303: Leading Through Relationships and Authenticity with Yeng Yang, MD

Steve Haase  0:00  
Welcome to the Superabound podcast with master coaches Erin Aquin and Steve Haase, where entrepreneurs and leaders learn coaching tools to help you build a business you love. You are listening to episode 303 leading through relationships and authenticity with Yeng Yang MD, if you lead people, you are going to love today's episode, even if those people are just yourself. My guest today, our guest is Yeng Yang, who is a medical doctor, a leader within the healthcare system in the state of Minnesota, and a new graduate of the Superabound Coach certification program. She shares her insights of 30 years of working with high level professionals in a high stakes environment to deliver great care and great patient or customer, as we would say, great outcomes for her people. We dive deep into how do you build strong relationships with people that you're leading, with people that you might lead in the future, with people who are leading you right? How do you build those relationships at work so that they're real but also effective towards your vision and towards what you're all there to achieve? We also cover how to bring your whole self to work. It's an idea that has fallen out of fashion a little bit recently, but Yeng is a big believer in it, and you will hear how she does it to make it a place that she is proud to contribute to and to really make changes within Yeng shares her secrets for doing that and how developing her coaching has helped her have an even bigger impact in her relationships, in bringing her whole self and her authentic self to work and in achieving her vision. It is a fantastic interview, whether you are in the healthcare field or not, especially if you are interacting with, leading or building relationships with others who are at your same level, maybe even beyond, but people who are very accomplished, very skilled, as folks in the medical industry are. So I hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast. Let's dive in. Welcome Yeng,

Yeng Yang  2:20  
thank you, Steve, thanks for having me today. I'm really happy to be here and honored to be here, and particularly in the week or month that you guys are launching your book. So very, very cool. Yeah,

Steve Haase  2:32  
exciting times, exciting times. So I'm curious to know as as a leader of a large part of the healthcare practice, healthcare system within the state of Minnesota, where you are, what have been some of the fundamental tools that you use to succeed with people as a leader.

Yeng Yang  2:56  
Thanks Steve for that question. Well, you know, I would say that some of the biggest things that I use is relationship building. I think that there are many, many leadership tools out there that people can kind of read up on and say, Sure, put these 10 steps in action and you'll be a successful leader. But you know, in the end, it's really about what is authentic to you as a person, as a leader, and what you find to be helpful with your team. Because I think each team is very different, and with my teams that I have led in the past 20 years, I think that one of the biggest things is to be yourself, to be your true, authentic self, and just bring that to light into your work every day. I find that, particularly in healthcare, leadership trust is such a big component, because once you lose that, or if you don't, never establish that, you know your leadership doesn't really go anywhere. So trust is a really big thing. Relationship Building is another one that I found to be very useful, particularly in physician leadership. We don't command and control anything. So when we lead, we lead more by influence and by example, in a lot of ways. And you know, we need to be able to earn people's respect based on the work that we do ourselves. And so that leads to trust, that leads to some credibility, because you're not, you know, you're not leading other people, but your own colleagues sometimes, and so are a lot of times. And so that's very important, and having those really good relationships, and then you can influence that by, you know, sort of leaning on some of those relationships that you've that you've established with people,

Steve Haase  4:59  
and what. Are some of the best ways to build those relationships, especially if you need to do so quickly. Let's say you take over at a new location or at a new place of work. How do you move quickly with something that takes time? By definition, right? Having a relationship? Yeah.

