Nurses Are Good for Business: Expanding Leadership Beyond Healthcare

Cole Edmonson; Nancy Mannion

Cole Edmonson and Nancy Mannion lead the Nurses on Boards Coalition, and they came ready to show that nurses are good for business. Nancy walked me through the nursing process of assess, plan, implement and evaluate, and how naturally it carries into a boardroom. Cole traced his path from shared governance at his hospital to an anti-trafficking board in Dallas. We also talked about the coalition's more than 11,000 board placements.

Leading with Empathy: How Scott Kashman is Restoring Humanity in Healthcare

Scott Kashman

At 23, working at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Scott Kashman watched his boss get ridiculed at a legislative hearing and walk out with his composure intact. That moment still shapes how he leads. Scott told me why he asks for feedback and takes it without getting defensive, why he spends two or three hours at a time working inside other departments, and why his boardroom becomes a physician dining room once a month.

Leading with Humanity and Innovation: Reinventing the Role of Technology in Healthcare

Kathy Azeez Narain

Kathy Azeez Narain came to healthcare from American Express and quickly saw it as a human business, full of emotion, where technology should give doctors time back with patients. She argued that the quality of time matters more than minutes, and told me about a retiring labor and delivery nurse who still wanted to answer new mothers' questions online. Kathy also explained why she never accepts a regulation as the reason something can't be done.

Restoring Dignity and Human Connection in Healthcare

Scott Wolf

Scott Wolf has spent more than 30 years in healthcare and still describes the bond between patient and caregiver as sacred. We talked about how financial and workforce pressures pull organizations off course, and what dignity means for a nurse who lacks the tools to care well. Scott recalled a hospital transporter named Tony, proud of getting every patient to radiology on time, and made the case for payers, providers and patients sitting down together.

The True Value of Nursing: Redefining Economics in Healthcare

Olga Yakusheva

Olga Yakusheva is an economist who studies nursing, and her reason is personal. While caring for her dying mother in a hospital in Kazakhstan, she saw that nurses gave the care that mattered most yet were treated as if they mattered least. Her Nursing Human Capital Value Model treats nurses as an investment rather than overhead. She explained why hospitals end up renting nurses instead of investing in them.

Reimagining Healthcare: Trust, Trauma, and the Truth About Our Broken System

Sumita Yadav

Sumita Yadav trained as a physician in India, where her parents took great pride in having a doctor in the family. Today she sees clinicians spending hours a day on electronic records and moving from one trauma to the next with no time to process it, and she has watched surgeons cry in her office. Sumita asked whether we are choosing the right people, training them well, and giving them an environment built on trust.

Restoring Individuality in Healthcare: Leadership in the Age of Personalization

Greg Brannon

Greg Brannon has wanted to be a doctor for as long as he can remember, and after more than 30 years in medicine he believes healthcare standardized so much that the individual got lost. He remembers nurses who knew every patient and family before charting pulled them to the computer. Greg urged leaders to keep asking why, to read widely, and above all to listen to each patient's story.

Transforming Nursing Leadership: Empowering Through Personalization

Raelene Brooks

Raelene Brooks has been a registered nurse for nearly 30 years, and she believes a leader should read a team the way a good nurse reads a patient's room. She makes a point of asking quiet, analytical people for their thoughts, and has nurses map a pharmacist's day to see why a medication runs late. When accreditors asked her faculty about working with her, the words that came back were empathy and caring.

The Next Generation of Healthcare Leaders: Meaning, Mentorship, and the Future of Work

Glenn Llopis; Deevena Annavarjula; Lesly Leon; Natalie Stopfer; Keshaav Krishnaa

I recorded this one with Deevena Annavarjula, Lesly Leon, Natalie Stopfer and Keshaav Krishnaa just after they finished Cornell's Sloan master's program in health administration. A study says three in four young Americans prefer hospital careers to big tech, so I asked why. Keshaav left dentistry in India because there was more to fix than teeth. Natalie, once a behavioral health nurse, asked Santa for bandaids as a child.

Scaling Purpose: Why Capitalism 3.0 Begins with You

Rob Craven

When Rob Craven was six, his father learned he might have only a couple of years to live and set out to teach his son everything he knew, down to how to shave. His three lessons, make a difference, be bold and do what's right, became Rob's anchor. He told me he stands for his clients' personal fulfillment, not their business success, because the success follows, and explained what he calls Capitalism 3.0.

The Silent Crisis of Caregiving: How AI and Empathy Are Reshaping Home Care

Seth Sternberg

Seth Sternberg's company began with a small moment: his mother, who once collected speeding tickets, said driving had gotten harder. That led him to home care for older adults, where his team first interviewed caregivers in coffee shops. They heard people who wanted to be treated as professionals, who feared walking into unknown homes, and who could lose half their pay in a week. Seth also urged employers to offer parent care as they offer childcare.

On Call 24/7: The Accountability Nurse Leaders Carry

Lori Gunther; Nancy Travis

Lori Gunther and Nancy Travis took on one line in nurse leader job descriptions: 24/7 accountability. Lori told me about a nurse leader whose heart monitor showed trouble during one-on-ones with her boss, and who still dreads asking for a day off. Nancy, a nurse leader since the 1980s, calls the role monkey in the middle. Their asks of the C-suite were simple: round on your leaders, recognize good work, and listen.

Beyond the Operating Room: Reclaiming Dignity and Advancing Personalized Leadership in Healthcare

Amanda Saratsis

Amanda Saratsis trained as a pianist before she became a pediatric neurosurgeon, and on her first night in surgery the operating room reminded her of an orchestra. She is one of about 200 women board certified in neurosurgery in the United States. Amanda described how well-researched patients are changing the old doctor-knows-best relationship, and a frightened mother whose consent for her baby's urgent surgery took weeks of conversations.

Reimagining Leadership: The Shift from Authority to Authenticity

Danna Greenberg; Scott Taylor; Glenn Llopis

I asked Danna Greenberg and Scott Taylor, who teach organizational behavior at Babson College, to name the leadership crisis in one sentence. Scott's answer: we expect far too much of the individual. Danna traced the hero-leader myth to the 1980s. Scott told the story of a company's top patent innovator who wanted to develop people without managing them, and an HR leader who said the org chart had no box for that.