Transcription:
Women in Leadership: Lindsey Petrini

Bill Klaproth (Host): This episode is part of a special Women In Leadership Podcast series.

Sarah Brownell: Well, thanks for joining us. I know this is quite a departure from some of the typical podcasts that are produced through the organization, so I'm going to start off with just a little bit of background and then introduce our guest today. I'm Sarah Brownell. I work for a company called HDR Architecture. But more importantly, I'm a mom of three daughters. And as a little bit of background, my oldest daughter is 17, and about a year ago started down this journey with her transitioning from high school to what's next for her. And it really kind of hit me that literally everybody asks her, "What are you going to do with your life?" And it just struck me like, wow, this is a really big question for such a small child. And there is this expectation, I think, that when we are entering into college years or into early into our career, we have to have it all figured out and claim a major and know what we want to do. And I don't think that that needs to be the case.

So while I am witnessing this with my daughter, I happen to come across some really amazing female leaders in the healthcare industry. And by hearing their stories about how they really created a unique path for themselves and navigated their own career trajectory, it struck me that there's a real opportunity to share those stories in a way that might help break a little bit of the stigma around career paths and around us as professional leaders in the industry about what really makes us relevant.

So, my goal for this podcast is to do just that, talk about why career paths don't have to be linear; if your career path isn't linear, doesn't mean you're not necessarily qualified; but also inspire professional women to create their own paths. And for kids like my daughter who are still figuring that out, to reinforce the fact that it's okay to not necessarily know what's next and to just keep learning and to be open to new possibilities, wherever that might lead you.

So, without further ado, I'm going to introduce our guest today, Lindsey Petrini, current COO for WellStar North Fulton. Lindsey, I'm going to turn it over to you. Why don't you share a little bit about your background?

Lindsey Petrini: Well, I appreciate you having me today. As Sarah mentioned, I'm the chief operating officer for WellStar North Fulton Hospital, which is a 202-bed acute care hospital in Roswell, Georgia. I've been at that organization about 17 years. Prior to that, I was in hot Springs, Arkansas, which was where I was born and raised.

You know, it's funny you mentioned your daughter because if I think back on my career when I was her age, I had no idea what I wanted to do. And I think if I were to talk to some of my teachers back then and tell them that one day I was going to be the chief operating officer of a hospital, they wouldn't have believed that because, at that point in time, I lacked a lot of direction and was probably a bit of a mediocre student at that age. But as I look back on some of the opportunities that were presented to me and just some of the mentors that I've had, success is not necessarily all academic and there's a lot that plays into life and to success. And I've been fortunate that a lot of those things have come my way.

And so, you know, again after spending some time in Hot Springs, I went off to college and there is really where I started to realize that while I might have not been the strongest academic student, I had some strong leadership skills that people recognized in me, maybe more so than I recognized in myself. I remember peers asking me to take the lead on things. I can remember the moment that a friend of mine said, "I can't see anybody else being sorority president but you." And those were those moments that I look back on and realize that I had a more of a talent for leadership than I probably had for school.

After graduating college, I graduated with a degree in Mass Communication from the University of Central Arkansas. And I looked for jobs everywhere in the hospital. At home in Hot Springs, is who hired me as the marketing coordinator there. And so, I went home to begin a career in healthcare. And I had actually interned with that communications degree in radio and I thought that was a lot of fun. I do enjoy talking, but I think that I was going to be able to be as successful in that space as maybe I'd hoped. Then, I went and interned in a TV station and realized that wasn't really a lifestyle that I wanted. But when I walked into a hospital and started working in their public relations department, I not only found a sense of a skillset that I liked, but also just fell in love with hospitals and healthcare and the purpose behind it. And that really led me to that first job. And then after that, I received a Master's Degree in Journalism and wanted to go and teach school. But I had a mentor say to me, "I know you want to go teach school, but you could have a great career in healthcare."

