On this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, host Mike Harbour sits down with Maggie Brennan, CEO of North Shore Community Health, to discuss what it really takes to address turnover, Burnout, and workforce instability in healthcare.
Rather than treating these as market-driven challenges, Maggie shares how her organization reframed them as signals of deeper system issues—and made deliberate changes to better support their people.
The conversation walks through a pivotal moment when North Shore faced a significant provider exodus. Instead of blaming external factors, Maggie and her team looked inward, gathered direct feedback, and identified specific operational constraints that were driving dissatisfaction.
From there, they implemented targeted changes—including eliminating call requirements for providers, building structured onboarding and development paths for new clinicians, and Investing in tools that reduce administrative burden and restore time back to providers.
Maggie also shares how leaders can create environments where people can succeed, not just expect more from them. That includes shifting from reactive problem-solving to deliberate leadership, developing other leaders instead of becoming the bottleneck, and designing systems that make the right behaviors easier to execute.
If you’re a healthcare leader navigating retention challenges, workforce fatigue, or pressure to deliver more with less, this episode offers a grounded look at how system-level changes can drive meaningful results.
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star review on your Streaming platform. Mike encourages you to reach out to him at [email protected] to share your thoughts and suggest future topics.
