<p>A few weeks ago, Nancy Gibbs wrote a column in the <em>Washington Post</em> titled, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/03/most-important-test-wont-involve-swabs-or-temperature-checks/">Forget swabs. We all need to take a character test.</a>. It caught the attention of our CEO, David Jarrard - so much so that more than two weeks later we were still discussing it. Here, we talk about the clarifying nature of crises and the way we're entering a time of testing for healthcare organizations...and the individuals leading them.</p>

17 workgroups, one nimble AMC

The Backstory, formerly the High Stakes Podcast, is a new, limited series from Jarrard Inc. President and Co-Founder Anne Hancock Toomey.
For nearly two decades, Jarrard – one of the nation’s top communications consulting firms for healthcare – has partnered with thousands of leaders across the country who are striving to make healthcare better every day.
But this isn’t a podcast about healthcare, or politics or even communications. It’s about authentic leadership.
The Backstory is about demystifying respected leaders who’ve had a lot of success along the way because of the kind of leaders they’ve chosen to be.
Each person Anne interviews is visionary, of course. They’re smart as hell, and they’re fierce about their business and their mission. They’re also humble, kind and create the kind of environments in which people can thrive. They’re not perfect. But they are real. And it’s the combination of those two things that makes each one of them great.
In every episode, Anne’s guest digs into who they are, where they come from and what’s influenced them to be the person and the leader that they are today.