WittKieffer Impactful Leaders Podcast

In Interim Leadership, "It's Not About Me": Jeff Shilling

Interim leadership is a career path many executives are taking, including those who have served as senior administrators in higher education. Jeff Shilling thought he would transition into full-time consulting work after he transitioned out of a full time role in advancement, but instead found an opportunity as an interim leader through WittKieffer. He then found that he enjoyed a new way to use his expertise to help organizations through leadership transitions. A good interim leader needs a few simple qualities, Shilling says: 
Being comfortable in your own skin, so you're not intimidated by a challenging new interim role; 
Humility and the maturity to know "It's not about me" in an interim role; 
Curiosity and being able to say, "Let me know how I can be helpful." 
 

Impact at Scale: Ned Olney

Soon after taking the reins of Crotched Mountain Foundation in 2019, CEO Ned Olney and the organization made the difficult decision to close the iconic New Hampshire school that had served kids with severe disabilities since the 1940s, but that was no longer financially viable. "If we don't have the school, then who are we, what's our identity?" Olney remembered thinking. "What are we moving to?"  
In this Impactful Leaders Podcast, Olney speaks with WittKieffer Consultant John Fazekas about Crotched Mountain and what other nonprofits can learn from its bold vision for change. Olney's experience with Crotched Mountain is inspiring, which is apropos: "Take every single opportunity to inspire the people you serve," he advises. "If you can't inspire them, you'll have a hard time leading." 

Academic Medicine Dean Insights: Said Ibrahim, M.D., MBA, MPH

Dr. Ibrahim's story is an inspiring one, starting as a boy on the border of Ethiopia and Somalia, coming to the U.S. as a college basketball recruit, and moving on to medical school and ascending into leadership roles through hard work and passion. It's important for aspiring physician leaders and deans to adopt a growth mindset, he maintains, especially in regard to grasping both the clinical and academic realms of medicine today.
 
His insights, shared with WittKieffer's Aaron Mitra, FACHE, and Clarence Braddock, M.D., are included in our Academic Medicine Dean Insights series (part of the Impactful Leaders podcast). Academic medicine today is a "team sport", Dr. Ibrahim believes. In this conversation, he explores his own formula for success and shares advice for others to find winning ways. 

All in This Together: Erik Decker

While admitting to being a bit scared by every new career opportunity, Erik Decker has nonetheless continued to put himself in challenging situations where success wasn't assured. His advice for other leaders: "Your capacity to achieve is way larger than you think it is."
In this Impactful Leaders episode with WittKieffer Consultant Zach Durst, Decker – currently Chief Information Security Officer with Intermountain Health – reflects upon his journey from a high schooler who just wanted to be a follower to an inquisitive cell biology major in college to someone who was nudged into leadership by others who saw superpowers he wasn't aware of.
Decker has come to understand that leadership is about "releasing your authority" and empowering team members to all be contributors and decision makers. His team-oriented approach translates to his activities in raising cybersecurity resilience for the healthcare industry. As chair of the Health Sector Coordinating Council's Cybersecurity Working Group, he has pushed for tougher standards by which each organization's protections against bad actors supports collective efforts. "Set the system up so you have to beat all of us to beat one of us," he urges.
Decker and Durst also explore how CISOs and their teams can prove value and return on investment as cybersecurity threats increase almost daily. It's a "dirty world," he admits, one that needs everyone – both leaders and followers – working together.

Accelerating Physician Leader Impact: Jennifer Baccon, M.D., Ph.D., MHCM

As a pathologist, Jennifer Baccon, M.D., Ph.D., MHCM learned early in her career to appreciate and understand colleagues across the organizations she worked in – clinicians and non-clinicians alike. These experiences translated well into a philosophy of leadership that prioritizes the input of others in decision-making. "Listen first and then speak," she says. "A lot of leaders want to be in charge and tell people what to do. To me that's completely backward . . . Seek first to understand and then to be understood." 
Dr. Baccon is Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Akron Children's. She is also the organization's Medical Director of Value Analysis in Supply Chain, which illustrates how she has challenged herself as a physician leader to step outside her clinical comfort zone to expand her career opportunities. 

Delivering Results and Finding Reward in Advancement Leadership: Julie Lucas

Julie Lucas, Vice President of Resource Development at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes these two objectives define her work in advancement for more than 25 years and should be guiding principles for anyone who works in the field. Results are critical, of course, for any philanthropic leader, but creating community, unity, and enthusiasm around an institution's mission and vision are also imperative.
In this conversation with WittKieffer Senior Partner and Advancement Practice Leader Greg Duyck, Lucas shares the story of becoming enamored with the potential of advancement and development to make a difference in society. Today, Lucas has overseen some of the largest and most successful campaigns in higher education, including MIT's current Campaign for a Better World. Her success can also be traced to an interdisciplinary approach to fundraising, much like the traditional interdisciplinary framework of universities. "Everybody is working together" to generate the capital to keep the institution's mission-critical activities going. Lucas uses weekly "huddles" to get leadership and advancement team members on the same page by:
Setting goals and priorities aligned with the organizational mission
Ensuring role clarity
Encouraging partnerships and collaboration within advancement and across the university
Lucas is still driven by the same things that led her to advancement in the first place – to make a "meaningful and tangible" difference in the lives of others. She states: "What drives so many of us in higher education is a deep connection to the people we're working with and a shared dedication to the mission."

