Latest / Something Extra / The Power of Integrity, Courage, and Communication w/ Sonya Engle

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The Power of Integrity, Courage, and Communication w/ Sonya Engle · Something Extra

• 0:01
  Sonya Engle: You know, it it does give me purpose, and I have to say that,
• 0:04
  Sonya Engle: our noble purpose is care you can trust, results
• 0:08
  Sonya Engle: that matter.
• 0:09
  Sonya Engle: And I love that, and it really resonates because there are
• 0:13
  Sonya Engle: so many patients, consumers, people on the other side that
• 0:17
  Sonya Engle: have this anxiety time until they get their results, and they're trusting that
• 0:22
  Sonya Engle: we care about them.
• 0:23
  Sonya Engle: That I'm thinking, for me, for everyone on our team, is thinking
• 0:27
  Sonya Engle: about what we can do to serve them.
• 0:29
  Sonya Engle: And that really aligns with who I am and and what I'm called to
• 0:32
  Sonya Engle: do.
• 0:36
  Lisa Nichols: It takes something a little more to lead with impact.
• 0:39
  Lisa Nichols: I'm Lisa Nichols, author of Something Extra, and this podcast
• 0:44
  Lisa Nichols: was inspired by our daughter, Allie, whose additional chromosome has shaped
• 0:48
  Lisa Nichols: how I see people in leadership.
• 0:50
  Lisa Nichols: Each episode features conversations with inspiring leaders from around the world
• 0:55
  Lisa Nichols: about what truly defines how they lead and serve others.
• 0:59
  Lisa Nichols: If you enjoyed today's conversation, please consider leaving a five
• 1:03
  Lisa Nichols: star review.
• 1:04
  Lisa Nichols: It helps more people discover the show.
• 1:07
  Lisa Nichols: And if you'd like to go deeper, my book, Something Extra, is available on
• 1:11
  Lisa Nichols: Amazon and through other major book retailers.
• 1:15
  Lisa Nichols: Today, I'm joined by Sonya Engle, a true powerhouse in the healthcare
• 1:19
  Lisa Nichols: and operational space.
• 1:21
  Lisa Nichols: She currently serves as the chief operating officer at Sonora Quest Laboratories,
• 1:26
  Lisa Nichols: where she oversees massive diagnostic workflows that impact millions
• 1:30
  Lisa Nichols: of patient lives every single year.
• 1:33
  Lisa Nichols: But beyond her impressive executive title, she's a passionate servant leader,
• 1:37
  Lisa Nichols: a champion for workplace culture, a dedicated community advocate,
• 1:41
  Lisa Nichols: and a resilient cancer survivor who brings deep lived experience
• 1:45
  Lisa Nichols: to everything she touches.
• 1:47
  Lisa Nichols: Well, Sonya Engle, hi, dear friend.
• 1:51
  Lisa Nichols: It is so good to see you.
• 1:54
  Lisa Nichols: Listen.
• 1:54
  Lisa Nichols: If we have to do a podcast together to get to see one another,
• 1:58
  Lisa Nichols: that's okay with me, but I just adore you.
• 2:01
  Lisa Nichols: I'm so grateful to you to make the time to be on the show
• 2:04
  Lisa Nichols: today.
• 2:05
  Sonya Engle: Lisa, I am thrilled, and I adore you.
• 2:08
  Sonya Engle: And you just inspire, and I'm so thankful for this time and
• 2:13
  Sonya Engle: excited to be with you today.
• 2:15
  Lisa Nichols: And we're gonna have fun, and there's a lot to Sonya.
• 2:18
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, my goodness, Sonya.
• 2:19
  Lisa Nichols: So you lead Sonora Quest Laboratories as the COO.
• 2:23
  Lisa Nichols: I think you relocated from California to Arizona in about twenty
• 2:28
  Lisa Nichols: nineteen to take on that role.
• 2:31
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 2:31
  Lisa Nichols: And so there's just a lot to you, big responsibilities.
• 2:34
  Lisa Nichols: We're gonna talk about that.
• 2:36
  Lisa Nichols: Can you just real quickly, before we get into it, and then I'm gonna
• 2:40
  Lisa Nichols: get into kind of when you were eight years old.
• 2:42
  Lisa Nichols: We're gonna go all the way back to when you were eight.
• 2:45
  Lisa Nichols: But tell our listeners, Sonora Quest, it's huge.
• 2:49
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, you guys got thirty two hundred employees.
• 2:52
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, tell us a little bit more about,
• 2:55
  Lisa Nichols: about Sonora.
• 2:56
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
• 2:57
  Sonya Engle: Quickly.
• 2:57
  Sonya Engle: Sonora Quest, is the largest integrated laboratory network in
• 3:01
  Sonya Engle: the US.
• 3:02
  Sonya Engle: And what that means is laboratory testing is information.
• 3:06
  Sonya Engle: Right?
• 3:07
  Sonya Engle: When you go get your blood drawn or if you have a biopsy for
• 3:11
  Sonya Engle: cancer, there's valuable information that the laboratory testing
• 3:15
  Sonya Engle: professionals,
• 3:16
  Sonya Engle: perform analysis to give you information.
• 3:19
  Sonya Engle: And what I, like to say is we're behind the scenes, but we
• 3:24
  Sonya Engle: are unlocking powerful information.
• 3:26
  Sonya Engle: Seventy percent of the insights that doctors use to make
• 3:30
  Sonya Engle: decisions about you as a patient come from
• 3:34
  Sonya Engle: laboratory test.
• 3:35
  Sonya Engle: We do about a million tests per year.
• 3:37
  Sonya Engle: It's Son ora Quest laboratory. (Editor's Note: 100 million tests per year)
• 3:39
  Lisa Nichols: A million tests per year.
• 3:42
  Sonya Engle: Yes.
• 3:43
  Lisa Nichols: That's phenomenal.
• 3:44
  Lisa Nichols: I had no idea that it was that that many.
• 3:47
  Lisa Nichols: That is that so you guys are really kind of that,
• 3:51
  Lisa Nichols: like you said, that one that's really given sites to the physicians
• 3:55
  Lisa Nichols: on how to treat.
• 3:56
  Lisa Nichols: It's just so important.
• 3:58
  Lisa Nichols: And you can even there's so much predictive stuff right now.
• 4:02
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 4:02
  Lisa Nichols: And predictive tests even see, you know, are are do you have the gene
• 4:06
  Lisa Nichols: for Alzheimer's or, you know, the BRCA gene or, you know,
• 4:12
  Lisa Nichols: those kind of things.
• 4:13
  Sonya Engle: Spot on, Lisa.
• 4:14
  Sonya Engle: And it's so not just being a patient, but to your point, being
• 4:18
  Sonya Engle: an informed consumer and knowing that your genetic information doesn't change.
• 4:22
  Sonya Engle: And we have genetics tests that help you to see if you can
• 4:26
  Sonya Engle: process or metabolize medication so that
• 4:31
  Sonya Engle: you're not potentially taking medication that, isn't gonna be effective
• 4:35
  Sonya Engle: in your body or maybe even harmful.
• 4:37
  Lisa Nichols: Harmful.
• 4:38
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 4:38
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 4:39
  Lisa Nichols: Oh, goodness.
• 4:39
  Lisa Nichols: So important.
• 4:41
  Lisa Nichols: That's got to give you so much purpose every day.
• 4:44
  Lisa Nichols: Sonya, knowing that you're in an organization like that that is truly
• 4:49
  Lisa Nichols: affecting lives.
• 4:50
  Sonya Engle: You know, it it does give me purpose, and I have to say that,
• 4:53
  Sonya Engle: our noble purpose is care you can trust, results
• 4:57
  Sonya Engle: that matter.
• 4:59
  Sonya Engle: And I love that, and it really resonates because there are
• 5:03
  Sonya Engle: so many patients, consumers, people on the other side that
• 5:07
  Sonya Engle: have this anxiety time until they get their results, and they're trusting that
• 5:11
  Sonya Engle: we care about them.
• 5:13
  Sonya Engle: That I'm thinking, for me, for everyone on our team, is
• 5:17
  Sonya Engle: thinking about what we can do to serve them.
• 5:19
  Sonya Engle: And that really aligns with who I am and and what I'm called to
• 5:22
  Sonya Engle: do.
• 5:23
  Lisa Nichols: Well okay.
• 5:24
  Lisa Nichols: So that's the perfect segue.
