Are you working in your business or on your business? This question is in the book The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber. For most people, the answer is “in the business.” This is the day-to-day work leaders do. What is meant by working on your business? It is taking time to step back and look at such items as the standard operating procedures, processes that can be improved, skills that can be improved in yourself and others, etc.

When I worked at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago, Clay Sherman, author of the book Creating the New American Hospital, asked each person in a leadership role to schedule one hour a day to focus on how to improve key performance indicators (KPIs).

I read a post by Dr. Megan Carter on how 60 leaders spent the day clearing non-value-added work and workflows to focus on more time with their teams. Forty-two hours of meetings were paused in a single round of calendar triage. It is common to keep doing things because we are used to doing them and too busy to look at other approaches.

This reminds me of how people help others to the point that their own health is negatively impacted. My experience (and it’s especially true in helping professions) is that people can be so busy taking care of others that they do not take care of themselves.

The same is true in leadership. We can become so busy working in the business that we do not spend enough time working on the business. Taking time to attend conferences is a great way to step back and do that.

I am excited about our conference, Rewiring Healthcare: Foundation to Future, coming up in a couple of weeks. It will include sessions on building a culture of well-being, as well as other topics that improve performance and employee and patient experience across the organization.

Sending leaders and employees to conferences is a great way to invest in their training and development.

A question I am asked is, What defines a great CEO? There are many characteristics. One I always share is that they see development of people as an investment, not an expense. If you are fortunate to work for a leader who invests in you, take time to write them a thank-you note.

Thank you for your friendship.

Quint Studer will give the opening and closing keynotes—respectively, “Diagnose. Design. Treat. Leading Change That Works” and “From Insight to Impact”—at the Rewiring Healthcare: Foundation to Future Conference, to be held April 28-29, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. He will also present on “Rewiring Leadership Development (HCE Overview: Skill Development).” To learn more about the conference, to see the detailed agenda, and to register, please visit RewiringHealthcare.com.