How Confidence Is Built in the Stretch: From White-Knuckling to Grounded Leadership with Kate Tansey Chevlen

Episode 9

Welcome back to Life from Within. This is the final episode of the year, and I am so grateful for all of my guests and listeners who made this podcast possible.

What happens when you land your dream promotion and realize on day one that you don’t speak the technical "language" of the room? In today’s episode, I am joined by Kate Tansey Chevlen, a Vice President at Amgen with a 17-year tenure at the company.

Kate shares the raw, honest story of a career transition - moving from a marketing director to a franchise leader overseeing multi-billion dollar contracts. She opens up about the white-knuckle months, the physical toll of trying to be a different kind of leader, and the specific steps she took to reclaim her authenticity and empower her team.

🔑 Key Takeaways for Leadership & Personal Growth

• To master her new domain, Kate sought out trusted partners for intensive deep dives into their mastered skill.
• Kate initially tried to copy the boisterous, high-energy style of her predecessor. This led to white-knuckling, physical stress, and a team that felt unsupported.
• A moment of exhaustion during a business trip forced Kate to stop performing and start advising authentically. The result was immediate clarity for her team and liberation for herself.
• Kate discusses her "Trust but Verify" framework - knowing when to delegate and empower experts through full delegation.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background of Kate Tansey Chevlen

02:07 Transitioning to Different Leadership Roles at Amgen

04:35 Navigating Leadership and Multi-billion Dollar Contracts

07:18 Building Trusting Relationships in Decision Making

09:51 The Impact of Leadership Style on Team Dynamics

11:07 Finding Your Authentic Self in Leadership Roles

13:00 Embracing Personal Leadership Style

17:49 The Journey to Self-Discovery

20:23 How to Find Your Own Way to Manage Stress

22:45 Building Confidence Through Challenges

24:22 Applying Confidence in Leadership

26:19 The Art of Delegation and Trust

30:03 The Importance of Authenticity in Leadership

31:17 Outro

Guest

Kate Tansey Chevlen has been a commercial leader at Amgen for 17 years and is currently serving as the Vice President, Global Marketing and Therapeutic Area Head of Inflammation.

Prior to joining the Global Inflammation team, Kate led the US Patient Access and Reimbursement team, where she oversaw efforts to help patients start and stay on Amgen medications.

Kate’s prior experience at Amgen spans across marketing, sales, and market access leadership. Kate has worked across the US and global side of Amgen’s commercial business, and across all major therapeutic areas, including oncology, nephrology, cardiovascular, bone, neurology, and inflammation. She has led multiple franchises at Amgen, including the nephrology and respiratory businesses in the US.

Prior to joining Amgen, Kate served as a gubernatorial appointee for the State of California, where she managed healthcare and economic development public policy. She also worked in local government in California, managing economic development public policies.

Kate holds a BA in Politics and French from Brandeis University, an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University, and an executive coach certification from the Hudson Institute of Coaching.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-tansey-chevlen-4953391/

Host

Kelly Dwyer is an executive coach and...

Join us for a deeply honest and inspiring conversation with Rashida Bradley, an accomplished Operational Strategist, as she shares her journey in navigating career pivots and family balance. Rashida opens up about the many challenges she faced—from balancing graduate school and a surprise pregnancy to managing the impact of grief and joy on the same day.

Rashida highlights the importance of community support and advocates passionately for vulnerability in leadership as a pathway to building deeper trust and connection. We discuss the importance of striving for excellence over the pursuit of perfection, and the freedom found in embracing authenticity in all professional spaces. This episode is packed with essential advice on prioritizing mental health, practicing self-care, and continuously fostering personal growth in life and career.