• 5:25
  Lisa Nichols: Thank you for setting me up, because I want you to go back to
• 5:29
  Lisa Nichols: when you were eight years old.
• 5:30
  Sonya Engle: Okay.
• 5:31
  Lisa Nichols: And you figured out when you were eight years old that helping
• 5:36
  Lisa Nichols: was part of your gonna be part of your calling and helping people.
• 5:39
  Lisa Nichols: You know, you I think you worked I think it was a friend of
• 5:43
  Lisa Nichols: your family that had a medical practice.
• 5:46
  Lisa Nichols: And what were you doing at eight years old, Sonya?
• 5:51
  Sonya Engle: I know.
• 5:51
  Sonya Engle: That sounds crazy.
• 5:53
  Sonya Engle: It does.
• 5:54
  Sonya Engle: What were you doing?
• 5:55
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
• 5:55
  Sonya Engle: There there were child labor laws.
• 5:57
  Sonya Engle: Right?
• 5:58
  Sonya Engle: Yes.
• 5:58
  Sonya Engle: Yes.
• 6:00
  Sonya Engle: You know, we,
• 6:02
  Sonya Engle: my my parents were teenagers when they got married.
• 6:05
  Sonya Engle: So they they met
• 6:07
  Sonya Engle: in French class in high school.
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  Sonya Engle: They didn't know what they were doing.
• 6:10
  Sonya Engle: They were literally just out of high school.
• 6:12
  Sonya Engle: And I am so thankful for people like, this family friend who
• 6:16
  Sonya Engle: was like a grandfather to me that,
• 6:20
  Sonya Engle: allowed me on Saturday afternoons to to shadow him.
• 6:24
  Sonya Engle: So that kind of inspired the the interest and desire to
• 6:29
  Sonya Engle: be in health care, but, really to serve because he was, originally
• 6:33
  Sonya Engle: an educator.
• 6:34
  Sonya Engle: He was a a teacher and he went back to school to become a
• 6:36
  Sonya Engle: medical doctor.
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  Sonya Engle: But my little job at eight years old was putting cotton balls
• 6:42
  Sonya Engle: in, each exam room, a little bit of filing.
• 6:45
  Sonya Engle: And I took that job so seriously that, I just
• 6:49
  Sonya Engle: said Saturday morning, I need to get to work.
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  Sonya Engle: That's the way I started my work ethic, I think, pretty, pretty early
• 6:56
  Sonya Engle: on, but that's the way God made me.
• 6:59
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 7:00
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 7:01
  Lisa Nichols: And to your point, it really inspired your love for health care.
• 7:04
  Lisa Nichols: In fact, I think I read that you originally thought you wanted to be
• 7:08
  Lisa Nichols: a physician.
• 7:09
  Lisa Nichols: I did.
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  Sonya Engle: And, you know, it was those early days
• 7:14
  Sonya Engle: of, seeing what it's like to to interact with patients.
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  Sonya Engle: And then I thought that would be something like because I've always been a
• 7:21
  Sonya Engle: people person.
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  Sonya Engle: My buyers break, I'm an extreme, extrovert.
• 7:24
  Sonya Engle: No surprise like you, Lisa.
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  Sonya Engle: I'm sure.
• 7:26
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
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  Sonya Engle: But so that that made me think that I want to be, a a
• 7:33
  Sonya Engle: physician.
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  Sonya Engle: And I actually, when I went to, undergrad,
• 7:38
  Sonya Engle: I went to University of Maryland, grew up in Philadelphia.
• 7:41
  Sonya Engle: It's a whole another story.
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  Sonya Engle: But I I started off,
• 7:46
  Sonya Engle: engineering.
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  Sonya Engle: My dad was an electrical engineer, and I thought I wanted to be like
• 7:49
  Sonya Engle: my dad.
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  Sonya Engle: You know, when you're that young, you don't know what you wanna do.
• 7:51
  Lisa Nichols: You don't know.
• 7:52
  Lisa Nichols: You don't even know what it means to be an electrical engineer or anything.
• 7:56
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 7:56
  Lisa Nichols: So it's like, oh, I'll do what my dad does.
• 7:58
  Sonya Engle: Exactly.
• 7:59
  Sonya Engle: And and so I'm thankful that, through that exposure, I was literally in,
• 8:04
  Sonya Engle: a program called the, pre engineer exposure program.
• 8:08
  Sonya Engle: And so, again, as a teenager, doing my air quote work in my little
• 8:12
  Sonya Engle: job, I Yeah.
• 8:14
  Sonya Engle: Had, the the boss at that time, first day of work
• 8:18
  Sonya Engle: there say, Sony sent me down in his office, and, he
• 8:22
  Sonya Engle: said, work for pay and pay for work.
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  Sonya Engle: Any questions?
• 8:28
  Sonya Engle: I said, no.
• 8:29
  Sonya Engle: And he sent me on.
• 8:31
  Sonya Engle: So, you know, so I I went into undergrad
• 8:35
  Sonya Engle: with, a love for people, a love or interest in science,
• 8:39
  Sonya Engle: whether it be engineering or or pre med.
• 8:42
  Sonya Engle: And and I found that I was young and immature, and, I
• 8:46
  Sonya Engle: really didn't buckle down and get really serious.
• 8:50
  Sonya Engle: And so I was at a fork in the road, a decision point,
• 8:56
  Sonya Engle: had would need to, like, get serious about school if I was gonna be
• 9:00
  Sonya Engle: a doctor.
• 9:00
  Sonya Engle: And it just wasn't in in me.
• 9:02
  Sonya Engle: It wasn't my heart, and I was in school myself.
• 9:05
  Sonya Engle: And I just could not see, incurring all that debt
• 9:09
  Sonya Engle: and t rying to, I guess, buck against my nature because I
• 9:13
  Sonya Engle: just wanted to hang out and have fun, rather than do what I needed
• 9:17
  Sonya Engle: to do.
• 9:18
  Sonya Engle: So I ended up switching to business, which I also really enjoy business
• 9:22
  Sonya Engle: at an early age.
• 9:23
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 9:24
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 9:25
  Lisa Nichols: Well, I think you started on the front lines, I read, as a specimen
• 9:29
  Lisa Nichols: processor.
• 9:32
  Lisa Nichols: And I love that you did that.
• 9:34
  Lisa Nichols: I love that you started on the front lines o f that,
• 9:38
  Lisa Nichols: you know, Sonya, because I just believe it's like I don't know.
• 9:42
  Lisa Nichols: I just know so many leaders that have risen, you know, through
• 9:46
  Lisa Nichols: the ranks, and they started, like, where like,
• 9:50
  Lisa Nichols: you know, on that front line right where the business happens.
• 9:54
  Lisa Nichols: So I love it.
• 9:55
  Lisa Nichols: So how do you think that experience shaped you as the leader
• 9:59
  Lisa Nichols: that you are today, starting on the front lines like that?
• 10:02
  Sonya Engle: I strongly recommend it.
• 10:04
  Sonya Engle: I mean, there wasn't a show called Undercover Boss back in those days.
• 10:07
  Sonya Engle: So Right.
• 10:08
  Sonya Engle: I think that, if nothing else, you get an
• 10:12
  Sonya Engle: understanding, soup to nuts, how the process works.
• 10:17
  Sonya Engle: So that was true for me.
• 10:19
  Sonya Engle: And, when I started in that was an entry level job.
• 10:23
  Sonya Engle: This was way back.
• 10:25
  Sonya Engle: I won't say when, but I wasn't the fastest person,
• 10:30
  Sonya Engle: in terms of productivity.
• 10:33
  Sonya Engle: But quality, I was on top.
• 10:35
  Sonya Engle: And I can remember having conversations with my boss and saying, well, there's
• 10:39
  Sonya Engle: a patient on the other side.
• 10:40
  Sonya Engle: I gotta get this right.
• 10:41
  Sonya Engle: And so that really informed, the way
• 10:45
  Sonya Engle: I understood
• 10:48
  Sonya Engle: the work that we do and how important it is that we do it
• 10:52
  Sonya Engle: right.
• 10:53
  Sonya Engle: And because fast and wrong doesn't help.
• 10:56
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 10:56
  Lisa Nichols: Well, I'm glad that that's your highest value.
• 10:59
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
• 10:59
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
• 11:00
  Lisa Nichols: When you're talking about patient care, quality needs to be at
• 11:04
  Lisa Nichols: the top, really.