Yeng Yang  5:18  
Yeah. I mean, you're right in that, you know, sometimes relationships take a lot of time to build, and if you come in as a new leader, that can be difficult to establish that, you know, relationship with that credibility right off the bat. But I guess I think about it in ways of how I do it with patients when, you know, I meet with them for the first time. How do I establish that rapport right away and get them to understand or to feel that I you know, that they can trust me, because I have their best interest at heart. And I think one of the best things to do is really just to learn about them, to be curious and to listen to what they have to say and what their experience has been. I myself have committed this mistake many times, you know, as a young leader of coming in with lots of ideas and lots of new ideas and saying, Oh, we're going to do this, and we're going to do that, and we're going to put all these changes into place. And, you know, I found in my experience that that tends to turn people off,

Steve Haase  6:27  
even if the ideas are wonderful, exactly

Yeng Yang  6:29  
even when the ideas are just brilliant. That turns to that tends to like, not let not have people get, get people on your column. So, you know, listening to them and asking what their ideas might be and what works for them and what doesn't work for them, and going at it a little bit slower pace. In the beginning, it seems like it's such a, you know, counterintuitive thing for people who are like physicians, we want to fix things, you know. So we're really good at fixing things, and they tend to approach leadership like that. But that tend to backfire, you know. So I find that just listening to them, learning a little bit about the landscape, taking a little bit of time, and that gets you farther and quicker than if you came in with all your ideas pre baked and, you know, not listening to anybody and going at it.

Steve Haase  7:23  
Yeah, I appreciate the nuance that you bring to it. In a work situation, everyone's there to get something done, to get to work, and so it can be tempting to think, all right, cool, let's just focus on the thing to get done. In relationships, there's not necessarily a thing to get done, and so it can be tempting to say, let's just focus on being together and getting to know one another. And how many siblings do you have? But in a work situation like for work relationships, there's this beautiful meeting of the two where it's, what are your ideas? What do you care about? What motivates you, and that is where real care is expressed and real commitment to getting the work done. There needs to be that kind of blending of the worlds in a work relationship. It seems like, yeah,

Yeng Yang  8:15  
absolutely. I think one of the things that I have always held dear to in my own values as a person and as a leader is connecting to a purpose that is bigger than myself, right? That is outside of myself, that helps to awaken the energy and the motivation in inside of myself. And I think that in some ways it's very difficult to lead physicians. And in some ways, it's a little easier than trying to lead a bunch of different people from different backgrounds, because I think physicians, we sort of all, have this inherent desire to help, this desire to, you know, do something with our patients with, you know, helping them find a better sense of well being, or a, you know, help them improve their health in some way, right? And so in that, we all sort of share the singular vision of doing something and in service to the patient. And so that is a vision that, yes, we can say it's selfish because it fulfills our own desires, but it's really about helping other people. And I think that when we can tap into that, it really is a helpful area of focus, right? So if I tell my Docs, if I if the vision, you know, usually comes around to always putting the patient in the center, then who is going to argue with you? You know, they can't really argue with you and say, no, no, I really don't want to do that. I mean, you know, that's that's pretty hard to argue when that is the center. Of our the reason why we are the who we are professionally. So I find that maybe finding an outside purpose like that, that we all can connect to a common purpose, is a really great way to get people to rally behind you as a leader and what you're trying to do. Yeah,

Steve Haase  10:19  
that's that's beautiful. When you think about your best relationships, your closest friends, there's often a unifying factor. Maybe you just live in the same place and you like some of the same things. Maybe it's your life partner and you're kind of committed to similar goals or outcomes, and the same thing, what you're pointing to is true at work, those relationships are going to be much stronger and quicker to form when you're both aiming for that bigger vision, when you're connected with each other in that mutual pursuit of that thing that matters to you

Yeng Yang  10:54  
both, right? Because, I mean, there are lots of things that we do that are difficult, right? That are not easy to do. And when those times come is when we have to continually go back to that common vision, that common purpose, in order to remember. Because, like in medicine, we we always say, do no harm. Is our kind of guiding star. And in the same way, in terms of leadership, is, you know, patient first or well being first? And now I think we're, we've been headed into this dichotomous world of well, the well being of our patients are very important, but also the well being of our clinicians and physicians are also very important too. And how do you nurture both sides of the coin in order to really make a perfect hole or a more perfect hole? And so I think it's it's always that that teeter totter, that if you think about it in that way, there's no perfect balance, but sometimes finding that common purpose can help clinicians, as you lead them to say, okay, you know, like in order for me to give the best care to my patients, which is ultimately what every clinician wakes up to do, I don't think anybody wakes up and says, Today, I think I'm gonna just give mediocre care, you know? Then, then I think it helps them to come along right when you have to do the tough things that to do the things that are not easy. We all want to do fun things in medicine and any work we do, but doing the hard thing, that's, I think that's where leadership comes from.