🔑 Key Takeaways for Leadership & Personal Growth

• Surround yourself with a strong network.
• Honest vulnerability is the key to genuine connection and building a high-trust team.
• Pursue excellence, not perfection.
• Authenticity in professional settings is a form of leadership.
• Prioritize mental health and self-care practices for sustained personal growth and high performance.
• View your career as a journey of continuous evolution.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Rashida Bradley

01:45 Career Pivots, Applying for Graduate School and Personal Growth

04:03 Balancing Family and Education

07:07 Choosing A Career AND A Family

07:37 Navigating Grief and Joy on the Same Day

11:17 Being Vulnerable and Building Community

14:33 The Importance of Helpability and Support

18:03 Mental and Physical Health Management

19:23 Pursuing Excellence Over Perfection

21:44 Navigating How to Show up Authenticity When You Feel Left Out

27:20 Charting Your Own Course in Career and Life

Guest

Rashida is a seasoned healthcare leader and operational strategist with over 15 years of experience driving financial and operational transformations for Fortune 50 companies like CVS Health. As a Lead Director supporting Health Services, she oversees financial strategy and operational execution across pharmacy benefit management. Drawing on her background in investment banking (Lehman Brothers, Citi, J.P. Morgan), Rashida brings deep expertise in financial strategy and enterprise change management to complex, regulated healthcare environments. She is an alum of Babson College and a dual Master's recipient from Cornell University (MBA & MS in Healthcare Policy).

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rashidabradley

Host

Kelly Dwyer is an executive coach and facilitator. Through her podcast Life from Within, she opens up real conversations about personal growth, career crossroads, and the inner work of leadership. She created the show to explore the moments of courage and clarity that spark inner shifts and lead to meaningful outer progress.

In her coaching and facilitation practice, Kelly partners with thoughtful, influential leaders including founders, C-suite executives, and rising leaders who shoulder significant responsibility and want to lead with grounded clarity and self-trust. She helps them return to what matters most,...

Episode 7 Jake Gunn-Sandell

TITLE: Finding What’s Next: How Values and Vulnerability Drive Career Pivots with JakeGunn-Sandell

On this episode, I speak with Jake Gunn-Sandell, Director of Strategic Affairs at Instructure (the company behind Canvas), about his incredible journey. We discussed his bold career pivots, particularly his high-stakes transition into executive search, where he developed the innovative 'Polymath Practice'—a powerful framework for C-Suite recruiting.

I learned so much about how Jake leveraged vulnerability and strategic networking to make the leap from placing top talent to a pivotal leadership role in Education Technology (EdTech). I think this conversation offers a powerful blueprint for successful job searching and personal growth, emphasizing the need to ask critical questions, identify one's values, and remain adaptable throughout major career changes.

1. Embrace Vulnerability for Professional Growth: Ask probing questions, and let intellectual curiosity guide learning. This builds trust and accelerates skill acquisition.
2. The Polymath Practice: Jake's strategy to compartmentalize new, complex roles into simple, core subjects (e.g., Psychology, Tech, Finance) to make major career pivots manageable.
3. Strategic Networking is Essential for Job Searching: Focus networking efforts on leaders and companies you admire. Finding the right organizational culture is as important as the role itself.
4. Establish Credibility, Sell the Dream, and Slow Down: These three steps are what Jake found critical for building influence and trust in any leadership position or high-stakes environment like executive search.
5. Identify Your Values and Goals: Jake defined his next move by writing down what he wanted (lead more, travel more, give back). A clear personal vision for guiding career pivots is essential.
6. Creative Thinking Unlocks Opportunity: Challenge assumptions about the "perfect" candidate or the "obvious" career move. Leverage transferable skills to pivot into new sectors like EdTech seamlessly.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:30 Career Pivots and Challenges

13:35 Using Vulnerability in Executive Search

20:52 Fundraising Challenges in Nonprofit Work

22:54 Embracing Vulnerability in Leadership

24:34 Navigating Career Transitions SPMB to Instructure

30:03 Identifying Personal Values and the Impact of a Career Coach

32:05 Leveraging Relationships for Career Growth

34:47 Strategic Job Searching

38:34 Understanding Your Identity as a Builder

Guest

Jake Gunn-Sandell’s career is a masterclass in the power of the career pivot. He currently serves as the Director of Strategic Affairs at Instructure, helping define the future of education through his work in government affairs and strategic partnerships. Before moving into EdTech, Jake excelled in the demanding world of executive search, where he built the Polymath Practice—leveraging transferable skills to place C-suite leaders across every major tech vertical. From the fast-paced environment of recruiting top executives to his early days as a Disney character performer, Jake attributes his success to embracing...