Login
Request Demo

Wellstar Health System Drives Engagement and Innovation Through Leadership Coaching

Wellstar Health System Drives Engagement and Innovation Through Leadership Coaching 1

An Holistic Approach to Leadership Development

Everything within Wellstar Health System is connected to its three core values: Serve with Compassion, Honor Every Voice, and Pursue Excellence. These values drive their mission to enhance the health and wellbeing of every person they serve, including their own team members. The Atlanta-based health system recognized that putting these values into action required an organizational-wide digital transformation, but such a dramatic shift during a period already fraught with turbulent change — including a major acquisition and a global pandemic — would require additional support and resources for those tasked with leading the charge.

More than upskilling and traditional training, leadership coaching could provide a toolkit of capabilities that would empower them to navigate change while also infusing innovation into the organization’s culture.

“Some of the greatest leader challenges are really at the front and midline levels. Over the course of the last couple of years, we've invested heavily in leadership development, putting a lot more emphasis on our front line leaders and our mid-level leadership in terms of outcomes,” said Chief Talent Officer Laura Dannels.

“We're not an organization who believes in just investing in high performers. We, as an organization, believe you've got to invest in your entire workforce.”

Program Goals:
  • Develop key capabilities in alignment with core mission, vision, and values
  • Provide a personalized, deeply relevant developmental experience for leaders at all levels
  • Strengthen the leadership bench and bolster succession planning
  • Foster a culture of innovation, learning, and engagement

Personalized Development at Scale

For an organization as large as Wellstar, investing in its entire workforce would require a scalable solution with a strategic partner — not just a vendor.

“We really wanted to ground the coaching to a framework that matters to our organization,” said Garry Gross, executive director of leadership development at Wellstar Health System. “Helping our leaders to create an environment where our mission, vision, and values come to life was paramount.”

Wellstar Health System turned to Sounding Board for personalized, scalable leadership coaching programs. With Sounding Board, Wellstar Health System was able to create a unique program centered around its core values. Wellstar’s proprietary 360 assessment, designed around leader behaviors modeling its values, laid the foundation for every coaching engagement within the program.

One-on-One Coaching
Wellstar Health System targeted custom leadership capabilities that aligned with its core values:

Value: Serve with Compassion
Capabilities: Develops Relationships
To serve with compassion, team members need to connect with purpose — not always easy in a high-paced environment.

Value: Pursue Excellence
Capabilities: Results Orientation, Leading Teams, Strategic Planning
The active pursuit of excellence requires leaders to hone their ability to develop others, manage change, and execute on strategic plans.

Value: Honor Every Voice
Capabilities: Respect for Differences
Wellstar serves a diverse population, and wants to celebrate that culture while also reflecting it.

Results: ‘Off-the-Charts’ Engagement and Development

Coachees and Managers See the Value:

In post-engagement surveys, 96% of the participants agreed that the investment in their coaching experience was worth it, 99% agreed they could immediately apply their learning to their daily work.

Managers of coachees shared similar results: 100% agreed that the investment in coaching for their employees was worth it and that it facilitated the development of those employees.

“The program has become far more successful than we could’ve imagined,” said Jason Hudgins, senior consultant of leadership development at Wellstar Health Services. “As we have cascaded coaching through the organization, managers who have team members in the program are now asking for coaching for themselves.”

Coachee Pulse Survey Results
Survey Question Results
Through coaching, I better understand how I impact others 100% Agree
I can immediately apply my learning through coaching in my daily work. 99% Agree
Coaching was a valuable experience for me. 98% Agree
Coaching made a significant impact on my growth and development. 96% Agree
My coach helped me achieve growth I would not have achieved on my own. 93% Agree
Manager Pulse Survey Results
Survey Question Results
The investment made in coaching for my direct report was worth it. 100% Agree
Coaching facilitated the leadership development of my direct report. 100% Agree
Measurable Improvement:

Wellstar Health System leveraged Sounding Board’s software to facilitate leadership coaching across the engagement. The Leadership Roadmap feature allowed visibility into the program, enabling coachees to record, share and track goals. Managers and coachees could also note actions, insights, and results.

Coachees rated their growth in the double-digits across 4 out of 6 of Wellstar’s custom capabilities. Coachees reported an average of 11% growth across all 6 custom capabilities.

Leadership Capability Growth
Strategic Planning 16%
Results Orientation 13%
Change Management 12%
Leading Employees 12%
Develops Relationships 8%
Respects Differences 7%

“With the Wellstar experience, we are looking at both patient experience and team member and caregiver experience,” said Gross. “Seeing a double digit growth in capabilities like leading employees gives us confidence that our leaders are nurturing the Wellstar experience.”

When asked to rate themselves in Sounding Board’s standard capabilities, coachees rated even greater growth.

Leadership Capability Growth
Executive Presence 16%
Time Management and Prioritization 13%
Setting Vision and Direction 12%
Developing Others 12%
Leading High Performing Teams 8%
Conflict Management and Resolution 7%
Influencing Others 15%
Organizational Collaboration 14%
Strategic Thinking 13%
Execution 13%
Interpersonal Skills 12%
Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 12%
Communication 11%
Decision-Making 11%
Self-Awareness 10%
Results Beyond the Program

The impact of Wellstar Health System’s program reached far beyond coachees. The organization reports that 3% of coachees have been promoted or elevated into new positions within the organization, outpacing both the organization’s initial goals and industry standards. Further, in its annual internal survey, Wellstar Health System experienced a 1-point growth in workplace satisfaction for coaches.

Retention for coachees and the organization overall increased as well. For coachees, the 1-year retention rate was 90%. Year-over-year the retention rate for coachees was 31% higher than than their non-coached counterparts in 2022.

“These are numbers that are almost unheard of in our industry,” said Hudgins. “Being able to retain team members is vitally important.

Bolstering Frontline Leaders and Beyond

Coaching participants and stakeholders have been thrilled with Sounding Board’s strategic partnership approach and the quality of Sounding Board coaching, according to Gross. What began as a pilot program targeting 150 leaders at the executive director and assistant vice president levels has expanded across the organization to frontline clinical leaders including nurse managers.

“These are just the initial results,” Hudgins remarked. “I’m excited to see what next year’s data looks like as we have expanded the program down through the organization and what this could potentially look like over the coming years.”

Headquarters location:
Marietta, GA

Founded: 1993

Wellstar Health System is the largest and most integrated healthcare system in Georgia. With over 300 offices, 3,000+ healthcare professionals and over 30,000 team members, Wellstar Health System is committed to providing innovative, quality care for patients, team members, and the community within the Atlanta-metro area.

Facebook Twitter Linkedin Globe
business leaders discussing how to manage an human team enhanced with AI
White Paper
By Mary Carder

5 Challenges AI Brings to Leadership and the Capabilities Needed to Navigate Them

Read More
Let's stay in touch!

Valuable Leadership Growth in your Inbox! We’ll send you a nice newsletter once a month. No spam.

Your strategic partner for leader transformation. Leadership development through coaching solutions, mentoring management, and flexible program software.

Products

Services

Our Company

Resources

©2025 Sounding Board Inc. All rights reserved.
Linkedin Facebook Twitter Youtube