Episode 144: Letting Go to Lead with Shandy Welch

In this episode of the Healthcare Leadership Excellence Podcast, Shandy Welch returns to unpack one of the most powerful and personal leadership ideas we’ve explored yet: Shedding is not optional for growth. It’s essential for survival.

Shandy shares what it really means to let go, not just in theory, but in practice. From releasing a 25-year professional identity as a nurse practitioner to navigating institutional resistance to change, this conversation is both deeply personal and strategically relevant.

We dig into:

• Why reinvention is not failure, and how calling it “failure” is just a convenient excuse to stay small.
• How to navigate the emotional and professional weight of letting go, even when the world tells you to hold on.
• Five seconds of bravery: what it looks like for a seven-year-old girl on a mower, and what it means for you in a leadership role.
• The invisible cost of “30 priorities” and why great leaders must shed to focus.
• What it takes to lead change in systems that resist it and how to play the strategic game that unlocks forward motion.

This is one of those episodes you’ll want to bookmark, re-listen to, and share. Especially if you're holding onto something that got you here… but won’t take you further.

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