Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Purpose Driven Healthcare Leadership with Amber K. Brooks, MD, MS, Founder of Onward and Upward

Transcript

Purpose Driven Healthcare Leadership with Amber K. Brooks, MD, MS, Founder of Onward and Upward · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:03
  Podcast.
• 0:04
  We're thrilled today to be joined by a
• 0:06
  brilliant doctor. We're joined today by doctor Amber
• 0:09
  Brooks. And doctor Brooks is gonna tell us
• 0:11
  about her career, about how she developed her
• 0:14
  career, and and a lot more.
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  Doctor Brooks, can you take a moment and
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  introduce yourself and and at some point tell
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  us about Wake Forest and a lot more?
• 0:23
  Thank you so much, Scott, for having me
• 0:26
  on the podcast today. It's a real honor.
• 0:29
  So I am a board certified anesthesiologist
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  and pain medicine physician.
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  I've been in health care for over twenty
• 0:37
  years. And as you've mentioned, I'm at Wake
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  Forest University School of Medicine,
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  that serves currently as the academic core of
• 0:46
  Advocate Health.
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  And I've had the opportunity
• 0:50
  in my career to serve as an NIH
• 0:53
  funded clinical researcher. I still practice pain medicine
• 0:58
  and have recently
• 1:00
  been involved in executive
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  leadership.
• 1:03
  And
• 1:04
  in my role over these last few years,
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  especially
• 1:07
  last year with the change of administration,
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  I've had the opportunity,
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  to use the insights that I've developed from
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  executive leadership to launch a professional development platform
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  called Onward and Upward.
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  Well well, fantastic.
• 1:23
  And you currently see serve I have this
• 1:25
  right. Is the vice dean and the vice
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  chair
• 1:28
  academic officer at Wake Forest? Is is that
• 1:31
  correct?
• 1:32
  Yes. So I serve as the vice dean
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  for the School of Medicine
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  in an office of institutional
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  learning and transformation, and then I also serve
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  as the vice chief academic officer
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  for Advocate Health. But I'm here today on
• 1:47
  behalf of my leadership platform onward and upward.
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  A 100%. And and so take a moment.
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  You've had this magnificent grant. I'm gonna make
• 1:55
  one other comment.
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  You're also a proud University of Iowa graduate,
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  I believe, which is one of my favorite
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  places. Is that fair? Is that correct?
• 2:04
  That is correct. Go Hawkeyes.
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  I had the opportunity
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  to return
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  to Iowa City, Iowa
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  after nineteen years. Two years ago, I was
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  honored to receive a a distinguished alumni award.
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  So it was a real privilege to be
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  back to the place that really grew me
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  up, trained me to become
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  the physician leader that I am today.
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  Simply remarkable. So okay. So now let's get
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  to the heart of the discussion.
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  Tell us about your platform onward and upward,
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  and and tell us about that, doctor Brooks.
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  So, Scott, as you know and as your
• 2:41
  listeners know,
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  we are facing
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  extreme headwinds
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  in health care right now, whether that's financial,
• 2:50
  cuts,
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  especially with regards to federal
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  and state funding.
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  We are in an unprecedented
• 2:57
  time in health care.
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  And as I was sharing earlier, I've had
• 3:01
  the tremendous,
• 3:02
  privilege to be involved in executive,
• 3:05
  leadership recently within my organization.
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  And a colleague
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  asked me this question last year, Scott, in
• 3:13
  the middle of the headwinds.
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  She said, Amber, what if we could move
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  from simply
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  surviving
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  this moment in health care to thriving?
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  And, Scott, that really stuck with me.
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  And so that's what led me to develop
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  the Onward and Upward platform,
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  which essentially equips health care leaders,
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  to move from surviving
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  to thriving. I think the elephant in the
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  room is that
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  for me as a physician leader and for
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  my colleagues who are also leading during these
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  extraordinary
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  times, we focus a lot on the technical
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  aspects of leadership. You know, how do we
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  equip leaders,
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  and and transform their skills in in terms
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  of things like artificial intelligence and tech capabilities.
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  But I think what we're not as focused
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  on and what I believe is equally important
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  is the tactical skills. So those human centered
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  leadership skills that really keep people
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  showing up, keeping morale high so that we
• 4:18
  can navigate these headwinds.
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  Thank you. And how did you get this
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  started and and how is it going?
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  And talk about sort of how excited you
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  are about it.
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  I'm extremely extremely
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  excited because I think it's a void,
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  in health care systems and other organizations
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  that needs to be
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  nurtured.
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  Again,
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  as a leader,
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  who has been in health care for over
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  twenty years,
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  when I was a medical school student, Scott,
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  leadership development
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  wasn't a core part of my training. We
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  were trained to diagnose patients. We were,
• 4:58
  trained to show up with good bedside manner
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  to, at the time, write our clinical notes,
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  but there was less emphasis on the leadership
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  aspects. How do we develop
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  leaders who can be chief medical officers, chief
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  physician executives,
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  medical directors of clinics?
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  And so there's a there's a real void.
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  I think that's really the elephant in the
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  room for me.
