044_Servant Leadership and Career Growth: Tammy Mifflin on Navigating Healthcare’s Evolving Landscape

Host: Jarvis T. Gray, The Quality Coaching Co.
Guest: Tammy Mifflin – Healthcare Leader, Entrepreneur, Business & Career Coach

Episode Overview

In this episode of Excellence in Healthcare, host Jarvis Gray welcomes Tammy Mifflin, an expert in healthcare leadership, career development, and entrepreneurism. They dive deep into what it means to be an impactful healthcare leader today, how to foster personal and professional growth, and timely opportunities and challenges in the rapidly-evolving healthcare landscape.

Key Topics Discussed

• Servant Leadership:
  Tammy shares her guiding leadership quote by Lao Tzu, emphasizing the power of humility and walking alongside your team. She highlights how transformational leaders must connect with their teams and lead by example.
• Tammy’s Professional Journey:
  Tammy discusses her 20+ years in healthcare—from sales and operations to leadership development—and how firsthand experience inspired the founding of her business, Lighted Lanterns Consulting, focusing on career coaching and talent management.
• Five A's for Career Preparation:
  Tammy introduces her actionable "Five A's" for career development:
  1. Alignment – Ensuring the job matches your values and goals.
  2. Achievement – Taking stock of your accomplishments.
  3. Adventure Out – The importance of networking.
  4. Action Plan – Having a roadmap for your career.
  5. Advocate – Knowing and communicating your worth.
• Game-Changing Trends: AI & Digital Health:
  The discussion explores how AI and digital technology are transforming healthcare—improving operations, expanding care through telehealth, and enhancing data-driven decision-making. Tammy notes the value of education and certification in AI for both job seekers and leaders.
• Personal Leadership Lessons:
  Tammy shares a candid story from her own early leadership days, reflecting on the pitfalls of focusing solely on personal achievement over true leadership, and how that experience led her to shift toward transparency, delegation, and building trust within teams.
• Mentorship & Legacy:
  Tammy highlights influential mentors in her own life and offers advice for those seeking or becoming mentors. She stresses the impact of quiet leadership and the importance of maintaining integrity, regardless of others’ actions.
• Biggest Challenges & Opportunities for Leaders:
  • Opportunity: AI and digital health are opening new pathways for improvement and career advancement.
  • Challenge: The workforce crisis—staff shortages, burnout, and the need for meaningful retention and succession planning strategies.

Connect with Tammy Mifflin

• Website: lightedlanterns.com
• LinkedIn & Facebook: Lighted Lanterns LLC / Lighted Lanterns Consulting
• Phone: 678-902-4622
• Email: contact@lightedlanterns.com

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Transcript

0:55

Hey, healthcare leaders. Welcome back to another episode of the Excellence in Healthcare podcast. I'm your host, Jarvis Gray, and today I am joined by an amazing guest. My hope is that we're going to talk a lot about career development, leadership development, kind of all of the things that we've really been leading with this season two focused on leadership excellence in healthcare. So I brought in a friend, a colleague, and an expert on all those areas, Ms. Tammy Mifflin. Tammy, how are you doing this morning? Hey, good morning, everyone. How are you? All right, so just for our audience sake, now, this is the

earliest I've ever recorded a podcast, but we are up at 7: 1:30

30 in the morning recording this conversation. But with all that, let's go and get into it. Tammy, are you ready to share with our audience of healthcare leaders? Absolutely. Let's do it. All right, perfect. Well, you know, I love to start every conversation, Tammy, on a high note. So I love to just ask, what's a favorite leadership quote or leadership mindset that guides you and how do you apply it on a daily basis? One quote I think that I love, I mean, I have several different ones, but the one that I like is by Lao Tzu. It's a Chinese philosopher. And the quote says to leave people walk beside them. And I love that because it focuses on servant leadership. It focuses on humility. It focuses on that. In order to lead your team and be a transformational leader, sometimes you have to get in the trenches. You have to understand where your team is coming from, and you have to understand how to move them from where they are to the next level and where you want them to be. So to me, that just speaks volumes about how you apply every day, right? When you wake up, when you show up, if you just think about that, you're making decisions. You know, for me, I have to remind myself sometimes, is that okay if I feel like I'm getting to that point where it's like, do, do, do. You have to take a moment and you have to step back and say, you know what, let me check in on, on the quality of the people that are working with me. Let me check on my teammates. How are you doing today? If you're not at your best, what's going on? What challenges are you having? How can I help? So that's one of the quotes that, like, for me, really stands out. It's very simple, easy to remember, and, and like I said, one that keeps you humble and keeps you guided by that servant leadership attitude. Well, I love that quote as a Starting mindset. You know, Tim, I shared with you that for this season of the podcast, we're talking about leadership excellence. I just think that leadership is an important topic given the state of everything, the environment, politics, all of the above, but especially how it's coming into our health care space. I've been getting amazing feedback from audience members and other guests about how this is such an important topic. But that quote, I mean, that one kind of hits home because I, I think about the great leaders that I've worked with. They weren't the ones sitting in their office telling me what to do or, you know what I'm saying, they were the ones that