Steve Haase  12:40  
Comes to play, yeah, so how do you approach those particularly communicating around those difficult moments, right? Let's say a decision is made and it's a potentially contentious one, how do you bring people along and kind of smooth over the challenges. Yeah, I

Yeng Yang  13:05  
that is always tough. I mean, no matter how long you've done it or you're doing it, it's never easy. Um, I think the way that I've approached it is to try to be as transparent as I can be, and to be as honest as I can be, not divulging confidential you know, you know decisions or things like that, when I when I can't. But you know, I always try to tell my teams what's coming if I can, you know when. And I always try to be as transparent as I can be and always really articulate the why behind why certain decisions are made the way that they're made. What data do we have to support that decision, and what data don't we have, and what you know, what was the process for making that decision? And what are some of the opposing views, or some of the, you know, diversity of views that were presented, so that people understand that it was a true process that went into deciding. We just didn't pluck the decision out of thin air, because it was, you know, I don't know, an easy or, you know, decision, or something like that. So I always try to let let my team know, like, what went into the sausage making a little bit, so to speak, and be as transparent and as clear as I can be, and then always trying to connect that back to the purpose or to the vision, and try to get them to understand why we are doing certain things, right. So, for example, you know, extended hours or evening hours of clinic evening hours. That's a very unpopular decision that, you know, sometimes we've made along the way, and you know, when we talk about that with our clinicians and our leaders, it's. It's a harder sell when you say, Well, you know, because the market says that we have to, I mean that to them, they're like, what market and and show me the data, right? And there's actual true data that there's demand for that. But really, in the end, it comes down to because, you know, it's the right thing to do for our patients, right? We know that there is a certain segment of our patient population that, you know, cannot get off work before five o'clock in the afternoon to come see us during the day, or they have jobs that don't have the flexibility for them to take, you know, a day off to come see us. And so we need to be able to offer different hours of the day so that they can access us in order to serve the purpose that we want to serve, which is to serve our community and to bet the betterment of their health and their families. And so when you talk about it like that, I think it creates a sense of, I don't know, a higher purpose than just, you know, business, right? And they can get, they can get on board with that to say, okay, you know, to meet the needs of certain portions. Not all my patients need that, but some of my patients need that. So I can get on board with that, and I can sacrifice one day out of my week to be able to stay later so that my patients can have care. So, yeah, so that's kind of what I find it to be helpful, is just to be authentic and to be truthful and transparent and really kind of speak to what matters to them.

Steve Haase  16:33  
And it connects with a powerful point around intrinsic motivation that people want meaning in their work. And so if the reason for a decision is business, you're like, Okay, fine, like you said, the market is asking for it. We're gonna do better business and be better received if we do this. But that deeper human connection, that why it matters to someone is always gonna hit a little deeper, right, little closer to home, it's going to touch somebody's heart much more than we'll have a more successful business. Obviously, you want those two to connect. You know, you don't want to do something at the expense of the business, unless it's really important for the values of the organization. But the business only, or because I said, so is never going to win somebody's heart, no.

