Host Suzanne Reed sits down with Apryl Childs-Potter, President of the Nashville Healthcare Council (NHCC) to discuss her leadership style, which includes fostering collaboration and driving innovation, as well the lasting impact she hopes to have on the healthcare industry.
Growing Nashville’s Healthcare Hub
Childs-Potter’s commitment to collaboration is evident in her strategic initiatives for NHCC, particularly with the launch of Nashville Healthcare Sessions, which just concluded its second year. The sold-out event — “Not Your Average Healthcare Conference”— included a week-long gathering of attendees from across the healthcare ecosystem who come together and think differently, expand their professional network, collaborate openly, and have in-depth conversations about the future of healthcare.
Recognizing Nashville’s unique position, Childs-Potter set out to create a national conference that would unite healthcare leaders, investors, and innovators.
“We want to bring leaders from different sub-sectors around tables in discussion to really start to shape a future for the industry,” she explains. Rather than branding the conference under a single entity, NHCC aims to offer a “big tent” experience, welcoming diverse voices to foster solutions and drive the industry forward.
“How can Nashville continue to take that ethos of collaboration,” she asks. “How are we as an organization helping catalyze that as a way of doing business across healthcare?”
Nashville, often regarded as a “best-kept secret,” has experienced explosive growth in recent years, a transformation that has surprised even local residents like Childs-Potter.
“Nashville’s been a leader in so many ways in the healthcare industry. Particularly, Nashville is a good model for business leadership and how executives of these huge corporations still come together quarterly and talk about what is required to make their community a sustainable place for healthcare companies to continue to thrive.”
By leveraging this growth, NHCC and Childs-Potter envision taking “Nashville to the world,” positioning Music City as a model of healthcare leadership and innovation.
Embracing Feedback as a Core Leadership Principle
For Childs-Potter, feedback is more than a necessary part of growth; it’s a gift to be embraced.
“You can decide in the moment that you’re getting feedback, whether you want to use it to get better, or you want to use it to get mad,” she shares. “It’s been a core value of my approach as an employee, but also as a leader.”
This approach has not only guided her professional journey, but also shaped her influence within NHCC, where she promotes an open culture of continuous improvement. Her attitude toward feedback highlights the power of resilience and adaptability—two critical traits in today’s fast-evolving healthcare landscape.
“The more senior I get in my own career, the more I recognize that change is absolutely inevitable. I think early on I was so focused on figuring out the formula. What are the things I need to do that are going to propel me forward? What are the steps that I have to take?” Childs-Potter notes. “What I recognized looking back is that what’s most important is preparing yourself to be open to change, and to be open to feedback and to recognizing what’s actually happening around you in real time.”
Childs-Potter’s belief in learning from every experience and inspiring others to do the same has fostered a culture where team members feel encouraged to grow and contribute actively to the organization.
Strong leadership for Childs-Potter includes creating a framework for how to think about the organization, the direction, the strategies she wants employed and then teaching her team to have that framework as a guide.
“So, as a leader, I think it’s just hard to let go of making all those decisions and trusting that – whether it’s when your kid goes to the sleepover or when your team is in a room that you’re not in and they’re making decisions – they can do that in a way that makes sense as long as you’ve oriented them towards the framework of the business, the core values you’ve established, and the strategy you want employed.”
Crafting a Legacy of Empowerment and Realized Potential
Looking back on her own career, Childs-Potter’s leadership journey has evolved into a desire to help others reach their own full potential. Whether it’s mentoring her team members, advancing her organization, or inspiring industry-wide growth through events like Sessions, her dedication to empowerment stands out.
“I love to help people and organizations realize their potential,” she shares. Her focus on empowering others is also reflected in her approach to leadership within NHCC. She stresses the importance of providing the framework, or “guardrails,” for her team so they can confidently make decisions even when she’s not present.
By instilling these core values and strategic direction, Childs-Potter ensures her team has the tools to operate with independence and integrity, creating a lasting impact beyond her tenure.
“I love being part of helping catalyze that kind of development, whether it’s in a person or an organization or even in an industry,” she shares.
“I think as I’m riding off into the sunset or traveling with my iPod on my mountain hike in retirement, I hope that people that I’ve worked with and organizations that I’ve led have that thumbprint from my leadership of continuing to see that potential and finding ways to tease it out and take bold steps forward to make that potential into a reality.”
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