say, you know, what, what do you need? They're rolling up their sleeves, they're getting right to it with me or. And that's how I've always tried to lead my teams. And I hope that one really resonates with our audience to get us started. So thank you. I love that, love that quote to start off with. Thank you. So let's kind of jump into a quick background about you before we kind of get into some of our great topics that I'm hoping we get into today. I love Tammy. Just to get a quick walk through from your background, your focus as a healthcare leader and as a entrepreneur, a business and career coach, would love to just get a quick introduction and, you know, really help our audience understand why I brought you and your genius onto the show today. So I've been in healthcare pretty much since I was younger, right? I grew up, my mom works in healthcare, my sister worked in healthcare. And so I naturally just kind of transitioned into it. But the biggest thing is, is that, like I said, I've been in healthcare. I've worked in healthcare over 20 plus years. And I've been on the sales side, I've been on the operation side, I've been on the leadership development side. And so all of these things have really just shaped what, I guess my passion for healthcare. So I do have a passion for career coach and leadership development as well. And we'll talk about that. But just over the years, just transitioning from being in sales, being in the front lines, then coming behind the scenes in the operations and, and then just moving up. It was one of those things that really just shaped who I am. And the funny thing is, is that my company, my, like you mentioned, I was entrepreneur. The company I have, which is Light Atlantis Consulting, it was founded because as I was working in healthcare in leadership positions, we kept having people that came to us that needed career services or that was looking for a job and the resume may not have been up to par. I remember, unfortunately, one person showing up, didn't know was a hiring manager, walked in and what looked like pajamas, right, and was saying, hey, are you guys hiring? Had a resume, it was okay, but, you know, just the overall appeal. So I knew that there was a need for someone to coach and lead people because you could be the best candidate. But if you're not showing up on paper and also in presence, then it's something that's going to impact your ability to promote yourself, your ability to find a job. So that's what persuaded me to get into career services and career coaching in order to help people bring out the best potential themselves. So, again, healthcare has been ingrained in me from an early childhood, but overall, like I said, it's just, it also transformed and helped me create my business for career services and talent management. All right, well, and before I even kind of move into our real conversation, when I've been in roles where I'm looking at resumes and, you know, just hiring folks, all of the above. I've even had opportunities to go speak at universities at, you know, MHA programs for the younger generation looking to take their steps into the career path. When I say, you know, very similar, right? I've been in healthcare almost 20 years now, 17 years, roughly. And when I came into my work space right out of school and everything, it was simple. Like, LinkedIn was just barely getting started back in my day, and it was still all about resumes, but now the younger folks, they're having to deal with, you know, the LinkedIn, the digital business cards, the, you know, the access to social media, and the fact that hirers will look at all that stuff nowadays, I feel like it's. It's more confusing. I don't, I don't know if complex is the right word or not, but then I see the different disciplines. So management professionals versus clinical professionals, all of the above. I'm just curious, what are you seeing, like, in terms of how people are preparing? And I know I'm probably jumping on somebody. Like, I'm looking at my question like, oh, I don't want to jump a question, but, like, I see differences when I've tried to hire clinical professionals versus management professionals, but then how they choose to outreach to me or network with me, like, it's just a big gobbledygook. So I'm just curious, are there any just quick tips before we really get into the deep dive that, you know, do this? Not that or consider this, not that from your, your expertise. Yeah, I think there, there's five things that people need to consider and focus on and I call it my five A's. Right? You want to look at your alignment. Because a lot of people just go into looking for jobs for this is a paycheck, right? This is something that maybe they're looking at what job makes the most money. Granted, financial reasons is a great incentive in order to find a job, but if you're chasing that paycheck, it's going to result in a continual chase, right? You're not going to be fulfilled in what you do and you're pretty much going to hop from job to job. So you want to think about alignment with what you want to do, your values, your purpose, you know, kind of what your career goal is down the road. So you just don't want to think for the time frame. You want to look at your achievements. So you want to start thinking about what is it that I've done in my role. I can't tell you how many people come to me and it takes them a while to go back and think about what projects they worked on, what was the outcome, you know, and that's hard when you're trying to especially build a resume for someone. You have to know their history. Like, honestly, I tell people I'm about to get all in your business, right, when it comes to the resume, because I want to write in your voice, not mine, right? This experience is yours. So that's one of the things people definitely need to look at. You also want to, I call it a for venture out, which is AKA networking. Right. You want to make sure that you're networking with other people because if you're not, you could be missing opportunities. People that have a bigger network have a greater possibility of getting