Yeng Yang  17:26  
And I think in the business that I'm in, it's so important, because we're not dealing with, you know, manufacturing goods or, you know, things. We are dealing with people, and we are dealing with hearts and minds, and, you know, the product is the relationship that we build with people. The product is that, you know that how we make people feel right? Because we in medicine, we don't, we don't always have the answer, and we don't always have the a the best news to tell people. I mean, like, if you go shopping for shoes, for example, which I'm a big shoes connoisseur. So I can say, you know, when I go shopping for shoes, I always walk out with a pair that I want, right? And I am always happy. But if I go to the doctor, well, you know, sometimes I go to the doctor and I get bad news, and so, you know, all we have is how we make people feel. All we have is how we communicate, how we, you know, help them through that process, through that journey. And so what I do as a leader, have to be able to speak to that same thing with my physicians, is I need to be able to lead them in such a way that, you know, in the end, they feel good about you know, whether it's a hard decision or an easier decision, that that they know that you know my heart is in it just like them, and that I'm impacted just like them, and that we're connected to that same common purpose of serving our patients. Love

Steve Haase  18:58  
that point on all we have is how we make them feel it's it strikes me that within medicine or any other highly technical professional field, part of that is going to be the competence of the practitioner. If you don't know what you're talking about, it's going to be hard to make someone feel confident or seen or taken care of, but if all you have is knowing what you're talking about, it will be equally hard to make someone feel cared for and seen. And so it's that combination of the human with the technical, so to speak, that really makes the magic. In light of that, I'm curious how pursuing coaching and kind of your own professional development has changed your approach to leadership in medicine.

Yeng Yang  19:53  
Yeah, thank you for asking that question. I would say that the earlier part of my career. Career in leadership, I had not come across coaching, or at least not in the way that, you know, I recently discovered coaching, and so I've been in pursuit of, oh, I need to learn these different leadership skills, and I have learned a lot of those leadership skills, but it didn't necessarily Make me the kind of leader that I wanted to be, and it wasn't until I discovered coaching, you know, a few years ago that really had an impact, a profound impact, on the way that I thought about leadership, the way that I thought about myself and how I lead, right? Because I used to be that leader that came in with a lot of good and, you know, good ideas, and say, This is how we should do it. And I lay all the tactics, and I'm like, Okay, why aren't you guys on board? Come on, you know, and coaching has really changed how I look at how I lead in in such an impactful way, because it, you know, before, I think it was always tell me what to do as a leader, right these? What are the tactics, what are the tools that I need in my tool belt? But coaching is about self empowerment for me, and it's about finding that answer within myself, that that nobody could give me but me, and coaching has allowed me to think more deeply and just more reflectively, and actually a little scary at first, right? Because coaching pushed me to ask those questions of myself that I was not willing to ask of myself before. And so it has enabled me to be braver and to be able to ask myself those tough questions and then to come up with the answers that was always within myself, and that, I think is the quintessential ingredient of coaching, or at least leadership. Coaching, for me, is about, you know, helping people find what is that answer that is within them all along, to connect to that sense of purpose, that whatever it is that they're doing

Steve Haase  22:13  
that's a powerful thing, and I appreciate that you share that it's a bit scary going from Okay, here's how you do it. Here are the tools to maybe? Maybe I have to figure that out myself. Maybe my best tools are ones that no one else has talked about, and they're actually unique to me. How has that process been like for you? I know coming in, you had a vision for your career, for your impact. That is one of the areas that we focus on a lot in the Superabound training. How has, how did that affect your leadership style, your coaching style over that time?

