The Inspired Healthcare Leader | Healthcare Leadership, Work-Life Balance, Managing Change
The Inspired Healthcare Leader is your go-to podcast for frontline healthcare leaders who want to lead with more ease, joy, and success. I’m Mara Ergas-Zabari, a lifelong healthcare leader, consultant, and passionate supporter of those on the front lines. Each week, I’ll share personal insights, practical tips, and inspiring stories to help you reconnect with your spark and navigate the challenges of leadership. Together, we’ll explore relevant topics to your daily work-life like overwhelm, team dynamics, and work-life balance. I’ll be approaching these topics through the lenses of personal development, human psychology, complexity, and systems science. You’ll a...
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Take Back Your Time - Make Your Calendar Work For YOU! – Ep: 91
<p>Your calendar may be running your workday, but who's really calling the shots? For healthcare leaders, it's easy to get caught up in endless meetings, competing priorities, staffing challenges, and everyone else's demands—only to end the day wondering what you actually accomplished. But here's something you may not realize: you have a lot more control over your time than you think. And how you use that control can dramatically change your leadership effectiveness, your results, and even how you feel at the end of the day. In this episode of The Inspired Healthcare Leader, I share how taking co...
Do You Need Charisma to Be a Great Leader? – Ep. 90
<p>Do you need charisma to be a great leader—or is charisma something we’ve misunderstood altogether? In this episode, I’m looking at what charismatic leadership actually is, whether it really makes leaders more effective, and the surprising research showing that many of the behaviors we experience as “charismatic” can actually be learned. You’ll hear what charismatic leaders do differently when they’re trying to build trust, get people on board with change, and move a resistant team forward—and why the answer is not becoming louder, more polished, or more performative. You’ll also learn four practical ways to...
The Real Reason You Never Feel Fully Successful At Work – Ep. 89
<p>What if the reason you never feel fully successful as a healthcare leader isn’t because you haven’t accomplished enough—but because you keep moving the finish line? In this episode, we’re talking about the arrival fallacy, why healthcare leaders so often tell themselves “I’ll feel better when…” and then barely pause before chasing the next goal, fixing the next problem, or responding to the next “top priority.” You’ll learn why constantly postponing satisfaction can leave even highly successful leaders feeling like they’re never quite there, what the research says about progress, motivation, and happiness at work, and h...
Your Boss & Physician Partner Can Make Or Break Your Leadership – Ep. 88
<p>Your relationship with your physician dyad partner, your boss, or another key leader can make your job dramatically easier—or make everything harder. In this episode, I’m talking about the relationships you really can’t afford to leave to chance. You’ll learn why working with someone isn’t the same as working on the relationship, how unclear roles and unspoken expectations create friction, and the simple conversations that can strengthen trust, improve decision-making, and help you work better together. Because when the pressure is on, you don’t want to be figuring out the relationship in the middle of th...
Why You Overreact In Certain Meetings & What Your Younger Self Has To Do With It– Ep. 87
<p>Ever walk out of a meeting thinking, “Why did that hit me so hard?” Maybe your boss questioned your idea, someone’s tone felt off, or you were left out of something—and suddenly it felt much bigger than the moment itself. In this episode I’m explaining why your 6-year-old self may be showing up in today’s meetings. You’ll learn how early relationship patterns can shape what you notice, what you assume, and how you react as a leader—and why a look, tone, silence, or disagreement can sometimes feel like rejection, criticism, or disrespect. Most importantly, you...
Drowning In Work? 4 Proven Ways To Keep Overwhelm At Bay – Ep. 86
<p>Drowning in work? When everything feels urgent and there’s more coming at you than you can possibly keep up with, it’s easy to slip into overwhelm. And once you’re there, it can become even harder to think clearly, prioritize, and see what truly needs your attention. In this episode, I’m sharing four practical, research-backed ways to keep overwhelm at bay—even when your workload too heavy. You’ll learn how to get everything you’re carrying out of your head, let go of the invisible rules adding unnecessary pressure, stop mentally living the whole week at once, and i...
Crisis? Strike? Accreditation Survey? Bring on the Fun! Ep. 85
<p>Crisis? Strike? Accreditation survey? Fun may be the last thing on your mind—but it might be exactly what your team needs. When work gets hard, healthcare teams tend to get more serious, more task-focused, and more determined to push through. But research shows that moments of genuine joy and connection can actually help teams become more resilient, creative, and adaptable under pressure. In this episode, I’ll share what the science says about an “emotional culture of joy,” what I learned while leading my own team through an incredibly stressful strike, and four simple ways to bring more fun into...
Thrown Under the Bus? It’s Your Time to Rise – Ep. 84
<p>When someone questions your credibility in front of everyone, what you do next matters. Being thrown under the bus at work can trigger an almost irresistible urge to set the record straight. But these moments can also become an opportunity to show people exactly who you are as a leader. In this episode, you’ll learn how to protect your credibility without looking defensive, how to decide when to speak up and when to let it go, what to say when you do need to correct the record, and how to avoid getting pulled into a battle over who’s ri...
You Can’t Self-Care Your Way Out Of An Unhealthy Workplace – Ep 83
<p>Meditate. Exercise. Set boundaries. Get enough sleep. All good advice—but what happens when the real problem isn’t your ability to handle the stress, but the conditions creating it? In this episode, I challenge one of healthcare leadership’s most persistent assumptions: that when work becomes unsustainable, leaders simply need to become more resilient. You’ll discover how capable leaders can actually hide organizational problems by continually finding a way to make things work, how to tell when you need to do something differently versus when the work needs to change, and three practical ways to create healthier working...
How Tooting Your Own Horn Actually Makes You a Better Leader – Ep. 82
<p>Most healthcare leaders would never dream of “tooting their own horn.” But what if keeping quiet about everything you’re doing behind the scenes is actually making it harder to lead? In this episode, I share why making your leadership visible isn’t about getting credit—it’s about helping your team understand what it takes to create change inside of a complex organization. You’ll learn how to strategically pull back the curtain and share what you’re doing so you can reduce cynicism, build trust, and help your team become stronger partners in solving the challenges you face together.<...
