You can’t lead a team if people are afraid to tell you that you’re wrong.

For Cincinnati Children’s President/CEO Steve Davis, the lessons of high-stakes medicine — making life-or-death decisions with incomplete information, building teams that speak up and owning mistakes — became the foundation for leading Cincinnati Children’s.

He shares how bringing people together to solve complex problems helped drive meaningful organizational change, including $20 million in savings through collaborative purchasing.

Steve also explains why the strongest leaders create cultures where people at every level feel empowered to challenge assumptions, contribute their expertise and innovate together.

That philosophy extends to AI, which he sees not a means to replace people, but as an opportunity to make health care more human.

Key Quotes

* “I’m a person who never waits to be told to go fix things.”

* “Hierarchy make it hard for people to speak up.”

* “If you’re leading a team, it really shouldn’t be completely obvious that you’re in charge all the time. Otherwise, you’re controlling too much and you’re limiting the potential of the rest of your team.”

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Welcome to Bearcats Mean Business, the official podcast of the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business, where inspiring career stories, honest lessons and fresh business perspectives from the people building impact in the real world come together.