Yeng Yang  22:52  
Yes, so my big vision in, you know, now that I'm I'm in my 50s, and I am thinking about, you know, towards the end of my career, what do I want to leave as a mark in my career, path, in my profession? And I think about, Okay, I've helped a lot of patients. You know, individually, I've helped a lot of you know, people in different ways, but ultimately, my biggest desire and wish and vision is really to help the people, the leaders that I lead behind me and around me, to be better leaders, to be leaders that are effective, to be leaders that you know are not just like, oh, it was they, that person got stuff done, but it's that leader that leaves a mark right, that that permanent mark in somebody's life. And I find that to be the most satisfying for me is I am deeply moved when a younger leader who I'm mentoring, or who I've, you know, helped mentor and coach become excited about their leadership journey and or daheb is doing something that they're really connected to, that makes me extremely happy, and that is the mark that I want to Leave, is that I want to be the kind of leader to inspire people, to help them find their voice and to help them find that sense of empowerment for themselves. Because it's really hard to just say, Sure, go ahead and lead like you know your your 140 people team and and inspire them to be great leaders too. How do you actually do that? You know, like you can't just one day have a, I don't know, a magic one, and dub them great leaders by hoping, right? And so you have to have the tools to be able to find what motivates that each individual person. And what you know, whether it's a leader or not, how do you how do you help them find the best part of themselves and bring that to work and to their life and their practice, and that that is a very important to me, to to have that mark, like if the day that I leave my profession, or, you know, leave this earth, and people don't remember me for anything else that I do, like all the processes that I put in place, all the workflows that I put in place, you know, if they don't remember anything but that that I help them see something in themselves, you know, along the way in their development, and that was impactful for them, then I would be very proud as a person so that has and that really came from my introduction, or my immerse, my immersion into coaching. And I think for me, in the last, even in the last six months to nine months or so that I've been more involved with you guys in Superabound. It has really challenged me to think about, what does it really mean to be a coach leader? Right? To be somebody who leads by coaching and not necessarily just by telling them what I want from them, because I'm their leader. There's there's time for that too, but there's expectation setting, and then there's, how do you get people to get there? And, you know, I found that this last, even this last couple of months, with a couple of new leaders that I'm that I'm leading, you know, just by the using the tools that I've been learning about in coaching has really helped to open up the relationship more and to really create a much deeper trust level. Um, and it's just because I just listen and ask questions about, hey, what's really you know, like, what do you want out of this, and what, you know, pushing them in that way, or nudging them in that way, rather than, you know, sort of dictating to them and or even, you know, overlay my vision onto them, right? I'm creating more open space, I'd say, for my leaders to create their own visions for what they want, and they I know that in the end, because we're we're already connected with this bigger sense of purpose, you know that what they want is ultimately really going to be what I want, or vice versa. And so that has been impactful. And one of the young leaders that I did Coach, she said it's super powerful and empowering to know that I have the answer within that I don't have to come to you every time. So that's kind of how it has been impactful for me. And I'm finding that every day that I'm, you know, becoming braver in letting go more and more and creating that space for my leaders to, you know, step up.

Steve Haase  28:14  
Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, it's beautiful. The the the trust and care that comes through in letting someone's own vision lead the way for how they want to work and the impact that they want to have. Because, yes, as long as the overarching umbrella is shared and you both know where it is that you're going letting go and allowing someone's own curiosity and interest to be in the driver's seat is is going to be the most effective and the most fun. And yeah, that's going to create that relationship. And like you said, have them feel wow, this person really has my back. This person really cares about me. Isn't that a breath of fresh air in a work environment that often doesn't feel that way, right? It's so easy to feel like a cog in a wheel, a piece of the machine, and to have that human connection, that space for someone's humanity, which I think is kind of at the heart of good coaching, that just creates a completely different experience for people at work and in relationship with their boss, with their leader.

Yeng Yang  29:27  
Absolutely, I feel like, Gosh, I wish I could get a do over, you know, because, for the last, you know, 15 years of my leadership, I wish I had discovered coaching before. Because, and I'm not just saying that because, you know, I'm a student of coaching and and, you know, I'm being Pollyanna, but truly, I do wish that I had discovered coaching before, right earlier in my career, because I think it makes a world of difference in terms of how, how one can approach a. One's, you know, leadership, or even life. I mean, you know, I, I would say that, you know, we lead in different arenas, right? We lead in at the workplace, we lead at home. And, you know, even parenting, you know, can be viewed as that and and I think coaching can be so empowering because it then it sort of in some ways, you can feel like you don't have as much control. But in letting go, you can, you can see the demonstration of how curiosity can actually create such powerful dynamics with people, and people will surprise you. They will surprise you. They will empower themselves, and they will rise up to the occasion. For sure,

