Let me share some snippets of my expertise with you. I hope you find them useful and if you would like to chat more, just…
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The higher we move in our organizations, the easier it becomes to unintentionally drift away from the reality of the people doing the work every day.
The good news? Closing that gap doesn't require a new initiative, a consultant, or another meeting.
🎥 Watch the short video and see why some leaders learn more from a single conversation than they do from a week of meetings.
One of the biggest challenges new leaders face is stepping into management without ever being taught how to lead.
In my latest video, I share a simple yet powerful approach for your first days as a leader: slow down, listen deeply, and take the time to understand your team before making changes.
Watch this short video to better understand how listening first can help you build trust, gain insight, and lead with greater confidence.
One of the biggest leadership challenges is knowing when to help and when to step back.
As leaders, it's natural to want to solve problems for our teams. But the most impactful leadership comes from helping people discover their own solutions.
In this short video, I share a powerful analogy that can help leaders coach more effectively, strengthen accountability, and avoid getting stuck carrying problems that aren't theirs to solve.
One of the most dangerous signs in leadership is a room that's always in agreement.
People who don't feel safe often stop sharing what they're really thinking. They smile, nod, and move on, while the most valuable conversations never happen.
In this short video, I talk about creating an environment where people feel comfortable speaking up, challenging ideas, and contributing fully.
Watch the full video to learn how great leaders build trust.
Burnout is a word I hear all the time when working with medical and pharmaceutical professionals. But what if burnout isn't just about working too hard? What if it's a signal that you've become disconnected from the parts of your work that once energized you?
In this short video, I share a powerful lesson from a surgery professor, an honest conversation with a pilot, and a simple question we should all be asking ourselves: What is actually burning me out, and what am I doing to stay connected to what I find most rewarding?
Watch the short video to discover a new perspective on burnout and how to reconnect with meaningful work.
"You taught me something today."
"I learned an important lesson from you today."
"I was impressed when you said ______."
"I noticed ______ about you today."
"Thank you for modeling ______ for me today."
These are small things that encourage.
I was lost arriving at LAX recently, assuming it would be the same airport I remembered from five years ago. Not so much. I asked a transportation aide, who was pushing a wheelchair passenger, how to get to baggage claim. "Follow us," she said.
As we wove through elevators, corridors, and a few long stretches, we engaged in light conversation. As we approached the destination, I turned to her and pressed a $20 into her hand and said, “You taught me something today about not only giving directions but taking the time to lead the way. Thank you.”
She tried to return it, but I would have none of that. The three of us parted ways, and I resolved to be more like her.
We probably don’t always need ‘feedback’ that threatens or corrects as much as we need to know how we may have helped someone grow.
One of my favorite Chief Medical Officers held a 3-hour meeting every Monday with his direct reports. He asked each person to bring just a 100-word summary of where they were stuck and what help they needed.
He compared leadership to a car stuck in a ditch:
It doesn't matter how the car got there. One person can drive, but it takes 3 or 4 people behind it to help push it out and get it moving again. I thought that was a genius way to run a meeting.
🎥 In this short video, I share why the best leaders are the kind of people that get behind that car and give it a push.
I was recently in a hospital where a new CEO had just been appointed. I asked a nurse manager what she thought of the new leader.
"Don't know. She's MIA. Mostly in her office. Wasn't even at the volunteer luncheon. She must have better things to do."
It made me wonder: how does that feedback ever reach the CEO?
How does someone communicate the importance of rounding, getting out of the office, meeting people, and becoming a familiar face throughout the organization?
Then again, maybe she's operating under a different mandate from those who hired her: stabilize the finances, improve margins, address a union initiative, make difficult staffing decisions. Those priorities can certainly keep a leader behind a desk.
Or perhaps those goals are best accomplished by building relationships with the people on the front lines.
When you lead a team, how much of your week is spent in your office, and how much is spent with the people who can help strengthen the culture, stabilize performance, and advance the mission?
The role of a leader isn't just to be visible. It's to be known.
I heard long ago that confidence doesn't mean "I'm perfect", it means "I'm attempting to be effective, that I'm pretty sure I can help out in this situation."
In this short video, I share how you can redefine confidence to help build community within your team. For example, a good question is many times better than a good answer and can help build community.
If you are a leader seeking to build stronger teams, better conversations, and a culture where everyone feels empowered, this video is worth the watch.
We hear this a lot in medicine, but it also applies to leadership.
If you want to truly learn something, teach it. In this short video, I share a simple way to accelerate your growth by leaning into that mindset.
Take a minute to watch the video below:
Early in your leadership journey, it’s easy to let nerves take over. But consider this: nervousness centers on you, excitement focuses on others.
