Tiny town Nebraska natives unite! Yes, my guest today, like your host, is from a no-stop-light tiny Nebraska town. We have a lot in common, beyond our similar roots. 

Cara is the vice president of Employee Benefits Division at SilverStone Group, the founder of Ignite! Women in Insurance, one of the most ambitious people I know, yet she religiously carves out time for herself and her family. 

But self-care hasn’t always been easy. There was a time when Cara found herself in a work situation that was just a bad cultural fit. And no amount of hard or achievements were going to change that fact. In today’s episode we uncover how to spot ill-fitting work situations/cultures. We also discuss Cara’s positive perspective on challenges and how she’s actively working to elevate women in her industry. 

• About Cara’s career path
• How to identify work situations that are a bad cultural fit
• Why self-care is such a top priority for Cara
• How Cara elevates other women in her industry
• About Ignite!

• Cara’s bio at SilverStone Group
• Ignite! Women in Healthcare
• The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates
• Find Cara on LinkedIn, Twitter, & Instagram

Carrie Koh — Transforming Toxic Environments

Carrie Koh, a former Mayo Clinic healthcare executive, changed career paths after working through a family tragedy. During the healing process, priorities came into focus, and today she has a coaching and consulting business dedicated primarily to physicians and healthcare executives. Her expertise is in leadership, performance, and transforming toxic environments.

Carrie’s formula for success is mainly centered on focus, ownership, connection, and identity. By honing these areas, she’s helped individuals and organizations overcome difficult situations -- including toxic leadership and work environments -- and become more productive, more successful, more balanced, more fulfilled. 

The brain is a power center of our very beings. We want it to be as healthy as possible to support us, not only today, but for years and decades to come. Dr. Mary Rensel, neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, reminds us why time matters and why the time to be concerned about brain health is now -- for us and for our children.

You probably knew that nutrition, exercise, sleep, and our emotional state has an impact on brain health. But did you know social connection also plays a role? Dr. Rensel gives us tips on how to take small steps to support a healthy brain. She also address what supplements -- if any -- are known to positively impact brain function.

Finally,  you’ll enjoy getting to know Dr. Renzel as she shares with us how she avoids burnout, the advice she would give her younger self, and the leadership book she’s currently reading.

• About Dr. Rensel
• Why we should be concerned about brain health now
• How sleep, exercise, nutrition, emotional health, and connection with others impacts the brain
• How toxins negatively affect the brain
• Why we should be concerned about our children’s brains health
• Small steps you can take today toward better brain health
• Dr. Rensel’s tips for avoiding burnout

• Dr. Rensel’s page at Cleveland Clinic
• Life’s Simple 7
• Headspace
• Calm
• Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way: Timeless Strategies from the First Lady of Courage by Robin Gerber

Internist Dr. Dana Corriel discovered her creative side when she took some time off after the birth of her third child. And when she looked to social media for an outlet, she found what she needed...and so much more.

She remembers how foreign and intimidating social media seemed before she made the plunge. Like many physicians, she was leery that social media could deliver any real benefits, but she’s a convert now, and she’s helping other physicians wade the waters of social media through her organization, SoMeDocs.

Dr. Corriel and I get into some nitty gritty topics related to social media -- the benefits and risks, why boundaries and privacy are important, what it’s like to be cyberbullied, how to avoid online drama, how to set time limits, how posting anonymously can be an important tool for approaching sensitive topics...and more.

In 2017 Dr. Caprice Greeberg’s Academic Surgical Congress address about the gender gap in medicine, “Sticky Floors and Glass Ceilings,” went viral. Her address at the 2019 WIM Summit, “Stop Fixing Women,” continued the discussion.

In today’s episode you’ll hear highlights from this year’s talk. It was full of data that should give even the biggest skeptic pause. There is indeed a gap. The discrepancies are both blatant and not so blatant. Sometimes it’s the not-so-blatant biases that cut the deepest.

Dr. Greenberg and I discuss what we -- both men and women, and especially those in leadership -- can do move the needle and why it’s so very important that women build a supportive network.

Recorded at the 2019 Women in Medicine Summit, Dr. Shikha Jain, course cofounder and codirector, gives us an overview of the Summit, why it exists, why it matters, and what it means for Monday morning when you’re back at the office.  Dr. Jain shares a review of the first day of the summit, the speakers, and the key takeaways of their messages.

Dr. Jain also introduces us to the Gender Moonshot campaign, a directory of initiatives promoting women in healthcare. It’s a place for women and HeForShes to find and promote resources and initiatives.  