Steve Haase  30:58  
yeah, I am glad you mentioned parenting. Talk about an exercise and letting go my my eight year old, like, I was trained as a classical musician. That was my first career. So I'm like, My children will be musicians. And she's like, I will not be a musician. I'm like, breaking my dad. You're breaking your daddy's heart. You know? How could this be? And so part of me is like, No, you have to do it. And the other parts, like, hang on, she loves to sing, she loves to dance, she loves to draw. The arts are not dead within her. There's there's plenty to support and encourage. Just because she's not sitting down and learning her Mozart doesn't mean she's going to fail in her artistic, you know, expression. And so this kind of active experience of letting go of my very particular expectations, and, you know, desires for my child in this case, is it's, it's quite a practice of self reflection and intentionally letting go. And so I'm curious in your experience, when there's something that's kind of your pet thing that you have to let go. How do you how do you find the presence of mind and kind of strength of character to to not let your own self get in the way of someone else's flourishing?

Yeng Yang  32:17  
It's hard. I mean, like you said, right? You have to be intentional about it. And I would say that with the I think the practice of coaching is that I'm constantly having to remind myself to pause right, to pause and to listen and to really see, okay, how, and I asked myself this question, I think, you know, like, if I put, if I, if I argue very strongly for my point or for my perspective, how does that change? You know, what, what purpose does that serve, right? And how will that change our the end goal of what I want, what? Because in the end, like at work, for example, in the end, we all, we all have an ideal of what we want. But sometimes that ideal we can't imagine in our own head. You know what the reality is versus what the ideal is. And sometimes I think that what I imagine as an ideal is not quite as good as what can be co created with other people because of the different perspectives that other people bring right. And so I can be super zealous in terms of arguing for my point, but in the end, it may just be great for me and it may not be great for our patients, it may not be great for our organization, it may not be great for our team. And so I have learned the art of humility, if not by choice, by force, you know by necessity that what I what I bring, is only a part of the picture. I just

Steve Haase  34:05  
want to, I just want to underline that for a moment, because that is so powerful. The what I have as an ideal is probably not as good. Or we could even just go for it and say it's not as good as what could be co created with everybody else who's involved

Yeng Yang  34:25  
that, and that takes a long time. It took a long time. Maybe I'm just a slow learner, but, you know, it took a long time for me to get to that point right? And I think coaching has been sort of, I think the instrumental thing that has helped me to realize that. And to really understand what humility is and what true curiosity is, because I've had to show it to myself. I've had to show a sense of curiosity for my own self and overcome my own self, my own sense of. I know what the answer is. You know, before I could show it to anyone else in on my team, and until I learned that lesson for myself, it was hard for me to do it for for other people,

Steve Haase  35:13  
it always starts inside, right? We start with ourselves in that light, what has been the driving force behind your own continuous development? First, you were an MD, then you got your MBA, then you dove into coaching. You're a certified coach. Why keep going? Why not just stop with being a doctor? As if that's not enough?

