The Reflective Professional

Most team problems are not talent problems or strategy problems. They are problems with how the work moves between people.

In this episode of The Reflective Professional, Chris Cahill sits down with Karina Mangu-Ward, partner at August and author of Teams That Meet the Moment: 9 Practices for Unlocking Performance and Growth in Uncertain Times. Karina helps leaders and teams untangle the real work of collaboration when conditions are complex, uncertain, and moving fast.

Together, Chris and Karina explore why teams get stuck—and why reorganizing, hiring different people, or simply working harder rarely fixes the underlying issue. They break down a practical way to diagnose team performance across three areas: team design and organization, decision-making, and learning.

For leaders in biotech, pharma, and other highly regulated environments, this conversation gets specific about the challenge of building high-performing cross-functional teams when compliance requirements, matrixed decision-making, and individual incentives can work against collaboration.

Karina shares the nine practices from Teams That Meet the Moment, including team charters, purposeful meetings, team cadence, proposals, “Safe to Try” decisions, “Even Over” trade-offs, small bets, working in public, and regular retrospectives. The central message is simple but not easy: better teamwork is not built in an offsite. It is built through small, repeatable choices inside the work, every day.

Whether you lead a team, influence without formal authority, or work inside a system you cannot redesign, this episode offers practical ways to create more clarity, momentum, and learning—starting with the next meeting.

• Website and book: Teams That Meet the Moment
• LinkedIn: Karina Mangu-Ward
• August: aug.co
• Team assessment: Discover your team’s archetype

Connect with The Reflective Professional

• Follow The Reflective Professional on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform
• If this conversation was useful, please rate and review the show—it helps more thoughtful leaders find it.
• Connect with Chris Cahill on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chriscahill-leadership-excellence
• Podcast hub: https://www.reflectiveadvisors.com/podcast

Most leaders are trained on content, not delivery. Dr. Sadhna Bokhiria interviewed 600+ stand-up comedians to find out what the best performers do that executives don't — and it starts with reading the room.

In the Season 2 premiere of The Reflective Professional Podcast, Chris Cahill sits down with Dr. Sadhna Bokhiria, President and CEO of KIRIA Advisory Partners, a gelotologist (a researcher who studies laughter), TEDx speaker, and Forbes Business Council contributor. Sadhna's research began at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, studying how laughter affects survivorship in cancer patients, and evolved into a second dissertation on the comedians themselves — what drives them, how they read an audience in real time, and how they recover when a set bombs.

The conversation maps those findings directly onto corporate leadership: why scanning for the person who isn't laughing beats playing to your supporters, how to use humor as a clarity tool rather than a deflection, the difference between vulnerability and oversharing, and what to do in the 10 seconds after a presentation goes sideways.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What a gelotologist studies, and how laughter research connects to cancer survivorship
• Why humor is intelligence, not decoration — and the data behind comedians' higher EQ
• The pattern Dr. Bokhiria found across 600+ comedian interviews: trauma, resilience, rapid public failure, and reinvention
• How to actually read a room — and why comedians look at the person who isn't laughing
• Confirmation bias in meetings: why playing to your supporters costs you information
• The team that always agrees, and why harmony can be a warning sign
• Handling the toxic high performer, and the real cost of protecting them
• Humor as a tool for clarity and kindness versus humor as deflection
• The 10-10-10 method: reframing a bad moment across 10 minutes, 10 weeks, 10 months, and 10 years
• Separating "the bit failed" from "I am a failure"
• Hedonic adaptation, and the reverse-engineering exercise that restores perspective
• What an inauthentic leader sounds like in a room
• Why ego goes down as great leaders move up
• Vulnerability versus oversharing: how to connect without confessing
• Timing is everything
• The movie theater exercise and "reintroducing yourself to yourself" before a high-stakes meeting

Connect with Dr. Sadhna Bokhiria:

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sadhna-bokhiria
• Company website: KIRIA Advisory Partners — kiria.co
• Her podcast: LeaderVoices — leadervoices.org

Connect with The Reflective Professional:

• Follow the show and leave a rating and review — it's the fastest way to help other leaders find these conversations
• https://www.reflectiveadvisors.com/podcast

Why do smart, accomplished professionals struggle to tell a good story about their own work? To close out Season 1, Chris Cahill sits down with Bill Baker — storytelling trainer to Coca-Cola, Cisco, Dell, and Johns Hopkins — to break down what separates a real story from a report of events, and why that distinction matters for your career.

Bill spent 19 years in advertising as a strategic planner before building BB&Co Strategic Storytelling, and for the last 15 years he's trained leaders, scientists, and executives on how to use narrative to earn trust, drive change, and make technical work land with human audiences. In this finale, Chris and Bill unpack the classic plot framework — starting point, trigger, challenges, turning point, and point — and apply it everywhere from project updates and budget approvals to job interviews and personal branding.

Whether you're a pharma or biotech leader trying to get buy-in from a data-driven room, or a professional in career transition trying to control your own narrative, this episode gives you a practical framework for turning your experience into a story people remember.

