Who’s A Mentor That Shaped Your Leadership, And What’s The Best Advice They Gave You?
Ask yourself “Did I do everything I could to advance the company today, and did I make all the right decisions based on the knowledge I had?”
Probably for me, the mentor that helped shape me was Bill Schultz, who was the owner and founder of Seneca Medical. [Seneca Medical became Concordance Healthcare Solutions in 2016.] He and that staff recruited me when I was six months pregnant, which I gave him a lot of credit for, and he was just a very authentic, down-to-earth leader.
The advice he gave me was: People will question your decision-making and you will never be able to get consensus on every decision.
His litmus test was: Every night when you brush your teeth, you look in the mirror and you ask yourself the question, “Did I do everything I could to advance the company today and did I make all the right decisions based on the knowledge I had?” He's like, if you can answer that honestly to yourself, that's all that matters.
Can You Share A Valuable Lesson You’ve Learned About Building Strong Industry Partnerships?
Not taking yourself too seriously; try to see other people's perspective on a challenge, to have a better holistic approach to problem-solving
Not taking myself too seriously. And so, when I am faced with complex issues or complex ideas or challenges, I think I always try to understand other people's point of view in it, so that I can try to wrap my head around why a decision is made or what the possible outcome could be instead of just looking at it from one perspective.
So that's something that I've really learned to do. I was not great at it at the beginning. It takes work to step back and really try to see other people's perspective on a challenge. So that's something that I do actively, so that I can have a better holistic approach to how I solve problems.
If You Could Give Your Younger Self One Piece of Advice At The Start Of Your Career, What Would It Be?
Make the right decision, not the easy decision; and have some fun along the way!
It’s easy to cut corners and do things in the moment to solve an issue quickly. For me, it's more important to always make the right decision, right? Whether people are looking, whether people aren't looking, it's more important to me to follow my core values than it is for an easy win. So that's probably the thing that I hope people recognize about my leadership.
And, to have some fun along the way. I hope people remember that -- don't take yourself too seriously. Have some lightheartedness in your daily interactions with people and your staff. Life's too short to take it so seriously. This is just stuff, right? The minutes we have are limited. We should live them to the fullest extent.
Watch More: Healthcare Distribution Leadership Series