Yeng Yang  35:38  
Yeah, I mean, being a doctor is a wonderful thing. I mean, it's a quite a privilege, you know, to to be in the position that I'm in, to know people the way that I know people, and to have people tell me things or share things with their lives that they may not share with any other human being. That is a distinct privilege that I've had for a long time, and I don't take that for granted. And yet, part of, part of my, I guess, my pursuit, is that I am, maybe by nature, I'm curious about things around me, about how things work, about how to how to improve on myself, how to improve others, how to improve the situation we're all in. And I think it's because I can, I can see, you know, that I have, I don't know, I think Steve, I think that the the human mind is limitless in terms of what we can do, in terms of the potential, right? It's just time that limits us. And the little time that I had life, I don't know, maybe when I was younger, I used to think, oh, I have lots of time. I can, you know, do all kinds of things. And I was very, very focused when I was younger. But as I get older, and, you know, farther away from my youth and maybe closer to, you know, the inevitable, I started to think about, what impact can I have on my community, what impact can I have on my profession, what impact can I have on the people that I lead, and that is, I think, what drives me Beyond curiosity of just, you know, learning something else new. So part of it is, in order to for me to make impact, a greater impact, or a more lasting impact, I needed to gather some more skills that I didn't have. I mean, you know, in, you know, we go to medical school and residency training and all that stuff. They teach us about the, I think, the technical aspect of medicine and some of the art of practicing medicine. But, you know, it doesn't all happen there. And so leadership, they teach us nothing about leadership. They just kind of push you there like you're an intern, and then all of a sudden you have to teach medical students. You're a resident. Now you have to teach, you know, your your junior residents, and so on and so forth. And it's this, you know, see one, teach one. You know, do one? See one, teach one. They kind of concept that we get in medicine training and, and I don't think that that's true leadership training, you know, it's it's maybe technical leadership training in that you know the skills, so you teach the skills, but there's so much more to it than just knowing the technical skills. And so I just feel like I didn't know as much as I wanted to know, and I was not as effective as I wanted to be effective. You know? I wanted to be more impactful. I wanted to be a leader that somebody can really, truly admire and respect and feel like I have something to give to them, that they have something they can learn and or, or that what I contribute is valuable, right? That it's not something that they could just go read in a leadership book. And maybe that's why coaching has been really appealing to me in that I think there's like, a zillion books out there about coaching, but it's, it's really how you apply coaching to, you know, and mixing that with the leadership skills that you have. And, as you said, really applying it to the heart of humanity, I think that that what makes, that's what makes it really powerful for me, so that that's kind of why I do it, and I keep doing it, and, you know, I'm starting to practice some of those skills more and more with the people that I lead, because I feel like you are you can bring your entire self to work. You can bring your entire self to leadership, if you can really tap into what's inside of yourself, you know, yeah.

Steve Haase  40:01  
It's beautiful just to explore that last point a little bit, because I feel like prior to the real heating up of the culture wars, it was, it was pretty well accepted, bring your whole self to work, share all the things, and over the last couple of years, that seems to have gone out of favor in, you know, particularly in terms of sharing political views or anything else that could be considered incendiary. What are your thoughts on being professional being, you know, is it filtered? Is it context aware? How do you bring your whole self while not starting a culture war at your place of work?

Yeng Yang  40:48  
Interesting that you say that because the other work that I do, at least for my organization at Health Partners, is I do dei work, right? So health equity work, and that space is fraught with all kinds of, you know, culture war, counter, counter culture stuff and and lately it's been a huge backlash. I mean, we see that in our political just in the political conversation, and even in the last, you know, week or so with with Biden and Kamala Harris and JD Vance and all that too. And so it's hard. And I would say that, you know, I used to be afraid. And I think that when I was a younger leader, I used to be afraid to bring my whole self to work, because I used to think that there was this, and there there was, and there probably still is this, this expectation, or this sort of mold that, you know, corporate America and even corporate medicine has as this is the part, this is the person that we're looking for to look this way for the part of a physician leader or a whatever leader. And I have found that when I used to do that, I used to walk into a boardroom, or I used to walk into a meeting, and I used to put on, you know, my my work face, right? Used to put on my work facade and go in there and, you know, be professional, so to speak, but I found that I was censoring myself in a lot of situations where I would not say things the way that I would normally say it, or I wouldn't say exactly what I was thinking because I felt that what it wouldn't be received well, because I was trying to be on the other side of, how would that sound if I said that, you know? And I found that it just created a lot of, I don't know, superficial Band Aid kind of solutions in the end, and it wasn't really getting me to where I needed to be. Didn't get the issues that I was interested in, or that I was passionate in to come out right, and didn't really deal with the real issues. And so now, I would say, and maybe it's just because I'm old and I'm, you know, I don't care as much in terms of what people think about me or what? But, or maybe the other side of it is that I maybe I've just become braver. I don't know what it is, but I have become comfortable in who I am, comfortable in my own skin. And so I bring myself to work in that I don't say vulgar things. I don't say, you know, rude things. And I don't, you know, I don't accuse people of things. But I will say what I want to say, and I will make the point when there is a point to be made, and my I will use my voice in a strategic way, but I will use my voice. I will not, you know, shy away because it's a controversial topic. For example, using the word white supremacist, or, you know, institutional racism, or racism in medicine, in the work that I do, I used to not say those words because it wasn't comfortable for people around me, and I've just come to the realization that, you know what, if I need to say the things that I need to say in order for me to feel authentically myself, as a leader, as a person here in this space now, because that demands it, in the moment, I'm gonna Say it, and if you know people don't like it, I guess people don't like it, but what are they going to do about it? Like they'll fire back or they won't, and I'll be equally equipped to be able to deal with that too. So, you know, I mean, I guess. You can be afraid and you can you can shy away, or you can continue to hide in the shadows and let other people you know, like maybe, or maybe it's not even other people, but your perception of how other people are going to react to what you say scare you to not say the thing or do the things that you want to do. But, you know, frankly, it's like I'm to the point in my career and in my life that I am, I am not willing to continue to do that emotion, emotional labor anymore, you know, to make other people feel comfortable, and like I've had to be uncomfortable my whole life. So, yeah, it's okay if you are too a little that's, I think that's the edge of growth. Is when we're all we're a little bit uncomfortable.

