Episode 13: How A Leader Deals with Cancer (w/Kristi Brown)

Recently, I had an opportunity to sit down with Kristi Brown and talk about several aspects of leadership. The first two episodes have been posted already (Episodes 11 and 12). However ...

...as Kristi and I continued our "off air" conversations, it became increasingly apparent to me that Kristi's compelling, moving story of her bout with cancer would be just the thing for this leadership podcast.

As you will hear in this program, Kristi and her husband, Steve, had tried for several years to have children shortly after their marriage 14 years ago. However, they discovered, during a routine check with her doctors, that Kristi had a rare condition known as premature ovarian failure -- which meant that she could not have children. The only possibility of their having children would be via in vitro fertilization. After the passage of time, they tried this procedure and Kristi did, in fact, become pregnant.

Now, rather than my telling you the rest of the story, I think you will find it necessary to subscribe to this podcast and hear Kristi's story, as it is unveiled incident by incident.

Kristi and I both hope that this episode will be of special encouragement to all ladies that they will visit their health care professional and get regular checkups. Too, this gives me a chance to encourage all men to get checked for not only prostate cancer (perhaps the most common type of cancer peculiar to men), but also for other catastrophic diseases and conditions.

Some listeners might think that this program is not focused directly on leadership. Quite to the contrary, when you hear Kristi's testimony, you will recognize how she, as a strong leader, had to dig down and pull herself up by the bootstraps during this time of intense agony. Leaders find themselves in a variety of situations where their emotions and energies are stretched to the breaking point. What do they do? How do they make it through one dilemma after another? What are the characteristics of the effective leader that enable him/her to not only survive, but also thrive in these troubling times?

Enjoy this episode, then please send comments, suggestions, and your own stories about how you or a person you know has dealt with catastrophic conditions, as they demonstrated strong leadership abilities. You can call the podcast hotline number (shown below), email me (a link is provided below), or you might want to just record an audio file and email that to me so I can use it in a future episode.

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