a job. Why? Because when they post that, they're looking friends, co workers, people they haven't maybe just met online. They're sending out and casting out that request and it lands in more in different places. So you're exponentially expanding your network. When you have your network and you're posting like that, you have to have an action plan. So the action plan is really just about again, what are my goals? How am I going to get there? If I want to be a nurse, do I have my degree? If I want to look at, do I want to be a travel nurse, do I need to get licenses in different states? So understanding what the requirements are for where you want to go, where you want to end up and Then how to get there and then also advocate for your worth. I can't tell you how many people interview and they just say, well, I'm currently making, you know, this. Or they don't even know really what they need in order to pay their bills on a regular basis. They just like, hey, I just need this. So whatever this number X number is right here, I need something around that or maybe a little bit higher. And I'm hoping it's higher. No, no. What you bring to the table, know you know your value and make sure that you advocate for that and ask for what you want. And understand, hey, this is what I need to break even, but this is what I'm going for. All right, fantastic. Not, not even, what, five, maybe 10 minutes into the conversation. I feel like you don't, you don't already laid it out so we could just stop the conversation. No, tell me now that that was fantastic. So I got Alignment, Achievement, Adventure out action plan and advocate for yourselves. And I mean, again, just in today's world where there's so many ways to try to hit people up for opportunities. Five A, five, you know, step framework, the five A's. I think that's a tremendous start for our listeners. Let me get back on script because I, like I said, I was so excited, you know, when I, when I reached out to you, I was like, tammy, I want to talk about everything. Let me get back on my script just to make sure I use our time wisely. Okay. You know, with that same mindset, with everything in healthcare evolving right now, Tammy, I would love just to get your expertise again. What's a trend in healthcare that you think is a game changer for our leaders? Today everybody is looking at AI and digital health technology, Right? So that is a game changer. Why? It's transforming patient care, it's streamlining operations, it's enhancing the decision making process. Right. When you think about as a leader, what you're trying to accomplish, you're going to have to eventually invest it and invest in some AI technology, right? I know there's a lot of security things that most companies say, well, don't use this, or you know, try to prevent their people from using it. And we understand that. Right. But there's still, it's always evolving. AI is continually evolving. So everything has a little bit of AI or automation built into it. Right. We think about your telehealth. Telehealth is expanding, expanding. You have more of your Amazon clinics, your Walmart clinics. So care where you live is one of the Things that's being impacted by this, right? Because we want to be able to 8 o' clock at night, 9 o' clock at night, we want to click on a screen and say, hey doctor, diagnose me. Right? Because we don't want to go to the emergency room, we don't want to wait there for extreme emergencies. Yes. But you know, you have a sick kid that maybe just caught a common cold. That's something that you want to look at. You also have predictive analytics. So with the predictive analytics, one of the biggest things for hospitals and health care systems is readmission rates. So there's chargebacks for that if a patient's readmitted within 30 days of being discharged. Right. So what you want to do is you want to try to eliminate that. So you want to look at what's the possibility of particular diagnosis, right? What is, what is our, you know, the area that's around us, you know, what do the people have? What's a common disease that's coming in. And then you want to look at different ways to be proactive in prevention, right. Not being responsive to it because you want to make sure that you are not, you know, experiencing those chargebacks and then just efficiency all around, right? We know, like I said, most of us are using automation in some form, whether it be text messaging systems, calls, different things like that. I went to a drive through a couple weeks ago and it sounded like Siri was talking to me through the drive thru. It was a little weird, but I was like, oh, wow, okay. So it's streamlining the process, right? And like I said, increasing that efficiency where we just, we're going to have to. Healthcare leaders, we being healthcare leaders, we're going to have to respond and make sure that we help our teams work smarter, not harder because it's all about easier processes. Why do we go through three different steps to get to one thing that we need to do when it can just be one? It's using AI and digital technology to figure out how can we make this easier for our teams so they can focus more on the clinical piece of it instead of more on the admin and the task that wears them out. We want them to be focused on. Patient care and just to, you know, tap into that career, you know, leadership career coach part of your, your brain as well. Do you see that being kind of the future job opportunities in health care is also connecting in, Hey, I took classes on AI or I got a certification in AI or I'm building these things in AI, which is why I'd be a good fit for this hospital, for this clinic, for this practice or anything. Absolutely. So AI certification or even just classes and knowing the system is a huge plus. You have so many different roles that are AI specific. Right. And so that's one of the things that, again, people are looking at. Even though it can be easy, it can be intimidating. Right. With some of the AI systems and just understanding the dynamics of them, understanding how do we, you know, make put this code in, so to