Steve Haase  45:52  
You really bring it all together from where we started talking about, it's not just about the relationship, it's about the relationship to what end? Why are we here together in this context? Same thing with bringing your whole self and speaking your mind. It's not just being outspoken because you get a kick out of it. It's to what end. How can we create a better environment for people to work in have the impact that we want to have? And as such, you're not going to hide. You're not going to twist yourself into knots to try to, you know, have people accept you better. You're actually just going to bring yourself to that purpose. So I appreciate you sharing your experience of that and and why that matters so much. It's beautifully said,

Yeng Yang  46:40  
yeah, yeah. I think there is a risk of people like me who have, you know, the opportunity to have a voice at the table, to not say things right, to be quiet and to fit in, and to just coast and have a beautiful career. But in the end, I think that's kind of the, you know, excuse the language, but the chicken shit way of, you know, doing leadership, and, you know, not taking advantage of the opportunity that I have to lend my voice to the causes that are important to me and many others who don't have that voice. And so, you know, it's a little bit of putting on your, you know, brave face and go do it, you know. And so, here we are,

Steve Haase  47:30  
yeah, well, Yeng, you are an inspiration. You are brave. Thank you for sharing everything you have with us. Is there anything else you want to say share before we finish up.

Yeng Yang  47:45  
I think the last thing I want to say is I wanted to express my gratitude to you and Erin and to Emilie too, my cohort partner to you know, who helped me, really continue to hone the craft of coaching and to enter into this space with a lot of curiosity and a lot of kindness. You and Aaron have been so kind and so gentle in terms of just leading us through this whole process of the certification and just learning these skills and becoming, you know, braver and braver in in terms of just sharing our own vulnerabilities in order to grow so I am so grateful to the two of you for what you've done and for what you've shown me, and just continuing to be there, to be available and to coach continually. It's been such a great experience.

Steve Haase  48:48  
Well, thank you so much, Yeng, and that was it was an honor for us as well, and a real delight. So thank you for your energy and participation in the process. As you know, you only get out what you put in, and you certainly put in a lot. So thank you. Thank you. Any way that you want to direct people towards, anything that folks can engage with, if they want to learn more about you or your approach to leadership, where can they go? We

Yeng Yang  49:13  
have a website called Empowermendgroup.com so it's Empowermendgroup.com, so people can go there to learn a little bit about us. Amazing.

Steve Haase  49:26  
What who are the best people to go there?

Yeng Yang  49:29  
Our area of expertise, obviously, is in leaders, is in medical leadership. But you know, I think that this can apply to any leadership coaching experience that they would like to learn

Steve Haase  49:41  
about. Brilliant Well, we will make sure that we have that in the show notes and we send people towards empowerment.com. And sounds amazing.

Yeng Yang  49:52  
Thank you, Steve.