouraging a leadership approach grounded in authenticity and service. As we bid farewell, we express our gratitude for the rich dialogue and invite our listeners to carry forward these insights into their communities. Stay tuned for our monthly episodes, where we continue to bring transformative conversations that inspire action and growth in every facet of life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to season four of the Love Fort Wayne podcast. The Love Fort Wayne podcast amplifies the stories of everyday people who are loving and leading in Northeast Indiana to spark imagination, root inspiration and ignite transformation in our community and beyond. At Love Fort Wayne, we believe the pillars of a flourishing community are its leaders, pastors, schools, families and prayer. And in season four, we're excited to learn from and be encouraged by people who not only lead but love our city in these areas each day. Before we dive in, we want to say thank you to our partners at Remedy Live Dream On Studios Star Financial. Want to say thank you to our partners at Remedy Live Dream On Studios Star Financial, brotherhood, mutual and Shepherd Family Auto Group for making the podcast possible. Well, welcome everybody to our newest edition of the Love Fort Wayne podcast. I'm CEO of Love Fort Wayne, jeff King. I'm joined by Mitch Cruz. Mitch, how are we doing today? Excellent, great to be with you. Yeah, we're excited today.

Speaker 2: 1:16

I'm really excited about today's guest.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Yeah, another great episode. We've had a great lineup so far in 2024. And we've got another again great episode lined up today. We've got John Bowen. John, how are you? I'm great, great to be here. Thank you, yeah, so excited that you're here with us. We're going to talk a lot about leadership and the Global Leadership Summit itself and how leadership, foundational principles of leadership, impact our every day, and John's going to share a little bit about that all of those things from his perspective. But I'm going to let you first just introduce yourself officially where you serve more about your family, anything that is on your heart.

Speaker 3: 1:53

Absolutely Thank you. So first, thank you for having me today. Great to share some time with y'all. So, starting just with my career, I oversee the Allen County facilities within Parkview and it's really just great to be able to serve the region in the delivery of health care. I view it as an extension of my faith. My dad was a minister for 50 years. My mom was a teacher. They really ingrained in me that part of what you should do in your career is serve others and part of that is an extension of your faith. That's really interwoven into who you are and what you do, and so Parkview definitely allows me to do that with their mission and my role here serving in the hospitals, the support that I have for it I told you my first call was at 3.30 this morning that support system that I have is really my family, and I have an amazing wife, emma. We've known each other. We went to senior prom together.

Speaker 3: 2:59

And we've been together ever since. She's my best friend, so we've been together for a very long time, and so I'm not going to say the number of years that we've been married, because I'd get it wrong, but I don't want to. This is recorded, so I don't want to get in trouble.

Speaker 3: 3:15

But we've been married and together for over 20 years now and she's my partner just in life and we've got four amazing kids. William is 16, about to be 17. It's just so weird having a child that age. Yeah, I know, man, you blink and it just goes by so quickly.

Speaker 3: 3:36

We have a son, elliot, who's 15, and just a rambunctious guy. He's just like his dad, I'd say. And then we have the two younger ones, charlie is 11, Lily's say. And then we have the two younger ones, charlie is 11, lily's 10. And just just, they're a lot of fun, they're.

Speaker 3: 3:49

It's amazing for me seeing my kids and how every one of them there's similarities, and the good similarities are from mom, the bad ones are from me, of course, but they, they're all unique.

Speaker 3: 4:05

And the way you engage with your kids, I've learned, has just, you know, been and so important and what I've, what I've found. You know, a lot of folks talk about work-life balance and I I don't embrace kind of the typical. You got to work just a certain number of hours per day, because in a health care hospital it's 24-7. Every day of the week there's something happening and so you have to be available. And so to find that balance and to find that love and how to engage with your kids, I find you have to find unique moments throughout every day to connect with them. Whether it's taking my son to school, I love that, just that moment of playing a good song with them and just talking about the day. The teenagers never want to talk to you about their day, of course, but um, just finding those unique moments. And for me and emma, we always block 15 to 20 minutes to have coffee together, and that's where we just talk about morning or night, always morning.

Speaker 3: 5:06

Okay, I was gonna say, I was curious, yeah, so we always have coffee together, and so that that's our time, where we just know every day we're. That's sacred for us cool and so that's just having that, having that home foundation is so important. It allows me to live my mission, yeah, every day, by having that, that support system and just that thing you can go back to every day he referenced y'all yeah so I want to know about where that senior prom was and where you grew up.