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  And and and doctor Brooks, the the rest
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  of the world can't see you because we're
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  on audio, but but you're both brilliant and
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  have great presence.
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  How important is that to leadership, that sort
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  of combination of brilliant and personal skills and
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  presence?
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  Or can people be great leaders without that
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  level of
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  charismatic
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  presentation
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  in in how you handle yourself? And and
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  and I think people can both, but I'd
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  love to hear your thoughts on that.
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  Yeah. So I think that that executive
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  presence, which for me is rooted in
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  purpose
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  and
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  kindness
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  is really important, Scott. I think that you
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  can show up and be an extraordinarily
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  brilliant leader
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  who has wonderful
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  ideas,
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  but if you are not able
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  to pull at the heartstrings of your teammates
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  to really feel like they are seen, they
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  matter,
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  and that you care about their well-being and
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  their professional development, it really doesn't matter how
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  extraordinarily
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  brilliant and visionary you are because people
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  ultimately
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  leave not just health care leadership positions, but
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  positions in general because of poor
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  ineffective
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  leadership. People
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  stay not always because of money, but because
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  they feel like they are included in the
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  mission.
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  I mean, money is, of course, just one
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  part of the the the the the the
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  the situation. Right? I mean, at the end
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  of the day, people either love or hate
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  working for who they work with. They love
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  or hate the culture.
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  If they love the culture, if you're building
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  with great people, you have to pay fairly.
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  But but money, you could pay the most
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  in the world, but people won't stick around
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  to a place they don't like working at
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  where every day they wake up and they
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  hate it. Correct?
• 7:16
  Absolutely, Scott. Couldn't agree with you more. And
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  the price tag in health care of losing
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  your most valuable leaders
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  is extraordinary.
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  And when we are already faced with significant
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  financial constraints, it is imperative
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  that we
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  create
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  environments
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  in which our leaders
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  and our teammates can thrive.
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  A 100%. And the the flip side of
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  this, if you pay people too little, they
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  come in the door every single morning
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  wanting irritated. So you have to pay people
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  fairly, but you also have to have a
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  great culture.
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  Absolutely.
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  The two go hand in hand.
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  And and talk a little bit about I'll
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  come back to the platform in a second.
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  How do people learn more about the platform
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  that you're building? How do people learn more
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  about that? And are you in is it
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  is it active already? Where is it at
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  so far, doctor Brooks?
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  Yes, Scott. Thank you for asking. So I
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  am in the process of building this platform.
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  Plea please follow me on
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  LinkedIn to find out more about,
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  the platform and where we're at. You can
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  follow me at doctor Amber k Brooks on
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  LinkedIn,
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  for more information.
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  But this this platform at the heart of
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  the the platform or the framework is this.
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  I want to orient our leaders to purpose.
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  I want to create and help develop leaders
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  that understand
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  the importance of trust and who are also
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  focused on their well-being. You know, there's this
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  saying that you can't pour from an empty
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  cup. And so if you're gonna show up
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  as your best self as a leader in
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  health care, you've got to make sure that
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  you're taking care of yourself behind the scenes.
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  And then I think for me
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  and and for other
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  successful
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  leaders,
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  in health care, what I have observed
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  as that secret sauce is showing up authentically,
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  and and and really showing up for me,
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  what authentic authenticity looks like is is kindness.
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  Not to be mistaken with niceness, but kindness.
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  Right? It doesn't cost $1
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  to smile
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  and to show up and to say hello
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  and to be present with your teammates. Right?
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  Like, those things are don't cost money and
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  their their
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  ROI
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  is priceless.
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  Could not agree more. And and what advice,
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  doctor Brooks so I found doctor Brooks, Amber
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  Brooks, and then plugged in Wake Forest to
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  make sure I got the the right doctor
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  Brooks because there's a couple Amber Brookses on
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  LinkedIn just for people's information.
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  But fantastic.
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  Doctor Brooks, what advice would you give to
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  emerging leaders?
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  So
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  my advice to emerging leaders is to really
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  hone in on your why.
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  So although I'm an NIH funded researcher and
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  although I hold a leadership position now within
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  my organization,
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  I still carve out time to see patients
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  in my chronic pain clinic.
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  And on my toughest weeks,
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  whether it's leading my research teams or my
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  administrative leadership teams, I always find
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  true joy in coming and seeing a patient.
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  Just last week, Scott, I saw a patient
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  who I'd been working with for two years,
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  and we'd been,
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  honing her her treatment plan using multimodal pain
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  management techniques. And
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  she looked at me with tears in her
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  eyes,
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  and she said, doctor Brooks, you saved my
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  marriage.
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  People in my life say I'm a different
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  person,
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  and she just gave me the biggest hug.
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  And that's,
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  Scott, why I keep showing up every single
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  day. That's why I keep fighting,
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  for expanded care for our patients. That's why
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  I keep fighting for,
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  for our
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  students,
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  to make sure that they're,
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  not facing tremendous
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  cost for their, health care education.
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  Just
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  a remarkable.
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  Doctor Brooks, thank you so much for joining
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  us on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. We love
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  what you do. You're an inspiration. You're remarkable.
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  Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 11:36
  Thank you, Scott, for having me.