Leading with Values: A Physician’s Perspective on Boardroom Ethics and Integrity — Robin Ann Yurk
Leading with Values: A Physician’s Perspective on Boardroom Ethics and Integrity
In every boardroom I’ve entered, whether in healthcare, nonprofit, or private enterprise, one question has quietly guided my work: What values are driving the decisions we make?
As a physician, with additional titles of Chief Medical Officer, Risk or Board Director, I’ve come to believe that strong governance is grounded not just in expertise, risk or compliance, but in values-based leadership. In times of transformation, uncertainty, or risk, it is our ethics with multi-specialty expertise and experience that develop the frameworks, which steady the organization.
The Physician’s Code: a Training in Decision-Making
One of the most overlooked assets physicians bring to boards is how deeply our value system is shaped through training. In the United States, nearly every physician is formed within a culture, centered on three institutional pillars: service, research, and education. This triad isn’t just academic. It’s lived daily, in environments that demand resilience, decision-making under pressure, and unwavering focus on human outcomes.
Daily expectations are navigating emergencies or managing complex systems. Physicians are trained to think decisively and commit to the AMA code of ethics. Emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and the ability to adapt in acute environments are critical competencies in both the clinical setting and the boardroom.
This grounding becomes invaluable in governance, where complex issues like geo-political and multi-industry regulatory compliance require nuance, sensitivity, and a commitment to fairness. It’s not just about doing things right. It’s about doing the right things, prioritizing decisions with diplomacy for the right reasons.
Diversity of Values, Shared Standards
Boards today are composed of diverse perspectives: multi-industry leaders, technologists, legal experts, and operators. That’s strength. But with diversity also comes variation in values — what’s prioritized, what’s permissible, and what’s considered ethical.
As a physician, I see my value system as anchoring. Because physicians are trained within standardized systems that provide mentorship, systems, committees and processes for ethical decision-making, resilience, and patient-centered care. We bring a moral compass that’s already been calibrated under pressure.
That calibration matters. Difficult decisions arise around stakeholder impact, data use, or risk tolerance. Physicians provide the benchmark, consensus or gold standard response. A physician leadership perspective communicates through industry specific data tools, how this is aligned with our mission? Who is affected? What does integrity look like here? The benefit is better outcomes.
Real-World Example: Building an Ethics Charter
One of the most meaningful board experiences I’ve had recently involved developing an Ethics Charter in response to emerging AI & Digital platform technology innovation risks. The challenge was synthesizing multi-stakeholder input from different industries, each with distinct value systems.
We began by reviewing existing materials: business and technology strategy, codes of conduct, risk frameworks, and public-private policy guidance. Then came the hard part, building consensus on what ethical principles would govern our own organization. It wasn’t about adopting someone else’s values. It was about integrating external insight into an internal ethical standard to be embedded into a sustainable system. This charter reflects how the organization and its council are, and how we operate.
Values-based leadership becomes tangible. It’s not just philosophical. It shapes the policies, procedures, and communications that determine how an organization behaves under pressure.
Why This Matters Now
In a world defined by complexity, speed, and disruption, boards don’t just need technical oversight. They need ethical foresight to build and demonstrate a stable dynamic knowledge compass. Decisions around cyber security, AI, stakeholder equity, and climate risk require an embedded external and internal system. This produces a culture of learning for responsibility, improvement, and understanding.
Physicians, with our dual fluency in science and service, are uniquely positioned to support these decisions with empathy, responsibility, and humanity. Our lens is long-term. Our instinct is to protect. And our training has taught us how to communicate clearly, even when the answers aren’t easy.
Final Thought: Leadership with Integrity
Leading with values is more than advocating for excellence in organizational behavior. It means institutionalizing ethics, embedding them in how we structure governance, evaluate risk, and plan for succession.
As boards continue to evolve, I hope more leaders — whether from medicine, law, technology, or finance — will reflect deeply on their own values and stakeholder risk perspective. Not to compare, but to embed through lived experiences.
Because when values are shared, ethical decisions become easier. And when ethics are practiced, leadership becomes lasting.
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