Speaker 2: 5:38

And I also want to know do you know the plural for y'all?

Speaker 3: 5:41

it's all y'all yeah, that's right, absolutely yeah, all y'all I knew it too, so hey, that's right and the way that you know that that that's a, that's true english.

Speaker 2: 5:53

My mom is an english teacher and she says all y'all and when she says all y'all, you know I'm in trouble, yeah yeah yeah, so yeah, I'm originally born in Houston.

Speaker 3: 6:08

My dad was a pastor in Arkansas for many years after that and grew up in Arkansas really all over the state but ended up in northwest Arkansas, so Fayetteville would be what I consider home. I just hired a new basketball coach.

Speaker 2: 6:24

Yes, you did, and the whole world knows that. Oh weird. Yeah, it feels, good.

Speaker 3: 6:31

I was kind of worried there for a minute, but I grew up in northwest Arkansas, my wife and I went to high school together at a school called Shiloh Christian, and then I went to Oklahoma Baptist University, which is just outside Oklahoma City, and I think, if I feel so bad for my in-laws because I got married at 21, and I just know they must have been freaking out.

Speaker 1: 7:02

What is this guy, this guy's marrying?

Speaker 3: 7:04

our daughter and I had no idea what I was wanting to be. I knew I wanted to help people, support people. Did you think about being a preacher pastor? There were times I was a youth pastor at one point oh wow, during college for about a year, and I did that. And with my dad being a pastor, I knew all the ins and outs of ministry and I just knew that my calling to serve was not in the church in that professional manner and so finding okay, so how are you going to serve the Lord in your career, with your career being an extension of faith?

Speaker 3: 7:47

I went through several iterations until I stumbled into health care, and it really is through my father. He sat down with me at dinner like a good father should, like, all right, man, we've got to figure out what you're going to do with your life and he had served in a small town on a small hospital board and he said you should think about health care. You could do that. And then I got introduced to people and what I found is, in my career, people investing in me is what's helped me to grow and become a better leader, starting with my dad and and just several people. And so I went to graduate school in Little Rock, the CEO of Baptist, who's an incredible Christian leader, took me under his wing and mentored me and I had I moved off to South Texas is when the economy really just fell apart and I was gonna.

Speaker 3: 8:44

I found jobs in Idaho, texas and Vermont. So we went with the closest one in South Texas and did that for two years. But then that guy, russ CEO, called me back and said hey, I want to get you back here, let's see if you're a good fit and there will be a hospital opportunity for you in a year or so. And that was how I moved into the hospital president roles and went to Little Rock a few years after that and then got to come up to Parkview Mike Packnett, rick Henvey we had some connections. We connected, I think, value-wise we really really click. And from a just value perspective it's very important to me that my personal values match the people I work with, and it was very evident when I saw Parkview that it was a match. And so I was really scared when I interviewed because I just thought, man, I'm going to be devastated if this doesn't work out. And they did, fortunately. So then seven years ago I moved up, joined Parkview.

Speaker 2: 9:53

So it was wonderful. Praise the Lord, yeah, we're blessed to have you. We're blessed to have you for sure, Thank you.

Speaker 1: 10:05

So we mentioned we're going to talk a little bit about the Global Leadership Summit and just the investment that Parkview and you all as leaders within the health system, that is Parkview. You invest, you pour back into the leaders and I know my Parkview lingo.

Speaker 1: 10:18

I have some Parkview friends the co-workers, Co-workers that's right, yeah, you invest back in them so intentionally and it's just an important thing and I know, attending the Global Leadership Summit and ensuring that your emerging leaders, your current managerial leaders, all the way through up to you all's level as president of PRMC and the affiliates it's foundational. Why is it important for you all to first have leaders attend the Global Leadership Summit and then why is it important for you all to just invest in your leaders as a whole?

Speaker 3: 10:49

So investing in the Global Leadership Summit. My first summit was seven years ago and I'm new to Fort Wayne. I'm still trying to. I'm using Google Maps to get to the.

Speaker 3: 11:02

Coliseum, just to figure out what's where, and it's a congregation of folks from around the city that you can build immediate connections with the city. And I think that at Parkview we really want to integrate ourselves into the community, and the summit's a great way to do that, because there aren't a lot of forums where you get such a wide group of folks from around the city to come together in a forum like that, and so I think that one it's just something that's local, that we build connections. So for me it was great to build those connections, but it's the same for several of our leaders to build those connections, but it's the same for several of our leaders, the speakers also. I've found that they do. Just there's little things that you pick up from everyone, whether it was James Clear or Condoleezza Rice. You know Craig Groeschel asked here. He spoke about thinking inside the box and I love that so much.