• 11:05
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 11:06
  Lisa Nichols: So not necessarily being fast.
• 11:09
  Lisa Nichols: You know, were there ever moments, Sonya, when you look back through your career,
• 11:13
  Lisa Nichols: because you've done a lot.
• 11:14
  Lisa Nichols: You've done a lot.
• 11:17
  Lisa Nichols: Were there ever moments where you're like, I could never have imagined myself being
• 11:20
  Lisa Nichols: here, or was it more like I I knew I
• 11:25
  Lisa Nichols: would be somewhere in this you know, because of that
• 11:29
  Lisa Nichols: that early experience of knowing that you love to help people.
• 11:32
  Sonya Engle: You know, Lisa, I love that question, and I've thought about it so much
• 11:36
  Sonya Engle: throughout my career.
• 11:38
  Sonya Engle: I was the first born, and my brother was almost five years younger than
• 11:41
  Sonya Engle: me.
• 11:42
  Sonya Engle: So I enjoyed being in that leadership position.
• 11:45
  Sonya Engle: And for reasons, that were beyond my control,
• 11:49
  Sonya Engle: I grew up with just my dad and my brother.
• 11:51
  Sonya Engle: So my mom w asn't there.
• 11:54
  Sonya Engle: And I just had all this responsibility, and I I welcomed
• 11:58
  Sonya Engle: it, and I took it really seriously.
• 12:00
  Sonya Engle: And so there was, you know, a time pretty early in in my career.
• 12:04
  Sonya Engle: It was actually my first promotion.
• 12:07
  Sonya Engle: I was twenty one years old, and I became a supervisor of a small
• 12:11
  Sonya Engle: group in a stat lab.
• 12:12
  Sonya Engle: And, I had, I was leaving work one evening, and a
• 12:16
  Sonya Engle: young lady said to me, how'd you get that promotion?
• 12:20
  Sonya Engle: And I said, what do you mean?
• 12:21
  Sonya Engle: She said, they don't promote us.
• 12:24
  Sonya Engle: And she was a black woman like me, and I
• 12:28
  Sonya Engle: just did not think that way.
• 12:31
  Sonya Engle: And so, what I saw in that moment
• 12:35
  Sonya Engle: is that I saw leadership as an opportunity,
• 12:39
  Sonya Engle: a privilege, and my
• 12:43
  Sonya Engle: mindset started to shift because I had started at that point,
• 12:47
  Sonya Engle: when I got this early promotion, I set my
• 12:52
  Sonya Engle: target really high.
• 12:54
  Sonya Engle: I literally with my little supervisor business card on my dream board,
• 12:58
  Sonya Engle: I made little business cards from supervisor to manager, to regional, to vice president,
• 13:03
  Sonya Engle: to CEO.
• 13:04
  Sonya Engle: That was really the dream that I set pretty early on, but then it
• 13:07
  Sonya Engle: occurred to me that it's not just about me.
• 13:11
  Sonya Engle: And so it made me realize,
• 13:15
  Sonya Engle: at various points in my career, my journey, that
• 13:20
  Sonya Engle: this is not about me.
• 13:22
  Sonya Engle: And that was so powerful and freeing and, in that
• 13:26
  Sonya Engle: moment.
• 13:26
  Sonya Engle: And then it continues to be like a daily, you know, look myself in
• 13:30
  Sonya Engle: the mirror and say, it's not about you.
• 13:31
  Sonya Engle: What does God have you to do today in this responsibility that
• 13:35
  Sonya Engle: your kid gives you?
• 13:37
  Lisa Nichols: Sonya.
• 13:38
  Lisa Nichols: Oh my goodness.
• 13:39
  Lisa Nichols: I can sell that so resonates with me.
• 13:41
  Lisa Nichols: Because I think when you're younger or at least in my experience,
• 13:45
  Lisa Nichols: it was more about climbing the ladder and but there is a point where
• 13:49
  Lisa Nichols: you come and you're like, no.
• 13:51
  Lisa Nichols: I am here to serve.
• 13:53
  Lisa Nichols: And to your point, this is not at all about me.
• 13:56
  Lisa Nichols: This is about who I can carry with me, you know, along the
• 14:01
  Lisa Nichols: way and, how am I serving the team.
• 14:03
  Lisa Nichols: And, yeah, I remind myself of that all the time.
• 14:07
  Lisa Nichols: And it really, honestly,
• 14:10
  Lisa Nichols: it's there's so much more joy i n that.
• 14:14
  Lisa Nichols: If you think it's all about you, I mean, there's really no joy
• 14:18
  Lisa Nichols: in that.
• 14:19
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, there really isn't.
• 14:20
  Lisa Nichols: But when you know that you've helped another person or,
• 14:25
  Lisa Nichols: you know, seen them on their career trajectory and helped guide them,
• 14:30
  Lisa Nichols: there's nothing that gives you more joy than that.
• 14:32
  Sonya Engle: I completely agree.
• 14:33
  Sonya Engle: There is more joy and satisfaction.
• 14:37
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 14:38
  Lisa Nichols: Because Yes.
• 14:39
  Sonya Engle: I don't know about you.
• 14:41
  Sonya Engle: I know a little bit about you.
• 14:42
  Sonya Engle: You are a very driven and talented person when it's about
• 14:47
  Sonya Engle: me.
• 14:47
  Sonya Engle: So I was a an athlete.
• 14:49
  Sonya Engle: So I loved, I played field hockey.
• 14:53
  Lisa Nichols: Competing.
• 14:53
  Sonya Engle: I loved competing.
• 14:54
  Sonya Engle: I played tennis.
• 14:56
  Sonya Engle: But when it's just about me and the score, there's always there's always
• 15:00
  Sonya Engle: more.
• 15:00
  Sonya Engle: You're always striving.
• 15:02
  Lisa Nichols: Isn't that the truth?
• 15:03
  Sonya Engle: When it's not about you, it can be about what does success
• 15:08
  Sonya Engle: look like in the eyes of the person that you're serving, whether it be
• 15:11
  Sonya Engle: a customer, a patient, your employees.
• 15:14
  Sonya Engle: As a leader, we are servants.
• 15:16
  Sonya Engle: We serve and care for and shepherd and develop
• 15:20
  Sonya Engle: and love on our people.
• 15:24
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 15:25
  Lisa Nichols: Could not agree more.
• 15:26
  Lisa Nichols: No.
• 15:27
  Lisa Nichols: I I love that.
• 15:28
  Lisa Nichols: And to your point, when it is about you, it's like, okay.
• 15:31
  Lisa Nichols: That next thing and it's like, boy, that's empty at the end of the
• 15:35
  Lisa Nichols: day, And it's never enough.
• 15:37
  Lisa Nichols: It's so new.
• 15:38
  Lisa Nichols: No.
• 15:38
  Lisa Nichols: It's never enough when you have that kind of mindset.
• 15:41
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 15:42
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 15:45
  Lisa Nichols: Well, what lessons did you learn, you know, through
• 15:49
  Lisa Nichols: your and we've just talked about one.
• 15:51
  Lisa Nichols: But are there other lessons that you learned earlier on in your career that
• 15:55
  Lisa Nichols: serve you now as the COO?
• 15:57
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
• 15:58
  Sonya Engle: So one lesson that,
• 16:02
  Sonya Engle: just I love is there was a CEO,
• 16:07
  Sonya Engle: Ken Freeman, is his name, and he's world renowned respected.
• 16:12
  Sonya Engle: And I had, the privilege to, in a company at that time
• 16:16
  Sonya Engle: of seventeen thousand,
• 16:18
  Sonya Engle: he granted me an interview.
• 16:21
  Sonya Engle: And so, I had a list of questions, and
• 16:25
  Sonya Engle: I just stayed to the questions.
• 16:27
  Sonya Engle: I felt like this big CEO, you know, this, you
• 16:31
  Sonya Engle: know, publicly traded important company.
• 16:34
  Sonya Engle: I can't wait for your time.
• 16:36
  Sonya Engle: And so I stayed to the scripted questions, and
• 16:40
  Sonya Engle: there was so much that I really wanted to know about him.
• 16:43
  Sonya Engle: And I stayed to the questions, but I didn't really get to dig into
• 16:46
  Sonya Engle: the things I was really curious about.
