Interview: How Chanda Chacón Leads With Strengths
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About the Leader
Chanda Chacón
President & CEO, Children's Nebraska
- Achiever®
- Arranger®
- Communication®
- Positivity®
- Woo®
Chanda Chacón, the President and CEO at Children's Nebraska, has dedicated her career to ensuring that every child in need receives safe, high-quality, family-centered medical care. With two decades of leadership experience and an unwavering commitment to improving children's lives, Chanda leads the charge of strengthening her organization and fostering programs of excellence.
Chacón's Woo strength energizes her as she "cares at scale" about the people inside and outside her organization. Without tiring, she consistently meets with new individuals and groups to share her passion for the work her organization does.
As someone who will eagerly work nights and weekends, Chacón reminds her staff that she doesn't expect them to follow her example. In fact, when she first took on her role, she communicated an expectation of a healthy work-life balance taking priority over responding to her after-hours communication.
Giving special attention to what employees care about, what they want to know and what kind of relationship they want with her, Chacón tailors her communication to meet people where they are. Seeing that employees value meaningful interactions with her, she regularly connects with them in seemingly small but highly intentional ways.
Chacón sees challenges and misfortunes she has contended with as opportunities to create change for other people. Having faced medical difficulties as a child, she resolved long ago to make a difference in the lives of children in similar circumstances.
Leading in a highly complex field in an organization with a complicated business model, Chacón leans on her Arranger strength to create and encourage simplicity. Because complexity creates unnecessary difficulty, she is always asking how to simplify how they do work in a complicated environment.