Speaker 3: 12:12

So there's just takeaways that you get that make you a better leader and for me, working not in the church or the ability to have a leadership development with that faith element tied into it is really beneficial and from a part view standpoint, you get that leadership development, you invest in those leaders and they walk away with those little tidbits, that they become better leaders and the care is, better they lead their teams. It makes your entire organization more healthy. Better they lead their teams, it makes your entire organization more healthy. The other thing is it's a local thing where some of the memories I have of GLS are just like any other summit or convention, where you're like I'm going to just step out and get a cup of coffee with this person because I haven't seen them in so long.

Speaker 3: 13:00

Darrell Bock, oh yeah, darrell Bock, and they're there and so you can build relationships. And so I have so many memories of just seeing people and being like what's this? Let's jump out of here and let's just spend some quality time together. So that networking, that relationship building, it's incredibly valuable and those are the things that you can't really quantify the return on, but it's immense for an organization and Parkview does that, I would say, with every level of our leaders. We invest through leadership development institutes, we have classes. We want to pour so much into our coworkers at every level Because if you have better leaders, if you make that investment, your product, whether it's healthcare or anything else, is going to be better at the end.

Speaker 2: 13:48

Yeah, that's end and it doesn't stop there. For you, you have the Parkview Leadership Institute and I think you've made our Ignite for Emerging Leaders part of that and I'm telling you, any Parkview member that's come through our Ignite system has been incredible, and I can only think it's got to be from what you just said about pursuing leadership growth.

Speaker 3: 14:18

It's so important to make that investment One for the coworker. It signals that they matter and that they're recognized and that the organization wants to pour into them, and I think that that feeling of value is so incredibly important for all of us. For the organization, it improves the health, it keeps the culture healthy, and so, from an employer standpoint, you benefit as well. So really it's just the right thing to do.

Speaker 1: 14:59

It's good. I you know, I think about you sharing my first summit when I when I moved here to Fort Wayne seven years ago and attending since then. Since then, you know what are some? Some key rocks, some key moments, as you've attended the summit, that have just really stuck with you as you've led recently the one.

Speaker 3: 15:18

I was thinking about that in preparation for this and, surprisingly and I feel real bad because I can't remember if it was 2020 or 2021, but it was hey. We probably don't remember either it was in the midst of covid.

Speaker 3: 15:31

It's when it was virtual yeah and working in health care back then was health care's hard. But at the, at the height of covid, it was incredibly difficult. You'd be waking up at 5, 5, 30 every morning checking your cell phone to say how many, how many do we have? And you're just trying to make a plan to get through the day. And it was that way for our nurses, our doctors, our leaders every day almost for two years and it just drains you, it drains your spirit. But you have to just keep powering through.

Speaker 3: 16:09

And I remember just talking to leaders that we need to, we need, we need something to just kind of break through that, that monotony. Then that that challenge, that intensity and the GLS was virtual and we just we got in the conference room and we watched it and just just that time of breaking through it it was replenishing. But it also it allowed us as a team to just be together and not talk about something that was so intense. It was able to just bring us together. Yeah, that that one stood out. Just you know, I can see it in my mind still, just sitting at Randallia and listening to those speakers. It was just what we needed at the time.

Speaker 2: 17:03

Can I ask? You brought up COVID. That has to be, I assume, one of the most unique things a healthcare professional has ever dealt with in the history of the world, Absolutely. Can you tell us like two or three things that were just totally different on how you had to deal with it versus a normal day at the office?

Speaker 3: 17:24

So a normal day, you walk into the hospital and you, just, you see people everywhere, walk into the hospital and you, just, you see people everywhere and you, um, you, it's just. You know, it's just, it's it's. I call it the highway. When you're walking in the hallways at parkview because there's so many people around with covid, you would walk in and there's, you don't see anybody, because we couldn't have visitors. We couldn't have unless you're a patient and you're in the patient's room. Visitors we couldn't have unless you're a patient and you're in the patient's room. You didn't see anyone. And so you basically went straight to your, where you worked, and you really didn't, didn't walk around and you didn't see people, and so just that human contact was missing, which is so key in health care.

Speaker 3: 18:11

Everything was disrupted when I would walk into the ICUs.

