Julie Harris Oliver welcomes Dr. Michael Hein, author of "Shifting Toward Unorthodoxy," to discuss "the first work" of leadership: prioritizing wellbeing as foundational leadership work in volatile, complex environments, especially healthcare. Hein explains that leaders often forget they have a body, yet leadership performance depends on physical health, recovery, relationships, and spiritual meaning; without these, leaders struggle to stay composed, curious, and effective. He describes how socialized workplace norms push high performers to work harder rather than recover, and argues CEOs especially must model healthy boundaries because behavior sets organizational expectations more than words. Drawing parallels to athletic overtraining syndrome, he notes burnout reflects the same maladaptive effects of unrelenting stress without recovery. Hein recommends a regular recovery cadence—daily routines, monthly reflection time, and periodic longer breaks—planned on the calendar and approached as experiments.

00:00 Welcome to the Show

00:37 Meet Dr Michael Hein

01:41 From CEO to Coach

03:12 Defining First Work

04:39 Body as Leadership Platform

06:51 Why Self Care Fails

09:57 Leaders Set the Tone

14:30 Athlete Burnout Parallel

17:58 Cadence of Recovery

24:42 Start Small Experiments

28:34 Wellbeing Is Leadership Work

30:21 Wrap Up and Invitation

To find Dr. Hein

—MEDI Leadership's page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/medileadership/

—Dr. Hein's page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heindoc/