Having a learning mindset and being authentic | Lessons for Leaders

At times, Leslie Snavely says she has struggled with her confidence.

Now that she’s the president and CEO of CHG Healthcare, the nation’s largest physician staffing company, she says she feels more comfortable in her own skin. But that wasn’t always the case.

She credits Scott Beck, the company’s previous CEO, for helping her to have that confidence. As he moved into his new role as executive chair of the company’s board of directors, Beck advised her to follow her heart. As she recalls, Beck said, “lead with what you think you should do, because you're in this job for a reason.”

“I think it's particularly important as a female executive. For so many years, building that confidence in yourself is something that I've worked on, and he knows it. He's helped me work on it. And so it was a nice thing for him to kind of leave me with that advice,” Snavely says.

When asked about her advice for other leaders, Snavely says it’s important to always be willing to learn.

“Having a learning mindset as a leader is the single biggest thing that has helped me over my career,” she says.

Snavely says she knows if she retains that mindset, "I know I'll do my best job as a leader."

At CHG Healthcare, Snavely has held a host of different roles throughout the organization, including leadership roles in marketing and sales. She’s learned different aspects of the organization, which helped prepare her for taking the role of CEO.

Beyond learning the organization, Snavely touts another advantage of taking different roles in the company.

“You learn how to learn,” she says.

Snavely also stresses the importance of “being your real, authentic self.”

“In many situations, I find the more senior an executive gets, the more they almost feel the need to act a part, and that's okay,” she says. “There are roles we have to play … but doing it in a way that's authentic to you as a leader, to me, is one of the most important things that I've learned over my multi-decade career.”

Snavely says that she’s found she’s most effective when she’s being herself and following her own instincts.

“I'm going to be better at it if I do it the way that works for me, and don't try to do it the way that works for someone else,” she says. “It can be hard, because there are so many roles you need to play. And so I think my advice in all of this would be, you know the role you have to do now, do it in a way that is truly authentic to you.”

Plus, if leaders are trying to act in a way that they feel like they should, rather than being who they are, it makes the job harder.

“We all do better when we're doing it comfortably, right? And if you're doing it in a way that's causing you to have brain dissonance, you're using energy that can be applied to the problem at hand,” Snavely says.

She adds, “It's really rung true to me a lot in the last couple years, especially moving into the president and CEO role.”

• Read more: Women in healthcare looking to grow should take risks

Snavely encourages women leaders to pursue more challenging positions, even if they aren’t sure they’re ready for those opportunities. She says she has seen women who have wrestled over pursuing leadership posts, even when they are fully qualified.

“I've talked a lot with early leaders to say, you know, what's the downside of saying yes to the opportunity? And that's kind of a good reframing, because the downside is you don't get it,” Snavely says. “But if you don't put your name in the hat, you don't get to yes. So you're at ‘no’ already.”

“If you can keep it in that framework, then it doesn't feel as scary,” she adds. “And that's something that I've had to tell a lot of women.”

• Read more: Why women should pursue leadership roles, and why they might need a push