I bring an entrepreneurial spirit to my leadership and strategy as Head of Global Sales for the Advanced Surgery business. For me, a growth mindset means being comfortable with creativity, driving toward viable solutions, testing ideas, talking to end users, and thinking outside the box. I continually challenge myself, my peers, and my leadership team to think differently because I believe fostering a culture of idea exploration and calculated risk-taking is essential to driving progress.
When I joined the company six years ago through the acquisition of my small business, I brought with me the mindset of a founder. Every successful company begins as a start-up with a closet full of failed ideas. About 90% of start-ups fail. Mathematically speaking, you have to be a little insane to start a business. But failure isn’t bad, it’s how you learn. Embracing and analyzing failed ideas enables companies to better evaluate risk and financial viability. Most successes start with failure, but successful people deal with failure appropriately.
In my role, I lead strategically across the commercial side of the business. I collaborate with marketing, product management, and R&D to ensure alignment across teams and encourage open dialogue. It’s all connected. My responsibility is to make sure everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas and asking tough questions. In large organizations, people can get too comfortable or afraid to speak up. I want to create a culture where people can share ideas freely. I advocate for taking appropriate, tolerable risk; not silly risks, but calculated ones grounded in data and strategy. If we create an environment that allows risk within guardrails, we foster creativity and innovation.
If we create an environment that allows risk within guardrails, we foster creativity and innovation.
With my sales team, I focus on more than just daily execution; I encourage strategic thinking and connection to the broader vision. Our sales team is closest to the customer. Customers may not know what they want, but they always have a pain point. It’s our job to find the solution. I promote creative thinking through open dialogue, asking questions like, “What do you think of this idea? Does it make sense?” Whether with my team, peers, or senior leaders, I encourage everyone to step back and look at the forest, not just the tree in front of us.
I champion a culture that values idea sharing and constructive challenges. Each project follows a structured review process involving all relevant departments (regulatory, quality, marketing, sales, finance, and operations), which ensures shared ownership and accountability. This collaborative approach drives innovation while maintaining the right guardrails to balance creativity with financial responsibility. It’s a balancing act. We have shareholders, obligations, and goals that we must achieve responsibly.
I also believe a growth mindset starts with leadership. If people in a department don’t feel comfortable taking risks or sharing ideas, that’s a management problem. Companies that fail to foster creativity will eventually fall behind more innovative competitors. My conviction is clear: We live or die by innovation and growth.