Leading Through Change Starts Within: 7 Leaders, 5 Industries, 1 Truth
Rebecca Dhrimaj
We are excited to bring you highlights from our Pass the Empathy Torch segment where each featured podcast guest answers a tough question on empathic leadership, then poses their own candid follow-up question for our next guest to answer on air. This creates a continuous chain of real-world insights, practical tools, and honest discussions across industries and eventually transformed into our cross-sector leadership community, The Empathy Collective.
August at The Empathy Collective was all about Leading Yourself Through Change. To explore this theme further, we looked for the common thread across our guests' questions and answers during the Pass the Empathy Torch challenge. Across four distinct industries—manufacturing, clinical psychology, healthcare, and biotech—one truth emerged: Real transformation starts inside yourself, before it can move to your team or organization.
Here is a look back at our four August torch questions and answers.
Gregory Argyros, MD, president of MedStar Washington Hospital Center, joined us to discuss the challenges of building and sustaining and healthy workplace culture.
Greg's Empathy Challenge: How would you turn around a culture where psychological safety is absent?
Esther M. Alegria, PhD, biopharmaceutical executive and board member, responded to Greg's challenge by sharing how culture change needs to start from the top and requires role modeling:
Company-Wide Psychological Safety Must Start at the Top: While individual leaders or lower-level employees can foster psychological safety within small teams (5 to 15 people), transforming the culture across an entire company requires top-level commitment and active modeling from leadership.
Cultural Transformation Takes Time and Consistency: Building a psychologically safe environment is an ongoing commitment, not a short-term project. It typically takes 18 to 24 months of consistent leadership behavior to truly embed the culture throughout an organization.
Empathy and Accountability Must Coexist: The hardest part of empathic leadership is setting boundaries when moving from empathy to consequences. Effective leaders must learn to enforce consequences and accountability without sacrificing empathy.
Empathy Essential: Patience is your practice: lead yourself today, change the culture tomorrow.
Esther's Empathy Challenge: How do you put boundaries on empathy when you have to move from empathy to consequences?
Robin P. Blackstone, MD, NACD.DC®, surgeon and author of Doctor AI, discussed preserving empathic communication within high-stress medical environments.
Shared Accountability & Autonomy: True care is a joint project between the care provider and the patient (the "health principal"). Moving away from passive compliance toward shared accountability and individual autonomy allows empathy to flow naturally.
Empathy Without Sacrificing Standards: Demonstrating empathy and care does not mean lowering professional standards or "dumbing things down"—it means executing your high standards through a more human, supportive approach.
Communicating Empathy for Mutual Growth: In high-pressure environments, empathy should be communicated as a mutual tool ("How can empathy help me and help you get to the other side?") to preserve humanity rather than focusing solely on output or metrics.
Empathy Essential: True empathy begins with accountability—lead yourself to hold high standards without losing your humanity.
Robin's Empathy Challenge: How do you stay human in a working environment that is gradually stripping away your humanity?
Polly Angel (RTT therapist and trauma-informed coach), Paula Freedman-Diamond, Psy.D. (licensed clinical psychologist), and Carlos Martinez (operations leader and certified executive coach) addressed how leaders in high-pressure environments can preserve their humanity, stay grounded in purpose, and overcome the fear of vulnerability in an age of constant optimization:
Empathy Enhances Performance Over Optimization: Authenticity and human connection improve work quality rather than hinder it. Focusing exclusively on machine-like optimization risks losing the essential human qualities of emotion and empathy.
Preserving the Human Purpose Behind Work: High-pressure workplaces often reduce roles to transactional metrics. Grounding yourself in a deeper, human-centered purpose—such as saving lives or supporting others—prevents technology and efficiency demands from stripping away your humanity.
Inner Reflection and Unpacking Vulnerability: Struggling with empathy often stems from personal stories or fear of vulnerability. Taking time to self-reflect and understand why empathy feels unsafe helps build resilience and prevents burn out.
Empathy Essential: Prioritize human connection over optimization—leading yourself begins with preserving your purpose and honoring your humanity.
A Peek Inside Our Monthly Masterminds
On August 14, we hosted our first Pod Club Live Mastermind event featuring bestselling author and leadership advisor Elizabeth Lotardo. In her book Leading Yourself, Elizabeth delivers practical frameworks to help professionals stay empowered during times of workplace disruption.
During the live session, one of The Empathy Collective Community members asked Elizabeth about her take on "servant" leadership. Here is what she says:
Join Us for Our Next Pod Club LIVE Mastermind!
Topic: Moving Your Team From Resisting Change to Driving It
Speakers: David A Galloway (Safety Leadership Consultant & Author) and Steve Gund (CEO of The Gund Company)
When: Thursday, September 17 @ 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT
Where: Online Livestream inside The Empathy Collective Community
What We’ll Cover:
David’s Caring & Coaching Framework: How shifting from control and criticism to caring and coaching transforms how employees accept new initiatives.
Steve’s Psychological Safety Model: How a "no-layoffs" philosophy creates the psychological safety needed for employees to drive continuous improvement (Kaizen) without fear.
Live Coaching: Bring your current organizational change challenges for real-time advice from David and Steve!
Bonus Giveaway: Every live participant will be entered to win a signed copy of David Galloway's newest book, Safety Views, Safety Cues.
Get FREE ACCESS to this mastermind using Promo Code PODLIVE2 at Checkout