Speaker 3: 18:16

You have to check patient vitals on a pretty regular basis and the nurses would have to put so much equipment and things on that we had to change the way we checked vitals, because it took too much time for the nurses to go in, check it, come out, take it off, go to the next room, put a new bit of equipment on, and so we had to find just creative ways and the creativity that folks came up with of how you could stretch those vital machines out so that you didn't have to do that.

Speaker 3: 18:53

Just your daily workflow was completely disruptive. It's not all bad, though, because we took, we did a daily huddle. We started a huddle where everybody just came together virtually, and we did a safety huddle where everybody just reported out and we realized this is amazing. It we all have our teams, and health care is a team made up of teams, and but it brought everyone together every day. We still do that huddle today because we found value. So, even though there were difficulties, we've been able to uh, we've been able to to find some real value in even those hard times.

Speaker 1: 19:37

Yeah, you know, um, two of the things that you shared over the past couple of minutes have really grabbed my attention, which is, um, just your, one of your GLS highlights being we. We broke through, you know, the, the isolation to be with one another, with one another, and just to go in that room and say, okay, we've paused and we're here together. And for me, on two different fronts, it's A in my day-to-day life of leadership and the work that I'm called to and the people that I serve. We need those moments where we're with our people, where we say I'm away from this thing or the monotony of what this is going to important work but to just truly pause and to be with my people. It's just such a valuable thing in our lives as a whole and in our lives if we lead and shepherd and serve other people. So I love that you share that and that was your highlight.

Speaker 1: 20:28

Uh, just just going back to that moment. And but I also love when you said, hey, these were some of the challenges, as Mitch asked about COVID. Like, we've got these challenges that happen in the midst of COVID, but creativity in challenges and creating rhythms that we needed in the moment that can sustain us going forward, like those are two valuable things in our lives as we lead others and as we lead in the day-to-day. We talk about children and Got to be creative in some of those moments and we got to huddle our children and those that we care for and make those things a rhythm of leadership in our lives every day. So thank you, thank you for those those points, yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:06

Yeah, go for a student and a teacher of the Bible. As you lead so many people and so many teams, how does the word get into your words?

Speaker 3: 21:25

Faith is such an intimate and deep part, I think, of any person that genuine faith is interwoven into who you are as an individual and one of the big things I believe in is be genuine and be authentic as a leader. So you're not going to be able to be authentic if you leave part of your faith beyond the sideline. So it's not to say you just put it out there just all the time, but it's clearly a motivation of who I am and some of the values that I hold as a leader, which is my job, is to serve the people who I lead. My role as the leader of the organization of PRMC is to facilitate and equip the people who provide health care, and that servant leadership you have to check. Everybody has ego, but you have to check that ego as a servant leader and that, to me, is how you weave your faith in to your daily work and especially your leadership.

Speaker 2: 22:43

I love that. Jesus said if you want to lead, serve. That's right there he is. There he is. That's that guy.

Speaker 1: 22:47

Yeah, I appreciate that example.

Speaker 2: 22:49

So much, John.

Speaker 1: 22:50

You, you know, you, you you were sharing as part of your story with us. Uh, that moment as a young man, when you're, when your father so beautifully said, all right, all right, what are we going to do with your life? And it made me think about the emerging generation of today, that 16, 17, maybe up to about 25 plus, that we, collectively, I think we see this is a cool generation. They're service center.

Speaker 1: 23:17

they want to collaborate. Um, you know they, they want a neighbor. Well, but they, they are now our workforce and our emerging workforce is is there a word almost having a 17 year old yourself like, is there a word that you would give the emerging generation about leadership, as they, um, as they now emerge into our emerging leaders, Right, Right.

Speaker 3: 23:43

I've thought about that Part of my journey is what would I impart to that generation? And what I find when I reflect is one when you care very deeply about an issue or a movement, you pursue the ideal and that pursuit. You're always seeking to attain the perfect ideal. That oftentimes is unattainable and until you achieve that at least for me I wasn't happy. Until I reached that goal. I'm very goal-oriented. What I've learned over time is you need to really put on one thing you need to chill out and enjoy that journey and celebrate the pursuit and the getting better, because you're going to find at some point in your life that as you really ingrain your values and you try to change the world, I guess that if you don't enjoy the journey, you're going to miss a lot of life and your ability to have joy diminishes if you don't enjoy that journey and you can become discouraged if you don't celebrate improvement and improvement is so valuable and just just enjoy.