Focus on the audience, the board, the people depending on your perspective. You were invited into that room because you have something of value to offer.
Take a minute to watch this short video, it might change how you walk into your next meeting.
Leadership isn’t about doing it all, and it’s definitely not about getting everything perfect.
It’s about being effective where it really counts…through people.
In this short video, I discuss the shift clinicians should make to build and lead an effective team using real human skills.
“Your gut is your second brain.” — Ellen Muellenberg, JD
At a recent gathering of Medical Staff Specialists (the often unheralded professionals who help safeguard patients from unqualified physicians), Ellen urged us to listen to that inner voice. Call it intuition, an inner expert, or simply a “hunch”...that quiet signal that something deserves a closer look.
How many troubling headlines might have been avoided if someone, perhaps you, had raised a hand and spoken up? If they had voiced that feeling of discomfort, that moment of doubt, that instinct that something wasn’t quite right?
Too often, nervousness, peer pressure, fear, or shyness silence this critical part of us, to the detriment of others…and sometimes, to tomorrow’s headlines.
I teach and coach emerging leaders to lead creatively, challenge the status quo, and move beyond the “same old, same old.”
In this short video, I reflect on comparison, purpose, and the quiet impact we often overlook, like the adjunct professor who shapes lives without tenure. We all carry hopes that may never materialize, and others that surprise us. Both truths can coexist. Let’s honor the mission that’s uniquely ours.
Donkeys are protectors—loud, unwavering protectors. At the ranch we visit, there’s a small donkey standing among a herd of large horses. Horses can be skittish; donkeys are determined. Any predator would think twice before testing that donkey, the honking voice alone could scare the life out of you!
A doctor friend of mine raises lambs and has four very large dogs living right among the herd. Same idea: not ones to mess with.
So, let me ask you, who on your team is the protector? Who guards your people? Your budget? Who steps up and gets in the face of anyone who thinks they can tinker with your team?
Is it you?
Share below (no names needed!) and tell us who the protector is on your team and what they do.
Hope may not be a strategy, but it is the dominant reason we all come to our healthcare providers. Yes, we have specific complaints yet lingering underneath is that hope that it can be overcome. We hope the physician has a solution. We hope that the nurse will console us. We hope. Some will call it a prayer. Others may use their breathing techniques. Some will openly ask ‘the question’ on their minds and others quietly wondering if they should risk the answer. When I visit patients at the hospital in a kind of chaplain-like capacity, I find myself being more and more aware of the hope they long for with each person entering the room. I see it in their eyes even if not in their words. Vulnerability is a teacher to us all. Hope is OK. It makes us aware of our need for what others can provide for us in our time of need.
When others come to you for help, be mindful of the invisible 8‑ or 16‑pound bowling ball they may be handing you, asking you to carry and solve their problem.
How do you avoid it?
Use the word “you” when referring to the problem:
“What do you think you should do about this?”
“What’s your thinking on how to approach it?”
“When you leave my office today, what do you think should be your first step?”
Don’t become part of their problem at home or at work. Become part of helping them move toward their solution. You can encourage their effort (what counselors do), ask thoughtful questions (what coaches do), or help them feel heard (what supportive people do).
They have their problems. You have plenty of your own. Don’t let them walk away with one less problem by leaving it in your lap.
A friend once shared a story about a Chief Medical Officer who made a simple but powerful change.
Every Thursday afternoon, he gathered his nurses and asked one question:
“What do you know that I don’t know, that I should know?”
At first, the nurses were skeptical.
Is this a trick question?
Is it safe to be honest?
But over time, the answers started coming...abundantly.
And the CMO later said he learned more on those Thursday afternoons than in any other meeting he attended.
That question is a powerful reminder for all of us.
When we’re speaking, presenting, or sitting in front of a board, people aren’t looking for rehearsed perfection. They’re looking for your take, your perspective, your insight, what you see that others might miss.
Your point of view is valuable.
If they didn’t believe you had something they didn’t already know, they wouldn’t have asked you to speak.
This short video is a reminder to bring that mindset into every conversation.
Watch and let me know: What do you know that others should know, but maybe haven’t asked you yet?
Go beyond name and noun. When you introduce a colleague, say the name and the role, of course, but add the personal and that humanizes them. This is Sal — he’s part of our IT department — and what I’ve noticed about him with clients (often me!) is that he goes beyond being an IT pro: he’s an educator. He doesn’t just solve my problem; he helps me understand it. He doesn’t just fix the issue, he fixes me!
There is a Japanese therapist who has a three-sided pyramid in his office. One side says, ‘those bad people’ the second side says, ‘poor me’ and the third side says, “so what am I going to do about this’? When you come for therapy, he hands you the pyramid and says, “So what should we talk about today?”