speak, in order to get what we want out of it. So that is something that is going to be key and that is something that people are paying high dollar amount for. Right. Right now. Because again, it's not saturated, it's still growing, but making sure that it can transform the processes that they're trying to transform in any industry, not just in healthcare. That's fantastic. I can say for me personally, just even on the consulting side of things that I provide for my healthcare clients. Last summer, the summer of 24, essentially, that was me saying, okay, let me get my hair wrapped around this whole AI thing. And I mean, I went all in, watching the videos, I signed up for a couple of, you know, courses, et cetera. Now today I will say I'm at the point where I can design entire strategic plans for a lot of my clients. And I don't brag about it. So there's still this weird culture transition because some folks, you say AI and it's like you're cheating. And some folks, you know, you say AI and it's like, oh, can you send me, you know, your, you know, your programming prompts? Right. But I mean, I use it on a consistent basis with a lot of the clients I've built, you know, Ling Six Sigma courses, you use an AI customized to my clients and their needs, etc. So all that to say if I'm doing it on the entrepreneurial side to build my business or to support my clients. For any of our folks, whether you're in the entrepreneur space or if you're in the career development, you know, you're still building your career in corporate or whatever. With healthcare, AI is definitely going to be a thing to really grasp, to get your head wrapped around. So I appreciate that leverage. You know, Tammy, I love to kind of go into this, and I guess I want to open it up. Please feel free to make it a personal story or even if it's a story or kind of a lesson learned, you're kind of catching from any of the people you're supporting in their Career process. But, you know, with, you know, trying to grow your career, we're all going to face the bumps in the road. So I love if you could just highlight just a pivotal moment or a challenge again, whether it's your career or maybe some of the careers you observe with your clients. And just how did that experience help shape their overall approach to leadership or your approach to leadership? I have a great story on this, and it's a personal story. So when I first came into healthcare, well, like I said, I was in sales. And then I transitioned to leadership. And so when I first had my first leadership position, I remember one day I had my team. I was still learning, you know, how to lead just from that experience. And I was in my office. Typically I worked about. In Atlanta, you can live 45 minutes from something, but it take you an hour 20 or hour and 30 to get there. So I was living in one area. My drive was, you know, with traffic and everything, about an hour and 20 minutes. So I had to leave my house by 7am Usually I didn't get home until either 7, later than that possibly, and then just repeat all over again. And I remember it being a summer day. I remember this day like it was yesterday being like a summer day. And the sun was setting later, so it was nice outside. All of my team members had left at 5 o'. Clock, like they were gone. I was still there because I was working on things that they dropped the ball on. But because I wanted to succeed, I stayed behind to pick up the slack because it was like, oh, no, you're not going to make me look back, okay? And if you hear in that first part of the story, there was a lot of I, me, me. Like I wanted to succeed, right? It wasn't about the team and the operations. And so as I was sitting there and I'm like, I would like to go home, I would like to enjoy this time or go wherever, you know, you know, clock out at 5 o'. Clock. But here I am focusing on my success instead of leading appropriately. So I quickly learned that leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about listening. It's about staying calm in chaos. It's about being willing to roll up your sleeves with your team and not just for them. Right? That experience taught me the value of transparency over perfection and connection over control. Okay? Because I was trying to control the narrative for myself, not necessarily for the team or the company. It's like, I want to be successful. I want this, right? So today I lead with a boots on the ground mindset, not from the song with the fan and all that good stuff. Right. But because real trust is built when your team knows that you're walking with them through the fire right alongside them. Right. And not just whether it's to fix the copier, whether it's, you know, checking out, basically trying to clear up some. Somebody ate somebody's mislabel lunch, whatever the case is. Right. So it's making sure that you learn how to lead. So in that moment, I had to change my perspective. It couldn't be about me and I and all that stuff. Right? Right. There's no I in team, so it couldn't be about that anymore. And so I had to learn how to delegate. I had to learn how to hold people accountable for what they were supposed to do and lead from that perspective. Right. Instead of just like, okay, you're not doing your job, and now I'm just going to pick up the slack and I'm going to work myself to death because I'm trying to make myself look good. So that was a shift in mindset for me. All right, well, and I. I can resonate with that story personally. Just again, from my own leadership journey, I would be willing to assume a lot of our listeners as they are developing as leaders or if they've kind of reach their leadership positional height, but they're still. The personal development side of leadership could probably resonate with that story too, because, I mean, there is a internal trust factor that, you know, has to happen. Can I really trust these people? And then you have to look inside yourself. All right, am I putting them in a position where they can trust me? Right. Would you have any. Just quick insights on first steps to take, like, how do you start to build that resilience