Episode 79 Leading with Purpose with Tony Awojoodu

Tony Awojoodu: Foreign.

Doug Miller: Hi, and welcome to DaVita Leadership Insights, a podcast for DaVita teammates who want to become a better leader, both personally and professionally. I am Doug Miller, a master coach and davita University faculty member.

Grace Berman: And I'm Grace Berman, a senior director with DaVita University. Today we get to chat with Tony Awajadu, Senior director of Business development, leading hospital and health systems partnerships in the northeastern U.S. essentially from Pennsylvania to Maine. So for our internal DaVita teammates, you'll know this team as Team Pegasus.

Doug Miller: Welcome, Tony.

Tony Awojoodu: Thank you, Doug. Thank you for the kind introduction, Grace. Happy to be here. Big fans of the podcast and of you too, as well. So happy to be here.

Grace Berman: Oh, we're blushing. We're blushing. Tony. Um, I am m so glad we get to talk to you today on the topic of leading with purpose, because I know we've been talking about getting you on the podcast for some time, given you're such a super fan and such an incredible leader. So glad that you're here today. And I know you have a particular passion in this space. And I also really love talking about this. Cause it's one of the hallmarks of how we lead at davita. So wonderful to have you here and sharing your personal stories and your personal connection to it. So let's start with a softball question, Tony. What's your life purpose? How would you describe that?

Tony Awojoodu: Yeah. Ah, it's an easy one, Grace. Thank you. No, um, I'd say it's a hard question to answer, but an important one. That to me has been a simplifying mechanism. Uh, getting clear on my purpose has allowed me to evaluate my decisions, my actions, my goals, through what ultimately is most important, that being my purpose. So maybe I'll just first share what that means to me when I think about my purpose. It's really the reason that I'm here on Earth. And that reason spans, you know, jobs, uh, roles, uh, hats that I might wear, organizations that I might be members of, and all the different things that I do, uh, throughout my life. It's a constant reminder of why I'm here on Earth. And regardless of what you believe, I don't think anyone out there believes that they are the reason they're here on Earth. Something or some one or four, uh, played a part in bringing us here. And I like to believe that that also brought me purpose. So the way that I articulate my purpose or the reason I'm here on Earth is to bring about the best version of people. And I do that through a lot of the things that I do here at davita. Through leading teams and working alongside teams, uh, in my personal life, I launched a business around helping people become the best versions of themselves, uh, by coaching them. A life coaching business. I'm a cyclist, I'm a dad. I am a community member in many communities, and I oftentimes find myself consistently asking the question of how can I bring about more in this group or more from this individual? And I really lean into purpose across the many different, you know, hats that I wear and roles that I have.

Doug Miller: Man, sounds like you have a rich, full, vibrant life with all that happening. Really amazing to hear. Tell us a little bit, Tony, about your journey around getting to that clarity about your purpose. How did that come about?

Tony Awojoodu: Yeah, yeah, I'd say, um, I've always had elements, you know, even as a young kid. Right. You know, you realize what you're good at. I realized that solving hard problems, for example, was something that I had a bit of a knack for, and that led me down the path of engineering. But the biggest kind of revelation for me came, uh, when I was transitioning from my first career to my second career. Uh, I started my career as a management consultant, and a few years in, decided that I wanted to do something else. And that's what led me here to DaVita. And in the season when I was exploring what I wanted to do professionally, my daughter was born. She was born in April of 2019. And up until the point that she came, I had convinced myself that staying in consulting and becoming a partner was the right path for me. I dedicated time and years and a lot of energy into, you know, building a portfolio of clients and a knowledge area that I was creating that I was mastering and becoming a bit of an expert for the firm. And at the time, you know, I just. I wanted to stay the course. I wanted to continue leaning into consulting. But my daughter was born April 2019. I looked at her in the delivery room, and it was at that moment that I realized I no longer wanted to travel, no longer wanted to work, you know, 70 to 80 hours a week. I just wanted to be this girl's dad. And that was a bit of a trigger for me to think about what was most important, because I knew that at that point in time, the job that I had wouldn't serve the goal for fatherhood, uh, you know, the person I wanted to be as a father and husband in that season. So it was the impetus for me looking for something else. I didn't want to just accept the next role because I didn't know if the Next role was going to be travel intensive or keep me on the clock or hyper focused on work and not the family. So I told myself I wanted to be thoughtful about finding out what was important to me and looking for that in an employer. And it was through that period when I started to, you know, look at companies and, uh, research their culture and their missions and understand or explore different roles that might be available to me in healthcare. And I just. I couldn't shake the people aspect of problem solving. I knew that problem solving was a skill that I had at that point in time. I had a PhD in biomedical engineering. I'd solved problems professionally for years as a consultant. But when I was exploring opportunities, it was the ones that were centered around teams and people and a real world impact that got me most excited. And I would literally feel the energy when I'd read about a, uh, role that was interdisciplinary or collaborative or gave me an opportunity to work in a multifunctional way. Um, so I'd say it was that season where I had the impetus for change. My daughter being born. I made an intentional decision to be thoughtful about what I was solving for so I could be the best father for her. And in those efforts, I discovered that being a people problem solver, which really now has turned into helping people become the best versions of that, was really core and continues to be core to my purpose and who I am, both personally and professionally.

