🎙️ Leading From the Edge: When the Ceiling Won’t Move

What do you do when the system isn’t broken…but it’s no longer sustainable?

What happens when you’ve maxed out your influence, your effort, your diplomacy 
and the ceiling still won’t move?

This episode is about that moment.

• The moment when playing it safe feels responsible.
• The moment when staying quiet feels strategic.
• The moment when you realize the very stability you helped build… is now the thing holding everyone back.

In Leading From the Edge: When the Ceiling Won’t Move, Antrea Dowd explores the uncomfortable space where real leadership begins; not at the center of agreement, but at the edge of tension.

This isn’t theory.

Antrea’s leadership journey began at the bedside, starting as an EKG tech and rising to Director of Patient Experience across multiple hospitals. She has led large-scale culture transformation, physician communication initiatives, patient experience strategy, and leadership development across complex healthcare systems.

She has stood in rooms where:

• Metrics looked fine on paper but morale was deteriorating
• High performers were quietly burning out
• Teams saw risks leadership wasn’t addressing
• “This is how we’ve always done it” became more dangerous than helpful

Leading from the edge wasn’t a brand idea.
It was survival.

It was born from watching systems that technically worked; but were slowly eroding trust, accountability, and sustainability underneath the surface.

In this episode, Antrea breaks down:

• Why leadership isn’t tested when everyone agrees
• The psychological cost of ceilings that won’t move
• How fear disguises itself as prudence
• The difference between being disruptive and being courageous
• How to stand at the edge long enough to see what others refuse to

If you’ve ever:

• Felt the tension between loyalty and truth
• Carried responsibility without authority
• Watched preventable problems grow because no one wanted to challenge comfort
• Or sensed that your impact is bigger than your title

This conversation is for you.

Because sometimes leadership isn’t about pushing harder.

It’s about stepping closer to the edge, and refusing to shrink back when the ceiling won’t move.

Press play if you're ready to examine the systems you protect…
and the ceilings you might be called to challenge.

Purpose.Presence.People

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/antrea-dowd?

YouTube https://youtube.com/@thepeoplecenteredleader?si=eh5yDfy3v08a_Fng