• 16:48
  Sonya Engle: Well, fast forward many years later, when I guess I was more
• 16:52
  Sonya Engle: confident, had, you know, nothing to lose.
• 16:54
  Sonya Engle: I reached out to him.
• 16:56
  Sonya Engle: I wasn't more he was, now a professor, at
• 17:01
  Sonya Engle: a university in Boston.
• 17:02
  Sonya Engle: And so I just reached out and said, you know,
• 17:06
  Sonya Engle: fifteen years ago, I interviewed you, and I
• 17:10
  Sonya Engle: didn't ask you the things that I really want to know.
• 17:13
  Sonya Engle: He replied to my email and said he would grant another
• 17:17
  Sonya Engle: interview.
• 17:18
  Sonya Engle: There's the two of us, and it was a phone call.
• 17:21
  Sonya Engle: And I asked questions.
• 17:23
  Lisa Nichols: Give me an example.
• 17:24
  Sonya Engle: Oh, well, okay.
• 17:25
  Sonya Engle: So one of the things I remember was
• 17:29
  Sonya Engle: leadership,
• 17:31
  Sonya Engle: public speaking, for example, that he had attended this
• 17:35
  Sonya Engle: professional
• 17:37
  Sonya Engle: training seventeen times.
• 17:39
  Sonya Engle: And that was what, you know, was urban legend.
• 17:41
  Sonya Engle: He said at least seventeen times.
• 17:43
  Sonya Engle: So one lesson was
• 17:46
  Sonya Engle: professionals, leaders, and he was a brilliant communicator.
• 17:49
  Sonya Engle: He was authentic, clear, finance by
• 17:54
  Sonya Engle: background, but moved on to be CEO.
• 17:56
  Sonya Engle: So I think he had a balance of the the facts and data, but
• 17:59
  Sonya Engle: then had a very approachable way about him
• 18:03
  Sonya Engle: that, made his communication amazing.
• 18:05
  Sonya Engle: So I didn't think he needed seventeen times or even more than that,
• 18:09
  Sonya Engle: but that was, I think, honing his craft and
• 18:14
  Sonya Engle: making sure that he was the best he could be.
• 18:15
  Sonya Engle: So that was just one example.
• 18:17
  Sonya Engle: There are so many more.
• 18:19
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 18:20
  Lisa Nichols: He was sharpening the saw.
• 18:22
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 18:22
  Lisa Nichols: We gotta always be sharpening the saw.
• 18:24
  Lisa Nichols: Absolutely.
• 18:25
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 18:25
  Lisa Nichols: And getting better.
• 18:27
  Lisa Nichols: We can always get better.
• 18:28
  Lisa Nichols: There's a next level.
• 18:29
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
• 18:30
  Lisa Nichols: What a great lesson.
• 18:31
  Sonya Engle: So the funny thing is what I didn't know when I interviewed him, and
• 18:35
  Sonya Engle: we had this great discussion and,
• 18:38
  Sonya Engle: the humility
• 18:40
  Sonya Engle: and graciousness that he had to grant this time, this
• 18:44
  Sonya Engle: interview.
• 18:45
  Sonya Engle: The day that we, got on the phone, he, was actually sick
• 18:49
  Sonya Engle: and his voice was very weak.
• 18:51
  Sonya Engle: And to me, he could have easily canceled or rescheduled, but no.
• 18:55
  Lisa Nichols: Oh, wow.
• 18:56
  Sonya Engle: Just that kind of person.
• 18:57
  Sonya Engle: That conversation,
• 19:00
  Sonya Engle: what I didn't know at the time that we spoke, maybe I should have
• 19:02
  Sonya Engle: done my research, but he was the mentor of the person
• 19:07
  Sonya Engle: that became my boss, the CEO of the company that I joined.
• 19:10
  Sonya Engle: And I did not know that the lessons I had learned were
• 19:14
  Sonya Engle: the same lessons that my new boss had learned over twenty-plus
• 19:19
  Sonya Engle: years of being mentored by the same person.
• 19:21
  Sonya Engle: So it's...
• 19:22
  Lisa Nichols: Wow.
• 19:23
  Lisa Nichols: Sonya, that's there's a divine hand there
• 19:27
  Lisa Nichols: that you can't make that up.
• 19:29
  Lisa Nichols: That's amazing.
• 19:31
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 19:32
  Lisa Nichols: Well, you talk a lot about servant leadership.
• 19:34
  Lisa Nichols: We've already talked about it.
• 19:35
  Lisa Nichols: It's not about you.
• 19:38
  Lisa Nichols: You talk about you have the primary pillars of leadership style, and you
• 19:42
  Lisa Nichols: talk about three different vital attributes.
• 19:45
  Lisa Nichols: Integrity, you know, this is the baseline requirement without and
• 19:49
  Lisa Nichols: I agree with that.
• 19:51
  Lisa Nichols: Boy, if you don't have integrity, you don't have anything.
• 19:54
  Sonya Engle: Completely agree.
• 19:55
  Lisa Nichols: First of all. Because you're not gonna have trust.
• 19:57
  Lisa Nichols: You're not gonna have there's so much that stems from that.
• 20:01
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 20:03
  Lisa Nichols: Courage.
• 20:06
  Lisa Nichols: And then the last one is effective communication.
• 20:09
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 20:09
  Lisa Nichols: And you just talked about, that with this particular gentleman
• 20:13
  Lisa Nichols: and how, you know, how good of a communicator and effective
• 20:18
  Lisa Nichols: of a communicator he was.
• 20:20
  Lisa Nichols: You know, what is there anything else that you wanna say about any of
• 20:24
  Lisa Nichols: those three?
• 20:25
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, we've kinda touched on them.
• 20:27
  Lisa Nichols: So it's integrity is the baseline, courage,
• 20:32
  Lisa Nichols: and then, effective communication.
• 20:34
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 20:34
  Lisa Nichols: Have you added any other ones since then, or there's those still kind of
• 20:38
  Lisa Nichols: the...
• 20:39
  Sonya Engle: There are so many, but, I would stick with those top three.
• 20:43
  Sonya Engle: And, I mean, integrity,
• 20:46
  Sonya Engle: I mentioned that, the the role that I'm in now, as chief operating
• 20:50
  Sonya Engle: officer for Sonora Quest Laboratories.
• 20:53
  Sonya Engle: The CEO has recently retired, and we have a new CEO.
• 20:57
  Sonya Engle: And, she's wonderful.
• 20:59
  Sonya Engle: But the CEO that was in the role for, almost
• 21:03
  Sonya Engle: thirty years when I, met with him
• 21:08
  Sonya Engle: and, I had worked for part of the parent company, Quest Diagnostics,
• 21:13
  Sonya Engle: and our values were very similar.
• 21:15
  Sonya Engle: And so q uiz me if you will, asking if I knew the values
• 21:19
  Sonya Engle: of the company I work for now.
• 21:23
  Sonya Engle: Listed them off.
• 21:23
  Sonya Engle: I mean, I knew them that I that they I had internalized them.
• 21:26
  Sonya Engle: These are my values.
• 21:27
  Sonya Engle: And he said, okay.
• 21:28
  Sonya Engle: Well, pick one.
• 21:29
  Sonya Engle: And I said, absolutely.
• 21:30
  Sonya Engle: It's integrity.
• 21:32
  Sonya Engle: Without integrity,
• 21:34
  Sonya Engle: it all falls apart.
• 21:36
  Sonya Engle: Falls apart.
• 21:36
  Sonya Engle: It does.
• 21:37
  Sonya Engle: And so, when so when Dave Dexter asked that question, it was very, very
• 21:42
  Sonya Engle: easy.
• 21:43
  Sonya Engle: And I could look back at times in my career when,
• 21:47
  Sonya Engle: not at this company, and I won't name the company, where there were situations
• 21:51
  Sonya Engle: that I was presented with that my North Star, my
• 21:55
  Sonya Engle: my confidence, my ability to know what to do as as an individual and
• 21:59
  Sonya Engle: as a leader was always very clear because I needed
• 22:03
  Sonya Engle: to do the right thing always.
• 22:05
  Sonya Engle: And so, that's a nonnegotiable for me and for the people
• 22:09
  Sonya Engle: that I surround myself with.
• 22:11
  Sonya Engle: And so to join a company where that was one of the values and
• 22:14
  Sonya Engle: that the senior leader, the CEO that we shared, that made it so
• 22:19
  Sonya Engle: easy.