Grace Berman: M. Oh, I definitely got some chills when you were talking about looking at your daughter when she was first born. That must have been such a special moment. I know it was when my kiddos were born. And so I appreciate you taking us back to that time and kind of what was going through your head, because it certainly does sound as if you had, um, really a lot of clarity and a lot of drive in what you were doing within your professional life. And then that just kind of was like, whoa, how is this feeling coming into play? And I also. The other thing that kind of stood out to me, Tony, as you were talking about your purpose, is kind of that, if, um, I'm hearing it right, kind of that journey that you had for discovery, where you were trying to figure out, it's almost like what was the means versus the ends. So your focus on problem solving, but then finding a way and realizing that that was not the end, that that was the means to get to helping people be the best versions of themselves.

Tony Awojoodu: Yeah, spot on. Yeah. And I mean, when I talk to people with my coaching hat on, I oftentimes remind people that you have optionality, you have leverage. It, um, is your decision on what you do in life. So I will follow that up by saying you've got to find out what's most important to you to bring about in the world. You can find a role in or outside of healthcare across many different business functions. You know, selling products or innovating or researching. There are a bunch of different ways to work, but oftentimes we don't spend enough time thinking about the impact we want to have as we're doing that work. Right. Is it because the company happens to produce that product, or is it because the company's filled with people who have an opportunity to do things differently or do things boldly and that's really, you know, what's more important to anchor on? Um, so, yeah, I think you nailed it. And I've definitely found my means around helping people become the best versions of themselves. And if I end up in a different role down the line or working in a different community, I like to think that I can still bring that to those teams as well.

Doug Miller: Beautiful, Tony. And it has me curious, how do you bring it to light and what's the impact of bringing it into your leadership and making this purpose known to others?

Tony Awojoodu: Yeah, I would say it's, um, twofold. You know, one is self serving and the other is maybe serving of others if it's deployed the right way. The self serving one is affirmation. Right. Like, if I am articulating to a team what my purpose is, which in many cases has an extension or connection to the vision for that team. Right. I want to engage with the vision for a collective group of people by sharing my personal relationship with it. And that's how oftentimes I use my purpose. It helps me affirm that I'm continuing to do the right things. If what I'm sharing doesn't resonate, or if people are challenging it or if it's not appreciated, then maybe that's a signal that, that I'm not doing the right things or in the right group or with the right organization. So for me, simply verbalizing and putting it out there gives me opportunities to get signals that I'm on the right path, that I'm doing the right things, that my cup will continue to stay full. And then for others, to me, it's a cohesive force. Right. Some of my more vulnerable conversations with teams have been where I've opened up about my past and the path that I've been on and why it's so important for me to show up the way that I am around coaching and excellence and building great teams of leaders. And I find that when you can be authentic with a group about why you're doing the things that you're doing and why you're showing up the way that you're showing up, even when you're delivering hard feedback or making hard decisions or just navigating conflict. Right when people understand the why behind your actions, to me, it's a congealing force. And we might not immediately get to alignment on the business outcome, but I found that it's a bit of a disarming mechanism that allows folks to really connect with you on a personal level, uh, in a way that sometimes corporations don't create the space for.