In this episode, we discuss:

·       What separates a good story from a plain recap of events

·       The classic plot framework: starting point, trigger, challenges, turning point, and the point of the story

·       How to tell the story of a project or initiative — not just report its timeline

·       Why smart, technical, and scientific people resist storytelling, and how to bring them in anyway

·       Using story to establish the "why" behind the what and how, especially with skeptical, data-driven audiences

·       When not to use a story — and why forcing one can feel manipulative

·       How to take ownership of your personal brand story before someone else writes it for you

·       The "strategy-first" approach to finding the story that's already hiding inside your next update

·       Why failure and vulnerability make for the most trustworthy stories you can tell

·       A Season 1 reflection on the throughline connecting every guest's story this season

·       Website: bbcostorytelling.com

·       Blog: BB&Co Strategic Storytelling Blog

·       LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/storytellerbillbaker

·       Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favorite podcast platform and leave a rating and review — it's the fastest way to help other leaders find these conversations

https://www.reflectiveadvisors.com/podcast

Soft skills drive real career development and leadership growth—especially in healthcare, pharma, and biotech. In this episode of The Reflective Professional, Chris Cahill talks with Shamim Patel, Chief of Staff at AbbVie, about how soft skills like communication, emotional intelligence, collaboration, adaptability, and influence shape every career pivot she’s made.

You’ll hear how she moved from traditional healthcare into pharma, built new capabilities at Pfizer and Novartis, and stepped into a chief of staff role without a blueprint—using relationships, smart risks, and continuous learning as her core tools. If you’re a professional looking for practical, story‑driven insight on soft skills, career development, and leadership in complex organizations, this conversation will help you treat soft skills as real, trainable assets you can intentionally grow over time.

What happens when an entire industry built on “playing it safe” is asked to imagine it’s been wiped out by a meteor and must start again from scratch?

In this episode of The Reflective Professional, Chris Cahill sits down with Paul Simms, founder of Impatient Health and creator of Pharmageddon, to explore how pharma can move beyond incrementalism, fear, and compliance culture to become truly bold and patient‑centric.

Paul shares why he believes much of pharma has become “vision‑less,” how legal and regulatory pressures push teams into the “vanilla zone,” and what it takes to shift from being a distributor of status quo ideas to a catalyst for meaningful change. Chris and Paul unpack why most “pilots” are only run when success is almost guaranteed, how early adopters get stranded when they return to business‑as‑usual, and why curiosity, experimentation, and psychological safety are non‑negotiable for genuine innovation.

If you work in pharma, healthcare, or any highly regulated industry and feel stuck between big aspirations and small, safe moves, this conversation will resonate. You’ll hear practical ideas on building braver cultures, measuring “softer” impact, and creating communities—like the Pharmageddon pods—that hold each other accountable for actually doing things differently once the conference buzz fades.

Tune in if you’re ready to question your own risk appetite, reconsider how you use pilots and KPIs, and rediscover what it means to be a catalyst rather than just a cog.

Connect with Paul Simms:

impatient.health

https://impatient.health/staff/paul-simms/

linkedin.com/in/psimms

Episode overview
In this episode of The Reflective Professional, host Chris Cahill sits down with strategist, author, and coach Rich Horwath to explore how leaders can move from tactical busyness to true strategic impact. Drawing on 25 years of work with leaders across industries, Rich argues that strategic thinking is both a mindset and a skill—and that it can absolutely be improved with deliberate practice.

The conversation digs into why “strategy” is often misunderstood, how to create a common language for your team, and what it really means to treat strategy as the “how” behind your goals. Rich and Chris share practical tools like the contextual radar, the trade‑off matrix, and the concept of “do less, better” to help leaders focus their time, resources, and attention where they can create the most value. They also discuss the Strategic Quotient (SQ), the power of saying no, and why monotasking might be one of the most underrated habits for better thinking.

Leaders who feel stuck in tactics or overwhelmed by competing priorities, this episode offers a realistic path to building strategic thinking into the rhythm of daily work—not just the annual planning cycle.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why so many leaders feel “too tactical” and what to do about it.
• The difference between strategic planning and strategic thinking—and why the distinction matters.
• Strategy as “how”: a simple way to explain strategy to your team and separate it from tactics.
• The importance of focus, subtraction, and “do less, better” in an overcommitted environment.
• Tools like the trade‑off matrix (“eliminate, decrease, increase, create”) and the contextual radar (market, customers, competitors, company).
• Strategic thinking as both mindset and skill, and how Rich’s Strategic Quotient (SQ) helps measure and develop it.
• Innovation as “creating new value” and why it is everyone’s job, not just R&D’s.
• The case against multitasking and how monotasking can improve energy and decision quality.
• How AI can serve as a thinking partner and time‑saver—without replacing strategic thinking.
• Why new growth requires new thinking, and how to build a habit of introducing at least one new tool or framework each month.

Guest bio

Rich Horwath is a strategist, author, and CEO who has spent more than 25 years helping leaders think, plan, and act strategically on a daily basis. He is the creator of the Strategic Quotient (SQ) and has written multiple books, articles, and tools focused on making strategy practical and accessible for leaders at every level. Rich’s mission is to help leaders outthink the competition and build organizations where strategic thinking is part of everyday work, not an annual event.

