In this episode of the Healthcare Leadership Excellence Podcast, I welcome back Dr. Chika Oriuwa, physician, poet, keynote speaker, and author of Unlike the Rest: A Doctor’s Story. She joined us just a few months ago, and we knew right away we’d need to bring her back.

This conversation gets to the core of something many leaders quietly struggle with: why soft skills feel so hard and why they matter more than ever.

Chika walks us through what she calls “the hard science behind the soft skills.” She breaks down the neuroscience behind empathy, authenticity, and innovation, showing that leadership isn’t just about behavior. It’s about biology. Leaders shape the emotional and cognitive space around them, whether they mean to or not.

She introduces her Innovation Blueprint, a three-part framework to help leaders unlock creativity and resilience in their teams. It starts with what she calls an archaeological dig into your own values, assumptions, and story.

We explore:

• How to prime your mind for curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking
• Why emotional safety is a biological requirement for innovation
• The science of mirror neurons and what your presence as a leader activates in others
• Why the best leaders do the inner work first, before asking anything of their teams

Chika also shares more of her own story, being the only Black student in her medical school class, and what it means to lead from that place of difference with courage and clarity. She speaks with precision and warmth, and her insights are backed by research, lived experience, and deep personal reflection.

If you’re leading people right now, you’re in the middle of more than just strategy and performance. You’re shaping thought, safety, and culture, whether you realize it or not.

This episode will help you do that with more intention, and more impact.

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