Episode 19: Winning at Business and Life with Kimberly Howland

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, tell me who you are and what you do.

My name is Kimberly Howland, and I'm the Chief Product Officer at Diameter Health. And what that means is I manage product implementation, support, professional services. For a company that manages data interoperability in healthcare. So we make all the data work together.

Kimberly, thanks for being on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?

Healthcare is so exciting to me because you have the opportunity to affect real change, and it's really fun for me just to work every day trying to make healthcare better for patients. And at the end of the day, you you feel like you've done something to help society.

Oh, that's great. Question number 3, I hear from other business leaders that staying in a good work-life balance for them and their team members is a challenge. What are your thoughts?

It is such a challenge. And this is actually a question that I talk to a lot of my friends about. And what we've decided is that if you're really passionate about your job, it's really hard to have that what everyone else thinks about as work-life balance. And it's almost as though you have to realize that you get a lot of fulfillment out of your job. And that's actually part of your life balance, if you will. But it is really important to set some boundaries and understand that there's always going to be more to do. You're always going to have the next day to get more done and make sure you take time for yourself, whether that's getting enough sleep or exercise or time with your friends and family. All that makes you even better at your job day to day.

And that's, that's really sage advice. I mean, taking care of yourself first, because if you can't take care of yourself, what's going to happen? I mean, it's, it's a, it's very sound advice. Question number 4: What other business, successful business leaders like yourself should be on my podcast?

So that's a great question. This is what I actually had to think about. I would love to hear from people that are in industries like social media or, you know, Square Cash or places where it's not life or death every day. I think one of the things for me in healthcare has been, you know, at the end of the day, it's patient safety or patient lives that are on the line. And sometimes that's what makes it hard to shut yourself off. And so I do wonder, you know, if other people are as passionate about finance, if they feel that same pressure, you know, when they go to bed at night and their head's spinning and do I need to keep working? So that's what I would like to hear.

All right. Thanks for that. I will look for those people. Question number 5. What insight or advice would you give to other business leaders?

Well, the first thing is to always look for people that are better than you at where you're weak. Now, I think you have to be able to identify your weaknesses, but it can be scary to hire people that might be better than you at your job, but it always adds value to your team in the long run. And the other thing I would say is that your goal as a leader is to build teams that can take care of themselves and aren't afraid to fail. So let them get out on a limb and then just catch them, provide that safety net. So let people be constantly challenging themselves and you're just there to, you know, make sure that they're successful in the end.

Oh, I like that idea of constantly letting themselves challenge themselves because they get to stretch and they continue to learn and grow. Exactly. That's awesome advice. And question number 6, tell me about your first job.

My first paying job was babysitting at the age of 9. So I went and got my certification in infant CPR and toddler CPR and a babysitting course at the YMCA. Maybe it was YWCA. And yeah, started taking care of all the neighborhood kids. So I guess I've been pretty, pretty driven from an early age.

9 years old, I could see that.

So I don't know why these people left me with their children, but they did.

Yeah, yeah, I, you know, but who knows, 9 years old, like, at least you could Dial the phone number, right, if necessary.

Exactly.

So Kimberly, thank you for being on the show. How can people find you?

I can be reached at khowland@diameterhealth.com. That's the best way to get me. And yeah, check out what we do at Diameter Health, and you can always drop an email into our website and it'll find me.

Great, thank you for that. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, or Facebook and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.