Speaker 2: 25:25

Enjoy the journey yeah, you paraphrased john john wooden. He said everyone should strive for perfection. Perfection is unattainable. Striving for perfection is attainable.

Speaker 1: 25:39

And that's what you just said that's so powerful.

Speaker 2: 25:43

What would you say to that emerging generation who are thinking about healthcare administration? Where should they go? What kind of studies should they pursue? What would be a good balance in their life to pursue as well as academics, that's for me.

Speaker 3: 26:02

I'm a little unorthodox because my degree is in philosophy.

Speaker 1: 26:06

Is it really. And political science, and what Political science. So your eyes got big.

Speaker 2: 26:14

This is awesome.

Speaker 3: 26:15

So I took an unorthodox path.

Speaker 1: 26:23

Probably one reason why my in-laws were so worried.

Speaker 2: 26:25

Is he going to take care of our?

Speaker 3: 26:26

daughters. This guy's got a philosophy degree. What's he going to do? But the first thing I would say is work in health care, find a job. I was a special ed, I worked in special education, paraprofessional, and I got to work with kids. That wasn't hospital, but it was. I learned a lot through that. When I got out of school, I had a varied background in the field of healthcare professional background prior to going into health care. The best thing you can do, number one, is work within the health care, and there's so much you can go into nursing, you can respiratory, you can work in facilities and maintenance or finance or information systems. Health care is so varied, there's so many different paths and so just just find the thing that you really care about and, if you want to work in health care levered, lean into your strengths and pursue a career there and then, from a degree standpoint, health administration is always kind of the the go-to that that was was. After philosophy, I got health administration.

Speaker 3: 27:44

So I didn't have to go back to school and learn a little more.

Speaker 1: 27:48

Thank you, yeah, that's great. As you, you know, you encouraged some folks on some steps they should take. Is is it? Could you share, I should say, um, just some things that you try to root in your life every single day in regards to leading, not only in your work but at home, and everything that you might do, and, secondly to that, maybe some encouragement for some other folks to think about this, this, the way that maybe you could go about then.

Speaker 3: 28:24

Also pursue that and surround yourself with people who you care about. For me, I find so much fulfillment in my career because of number one what I do I care so much about pursuing helping folks who are hurt or sick. But the second thing that means just as much for meaning is I love the people I work with. I love the physicians. They push you to be better. I love working with the nursing teams, the administrative leaders. It's a network of folks that you just really really enjoy working with. And so to find meaning in your life and your career, I would say those are really two key elements, and that transitions itself over to life, so much you know. Just be genuine with your family and your friends and just find things that you just truly meaningfully enjoy doing With my family.

Speaker 3: 29:38

I hate theme parks. It's just the absolute. I said I was introverted at the beginning. I just do not. It's just too many people. But our family loves hiking and so over spring break we hiked and it was just doing something we all love doing together and it just really found that meaning. So the encouragement I'd offer is just pursue the things that give you meaning and surround yourself with people who feed into that.

Speaker 1: 30:14

Beautiful, so good. Yeah, what are you?

Speaker 2: 30:16

thinking. I just think we could do a whole other episode.

Speaker 1: 30:22

And maybe we should in the future. Yeah, that's right. That's right, john. We thank you for jumping on and just sharing more about yourself, but also your leadership journey and given so many cool me and Mitch say gems. You know these, these gems for for not only us but our listeners to take and and to contemplate and reflect on, about loving well and leading well and going as they're called. That's one of my takeaways from you. So thank you, for that is going as we're called and finding those places where God has placed us and excelling at those things, but celebrating the journey along the way.

Speaker 1: 30:56

The journey is so important, so important, yeah, so we appreciate you and folks. I hope you enjoyed it as much as Mitch and I did. Um, hopefully you were able to write down some of the gems, um, and if you didn't rewind it, go back, find that spot on the podcast, write some things down and and again reflect on where you can add some of these gems into your life as it pertains to leading where you are in your everyday, but also among those that you love. So, again, until next time. We hope that you are well and we hope that you join us on our very next episode.

Speaker 2: 31:32

Thank you so much for joining us this month. We drop a new episode the first Monday of every month. Love Fort Wayne has some amazing episodes coming up. You don't want to miss a single one, so subscribe today, wherever you are listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share and leave a review. We want to share your thoughts and comments with listeners on future episodes. Thanks again for joining us today. Join us next time, as we hear from leaders that don't just lead but love our city.