• 22:20
  Sonya Engle: And then it was that, that bonus point that, the person that I had
• 22:23
  Sonya Engle: seen as a, a leader to emulate a model, that was
• 22:27
  Sonya Engle: his.
• 22:30
  Lisa Nichols: That's really, that's so beautiful.
• 22:32
  Lisa Nichols: That is so good.
• 22:33
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 22:35
  Lisa Nichols: Well, I'm going to ask you just a couple more questions and then we
• 22:38
  Lisa Nichols: do need to take a quick break.
• 22:40
  Lisa Nichols: Sonya, I know I'm gonna get a little bit more personal here.
• 22:43
  Lisa Nichols: So I know that your mother you're so passionate about health care.
• 22:46
  Lisa Nichols: Your mother lost her battle to to cancer, breast cancer
• 22:50
  Lisa Nichols: at forty eight, which is so young.
• 22:53
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, I'm sure that experience
• 22:56
  Lisa Nichols: shaped you somehow.
• 22:58
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, tell me about that.
• 23:01
  Lisa Nichols: And then I know that you went through your own
• 23:04
  Lisa Nichols: battle.
• 23:05
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 23:06
  Lisa Nichols: And, I think you I think I read at the time that you used
• 23:10
  Lisa Nichols: one of the the tests...
• 23:12
  Sonya Engle: That's right.
• 23:12
  Lisa Nichols: To determine.
• 23:14
  Lisa Nichols: So tell me, I mean, I I know that that that had to been
• 23:17
  Lisa Nichols: so hard because you were, what, in your you had to be in in
• 23:20
  Lisa Nichols: your early twenties.
• 23:22
  Sonya Engle: So, thank you.
• 23:23
  Sonya Engle: My, my because my parents had me so young Yeah.
• 23:27
  Sonya Engle: I was a little bit,
• 23:29
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
• 23:30
  Sonya Engle: I had just my mother passed away.
• 23:32
  Sonya Engle: God bless her.
• 23:33
  Sonya Engle: It really she was dying, and I was with
• 23:37
  Sonya Engle: her and it was the day before my birthday where I was, saying farewell,
• 23:43
  Sonya Engle: because she was insistent that I go back to work, which is but I
• 23:46
  Sonya Engle: really think that it was just hard to let go when looking at my
• 23:49
  Sonya Engle: eyes and my hands just pleading with her not to go.
• 23:53
  Sonya Engle: So went back to work.
• 23:55
  Sonya Engle: It was my birthday, thirtieth birthday.
• 23:58
  Sonya Engle: And then she did pass away that when I was, thirty in one day,
• 24:02
  Sonya Engle: she did not pass away on my birthday.
• 24:04
  Sonya Engle: Which to me, I feel like she just willed it.
• 24:07
  Sonya Engle: Right.
• 24:07
  Sonya Engle: She just,
• 24:08
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 24:08
  Lisa Nichols: She willed it just to hang on.
• 24:11
  Sonya Engle: But her story is one that, has shaped a lot of what I do
• 24:15
  Sonya Engle: in terms of leadership with American Cancer Society.
• 24:19
  Sonya Engle: My mother, was,
• 24:23
  Sonya Engle: healthy for the most part.
• 24:24
  Sonya Engle: She like no one in Philadelphia, because I know how much you know about
• 24:28
  Sonya Engle: Philadelphia, but the diet, the natural diet isn't necessarily,
• 24:32
  Sonya Engle: the, the one that, can do some.
• 24:35
  Lisa Nichols: The simple seven or the.
• 24:37
  Sonya Engle: Exactly.
• 24:38
  Sonya Engle: Cheese spread is not good for you.
• 24:40
  Sonya Engle: But she didn't, she ate healthy.
• 24:41
  Sonya Engle: She exercised.
• 24:42
  Sonya Engle: She was actually even responsible for starting, the, the wellness
• 24:47
  Sonya Engle: program at her company.
• 24:48
  Sonya Engle: This is back in the early eighties.
• 24:50
  Sonya Engle: Who even heard of that back then?
• 24:51
  Sonya Engle: But she she knew that.
• 24:53
  Sonya Engle: So here's this, picture of health.
• 24:56
  Sonya Engle: She detected a lump through a self exam and ignored
• 25:00
  Sonya Engle: it.
• 25:00
  Sonya Engle: She, figured I have mammograms annually and it
• 25:04
  Sonya Engle: was March.
• 25:05
  Sonya Engle: And so this lump that she found, she said, if it had been anything
• 25:08
  Sonya Engle: that I should be concerned about, it would have been detected in the mammogram,
• 25:11
  Sonya Engle: so I'm gonna ignore it.
• 25:13
  Sonya Engle: So she ignored it and watched it grow, and until the point it was
• 25:17
  Sonya Engle: larger and larger.
• 25:18
  Sonya Engle: And, when she finally went to the doctor, it was advanced.
• 25:22
  Sonya Engle: If she had gone sooner, I it's possible that aggressive
• 25:26
  Sonya Engle: treatment could have, prolonged her life.
• 25:30
  Sonya Engle: She ended up, dying within eighteen months.
• 25:33
  Sonya Engle: And so that was, devastating,
• 25:37
  Sonya Engle: but it was kind of the end for me in a good way.
• 25:41
  Sonya Engle: You know, we hit the bottom.
• 25:43
  Sonya Engle: My mother, because she wasn't there, for some years of my childhood,
• 25:48
  Sonya Engle: in my adult life, we became best friends.
• 25:51
  Sonya Engle: And so my best friend was dying, and I
• 25:55
  Sonya Engle: was, having my baby girl.
• 26:00
  Sonya Engle: And so I was on bed rest.
• 26:01
  Sonya Engle: I had a high risk pregnancy, which is a whole another story, and so
• 26:04
  Sonya Engle: I couldn't be with her.
• 26:06
  Sonya Engle: So when she died, I felt like I didn't have enough time with her.
• 26:08
  Sonya Engle: I had my baby girl.
• 26:10
  Sonya Engle: So I don't know if it was a combination of depression of losing my
• 26:12
  Sonya Engle: mom and depression of having, you know, the postpartum depression.
• 26:16
  Sonya Engle: But it was six months after she died when I had a house full
• 26:20
  Sonya Engle: of guests, great career,
• 26:24
  Sonya Engle: home, husband, everything the world would say should make you happy.
• 26:28
  Sonya Engle: And I was not.
• 26:29
  Sonya Engle: I felt like I could just drive my car off the side of the
• 26:31
  Sonya Engle: road.
• 26:33
  Sonya Engle: I was so sad and lost and depressed because productivity,
• 26:37
  Sonya Engle: profits, people pleasing does not satisfy.
• 26:41
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 26:42
  Sonya Engle: So it was my mother's cancer journey, her death
• 26:46
  Sonya Engle: that led me back to a personal relationship with the Lord.
• 26:49
  Lisa Nichols: Your faith?
• 26:50
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 26:51
  Lisa Nichols: Oh gosh, Sonya.
• 26:52
  Lisa Nichols: Well, let's let's end there, and we're gonna pick up there.
• 26:55
  Lisa Nichols: I wanna come back.
• 26:58
  Lisa Nichols: So we're gonna take a quick break, and then we'll be right back with
• 27:01
  Lisa Nichols: my dear friend, Sonya Engle, on the Something Extra podcast.
• 27:05
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• 27:34
  Lisa Nichols: So welcome back, everyone, to the Something Extra podcast with
• 27:39
  Lisa Nichols: my friend, Sonya Engle .
• 27:40
  Lisa Nichols: So, Sonya, we just left a cliffhanger there.
• 27:44
  Lisa Nichols: It was really your mom's
• 27:46
  Lisa Nichols: passing away.
• 27:48
  Lisa Nichols: And you were in a very dark place.
• 27:51
  Lisa Nichols: I think all of us probably can relate.
• 27:53
  Lisa Nichols: We've all been at least in a dark place, if not many,
• 27:59
  Lisa Nichols: But you knew that there was something missing .
• 28:02
  Lisa Nichols: And that you needed more.
• 28:04
  Lisa Nichols: And you had success.
• 28:05
  Lisa Nichols: You had a husband.
• 28:06
  Lisa Nichols: You had a this baby.
• 28:08
  Lisa Nichols: You had, you know, by the world standards, everything that could it
• 28:12
  Lisa Nichols: was that would define success, but you felt
• 28:16
  Lisa Nichols: empty inside.
