By Brenda Aguilar Wong and Bryan Rivera
We were honored to represent CAHL’s Higher Education Network (HEN) committee while speaking at the 2025 ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership with Grant Cho. Students, new managers, and seasoned directors joined our session titled: Building Executive Presence as New Managers – Transforming Cultural Values into Culture Add. The goal of this session was to help attendees overcome stereotypes around age and culture, realize how upbringing subconsciously impacts how we show up as leaders (and how to course correct), and navigate imposter syndrome by cultivating a strong support system. Throughout our career journeys, we gradually learned to accept compliments gracefully, highlight our achievements with tact, and contribute appropriately in meetings with senior leaders—lessons we aimed to share through our talk at Congress and kickstart growth for others.
Before our session started, we arrived outside the auditorium and saw attendees gathering outside. As we waited at the entrance, we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a familiar voice—our former mentor, who had come to show support. This individual played a pivotal role in shaping our leadership journey, and the encounter reinforced the profound impact of mentorship on professional growth and advancement.
The theme for this year’s Congress was “No Better Time” and we were excited to give the audience specific strategies to take away from our session and implement in the present. We planned to share best practices while also being vulnerable about the mistakes we’ve made, demonstrating authenticity by openly reflecting on our experiences. Admittedly, it was a little uncomfortable sharing our past errors, but we knew that if others could learn from our experiences, it would help accelerate their own professional development.
While providing our takeaways, it was gratifying to see expressions in the audience as they were actively having aha moments because we wanted people to leave with a desired action they could implement right away. It was rewarding to have such an engaging Q&A and we were humbled that attendees from early to mid-careerists came up to us throughout the duration of Congress to mention they now have the framework they were missing to balance being servant leaders while developing impactful personal branding. This prevents the self-fulfilling prophecy of minimizing one’s own reputation because of a skewed sense of self from age or cultural stereotypes. As we were inspired by seeing our former mentor, we decided to pay it forward and take on their mentorship requests for sustained work on these items.
Here are some takeaways that resonated with our audience:
- When shifting away from a “don’t speak unless spoken to” mindset, use the following question as a litmus test to determine when to speak in meetings with senior leaders: Is what you’re saying adding value to the room (or just for yourself)?
- If you’ve internalized being overly modest, learn to be excited to share your own accomplishments by tying them back to the positive impact you’ve made on patient care.
- You can also build executive presence through volunteerism. Serving on the board of directors of a non-profit and chairing committees will give you transferable skills with meeting facilitation, leading with influence, and effective storytelling.
Following Congress, we are excited that multiple Healthcare Management Program Directors in California have requested that we present our session’s topic to their respective students. These leaders represent schools that are both internal and external to our CAHL Higher Education Network (HEN). As CAHL HEN committee members, we are thrilled at the opportunity to deepen relationships with our current schools and extend our partnerships even further. Our desire to increase student membership stems from our own experience—neither of us was aware of CAHL until later in our careers, by which time we were already in management roles. We feel a responsibility to provide early awareness to students about CAHL, empowering them to achieve a competitive advantage. It was truly an honor speaking at ACHE Congress and we are excited to continue to make an impact by providing valuable resources to students through our local CAHL chapter.
