Summary:

What do you do when your hospitals flood, 160 employees go missing, and you realize there’s no playbook? You rewrite the rules. Austin Maggard shares how Appalachian Regional turned two back-to-back disasters into a culture-defining transformation and why HR became the backbone of resilience.

Chapters:

00:00 – Generational workforce shifts at ARH

03:23 – What rural healthcare really looks like

06:52 – Why documenting culture became mission-critical

10:14 – Chick-fil-A vs. McDonald’s: A service consistency lesson

13:42 – How Disney influenced ARH’s culture strategy

17:00 – The 2022 flood: 160 employees unaccounted for

20:28 – Helicopters, horseback, and healthcare chaos

24:05 – The emotional toll and operational breakdown

27:32 – What the second flood exposed: A trust gap

31:03 – “This wasn’t a logistics failure. It was a leadership one.”

34:40 – Building a distribution system for disaster relief

37:56 – How HR became the heart of recovery

41:22 – Turning pain into process: Making resilience portable

45:00 – Aligning every decision to the culture statement

48:14 – Final reflections on leadership, humility, and legacy

Host Alexa Beavers: linkedin.com/in/alexabeaverspmp

Guest Austin Maggard: linkedin.com/in/amaggard

Executive Producer Jim Kanichirayil: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Music Credit: "Lost in Dreams" by Kulakovka

Summary:

What do you do when your first leadership role comes with a nightmare boss, a team looking to you for protection, and zero playbook for managing up? Elda shares how she learned to “zoom out” instead of “head down” her way through the storm and why finding allies, mentors, and perspective is the real career insurance policy.

Chapters:

00:00 – When your first leadership role comes with a nightmare boss

03:10 – The pressure of managing peers and managing up

06:45 – Why her old strategy stopped working as a manager

09:30 – The turning point: realizing she needed allies

12:15 – Building relationships beyond your department

15:40 – The mentor she wishes she’d had

18:20 – How “zooming out” changes your career trajectory

21:00 – Staying power in one organization for 20+ years

Host Dr. Jim Kanichirayil: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Guest Elda De La Pena: linkedin.com/in/elda-de-la-pena-86ab7416

Executive Producer Jim Kanichirayil: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Music Credit: "Lost in Dreams" by Kulakovka

Summary:

What would you do if a direct report brought a hidden diary of grievances to your boss? Julie Deane lived it. In this episode, she opens up about a moment that could have derailed her career but instead reshaped it. With help from a wise boss and a lot of humility, Julie transformed a tough confrontation into the cornerstone of her leadership style.

Chapters:

00:00 - The Diary That Changed Everything

04:15 - An HR Wake-Up Call

07:30 - The Power of a Supportive Boss

12:05 - Ambition vs. Burnout

18:45 - Making Things Right with Travis

22:15 - Building Unity, Not Division

25:10 - Final Lessons: Tone, Trust, and Time

Host Alexa Beavers: linkedin.com/in/alexabeaverspmp

Guest Julie Deane: linkedin.com/in/jdeanekc

Executive Producer Jim Kanichirayil: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Music Credit: "Lost in Dreams" by Kulakovka