• 28:17
  Lisa Nichols: Tell me about that journey, and then talk to me about
• 28:21
  Lisa Nichols: how faith then has changed how you do everything else in
• 28:25
  Lisa Nichols: your life going forward.
• 28:27
  Sonya Engle: Thank you.
• 28:28
  Sonya Engle: Well, Lisa, that moment of the bottom
• 28:32
  Sonya Engle: was the beginning.
• 28:34
  Sonya Engle: And there was no answer in myself, in my own effort, in my
• 28:38
  Sonya Engle: marriage, in anything that I could control.
• 28:42
  Sonya Engle: And so, this was many years ago before the internet basically,
• 28:47
  Sonya Engle: which sounds so weird.
• 28:49
  Sonya Engle: So I had a house full of guests and I pulled out the yellow
• 28:53
  Sonya Engle: pages because I had early faith, but I had walked away from my faith
• 28:56
  Sonya Engle: and just tried to live, the way I wanna live.
• 28:59
  Sonya Engle: And so I flipped through the yellow pages looking, for
• 29:03
  Sonya Engle: churches.
• 29:04
  Sonya Engle: And I pick up the call and if there was an answer and
• 29:08
  Sonya Engle: they said they were open, that's that would be, the indicator that's where I
• 29:11
  Sonya Engle: should go.
• 29:12
  Sonya Engle: So I found a church that was open on Mother's Day at four PM
• 29:17
  Sonya Engle: and,
• 29:19
  Sonya Engle: went in and
• 29:21
  Sonya Engle: sat behind a woman that I know God sent.
• 29:25
  Sonya Engle: This woman had her back to me, but it was when she turned,
• 29:29
  Sonya Engle: it was like the eyes and arms
• 29:34
  Sonya Engle: of Jesus, just seeing and knowing all my pain, all
• 29:38
  Sonya Engle: that I was going through.
• 29:40
  Sonya Engle: And, it was exactly what I needed.
• 29:42
  Sonya Engle: And that began the the new beginning.
• 29:47
  Sonya Engle: I went and discovered whose I am, who
• 29:51
  Sonya Engle: I was even when I was striving for all those years and
• 29:55
  Sonya Engle: feeling broken and lost and feeling not loved, not worthy,
• 29:59
  Sonya Engle: that I was loved and that the S avior was there for me
• 30:03
  Sonya Engle: and was bringing me in and her arms wrapped around me.
• 30:06
  Sonya Engle: And she was like a mentor and and guided me.
• 30:11
  Sonya Engle: I was at the bottom, and it was the beginning of
• 30:15
  Sonya Engle: my faith journey, and it changed everything.
• 30:19
  Sonya Engle: And so that was, the beginning of me, learning
• 30:24
  Sonya Engle: who God was, what I was, what was true about me,
• 30:28
  Sonya Engle: that I was loved, and that the things that I had believed and, like,
• 30:33
  Sonya Engle: if I were pretty enough, smart enough, made enough money.
• 30:36
  Sonya Engle: I mean, fill in the blank.
• 30:37
  Sonya Engle: There's so many enoughs.
• 30:38
  Lisa Nichols: Amen to that.
• 30:40
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 30:41
  Lisa Nichols: And what does God say?
• 30:42
  Sonya Engle: What does God say?
• 30:43
  Lisa Nichols: You are enough.
• 30:44
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 30:45
  Lisa Nichols: You have everything you need in me.
• 30:48
  Lisa Nichols: I think you're beautiful.
• 30:49
  Lisa Nichols: I you are my treasure.
• 30:52
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 30:53
  Lisa Nichols: I in fact, I love you so much.
• 30:55
  Lisa Nichols: I sent my only son to die for you.
• 30:57
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, you know, that's when you get ahold of that, Sonya,
• 31:01
  Lisa Nichols: it does.
• 31:02
  Lisa Nichols: It changes everything about our identity.
• 31:06
  Lisa Nichols: And, I think when we're rooted in that and we're confident
• 31:11
  Lisa Nichols: in who we are in him, it just allows you
• 31:15
  Lisa Nichols: then to love other people.
• 31:17
  Lisa Nichols: It just allows you to then go.
• 31:20
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 31:20
  Sonya Engle: It does.
• 31:21
  Sonya Engle: It does.
• 31:22
  Sonya Engle: So that
• 31:24
  Sonya Engle: ultimately
• 31:26
  Sonya Engle: changed everything.
• 31:28
  Sonya Engle: And so that was, boy, you know, almost
• 31:32
  Sonya Engle: oh, actually, thirty years ago.
• 31:34
  Lisa Nichols: Thirty years ago.
• 31:34
  Sonya Engle: So I have had thirty years on a different trajectory.
• 31:38
  Sonya Engle: H
• 31:40
  Sonya Engle: ey, I'm still, you know, a broken sinner and I have, you know,
• 31:44
  Sonya Engle: fallen into some of the old traps or the lies.
• 31:47
  Sonya Engle: Oh.
• 31:48
  Sonya Engle: But it's been, different.
• 31:51
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
• 31:52
  Sonya Engle: And I have found that every aspect of my life.
• 31:56
  Sonya Engle: Unfortunately, my first marriage ended in divorce, but god
• 32:00
  Sonya Engle: is a god of reconciliation in every way.
• 32:02
  Sonya Engle: When I even go back to that hospital room when I was saying farewell
• 32:07
  Sonya Engle: to my mother, my parents had a very, tumultuous,
• 32:11
  Sonya Engle: marriage.
• 32:13
  Sonya Engle: There was all kinds of reasons where there was unforgiveness.
• 32:18
  Sonya Engle: My father was invited into the hospital room by my mother
• 32:22
  Sonya Engle: because she was extending peace, recon reconciliation,
• 32:27
  Sonya Engle: forgiveness to someone that in my mind didn't deserve it.
• 32:31
  Sonya Engle: But isn't that the gospel?
• 32:33
  Sonya Engle: Isn't that truth?
• 32:34
  Sonya Engle: We all deserve God's grace.
• 32:35
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 32:36
  Sonya Engle: I saw that my mother and, and that was an example,
• 32:40
  Sonya Engle: I think, throughout my my personal faith journey.
• 32:44
  Sonya Engle: And, actually, even in my career, I have seen so many opportunities
• 32:48
  Sonya Engle: that what was meant for evil or wrong, b
• 32:53
  Sonya Engle: e turned into something that is, for for good.
• 32:57
  Sonya Engle: And I look for, that truth in so many ways, and I see
• 33:02
  Sonya Engle: it.
• 33:02
  Lisa Nichols: Wow.
• 33:03
  Lisa Nichols: What a beautiful example your mom gave you.
• 33:06
  Lisa Nichols: And I'm sure, Sonya, there have been times where maybe,
• 33:11
  Lisa Nichols: you know, someone has done something to breach, trust
• 33:15
  Lisa Nichols: with you, and you can even think back to your mom and how she
• 33:19
  Lisa Nichols: how she handled herself, you know, and extending the the olive
• 33:24
  Lisa Nichols: branch.
• 33:24
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 33:24
  Sonya Engle: That is so beautiful.
• 33:25
  Lisa Nichols: It is.
• 33:28
  Lisa Nichols: My goodness.
• 33:28
  Lisa Nichols: And and you know what?
• 33:30
  Lisa Nichols: And you're right.
• 33:31
  Lisa Nichols: We're all on a journey.
• 33:33
  Lisa Nichols: It doesn't mean that all of a sudden, you are
• 33:37
  Lisa Nichols: you're perfect.
• 33:38
  Lisa Nichols: No.
• 33:38
  Lisa Nichols: We are not.
• 33:39
  Lisa Nichols: In fact, that's why we need...
• 33:42
  Sonya Engle: Yes.
• 33:42
  Lisa Nichols: The Savior.
• 33:43
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 33:43
  Lisa Nichols: Is because we're not.
• 33:45
  Lisa Nichols: And, oh gosh.
• 33:47
  Lisa Nichols: We could just spend a whole podcast just on this, girl.
• 33:51
  Lisa Nichols: But, I know.
• 33:53
  Lisa Nichols: Let's talk about you had a breast cancer diagnosis at thirty five.
• 33:58
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 34:00
  Lisa Nichols: What was going through your mind at that time?