In today’s episode you’ll learn:

• About the Women in Medicine Summit
• Why networking and community building is important
• Highlights from the first day of the summit 
• About the Gender Moonshot campaign

• Women in Medicine Summit
• The Gender Moonshot
• Dr. Jain on Twitter

Today Carol is the northern region CEO for OSF HealthCare in Illinois. She started out in -- wait for it -- finance. Carol’s career path is an atypical and varied one, and she got where she is today by seizing opportunities that were both obvious and not so obvious. Some of her most valuable experience came from her time serving in professional organizations. 

In today’s episode, Carol makes a strong case for serving in professional organizations to not only build your network but also to gain valuable leadership skills. It’s a way to gain experience, apart from your day job, that will prepare you for your next career move. Instead of waiting for your next career opportunity to come to you, you can create opportunities by gaining invaluable experience in voluntary roles.

Carol and I also discuss how to foster diversity in the workplace and why diversity will help build more nimble institutions. We also discuss how to develop resilience and how to make self-care a top priority, especially during stressful times.   

• About Carol’s unique career path
• How to prepare yourself to level up to the next leadership role
• How serving in professional organizations can help you gain valuable leadership experience  
• How to nurture diversity in organizations
• Practical tips for building resilience and practicing self-care 

• Connect with Carol on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
• Books by John Maxwell

Why would anyone leave a position at Mayo Clinic to do something new? Does that actually happen in real life? That's exactly what Dr. Jagi Gill did when he joined Boston Scientific and later launched and sold a sports medicine company. Today he's part of the leadership team of Acumed and is improving patients' lives by combining medicine, business, and technology.    

In today's episode, you get to hear about Jagi's fascinating career path and about what it's really like to be an entrepreneur. He's convinced that entrepreneurship is not for everyone and helps you know if it might be a good fit for you and your personality . 

He warns that while the highs are high, the lows are low. The entrepreneurial path is riddled with self-doubt. He discusses how to deal with the self-doubt, how to seek genuine support, and how to ignore the naysayers.

Dr. Gill and I also discuss the importance of finding what brings you joy, why having a supportive community is critical for entrepreneurs, and how to avoid burnout.

• About Dr. Gill’s career path
• How to know if entrepreneurship might be right for you
• How to deal with self-doubt
• The role of joy in work
• What it’s like to be an entrepreneur

• Dr. Jagi Gill’s bio at Acumed
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins

Dr. Kelly Cawcutt was a guest on the Growth Edge a few weeks ago, and -- lucky us -- she’s back for an encore interview. This time we’re discussing imposter syndrome. 

Let’s set the scene. Kelly had been invited to give a speech in her area of expertise. As she was being introduced prior to the speech, she didn’t recognize the list of credentials and accomplishments of the upcoming speaker as her own. It became clear to her that there had been some mistake. The audience was expecting to hear from someone else! Panic set in. 

When she saw that the credentials were read from her own CV, Kelly realized she had a serious thought distortion around her successes and accomplishments. 

Since then, Kelly has become an authority on imposter syndrome. In today’s episode, we learn what it is, how to recognize it in yourself and others, who is at risk for imposter syndrome, and why it’s important to recognize it and nip it in the bud. We also learn why it’s so important that we, as a culture, normalize failure, and why we’ll all be better for it. 

• About imposter syndrome
• The risk factors of imposter syndrome
• How to recognize imposter syndrome
• Why it’s important that we normal and share our failures with others

LINKS FROM TODAY’S EPISODE

• Find Kelly on Twitter and LinkedIn
• Kelly’s blog, Paragonfire
• Kelly’s bio at UNMC

Brave -- it’s not a quality we often hear in business and leadership, but it’s the quality that Nicole Bianchi, founder of Bravium Human Development, believes is most lacking in today’s leaders. In a culture that’s enamored by the myth of perfectionism, we shouldn’t be surprised that most of us, while we know in theory that failure is an integral part of growth, tend to only give lip service to the idea that failure is our friend. It’s easy to say but very difficult to actively embrace. 

In today’s episode, Nicole introduces us to the concept of bravership -- a combination of bravery and leadership -- and why it’s so needed in our institutions today. We discuss learned fears and how coaches can help us break out of patterns that are holding us -- and our institutions -- back. Nicole explains why she believes you should choose your own coach and why she currently has two coaches in her life.

We also discuss purpose, community, and the habits and practices of the most effective leaders Nicole knows -- and how all of this ties into bravership.