to trust and delegate and to communicate better, to set the right expectations? So now you all are driving as a team versus a bunch of individuals. Do you have any quick tips or anything you may have done personally to kind of start that leadership process? You have to get the pride out the way. Right. That is the first thing. Like. Like if you are prideful, it's going to lead to your downfall. Right. Especially that. So you have to be willing to admit when you make a mistake. Right. Some leaders can't do that. And they. They will kind of skirt around it, but really won't say, you know what, I messed up in this. And so your team needs to know that you're human. Right. They need to know that you care about them. You need to, you know, ask, hey, how was your weekend? What did you do? They may not talk to you and give you all the juice. Right. Of everything that they did, but it's one of those things where you really have to change, shift your mindset. For me, that was with, again, taking classes, reading books, talking to people that have been in leadership for a long period of time. Right. Just understanding how to be, I guess, enhance your EQ or your emotional intelligence. Right. Because without it, you're going to be a robot. You're going to be going through the motions, you're not going to have any sensitivity and your team can sense that. I've seen leaders that are great, that like you said, they lead because they're compassionate. I've seen some that are overly compassionate and the team doesn't respect them. Right. Or overly emotional. So there's a balance. But you know what's right for you. You can't pretend to be somebody else or try to lead according to what someone else does. You have to find your own pathway. And however that happens, you know, great. For me, again, it was books, training, prayers, you know, faith based. Just really digging in to understand how can I be a better leader? All right, perfect. Perfect. Well, again, I hope that one really hits home for a lot of folks, especially our newer or up and coming leaders that listen to the podcast, because again, 20 years in to my career and I'm still always looking for the opportunities to just continue to get better. The thing about leadership also is it's more than just work or business. This, you know, it permeates into our personal lives, right. So our family members get to benefit from this, spouses, you know, kids, whatever, whatever's going on personally. So it hits on all areas. My, my next question I want to throw to you, Tammy, is just for you and I, I want to set this up again. I want to get kind of the personal and the, the expert to come out on this. But for you, when you think about people that have influenced you and your path, what stands out, you know, what's a key lesson they taught you that others can benefit from. But then I'd also just very high level love for you to talk about the power of mentors, again from a career development standpoint and what that could look like for some of our listeners. So this is going to go way back. So one thing that has always been, which I think is a powerful leader was my high school principal, Mr. Dyson. He had this quiet strength about him. He never rushed, he was always intentional, and he knew how to show up for his Students without making a scene about it. Right. I'll never forget one day, remember the TI83 calculators? I think they're still around, but they had just kind of come out. Tammy, I just want to say we are probably clearly about the same age now if you're talking about TI83, because Lord knows I have. Yes. Anybody under the age of probably about 35 probably don't know what we really talk about right now. But, you know, back then when they first came out, it was extremely expensive. And so I had just got my TI 83. I was in. I think I needed it for pre Cal or calculus, one of those classes. And I had laid it down in the hallway, ran to the restroom really quick because the bell was about to ring for class, came back, it was gone. Okay. And so I was crushed, not just because of the calculator, but because I knew my parents had worked hard to pay for that and they need, you know, I needed it for school. So they were like, okay, here it is. This is your responsibility. Yeah, that thing was about 100, 150 bucks back then. Yeah, they were expensive. And so not your typical 5, $10 calculator. Right. So I was frustrated. I was emotional. And honestly, I was ready to give up on trusting people. Like, I was sitting there just balling in the hallway, right? And he came by and he was just walking the halls. He pulled me aside and he said, but not to give me a lecture, to say, hey, you should have done this. And. But he offered a different perspective, right? He said, not everyone's going to do the things the way you do them, but don't let that change how you show up. And that moment shaped me then, and it taught me about integrity. It taught me that it isn't about what others do, it's about holding on to my values when. Even when others fall short, right? So in leadership, it's easy to get cynical when people disappoint you when they forgot to do something, when they didn't do something that you needed. But I go back to his words and just really decide to choose character, even when it's not reciprocated, because I know that I'm going to be held accountable for how I show up and how I respond regardless of anyone else. And that's hard to do, right? Especially when you're a leader. It's easy to get frustrated. It's easy to, you know, bash your teammates and say, you didn't do this, you didn't do that. But you also have to be in you have to basically be reflective, internally reflective, right? Introspective. And you have to ask yourself, was there something I could have done differently to help this person show up? Right in that moment with the calculator, there was nothing I could have done, right? Whoever came by and took it, that is what it is. My integrity, though, was that, why are people like that? And so I had to shift that and just understand I can't control people. I can control how I respond to them. And then I