Difficult Conversations Podcast

Lessons I Learned as an ICU Physician

Episode 155 | September 21, 2021

Ditch The Drama

Cy Wakeman

Global Thought-Leader and Author

Cy Wakeman

Welcome to Difficult Conversations with Dr. Anthony Orsini. Today, my guest is the incredible Cy Wakeman, who is a drama researcher, a global thought leader, and New York Times best-selling author. She has been deemed “the secret weapon to restoring sanity to the workplace” and has helped companies such as Google, Facebook, NBC Universal, Johns Hopkins, and countless others how to navigate our rapidly changing world using good mental processes to harness energy wasted in workplace drama, and reinvent that effort into achieving profound business results. As a highly sought-after conference headliner, she’s a regular contributor on Forbes.com, The Huffington Post, and has been featured on the Today Show, Ask Gary Vee Show, and the New York Times Business Insider. Cy has published three books, the latest of which we’ll talk about today called, No Ego: How Leaders Can Cut the Cost of Workplace Drama, End Entitlement, and Drive Big Results.

Cy tells us about herself and she shares with us her lifelong pursuit. She reveals some statistics about her research with hardworking, super achieving, professional people and how they spend two and a half hours a day in drama in the workplace. Dr. Orsini shares some advice about how he teaches healthcare professionals to help them prevent burnout and his concept of “It’s hard to fire your best friend.” Cy tells us she believes in two things, “you love people up and then you call them up,” and shares a story about an upset nurse and why she said to her, “If you were great, what would great look like?” She also talks about how self-reflection is the ultimate drama diffuser. Cy explains her concept of toggling up and toggling down. Dr. Orsini talks more about why he loves conflict resolution with a great story and clarifies how great leaders make you self-reflect and how to look at things differently. The topic of leadership and the culture of business comes up in the conversation, and whether or not we need to train the leaders and if there are some leaders that just have to go. Find out why Cy doesn’t believe in working on culture and why she said, “We don’t have to fix the culture, we have to fix the climate.” If you enjoyed this podcast, please hit follow, and download all the previous episodes.

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