Academic Medicine Dean Insights: Sandra Wong, M.D.

Dr. Sandra Wong has a decorated C.V. and vast experience but, she admits, nothing can truly prepare a person to assume an academic medicine dean role. Six months into her position as dean of the Emory School of Medicine, Dr. Wong reflects on what got her here, and what success now means, in this podcast discussion with WittKieffer's Joyce De Leo, Ph.D.
The traditional path to a deanship (division chief, chair, associate dean, dean) may no longer hold, but that's okay, says Dr. Wong. Leaders learn from the unique experiences and peer advice that force them to be "comfortable being uncomfortable."
Good leaders also help their teams through change and uncomfortable times, with an eye on the "why" and the end goal of change initiatives. “If people really feel like their cheese is being moved for no reason, that’s a very different equation,” she says. Dr. Wong also believes that good leaders are good team members, "leave their egos at the door", and realize that leadership is not about them but about others.
Ultimately, success as a dean is not about perfection (especially in an era of high pressure and razor-thin margins in academic medicine), but about embracing the moment, she believes. "None of us get away without having some failures," she says. "Embrace those failures . . . learn from them and move on." She adds: "Stay in the moment. Enjoy the work that's in front of you."

An "Accidental Administrator" Builds Momentum for Change: Kumble Subbaswamy

As a youth in India, Kumble Subbaswamy was inspired by space exploration to pursue a degree in physics, which ultimately led to him to postdoctoral work in the U.S. He got a taste of leadership by being an active member of the academic community, which led from one opportunity to the next. "When you do a good job, you're rewarded by being asked to do more," he says. Ultimately, this path led him to a decade-long tenure as Chancellor of UMass Amherst, then to his current position as Interim Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs and Equity at the University of Massachusetts system.
In this Impactful Leaders podcast, WittKieffer Senior Partner Lucy Leske speaks with "Swamy" about his career journey and lessons he's picked up along the way, beginning with his chosen field. "Physics teaches you to look for the true essence of the problem and solve it first, and to not get lost in the complexity," he says.
Swamy has also learned that, to overcome inertia, the leader must exert force, make the case for change, and get all constituents (students, faculty, staff, trustees, alums, and more) on board. This is more important than ever, he says, as the public's trust in higher education has waned. "Leaders today have an uphill task to reverse this trend," he says.

Academic Medicine Dean Insights: Robert Golden, M.D.

Being a medical school dean is much more challenging than 20 years ago, believes Robert Golden, M.D., Dean of the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Things are tougher for academic physicians, researchers, and instructors, meaning deans "need to work harder, smarter, and longer." 
Despite the challenges, Dr. Golden takes them in stride and still finds tremendous reward in his profession. He leans on tried-and-true leadership principals ("Communicate, communicate, communicate") while maintaining a healthy perspective on his work, balancing the "crisis of the day" with long-range thinking and planning. He also exudes an infectious passion and sense of humor.
In this Impactful Leaders episode – the second of our Academic Medicine Dean Series – WittKieffer Principal Valerie Weber, M.D. (herself a former medical school dean) engages with Dr. Golden in a lively discussion of the tribulations of deanships as well as, more importantly, secrets of success.  

Accelerating Physician Leader Impact: Niraj Sehgal, M.D.

In his dual roles as Chief Medical Officer of Stanford Health and Senior Associate Dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, Niraj Sehgal, M.D. is afforded a unique perspective on the challenges facing healthcare today across the clinical and academic realms. Dr. Sehgal sees himself as an integrator and "bridging leader" who finds fulfillment in this dual clinical-academic capacity.
Dr. Sehgal's path to physician leadership was hardly predetermined and was fraught with "imposter thoughts" that could have derailed him. He persisted through a focus not just on himself but on others. This includes "the patient in front of me as well as the building behind me." Since his post-doctoral days at Stanford and M.P.H. studies at UC Berkeley, Dr. Sehgal has prioritized making the "building" of healthcare (i.e., the organization or system) stronger and better. This includes developing and supporting programs for physicians (including academic physicians, clinical investigators, and medical directors) to grow as professionals and leaders. 
In this conversation with WittKieffer's Michael Anderson, M.D. – part of the Accelerating Physician Leader Impact Series of podcasts – Dr. Sehgal reflects upon his own journey and lessons that other physician leaders may take away from it.