can let my leadership and how I show up be a guiding light for those around me. Perfect. And speak on just overall mentorship for any of our healthcare leaders that have been considering it, thinking about it, you know, wondering any thoughts there? Because I know again, for me, when I was still on the corporate side of my career and wanting to figure out how to build, I held it in for. So like, I, I want a mentor, but I'm not sure how do I ask? We'd love to just get any insights, you know, from you on the mentorship phase as well. You just want to really look at what people are doing and how they show up, right. And then you just want to ask. Like I always tell people, if you don't ask, the answers are always going to be no. If you do, you have a 50, 50 chance, right? Yes or no. So the biggest thing is ask, look at what that person's accomplishing. And then it may not be an ongoing mentorship, right? It may be, can I shadow you for a day to see what you do, to see if I'm interested in this? It may be just a different department, like cross departmental, if you're working with a company. So as a mentor, on the flip side of that, you just have to make sure that you're educating and edifying the person that you're trying to coach and bring up. And not everyone, again, is going to have the same type of dynamic, same type of tactics and things like that, but you're still instilling in them based on how you show up, what it is that they should be doing. So. So it may rub off, it may not. But just really like I said, from a mentorship side, from the employee side or anyone that wants to seek a mentee side, ask, look for programs where there's mentors, you know, right. And then take value in it, have your questions prepared, listen and be ready to be transformed. And again, from the mentor side, just be a resource, offer advice, offer books, offer podcasts, whatever it is to get that person from where they are to the next Level. All right, fantastic. And you know, Tammy, when you are looking across the healthcare landscape today, I'm curious to ask, but what do you see as the biggest challenge that many of our healthcare leaders are facing right now? And on the flip side of that, what do you see as the biggest opportunity? We already kind of discussed the opportunity, which is AI and digital technology. So really just investing in that. The biggest challenge though is going to be the workforce crisis right now there's staffing shortages, there's burnout. Right. You have people that are just worn out. Right. Because as AI comes out, a lot of people are shrinking the workforce. So what does that mean for the people that are left behind? A little bit more work to do. Yes, AI is helping, but there might be some more things that you have to take on. So when you have those reduction in forces that can be lead to a lot of stress for your teammates. So you have to find ways as a leader to keep your team engaged, to keep them invested in what you're trying to accomplish. That could mean development programs. Right. We talked about secession planning before and we talked about part of that is understanding if somebody leaves the company today, who's going to take step in and take that place. A lot of companies do not have that plan in place. Right. Even they do may at the higher level. But think about in a location like a local office or something like that, you might have a general manager and then employees underneath that. But is anyone in that office able to step into that general manager position if that manager leaves? Right. What about from an RT perspective or respiratory therapist or nursing perspective? If I don't have a nurse, where am I going to find my resources? So you have to be proactive in creating the type of culture that people want to work in. And that's hard to do. And so it's really created a workforce crisis because when you get them in the door, you not only have to be competitive financially, you have to be competitive culturally. Right. You also have to make sure there's a work life balance because people don't want to work 24 7. Right. And you have to just make sure that again, you're helping them be the best that they can be in their job and not holding them back. Are you providing the right training for them when they come on? Are you providing the right training throughout to keep them engaged and to make sure that they can be promoted if that's the path that they want to take? So it's a holistic approach to workforce development that several companies haven't really Got the hang of yet. They're doing bits and pieces of it, but the more that they actually engage and the more that they understand that their workforce is their livelihood, then I think they're going to be better off. So that's definitely a challenge for health care leaders. Perfect. So, Tammy, again, I appreciate the focus of what you just shared there, the workforce crisis, as you, I mean, you put it perfectly. I mentioned I was just on site with some clients last week. We were talking workforce, we were talking succession planning and leadership development. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing personally, and I'm saying this as a person that goes on site with many healthcare leaders still not a large enough focus, in my opinion, around leadership development or other development things to attract and keep people within organizations. When I came up in healthcare in the early, you know, 2007-2010s, the organizations I worked with, that's all they did. They invested in us, they made us want to stay. Like, it was tough when I did start moving around in my career because I knew what I had at these organizations was very special. So I just want to double down on what you said. Like, I think right now is needed more than ever. I don't see it. Some of the executives that I was recently speaking with, every last one of them did not have a secession plan in place. Right. So there's, yeah, there's, there's a crisis coming for sure. So, no, no real point other than double down from a personal side of recent conversations and what I see in the work I do. But