• 34:02
  Lisa Nichols: And I know that that is why you are huge with your
• 34:06
  Lisa Nichols: mom and yourself, like, you know, a big advocate for early
• 34:11
  Lisa Nichols: detection and getting the testing done.
• 34:13
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 34:15
  Sonya Engle: I am.
• 34:15
  Sonya Engle: And, what I had for me, and I want
• 34:20
  Sonya Engle: for other people to have the education, the awareness, the access
• 34:24
  Sonya Engle: so that they can have a good outcome like I've had, because I've had
• 34:26
  Sonya Engle: cancer twice and there are many people that their story is more
• 34:30
  Sonya Engle: like my mother's.
• 34:32
  Sonya Engle: And so, because of my mother's early
• 34:36
  Sonya Engle: cancer and her sister's too, I
• 34:40
  Sonya Engle: was first diagnosed with cervical cancer in my twenties.
• 34:44
  Sonya Engle: And,
• 34:46
  Sonya Engle: once that was diagnosed, treated, sat across from a oncologist, and he
• 34:50
  Sonya Engle: said, you know, you're young and we want you to be able to have
• 34:52
  Sonya Engle: kids.
• 34:53
  Sonya Engle: And that was like a light bulb went off.
• 34:56
  Sonya Engle: I didn't even realize that my life was at risk or my future fertility.
• 35:01
  Sonya Engle: And I realized, boy, I just don't even know what's going on.
• 35:04
  Sonya Engle: And that's what it's like for a lot of patients that they are like
• 35:07
  Sonya Engle: blind going, you know, so number one, get educated and
• 35:12
  Sonya Engle: informed so that I can help myself be there for my family and then,
• 35:16
  Sonya Engle: be in a position where I can help others as well.
• 35:19
  Sonya Engle: So because I was armed with so much information,
• 35:23
  Sonya Engle: I was, having mammograms in my twenties.
• 35:27
  Sonya Engle: And so they did find some, some things that were suspicious pretty early
• 35:31
  Sonya Engle: on, and then I was not only, able to get the biopsy
• 35:36
  Sonya Engle: to confirm that I had cancer, but at the same time, have the genetics
• 35:40
  Sonya Engle: test that confirmed that was a BRCA two gene carrier.
• 35:44
  Sonya Engle: Which, increase, the the probability of breast and ovarian cancer.
• 35:49
  Sonya Engle: So I,
• 35:51
  Sonya Engle: went through pretty aggressive treatment, bilateral mastectomy,
• 35:56
  Sonya Engle: when I was just in my, mid thirties.
• 35:59
  Sonya Engle: So that was not, the ideal, but, it
• 36:03
  Sonya Engle: was the decision that I knew would not only take care of the cancer,
• 36:07
  Sonya Engle: but make it so I wouldn't have to keep looking over my shoulder worrying
• 36:11
  Sonya Engle: about it coming back.
• 36:12
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 36:12
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 36:13
  Lisa Nichols: To have other people.
• 36:14
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 36:15
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 36:15
  Lisa Nichols: So if there are female listeners out there and and men too, I mean,
• 36:19
  Lisa Nichols: because what we're talking about here are some of these testing that can be
• 36:22
  Lisa Nichols: done, even predictive type testing.
• 36:25
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 36:26
  Lisa Nichols: But don't put it off.
• 36:28
  Lisa Nichols: Don't put it off.
• 36:30
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 36:30
  Lisa Nichols: If there's anything you take away from this, you know, the early detection is
• 36:33
  Lisa Nichols: really, really important.
• 36:34
  Lisa Nichols: And, Sonya, I know that you've served on the American Cancer Board.
• 36:37
  Lisa Nichols: I think you've been the chair of that many years.
• 36:39
  Lisa Nichols: I think you maybe roll off.
• 36:41
  Lisa Nichols: Do you roll off this year?
• 36:42
  Sonya Engle: I did, Lisa.
• 36:43
  Sonya Engle: Thank you.
• 36:44
  Sonya Engle: I had five years
• 36:47
  Sonya Engle: as chair.
• 36:48
  Sonya Engle: I'm very proud and it felt so good to pass the baton.
• 36:52
  Sonya Engle: I'm still on the board.
• 36:54
  Sonya Engle: But isn't that the wonderful thing about leadership?
• 36:56
  Sonya Engle: Succession planning.
• 36:57
  Sonya Engle: Yes.
• 36:57
  Sonya Engle: It's knowing that, you are identifying
• 37:02
  Sonya Engle: the person that's gonna take your seat.
• 37:03
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 37:04
  Lisa Nichols: Exactly.
• 37:05
  Lisa Nichols: Exactly.
• 37:05
  Lisa Nichols: But, well, thank you for serving.
• 37:07
  Lisa Nichols: Thank you for serving.
• 37:08
  Lisa Nichols: I know that, yeah, the board work.
• 37:11
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, it's important work, but it's it it is work.
• 37:14
  Lisa Nichols: It is work.
• 37:15
  Sonya Engle: It is.
• 37:15
  Sonya Engle: It is.
• 37:16
  Sonya Engle: I have my day job.
• 37:16
  Sonya Engle: I have my day job too.
• 37:17
  Lisa Nichols: A day job too.
• 37:18
  Lisa Nichols: I get it.
• 37:19
  Lisa Nichols: I totally get it.
• 37:21
  Lisa Nichols: Well, you know, I and I just I wanna just touch on this
• 37:25
  Lisa Nichols: real quickly.
• 37:25
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, I'm just thinking, like, the challenge of COVID.
• 37:29
  Lisa Nichols: Wow.
• 37:30
  Lisa Nichols: What a crisis that was.
• 37:31
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 37:32
  Lisa Nichols: I think you guys I think I read where you had to scale,
• 37:36
  Lisa Nichols: Sonya, from six thousand tests a day that you were doing
• 37:40
  Lisa Nichols: up to thirty-six thousand tests a day.
• 37:45
  Lisa Nichols: That's crazy.
• 37:47
  Sonya Engle: It is crazy.
• 37:48
  Sonya Engle: And when I think back to twenty twenty, for us,
• 37:52
  Sonya Engle: we were not only a large employer.
• 37:56
  Sonya Engle: Right?
• 37:57
  Sonya Engle: So we had our employees that were, you know, not sure
• 38:01
  Sonya Engle: about their own health.
• 38:02
  Sonya Engle: They had families.
• 38:04
  Sonya Engle: We could not close.
• 38:06
  Sonya Engle: We're twenty four by seven, seven days.
• 38:09
  Sonya Engle: So, they had to come to work.
• 38:11
  Sonya Engle: I can remember employees, you know, worried about their
• 38:15
  Sonya Engle: health or their families saying, I I don't want you coming in with,
• 38:19
  Sonya Engle: the clothes that you wore when you were in a lab testing.
• 38:23
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 38:24
  Sonya Engle: And, so that scaling that you described,
• 38:28
  Sonya Engle: is because we were in a worldwide pandemic.
• 38:29
  Sonya Engle: As you know, it affected everyone, and there
• 38:34
  Sonya Engle: was no ability to get what was needed to
• 38:38
  Sonya Engle: test that volume.
• 38:39
  Sonya Engle: The instruments, the reagents or chemicals, the people
• 38:44
  Sonya Engle: to do it just weren't available f or a lot of reasons.
• 38:47
  Sonya Engle: So with that, constraint,
• 38:50
  Sonya Engle: our our CEO, Dave Dexter, and I give him huge credit,
• 38:54
  Sonya Engle: came up with a a solution that took us from,
• 38:59
  Sonya Engle: six thousand, which was what we could do with the instruments and and what
• 39:02
  Sonya Engle: was available,
• 39:03
  Sonya Engle: and went, to, OEMs and struck up a
• 39:07
  Sonya Engle: a a deal that, as COO, I I have responsibility to,
• 39:12
  Sonya Engle: work with, kind of a unproven.
• 39:15
  Sonya Engle: So we had to build the methodology,
• 39:17
  Sonya Engle: build put the instruments together because traditional
• 39:21
  Sonya Engle: testing platforms were not available.
• 39:23
  Sonya Engle: So we had to piece together kind of a very creative way,
• 39:29
  Sonya Engle: a solution that enabled us to build capacity
• 39:33
  Sonya Engle: to not only test for the state of Arizona, but we were in a
• 39:36
  Sonya Engle: position to be the safety net for our parent partner.