And so from there, at 29, I made the decision to move to Atlanta and started at North Fulton Hospital and was there as their physician liaison, is the job that I first began as a physician liaison and then worked my way up to chief operating officer and had had a really interesting 16 years taking on multiple promotions from marketing director to chief business development officer, and then supporting the hospital through a transition from a for-profit system, the hospital was owned by Tenet Healthcare, to then become a not-for-profit system with WellStar and really leading as interim president through that timeframe, which was incredibly challenging but very fulfilling and learned a lot about myself through that whole timeframe and being able to do that and take a whole group of employees and have them believe in something new and something different, was something I would've never thought for myself, being that 17-year-old girl at Hot Springs High School that really wasn't even sure she was going to go to college to then turn in and bring an organization over, and then serve it as a chief operating officer over the past six years.

Sarah Brownell: I just think that that's so great. And so, a few things stick out to me when I hear you tell that story. First of all, going from a for-profit to a not-for-profit hospital and just the culture shift that's associated with that I think is huge. So I'm curious, as you look back to that whole experience, what are some of the standout moments for you, like challenges or opportunities that you think of really were like tipping points for you?

Lindsey Petrini: I'd point out that during this timeframe that my hospital went up for sale, North Fulton went up for sale by Tenet Healthcare, I was also going through a lot of personal changes. I had just gotten remarried. I'd become a stepmother to two wonderful kids. And then to top it off, I'm having to move an organization from for-profit to a not-for-profit. So, it was interesting because my personal life was changing just as rapidly as my professional life was changing. And so being able to manage those two during that particular point of time was incredibly challenging.

But what I remember most about it was I was part of a new organization of which it was very new to me too, and it was a bit of a culture shift. While for-profit hospitals and not-for-profit hospitals work for the same mission, some of the ways they prioritize things are very different. And being able to lead through during a timeframe that I wasn't 100% clear on everything that was going on, but I had to stand in front of everyone and ask them to come along with me and give them confidence to move through that change, that was definitely memorable to me because I wasn't necessarily sure I knew what the next step was, but I had to have them trust me to take it and to take it with me. I think when I go through that timeframe that I was serving as interim president of the organization and looking back on it, I think I was a little bit insecure. You know, I was just unsure I was doing the right things.

And I remember when we transitioned over and our wonderful new president joined us, I remember looking down, it was the first we'd made budget. We had gotten everything in order. And here the whole time, I would've told you all the things that I wasn't necessarily doing right. And then it was all said and done, we could look back, we had accomplished all these great things in a very short amount of time and started to really move and set the stage for what is just now a really growing facility. But at the time, we were so worried about that change and what we weren't doing. We really didn't heavily focus on what we'd done right. And it wasn't until it was all said and done that I could look back on it. I think for a lot of us, we tend to do that. We get so involved in what we've got to fix in the moment that we don't reflect on the things that we've done that are so very positive during that time. And to look at the organization now and the culture we've created and knowing that that foundation was set at that point in time. But definitely, the number one thing I recall is being very uncertain about the next steps, but having to look to a group of people and ask them to take those steps with me.

Sarah Brownell: Well, and you mentioned feeling very vulnerable and feeling very uncertain, and I think that those are really important things to acknowledge in your journey because we all go through that. But I think a lot of times there's this, I go back to that word stigma, this negative connotation to feeling vulnerable. But I think the reality is if we don't feel that, we're probably not pushing ourselves hard enough, right? If we are always comfortable and sure of our next steps, then we're probably not really stretching ourselves to our full potential. So, I think that that's really important to understand too, as we're thinking about that.

So, getting all of these people to trust in you, trust in your leadership to buy into this path that you're taking forward for the organization, along the way, knowing that you're progressing through your career in multiple roles, how did you educate people on your responsibilities and how that was changing and get them to come along with you on that journey?

Lindsey Petrini: You know, from my perspective, getting them to understand that, I have a natural confidence that I think in my communication to people that I think is something that I don't necessarily think about, but as I watch other leaders, I know that's a talent. And so, it wasn't necessarily educating individuals on what that different step was. But it was mostly, and I mentor a lot of people and I tell them to look the part, act the part, own the part. I think you have to do that. And if you can do that and do that with confidence, the education side of it isn't as necessary because they see you in that particular role. And I think that's something that I was taught very early on, is to have that confidence even if you're not necessarily always feeling it, but to have it and to communicate as clearly and as calmly as you can.

