1. What have you found most challenging as a leader of a small or medium enterprise?

Our biggest challenge recently has been the economic slow down during the COVID pandemic.

2. How did you become a leader of an SME? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I have always wanted to contribute more than the provision of clinical healthcare services. I wanted to create an enterprise that would not only transform an aspect of healthcare delivery but also provide an opportunity for healthcare providers to extend their value beyond the bedside.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Excellent question! I begin each Day at 5 am. I begin with ME! I do not pick up the devices and begin scrolling! I begin by preparing my body, mind, energy, and emotion to set the ethereal balance that I need to achieve my best self for the day ahead. I call it BMEE time! I contemplate, meditate and go deep within my soul to calibrate all my systems! This is the most important part of my day. Everything that follows is the outpouring of that energy that I produce from within.

4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

Leaders have to LEAD! It’s ok to have great people around you but the old adage that to get the job done right, you have to do it yourself is true to some extent! But even more importantly, one has to be PRESENT! Thinks. It is about micromanaging, however, it is about providing prioritized direction. When leaders spread themselves too thin there is a loss in productivity. I have had to double down on prioritization of goals recently.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Without a doubt, The Southwest Airlines Way, by Jody Hoffer Gittell. This is a case study in the true power engine in any enterprise which is the PEOPLE! Choose them carefully, invest in them, nurture them! Lead them and at times even follow them! This is the essence of business success!

6. How do you build leadership capacity in an SME?

I have found that leadership is not given, you can’t manufacture it, it has to be cultivated. One of the most powerful tools is to challenge my team members and empower them to go way beyond what they could have ever imagined! The evaluations and surrogate taken are necessary, but performance under self doubt and uncertainty is an extremely powerful way to build leadership!

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader of an SME so far?

Recently one of my team members sent me a link to her website! She had herself listed as the CEO! My heart sang, because I felt I had a part in her motivation to follow her own path! That really validates all that I believe is my purpose! To help, to empower, to motivate, and create new leaders!