The Hard Skills

← The Hard Skills15 Sept · 59 min

CEO EXPLAINS: How Grief Made Him a Better Leader, with James Dismond

CEO EXPLAINS: How Grief Made Him a Better Leader, with James Dismond15 Sept59 min

Most leaders treat grief and burnout like a personal weakness. James Dismond thinks differently.

James became a CEO for the first time in 2023. Ninety days in, his mother entered hospice care, and he found himself running a hospice organization while sitting on the other side of the bed as a grieving son. That experience changed how he leads, and this conversation is about what it changed.

He and Dr. Mira Brancu get into why saying "that person is burning out" quietly moves the blame onto the wrong shoulders, what he actually did to carry an entire organization through a rebrand and expansion without gutting their trust, and the practice he built to replace the useless feedback sandwich. He also talks about when to let a good person fail on purpose, and why he refuses to fake it until he makes it.

If you have ever had to hold someone accountable while they were falling apart, this one is for you.

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Find our guest here:

Connect with James Dismond:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-dismond/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/mirasolhealth

https://mirasolhealth.org/

To find more of my work:

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