• 39:39
  Sonya Engle: We're in a joint venture.
• 39:41
  Sonya Engle: Quest Diagnostics was referring volume that they couldn't handle.
• 39:45
  Sonya Engle: Right.
• 39:45
  Sonya Engle: So we built capacity to test, close to sixty thousand
• 39:50
  Sonya Engle: patient samples per day.
• 39:52
  Sonya Engle: And to this day, I had, someone, join my team recently,
• 39:56
  Sonya Engle: who wasn't there during the pandemic, and,
• 39:59
  Sonya Engle: went to a lab tour and heard the story of this small department
• 40:03
  Sonya Engle: of twenty people that had to grow to, two hundred in less than two
• 40:07
  Sonya Engle: months.
• 40:08
  Sonya Engle: And she said, I didn't know.
• 40:10
  Sonya Engle: I had no idea.
• 40:12
  Sonya Engle: All I knew is I couldn't travel or take
• 40:16
  Sonya Engle: my kid to soccer without a lab test, a COVID PCR
• 40:20
  Sonya Engle: test to confirm, and you guys were doing it.
• 40:24
  Sonya Engle: That's amazing.
• 40:26
  Sonya Engle: And I still need to hear that because, a s we talked about, you
• 40:30
  Sonya Engle: do what you need to do .
• 40:31
  Sonya Engle: And we're serving others, but it was so intense that there wasn't time
• 40:35
  Sonya Engle: to reflect document.
• 40:38
  Sonya Engle: I really think there's an amazing story and what was accomplished there.
• 40:40
  Sonya Engle: And someday, hopefully, we'll get to tell that story more fully.
• 40:43
  Lisa Nichols: It will be in the history books.
• 40:46
  Sonya Engle: Yes.
• 40:46
  Sonya Engle: Yes.
• 40:47
  Lisa Nichols: It will be in the history books.
• 40:48
  Lisa Nichols: Well, you know, I let's talk about culture a little bit and employee retention.
• 40:54
  Lisa Nichols: I think you are the one that implemented the stay in interviews
• 40:58
  Lisa Nichols: instead of exit interviews.
• 40:59
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 41:00
  Lisa Nichols: Or was that your CPO?
• 41:01
  Lisa Nichols: Or was that you, Sonya?
• 41:03
  Sonya Engle: Oh, well, I won't take credit.
• 41:04
  Sonya Engle: Yeah.
• 41:05
  Sonya Engle: I our our chief people officer and her team, do amazing
• 41:09
  Sonya Engle: things.
• 41:10
  Sonya Engle: And I think the state interviews, looking at the valuable
• 41:14
  Sonya Engle: insights from exit interviews .
• 41:16
  Sonya Engle: And also, of course, looking at, you know, our hiring.
• 41:20
  Sonya Engle: How do we attract the best?
• 41:23
  Sonya Engle: How do we, make that value proposition that helps them
• 41:27
  Sonya Engle: to see our noble purpose a nd how it aligns
• 41:31
  Sonya Engle: and how we do things that, other companies don't do.
• 41:35
  Sonya Engle: And it is, something I'm really proud of
• 41:39
  Sonya Engle: Sonora Quest, is a a leader in the market in in our industry,
• 41:43
  Sonya Engle: but in the state, we're at the top in terms of giving back, philanthropy.
• 41:48
  Sonya Engle: Our employees serving and giving.
• 41:50
  Sonya Engle: And that is part of our value prop to help us hire and
• 41:54
  Sonya Engle: retain the people that share that value system.
• 41:57
  Sonya Engle: And so we have almost four thousand employees across, our our system.
• 42:02
  Sonya Engle: It's primarily in Arizona, but we're with, Banner Health and six states
• 42:07
  Sonya Engle: sharing that value.
• 42:08
  Sonya Engle: And that to me is the secret Yes.
• 42:12
  Sonya Engle: Is to have people that want to be there because their,
• 42:17
  Sonya Engle: their heart is aligned with the purpose.
• 42:19
  Lisa Nichols: With the purpose.
• 42:20
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 42:20
  Lisa Nichols: And I think I love that.
• 42:22
  Lisa Nichols: And I know you guys talk about that.
• 42:24
  Lisa Nichols: The culture, it's very intentional.
• 42:26
  Lisa Nichols: You know, my friend, Mark Miller, that was VP of high performing leadership
• 42:30
  Lisa Nichols: at Chick fil A, he said, you have a culture.
• 42:34
  Lisa Nichols: It's either by accident or design.
• 42:37
  Sonya Engle: That's right.
• 42:37
  Lisa Nichols: And you guys have designed
• 42:40
  Lisa Nichols: the culture there.
• 42:41
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, by listening to the employees, the state interviews, very,
• 42:45
  Lisa Nichols: very intentional.
• 42:48
  Lisa Nichols: You know, helping people see how what they are doing
• 42:52
  Lisa Nichols: really,
• 42:54
  Lisa Nichols: aligns and floats right up to the to the bigger mission,
• 42:58
  Lisa Nichols: you know, and the purpose of the organization, which I think is really important.
• 43:02
  Lisa Nichols: I know that you're really passionate about helping people, realizing their potential,
• 43:07
  Lisa Nichols: developing future leaders.
• 43:09
  Lisa Nichols: But, Sonya, you know, I just I have to ask you.
• 43:12
  Lisa Nichols: We're running out of time here.
• 43:14
  Lisa Nichols: And so I just I have to ask you the question that I ask
• 43:17
  Lisa Nichols: every guest that comes on the podcast is would you believe,
• 43:21
  Lisa Nichols: Sonya, is there something extra that every leader needs?
• 43:27
  Sonya Engle: I believe that something extra
• 43:30
  Sonya Engle: is humility and passion.
• 43:33
  Sonya Engle: I know that people think humility
• 43:38
  Sonya Engle: is, like, thinking less than no.
• 43:39
  Sonya Engle: No.
• 43:40
  Sonya Engle: Humility is occupying that God space,
• 43:44
  Sonya Engle: who you're meant to be.
• 43:46
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 43:47
  Sonya Engle: Smaller or greater.
• 43:50
  Sonya Engle: And so and when you have that perspective about who you are and what
• 43:54
  Sonya Engle: you're doing as a leader, that responsibility and align that with your
• 43:58
  Sonya Engle: passion, your purpose, knowing that you were given one more day
• 44:02
  Sonya Engle: on this earth to do something very important
• 44:08
  Sonya Engle: and do it well.
• 44:09
  Sonya Engle: I think that makes a leader someone that is inspiring, that others wanna
• 44:14
  Sonya Engle: follow, that customers want to do business with, and really is a differentiator.
• 44:19
  Lisa Nichols: Oh, beautiful combination.
• 44:20
  Lisa Nichols: I love it.
• 44:21
  Lisa Nichols: I love it.
• 44:21
  Lisa Nichols: Well, girl, this has been so much fun.
• 44:24
  Lisa Nichols: Thank you so much.
• 44:26
  Lisa Nichols: And I just know, Sonya, that your journey, all
• 44:30
  Lisa Nichols: of the leadership insights that we've talked about today, I just know it's gonna
• 44:34
  Lisa Nichols: help our listeners.
• 44:35
  Lisa Nichols: So thank you so much for investing
• 44:39
  Lisa Nichols: in other people, And thank you for being my friend.
• 44:42
  Sonya Engle: Oh, thank you, Lisa, for the opportunity.
• 44:45
  Sonya Engle: I just adore you.
• 44:47
  Sonya Engle: Hope to meet Ally in person sometime soon.
• 44:49
  Sonya Engle: I think she is amazing.
• 44:50
  Lisa Nichols: I know.
• 44:51
  Lisa Nichols: I know.
• 44:52
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 44:52
  Lisa Nichols: I want you too.
• 44:53
  Lisa Nichols: Well, thank you again.
• 44:55
  Lisa Nichols: Have an amazing rest of the day, girl.
• 44:57
  Sonya Engle: Thank you.
• 44:57
  Sonya Engle: You too.
• 44:58
  Announcer: Something extra with Lisa Nichols is a Technology Partners production.
• 45:02
  Announcer: Copyright Technology Partners Inc 2019 .
• 45:05
  Announcer: To learn more about this week's guest, check out the show notes at tpi
• 45:09
  Announcer: dot co slash podcast.
• 45:11
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• 45:14
  Announcer: Thank you for listening to Something Extra.