Resources mentioned

• Rich’s books articles, tools, and videos: https://www.strategyskills.com/

Anna and Jordan Rathkopf share their personal journey with cancer, how art acts as medicine, and the importance of authentic patient stories to improve healthcare experiences.

Key topics:

The role of visual storytelling in healthcare

The emotional impact of cancer on patients and caregivers

Using art as a therapeutic tool in illness

The importance of authentic patient and caregiver stories

Systemic gaps in healthcare communication and empathy

Key frameworks:

Lived Experience Gap

Visual Storytelling as a Tool for Connection and Understanding

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Anna and Jordan's Journey

03:52 The Impact of a Cancer Diagnosis

08:29 Emotional Disconnect in Healthcare

11:01 The Power of Visual Storytelling

15:30 Human Insight Experts: Bridging Gaps in Understanding

19:01 Healing Through Storytelling

22:08 The Importance of Patient Collaboration

24:15 Creating Community in Rare Disease

26:11 Art as Medicine

28:11 Navigating Fear and Information Overload

33:24 The Caregiver's Journey

39:37 Reflections on Diagnosis and Support

resources

Anna and Jordan Website - https://www.rathkopfs.com

Are you caught in the relentless grind, feeling normal yet utterly out of sync with your own body? This episode is a wake-up call to break free from normative misery and rediscover genuine ease. Dr. Sonal Bhatia shares her transformative journey from the certainty of Western medicine to ancient Ayurvedic wisdom, revealing how tiny shifts can lead to profound healing.In this episode:

• Dr. Sonal Bhatia’s personal health awakening and turning point
• What is dis-ease and how it differs from disease
• The concept of normative misery and how modern culture normalizes suffering
• Why labs can often hide the true signals our bodies send
• Practical tools like breathwork, boundaries, and technology to restore balance
• How to recognize subtle signals before chronic illness manifests
• The importance of shifting our culture from constant performance to genuine wellbeing
• Simple daily habits to reconnect with your body’s innate intelligence

Timestamps: 00:00 - Welcome and episode overview: live beyond the illusion of perfection 00:35 - Dr. Sonal’s journey from pharma executive to Ayurvedic healer 01:16 - The moment she knew something was deeply wrong 02:33 - How modern medicine often misses the root causes 03:11 - The concept of "normative misery" and societal normalization of stress 04:24 - Recognizing the signs that your body is signaling imbalance 05:04 - The importance of zooming out to see the whole system 06:56 - What really causes skin rashes and chronic symptoms 08:07 - The power of daily food choices and breath to heal 09:47 - Disease vs. dis-ease: understanding the original concept 10:49 - How labs can hide signals of imbalance years before full-blown disease 12:26 - The role of technology and wearables in self-awareness 13:43 - The energy dimension and its importance for healing 15:49 - Moving beyond "normalize the misery" to intentional living 17:24 - Changing cultural rewards and corporate expectations 19:48 - Practical tips on setting boundaries with devices and work 28:20 - The impact of small daily rituals like playing an instrument or walking 30:45 - One simple step to regain ease: breathe and reconnect 31:14 - The power of active breathing to shift energy instantly 32:23 - The need for collective cultural change for real wellbeing 33:09 - Final thoughts: start small, acknowledge signals, and choose ease

Connect with Dr. Sonal Bhatia:

• https://sonalbhatia.com/
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

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Some of the most damaging leadership behaviors… look like high performance.

They show up as urgency, responsiveness, and high standards—traits many organizations reward. But over time, those same behaviors can create confusion, hesitation, and burnout.

In this episode, Chris sits down with Mita Mallick, author of The Devil Emails at Midnight, to explore the hidden patterns that quietly shape workplace culture. Drawing from her experience in both marketing and HR leadership, Mita unpacks how false urgency becomes normalized—and what leaders can do to interrupt it.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• Why “everything is urgent” is a leadership trap
• The impact of constant fire drills on teams
• Why silence in meetings may signal hesitation—not alignment
• How toxic behaviors get enabled inside organizations
• Practical ways to create clarity without creating anxiety

This is a conversation about self-awareness, accountability, and leading with intention—especially in fast-moving environments.

Connect with Mita:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/mita-mallick

LinkedIn Learning Course: Leadership Lessons from Bad Bosses 

The Book - THe Devil Emails At Midnight: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1394316488

If this episode resonates, follow The Reflective Professional and share it with someone navigating leadership through change.

Step into a realm where leadership breaks free of the traditional. Experience isn’t the only predictor of success—attributes are! Rich Diviney, Navy SEAL turned performance strategist, reveals how understanding and developing core attributes can revolutionize how we hire, train, and lead.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why relying solely on experience can hinder performance, especially under pressure
• How to identify and develop key attributes that make teams resilient
• Practical methods to assess attributes through scenarios and deliberate stress
• The power of shifting horizons and reframing fear to thrive in uncertainty
• Why your true talent and potential are found outside your comfort zone

Resources & Links:

• Masters of Uncertainty by Rich Diviney
• The Attributes by Rich Diviney
• The Attributes Assessment
• Rich Diviney on LinkedIn