What does it take to build a telehealth empire from scratch? Dr. Pamela Ograbisz, VP of Clinical Operations at Locum Tenens, shares the unfiltered truth about hiring, firing, and leading teams through explosive growth.
In this comprehensive episode of Building Legendary Leaders, Dr. Ograbisz takes us behind the scenes of building a multimillion-dollar-per-month telehealth division that now serves six states. From her first hire that didn't work out to successfully merging teams from an acquired company, she reveals the leadership lessons most executives learn the hard way.
Key Timestamps:
00:02:33 - How the telehealth division started and building from a team of one
00:03:23 - The story of the first hire and what went wrong
00:05:51 - The three questions every hiring manager needs to answer
00:07:03 - When to recognize a hire isn't the right fit
00:08:47 - How team dynamics change when scaling from 1 to 6 people
00:10:50 - Successfully merging teams from a sister company without losing anyone
00:14:17 - The biggest hurdle: managing a client panel in disarray
00:17:18 - The experiment that failed: unspoken expectations breeding resentment
00:19:06 - Setting clear career paths and making promotions transparent
00:22:47 - Working across multi-functional teams and becoming a better leader
00:24:02 - The evolution from telling to asking questions
00:26:21 - Why asking questions gets more buy-in than giving orders
00:28;46 - Advice for leaders starting out: get honest 360 feedback
00:30:25 - Childhood lessons: watching mom lead with grace and accountability
00:33:04 - Balancing career and family with two daughters
00:36:08 - How to connect with Dr. Pamela Ograbisz
What You'll Learn:
Dr. Ograbisz shares the three-question framework for evaluating every hire: Can they do the job? Will they love the job? Can you stand working with them? She explains why cultural fit often matters more than credentials and how to spot the warning signs when someone isn't adapting to your business model.
You'll hear the honest story of her first hire that didn't work out after a year, and why making an internal hire proved more successful. She breaks down the concept of ROI for team members—every person is an investment that needs to produce returns.
Learn how small teams evolve as they grow, the challenges of maintaining friendships while respecting hierarchy, and why change management is the hardest part of leadership. Dr. Ograbisz successfully absorbed a sister company's team without losing a single person using a "push and pull" feedback system.
Discover what happens when expectations are left unspoken during rapid growth, why even successful teams need clear North Star vision, and how to create transparent promotion paths that eliminate favoritism.
The most powerful shift in Dr. Ograbisz' leadership? Moving from telling to asking. Coming from high-pressure cardiothoracic surgery where answers needed to be immediate, she learned that asking probing questions gets more buy-in and develops stronger leaders. Her favorite question: "I know you've been thinking about this—catch me up on your thoughts."
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