Sarah Brownell: Oh, that's really great advice. Actually, I'm going to write that down when we're done here because that's really good. So, I think we talked a little bit about struggles, obviously through your personal life and professional life. I mean, those are all connected, right? You can't separate that even as much as we'd like to sometimes, and talked a little bit about how these struggles shaped you as a leader. I'd like to talk a little bit more about that. Can you share, you know, a time where the struggles or challenges helped shape your path a little bit more?

Lindsey Petrini: Yeah, definitely. In my personal life, I always share with people, and I know when you talk about things like this, it's not the most popular thing to talk about. But I think it's important because we all have some pretty significant struggles in our personal life that shape our professional life. And in my mid-30s, as I mentioned earlier, I'm part of a blended family. But in my early 30s, my first husband was diagnosed with cancer and I went through an 11-month struggle before we lost that battle with pancreatic cancer. So, I was married at 32 and widowed at 34, and that was a pretty incredible earth-shattering situation for me at the time. But I would say it shaped me professionally in a very profound way.

I mean, the first thing I would say that it did was it definitely gave me purpose. All of a sudden, just had interest in the subject matter, had a real true purpose to me. But also, I realized that work was something I could control and that my work ethic and that my ability to move and grow my career was something I could control a little bit more than my personal life at the time. And after that was said and done, I remember talking to my boss and saying, "Okay, I want to be in hospital administration. I want to move forward and I want to impact this industry in a different way than I did before."

And I would say that though, that particular feeling has never gone away after spending so much time on the other side as a caregiver, especially at a young age and then being able to be in an industry where you could turn around and say, "I'm going to impact this because I've seen the other side." It definitely was probably the most profound instance of my life and then being able to see that career trajectory that was based on that one particular instance. Because before that, I would say I enjoyed my job, but it wasn't as much an absolute passion for me.

But after going through that particular situation, and it was also the point in life where all of a sudden I realized that my husband may not be the primary breadwinner, it may end up having to be me. And in that particular situation, it was. And that you had to learn to figure out how to take care of yourself and be what you needed to be for the family. So, I would say professionally, that personal instance in my life was the one thing that really changed me and grew me professionally over the years because I tell my story on a couple of different things. A lot of times when I get women that come to me that have maybe lost a spouse or lost a family member and how you bounce back from those really significant life-changing situations, I think, define you in a lot of ways. And I've watched women that are able to turn around and get back up and dust themselves off and move forward. And then, you see others that really struggle with that. And you have to be patient as a mentor in both of those situations. But I would definitely say if I had to reflect back on one instance of my life that grew me professionally, it was that personal tragedy at that point in my life.

Sarah Brownell: Thank you for sharing that story. I mean, I think that it's such a powerful and important message to hear as we think about our own lives and our own journeys. And me, as I'm thinking about my own children, I think our instinct and our inclination is always to just make it as easy as possible. We don't want to have struggle, we don't want to come up against obstacles. We want the path to be clear. But I don't think we get to our full potential without those struggles. There's something really beautiful and meaningful about the struggles that we face because I think it really does shape us and it forces us to look internally and see what is it that we are really capable of. And I think that that's just a really beautiful story that you have to share from something that was really so tragic.

Lindsey Petrini: You know, I would say this, I think that women in the professional industry, I think we tend to say, "Oh, we've got to just headway towards the professional side or headway towards the personal side," and where that in between comes in, I think, can be challenging for women. I, at times, have made significant decisions to hit the accelerator on my career and then, other times, maybe to slow it down.

I would say, you know, I mentioned earlier when my husband and I got married, I was in an interim president position shortly thereafter. And the decision as to whether I wanted to move forward into a hospital presidency position, did I really want to do something like that sooner rather than later? I had to make the decision and never regret that I wanted that time as a stepmother, as a potential mother, as a wife. And I wanted that personal time, because I may not be able to get that back. And so, that was an instance in time many years later after I had accelerated my career through my 30s. And then once I remarried, I said," You know what, I may need to slow it down," recognizing I'm at an age in time that if I want to accelerate it again, I can.

