I interviewed Lyndsay Dowd this week on This Will Get Loud, and she said something that lodged itself in my chest:
“Trust is your currency.”
I lead inside a high-volume fertility clinic.
We live in numbers.
Consult targets.Cycle starts.Cancellation rates.Conversion.Performance.
There is nothing abstract about our KPIs. Families are waiting on the other side of them.
So when someone says “lead with heart,” I feel a reflex rise in me.
Yes, but.
Yes, but we have quotas.Yes, but patients are counting on us.Yes, but this is medicine. This is serious.
And yet.
I have also worked in environments where you wake up at 2am wondering if you sent the right email.Where your shoulders live somewhere near your ears.Where performance is driven by fear instead of belief.
Those places don’t outperform.
They exhaust.
Lyndsay talks about the difference between a leader who walks in like the new sheriff in town and one who goes on a listening tour.
One demands loyalty.The other earns trust.
The irony? The second one wins.
Every time.
Performance vs. Heartbeat
In healthcare, especially fertility, we talk constantly about performance culture.
But here’s what I’m noticing:
When someone feels psychologically safe…When they feel seen…When they are celebrated publicly for doing something well…
They don’t slack.
They lean in.
One of Lyndsay’s stories stuck with me: a leader who left Post-it notes on desks after great calls.
Not a bonus.Not a policy change.A Post-it.
And it changed the room.
Because people want to be seen.
I think about that a lot lately.
Not just as a manager.
As a woman.
As someone approaching 50.
As someone who has worn a lot of identities over the years and is asking quietly, What’s mine now?
Reinvention Is Not Reckless
Lyndsay was fired at 50.
She thought her career was over.
Instead, she built Heartbeat for Hire.
She talks about career security vs. job security.You don’t own your job.You can own your voice.
That one hit.
Because I think many of us — especially women — were taught to be grateful, steady, responsible.
Do the job well.Don’t rattle the cage.Keep the peace.
But there comes a point where you realize:You can do that… and still shrink.
Reinvention isn’t blowing up your life.
It’s remembering yourself inside it.
The Dinner Table Test
Here’s the line that might haunt me most:
“When you become a leader, you become the topic of someone’s dinner conversation.”
Oof.
What are they saying?
* Do they feel respected?
* Micromanaged?
* Ignored?
* Inspired?
At home, my kids talk about teachers this way.
At work, our staff talk about physicians this way.
In corporate life, employees talk about executives this way.
Leadership is not theoretical.
It echoes.
The Shift
This year, I’ve been letting the Ohio part of me back out.
Talking to the barista.Complimenting the grocery clerk.Celebrating someone’s LinkedIn win without irony.
It feels small.
It is not small.
Culture is not built in keynote speeches.
It is built in tone.In micro-behaviors.In whether someone feels like headcount or heartbeat.
We still need performance.
We still need metrics.
We still need discipline.
But fear is not a growth strategy.
Trust is.
And trust, apparently, is earned one Post-it at a time.
If you’ve worked for a leader who changed your trajectory - what did they do?
And if you’re leading right now…
What would your team say about you at dinner tonight?
To learn more about Lyndsay or to work with her, you can book a call with her here.
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