Grace Berman: I'm kind of reminded of our definition of leadership that we use here at davita around the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle towards shared aspirations. So I'm curious, in terms of your purpose and living your purpose, when was a time when you struggled to live your purpose, your life aspiration?

Tony Awojoodu: Yeah, it's a great question, and thanks for the reminder of our definition. I heard that a few days ago when I listened to the miniseries. I think, Doug, you shared that last year, late, uh, 24, when that podcast series was released. Um, it's a great one. Love the one on purpose. I definitely plug that for our listeners. A few years ago, I moved from a strategy role into operations, and I loved it. Operations was a fantastic experience for me. Really taught me how to lead at scale and, uh, lead on a personal level. I'd spent years doing very intellectual problem solving that helped teams and organizations come up with the right answer, the objective right answer, but didn't spend enough time actually executing on that right answer. Because when you're getting things done with human beings, it's a completely different dynamic. So to me, as a new leader of leaders, what that meant was success in role. I was just obsessed with this idea of my team succeeding in their roles and everyone promoting up and everyone being happy and everyone knocking things out of the park. When I got to the point where I had to have the first set of conversations around performance, uh, I felt like I had failed my team m when I was acknowledging the underperformance that existed. So to me, it was inconsistent with my purpose to have a team that wasn't thriving across the board because I felt so deeply committed to seeing them win in their role. But in reality, I, you know, when we started having these conversations and unpacking what was really going on with some of the Leaders, you know, in the organization that weren't performing at the level that we all would expect. You know, in some cases it was clear that the role wasn't serving them and maybe they had outgrown it and there was something else better for them out there. In other cases, it was clear that they weren't serving the role and maybe the skills that they had amassed over their career were more appropriate in a different role or in a different context. So that was a bit of an unlock for me. Right. Helping people become the best version of themselves as a leader didn't necessarily mean that you stay in the role, you win in the role. You know, that exploration of finding what's good for you and what you are good for is a win. Right. Is helping you take a step towards becoming the best version of yourself. So I resisted that for a while and frankly, uh, I probably waited longer than I should have to have tough feedback conversations or make changes to folks roles or scope. But when I got to the point where I could be honest with myself and honest with the team about performance and whether or not the job serving you or you were serving the job, it allowed us to have the real conversation around what is truly best for you, independent of what's going on right now. So that was a bit of a failure that turned into an aha moment. And I look back at that season as a real season of success because it unlocked just the awareness that staying the course isn't always the right path. And we as leaders always have opportunities to help people find the right paths, um, even if it means it's in a different role or on a different team.

Doug Miller: Really well said, Tony. I think a lot of leaders have that kind of aha huh moment where, you know, I remember in my facilitation training once someone said, doug, never work harder as the facilitator than the participants are working.

Grace Berman: Right.

Doug Miller: Similarly, you know, there are points in times where the best version of someone may not be where they're at right there in the position they're in or in the situation they're in. So good on you for helping them find pathways to find a place where they can thrive and be their best selves. And it's interesting as you're talking about all of this, I started reflecting on the ways and sometimes it feels like it's easier to be my best version of myself at work. And then something odd happens when I walk through the door of my house and all of a sudden there's a different reality that hits me and it's Kind of a struggle. And, uh, so I'm wondering if you've, you've ever had that dynamic show up for yourself in your personal life.