Tammy, let me do this. I love to shift you really quickly into what I like to call the rapid fire 2 minute drill of our podcast. But I always love to check, make sure you're ready to go before I start tossing questions at you. All right, let's do it. All right, perfect. Well, Tammy, the first question is a little bit of a two parter where I would love to ask what inspires you to do your best and then also have you share. How do you inspire others to do their best? So what inspires me to do my best is the idea that something I do can day an encouraging word. You know, just a hug, a hard decision, you know, a quiet act of consistency could change the room that I'll never walk into. It's like a ripple effect, right? That what, that's what keeps me going. Because legacy isn't always a about being loud, but it's lasting. Right. And so I want to know, and what inspires me is that every single action that I do today Whether I see it come to fruition or not, is impacting people, generations, teams down the road. So that. That's what inspires me. From there. Perfect. Love it. And this was going to be a tough one. Now, you already shared some amazing advice that you got from your principal, but I'm still going to throw this one at you. I love to ask, what's the best piece of career advice that you've ever received? Oh, that's a good one. I guess the best piece of career advice would be to. I would say pursue, not to pursue. Pursue your purpose over a paycheck. Okay. Because if you think about it, and we kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier, if you are pursuing a paycheck, you're always going to be pursuing a paycheck. Right. But if you pursue your. Your purpose, a lot of times the paycheck will come because you're living and walking in what you've been called to do. And so there is a joy and a fulfillment about that. So I think that was the greatest piece of career advice for me is, you know, yeah, paycheck's always going to be there. Right. So pursue your purpose over a paycheck, and then everything else will be added to you. All right. I personally wish I had gotten that career. That career advice earlier in my career process. I will say I came out of school pursuing paychecks versus purpose. I'm fortunate now. Yeah. In my business, it's all about purpose. And I've even turned down gigs because it didn't quite align. So. Absolutely. Yeah. Let me go off script again just to. To pull in your career coaching expertise. What's the best piece of career advice that you've ever given to someone? Oh, so this is. There was one person I was helping and she was transitioning from one career into another, and it was a tough transition. Right. And so the one thing and she was just like, oh, my gosh, this is so good, is that sometimes you have to take a bridge job. Right. And a bridge job is just. It may not lead you to your purpose, it may not do something, but it doesn't mean that because you take that bridge job that your blessings are going to be blocked or your career path is going to be blocked. Right. Sometimes we have to accept that bridge job. We just can't stay there. Right. We can't let it control us. But it was one of those things where she needed a job in between to get to the next step in her purpose. And so we did in that moment, unfortunately, you know, Think of a paycheck. But there was, there was a need for it. Right. And so that's what we went with. But it was with a plan and an understanding back. This is not about to be your final position. So you need to use that bridge to close the gap, but not lengthen it. Right. Don't, don't allow it to stop you from actually walking in your purpose. Use it for what it is at the moment. Be okay with that, and then understand that you're about to be beyond that. You just need it for this moment. Perfect. No, I love that. And, you know, just to connect that into our healthcare leaders listening to this. Healthcare is really good. Once you kind of get into a role and a background, you become that person, the quality person, the finance person. And we have leaders that want to move to other disciplines within their management or leadership path. So a bridge job, sometimes even taking a, a step down to take a step up. All of the above. Great advice. Great advice, Tammy, if you could rewind time, knowing what you know now, what's one thing that you would do differently in your leadership journey? I, I think we kind of touched on it, too. The advice that was given to me, I would have pursued my purpose earlier in life, hands down, because everything that came with the paycheck a lot of times always wasn't easy. It was difficult. It was hard. That, that's one thing. Another thing that I would have done is I would have been a little bit more confident in advocating my worth. Right. Which is why I'm so passionate about it now. I, I just remember so many people saying, oh. And I don't want to say so many select people, right? Saying, oh. For instance, when I wanted to go to medical school, I had a professor say, well, maybe you need to consider something else. You're. You're not going to make it. And it's like, whoa. Right? Or just having a manager who didn't believe in you. Right. You're out there pursuing, you're doing things, and they just kind of turn a different cheek. So really just understanding and advocating my worth and not letting anyone around me determine that. Right. So that's something. Two things. Like I said, walking in purpose and then walking in. You know, it's going to be one of my faith sessions, but walking in, what God called me to do, I am who he says I am, not listening to everybody else. And so that is something early on in my career. I wish I would have done a little bit differently just because I know it had some impact on my progression. Earlier on. But now that I know those things, it's a completely different story. The trajectory is so much greater than what it was. So I just hate that there was time wasted. But at the same time, I have no regrets because that time is what shaped me to get to where I am today. So everything has been basically according to plan. You had