Sarah Brownell: Yeah. You have that opportunity. You have that capability and you have that faith and understanding in your own self, so that's great. So, I'm curious, as you look back and you think of the, you know, eight-year-old Lindsey or even this Lindsey in college, right, that was still a little bit lost, a little bit unsure of what her path was. What advice would you give her?

Lindsey Petrini: So, I would say the first thing, which is laughingly, but I did have somebody years ago call me out on it and I appreciated them saying it to me, which was, "Don't worry about the fact that you're not that good at math." And I use that as an example because, like I said, I was not a great student. Math and science was not my forte. And I found that I would be in meetings or I'd be looking at budgets or something financial. And I would say, "Well, you know, I'm not very good at Math, so let me see if I can look at this." And I would use that, and I think a lot of people do that. They wear their flaws out for everyone to see.

And I had a CFO say to me, "Nobody knows that you don't. You know, quit talking about that." It was funny because about that same time, I had a 360 evaluation completed for myself. And all my employees, when they listed my strength, they listed finance as one of my top strengths. And here, this whole time I had been campaigning that I was a bad math student or, you know, bad at finance. But then, somebody else thought that was a real strength. So, I use that as an example of if I had to go back and talk to myself, I would say, "Have more confidence. Don't worry about what you're not, worry about what you are," you know, just because you're not going to use algebra II anywhere in my professional life. So just because I wasn't that great at something like that, don't worry about those particular areas that you may not be as strong in. And I think a lot of women specifically do that to themselves. They're so focused on what additional things they have to learn or do to be successful. I just am not sure everybody else does that, but that's something I definitely wear a lot on my shoulders is what I'm not, versus focusing heavily on what I am.

Sarah Brownell: I just love that. And I worked for an organization a few years ago and the chairman had given a speech one time and it stuck with me. And one of the things he said is that your job is to find your opportunities. The world will find your weaknesses. But you are the ones that are tasked with finding your opportunities. And I think it's kind of fits right along with what you're saying. And for someone like me that's not good at math, it's also gives me a lot of encouragement. So, I think that that's really great advice.

So finally, I want to ask, I've had the pleasure of knowing you for a while. I know you are obviously such a dynamic leader. I'm just really curious what's next for you? So, what's on the horizon?

Lindsey Petrini: You know, one of the things that I spend a lot of time mentoring young leaders about is what their career steps are. And I coach a lot of them on getting their MBA, if they want to move into hospital administration, probably getting an MBA, an MHA, something like that. I recognized that that was something I didn't have. So, I was actually approaching young leaders to have a credential that I didn't have. So, I recently went back and getting my MBA at the University of Georgia. And so, I'll be doing that for the next few months. But it was recognizing that that was a credential that, as I want to move forward, it was important to have. So, I'm doing that presently and, you know, I'm raising a three-year-old right now. And so, I have two stepchildren that are 22, she turned 22 last week, and then one that turns 19 in three weeks, and then raising my three-year-old, so trying to to raise my three-year-old. I definitely will look for additional growth opportunities as they come my way. But I would say right now I'm happy where I am. I know that there's other things I'll want to do. And when those opportunities come my way, I'm happy to do it. But I think I have gotten to a point where there's something to be said for just being at peace in the moment .

Sarah Brownell: Well, that's great. I'm so thrilled. I can't wait to see what the next chapter's going to look like. Congratulations on the MBA. That's going to be exciting. So, I went and got my MBA when my older daughters were younger and in grade school, and it gave me a whole other level of perspective on homework.

Lindsey Petrini: And, you know, I realize that I don't have as much time as I thought I did to just focus and study, especially with, you know, you're trying to take a test and there's a three-year-old yelling for you in the background. So, it definitely is a different experience. It's been a fun experience to get to do it.

Sarah Brownell: Well, what a great role model, right, that you're setting for your children. So, I'm just so thrilled. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk today to me, to share your story, share your insights. You know, I really appreciate it. And really just look forward to seeing what's next for you. So, thank you so much.

Lindsey Petrini: Thank you.