Tony Awojoodu: Oh, yeah, I have that dynamic daily with my two baby girls. Amari's now six and Avery will be four in a few days. And you know, I told a buddy the other day that I made a conscious decision a few years ago to talk to my girls like they're adults. And it was a selfish decision, but to me, that just allowed me to not switch the way that I'm showing up when I'm coaching or partnering with her, or even just like talking, right. Why baby things down when at some point they're going to have to talk like big girls. So because of that, my approach to fatherhood in the early days and years of fatherhood was pretty similar to my approach to management. I came in hot, right? Sometimes I was authoritative, sometimes I was disappointed and had a really high bar for success for my girls. Sometimes I express that disappointment in maybe a non loving way. With adults, you have a certain expectation for how they show up and when people let you down, you know, you take notice and it impacts you. So as a father, I, uh, found myself in more recent years taking that extra step to be thoughtful about how I'm engaging with my baby girls. Like, yes, I want to coach them, I want to support them, I want them to be the best versions of themselves. But baby girls need a little bit more time and space to fail. They need a little bit more time and space to figure out how they want to do things, not how dad expects things to be done. So for me, it's more of an awareness that I have now when I experience friction with the girls because they're not listening or they're not doing things the way that they ought to be doing things, I remind myself of where they are and how much time they have to grow. And thinking back on my own experience, I certainly would not have the lessons that I have today if it wasn't for failure. Uh, so I've become comfortable with my girls failing. And that might sound like a weird thing to say, but the most I can do is set them on the right path, give them the advice that I would want to get myself, and hope that they take heed to that and respond appropriately. But it's their lives and it's their journey and the failure that they experience will shape theirs in the same way that mine has shaped mine. So, yeah, appreciate the question.

Grace Berman: Yeah, thanks for sharing about that. I think they're, uh, There are other parents who have struggled with that tension of how to, how to, you know, bring out the best in, in others and in their children and also struggle at the best ways to do that. So thank you for that story. And by the way, I remember your holiday cards that you send out, Toni, and I just want to say your family holiday cards are probably the most beautiful I've ever seen. So you have a beautiful family and you always have such, um, amazingly, like, beautiful, curated, like, sets for your holiday cards.

Tony Awojoodu: So thank you for saying that. We've gone on a journey for those two. Like the three of the four of us used to resist them, me and my daughters, and it was terrible. I mean, I won't say which of the two cried the most, uh, in the earlier holiday photos, but now I've learned to love them. Like, I look back on them. We have great memories. It's fun getting dressed up. Every year my wife chooses a color and we just, we have a blast, play Christmas music and now the girls enjoy it and they meet us halfway. So thanks for the compliment. I'll make sure you get one this year.

Grace Berman: Well, definitely something for the Berman family to aspire to, so we'll get there one day. Well, Toni, we're already at the end of our time for the podcast, and we end our podcasts, um, in the same way each time. We'd love to hear what's one tactical tip that our listeners could go out and try right away to lead with purpose?

Tony Awojoodu: Yeah, I'd, uh, just give a simple tip. It's really getting clear on your purpose. If you don't know what it is, I'd strongly encourage you to spend the time to figure it out. And it's okay if you don't have the perfectly crafted purpose statement or if it changes over time. I actually think it's great for purpose to change over time if you're tapping into different things or discovering different aspects of your being. So, you know, maybe a second tip that I might offer to help you get clear on your purpose. Take 5 to 10 minutes, sit down and reflect on the last time you felt fully energized. And think about examples when people have pointed out things that you do well. And those two things oftentimes will point to, you know, scenarios, circumstances, behaviors, skills that you bring about that fill your cup or that add value to others. And oftentimes those things are directly linked to your purpose.

Grace Berman: That was beautiful. Thank you so much, Tony, for being with us today and sharing your tips and stories.

Tony Awojoodu: Happy to be here and thanks for the opportunity.

Doug Miller: Grace, that was. That was such a cool conversation with Tony. Really, really, really had a great time listening to him. And I loved his tip at the end, right, to like, get clear on your purpose. And, uh, and then he couldn't help himself. He threw in a little bonus tip there too, of spending five to 10 minutes to think through times where you've been really energized and people are reflecting back to you that you seem like yourself and yeah, that, that really well. So love those kind of two tips there.

Grace Berman: Yeah, completely agree. Such a beautiful and practical tip from Toni. And for our listeners, we would love to hear your stories and tips as well. So please click on that survey link in the show notes to give us your insights and feedback. And also, if you enjoy the DaVita Leadership Insights podcast, please be sure to show your love by submitting an Apple Podcast rating or review. We'd really love that.

Doug Miller: Yes, we would. And I'll add a couple of more invitations for our listeners. Please share this episode with a teammate so that we can continue to spread ripples through the village. And be sure to follow this show as you don't want to miss out on any future DaVita Leadership Insights episodes. And we'll end the way we usually do with a one for all, all for one.