to go through it to even have the appreciation that you have right now. Absolutely. All right, Tammy, do you have a book, a podcast, or a publication that you could recommend that has just played a crucial part in your development as a leader? Oh, my gosh, yes. So my favorite book that I recommend to everyone, because it was recommended to me, is called the Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson. And it speaks to your calling, not just your career. The book helps leaders reconnect with their why. Right. In a world that's obsessed with performance and metrics, the book the Dream Giver brings us back to our purpose. That's where often, you know, the most transformational leadership comes from. Right. So if you don't understand your why, how can you develop and help somebody else understand theirs? So you have to, again, be introspective to that. And this book is a great, like, I, I read it multiple times. It even talks about barriers to your dreams. And, you know, one of the things I love, it uses the term border bullies, and it says, right, when you're on the border of your next right, you're going to have border bullies that are right there at that boundary, you know, trying to naysayers. You can't do this. That's not going to work. This, this, and this. So if you think about how many people have given up on their dreams, if you think about how many people, whether it be an entrepreneur or leadership, that have given up because of the naysayers. And I really kind of relate to this book because, again, as I just mentioned, there were some, a professor that was a naysayer, there's people that, you know, basically didn't believe in me. But it's one of those things where now when you believe in yourself and you understand what their purpose was, it was to distract you and defer you from what stepping into what your calling was. Then you understand on a different level that not you're unstoppable, you know, as long as you believe in yourself. All right, fantastic. I, I love these questions because, Tammy, I get to be the first to listen. So I, I've already written it down. I've not heard of this book, but I will be checking it out personally. First hopefully, again, that's going to be a resource that's going to resonate very well with our audience when we look forward to the next year. Tammy, I'd love to, to just ask, you know, what are you most excited about? And more importantly, how are you going to celebrate any of the wins that you achieve? So I'm not going to give away everything I'm doing in the next year because then, like, I don't want people stealing my ideas. Right. You know what they say you have to be quiet about how you're moving. So. Fair enough, fair enough. What I will say is that I'm really excited about walking fully in my purpose, continuing to walk fully in my purpose, and I'm ready to birth the ideas that I have, like I said, some wonderful ideas that I've been sitting on for some time because I truly think that they're going to serve people from resume to retirement, which is, which is my goal. Like, I want to get your foot in the door and I want you to stay there through retirement. So it's about that career services, it's about employee engagement that we talked about. It's about secession planning. So even after retirement, you have a plan in place for your team and your legacy to continue. So it's really about creating a generational wealth from a career standpoint, whether that be financially or spiritually. All right, I love it. And how are we celebrating? Celebrating? For me, it's about two things. It's about enjoying some. Some type of destination or vacation for my bucket list, and then also just really just being celebrating the people around me that supported me. The people, you know, whether it be a lunch, a dinner or something like that, really just showing appreciation. Right. Because all the things that happen could not have happened. So it's one of those things where I just like to give back, whether it be from volunteering, like I said, helping people, and even just again, supporting the people who supported me. So just making sure that it's tenfold and paying it back for all those who have supported. Awesome. Awesome. Well, you know, Tammy, I've known you for a couple of years now, and I've been watching the momentum. I've been watching your consistency. You are an absolute, you know, expert in the world of career planning, career coaching. So I can't wait to just connect or reconnect with you or at least hit you up in the next year and find out where you're going, because I know all those goals and those dreams are coming to fruition. Tammy, before I let you go, I'd love if you'd just be open to sharing the best way that our listeners can connect with you online, follow you, learn more about you and the great things you're doing, and then we'll officially sign off. Okay, they can connect with me via my website, which is lighted lanterns.com I'm also on the social media platforms Facebook and LinkedIn under Lighted Lanterns LLC and then also on LinkedIn at Lighted Lanterns Consulting. So of course, if they online, if you want to call, you can actually call too. That number 678-902-4622. So any way you can connect with me and email is info or contact lightedlanterns.com again, that's contactitedlanterns.com and I'll be more than happy to connect with you and help you any way I can. All right, fantastic. Well, Tammy, thank you again for your time, your expertise, just all the great insight, you dropping a ton of just truly valuable insights that I know are going to go a long way with our audience. For everyone, thank you all for tuning in and choosing the Excellence in Healthcare podcast. I truly hope again that Tammy gave you a lot to consider for personal development, for professional development. I want to encourage you all to stay tuned. Everything we're talking about this season is all about leadership excellence. And remember that leadership is all about influencing and inspiring others to achieve excellence. So until next time, this is Jarvis and Tammy, and we're officially signing off.