Beyond Checkbox Leadership

Checkbox diversity is easy. Building a culture where people feel seen, trusted, and excited to do great work is the real challenge, and it starts with something surprisingly simple: getting to know each other as humans. We sit down with Anila, a diversity strategist and community advocate, to unpack what leaders can do right now to create high-performance teams rooted in shared purpose. We talk about the practical habits that make inclusion real, from curiosity about other cultures to small relationship-building moves that turn “team” into something people can feel.

Anila Nicklos

• Tel: +1 216-870-1054
• Email: anila@icaremm.com
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/anila-nicklos

Then we shift into healthcare innovation and what patient-centred care looks like when you take the phrase seriously. Anila shares how her work in strategic partnerships at iCare Mobile Medicine is guided by ethics, empathy, and the commitment to meet patients where they are. We walk through how mobile urgent care works in Florida, including what clinicians can handle on-site, how lab work and imaging like x-rays can be facilitated, and the clear line where an ER referral is the safest next step.

Join us as we support Our Rescue Organization this month!

We also go deeper on storytelling as a leadership skill. Anila explains how stories helped her bridge cultures, advocate for communities, and translate values like resilience and education into language organisations can rally around. If you lead people, build partnerships, or care about better healthcare access, you’ll leave with concrete ideas you can use immediately. Subscribe, share this with someone who leads a team, and leave a review so more listeners can find Friends From Wild Places.

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Shireen's Bookkeeping Services LLC
Outsourcing your bookkeeping to Shireen’s Bookkeeping Services can save you time and money.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Welcome To Friends From Wild Places

Voiceover 0:03

Tales from the Wild. Stories from the Heart. A journey into the mind and soul of fighter business professionals where they share their vision for the future. And hear from a different nonprofit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs. Dive into a world of untamed passion. As we join our host, Shireen Botha, for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places.

Moving Past Checkbox Diversity

Shireen Botha 0:35

You know, speaking about leadership now, um, you know, as a diversity strategist that you are, you know, how do you help leaders move beyond checking boxes to actually creating high performance cultures rooted in shared purpose?

Simple Habits That Build Trust

Founding A Global Employee Group

Anila Nicklos 1:01

Um, it's been um a journey that I started unintentionally from the moment that I came to America. So I moved to America and people wanted to connect with me, friends, new friends. And so I noticed that one of the things that we have to do, one of the things that we can embrace is getting to know one another. It is so profound. The moment that you get to know one another, and you find that there is common ground, and you find out as human beings, we all have the same desires, the same wishes, the same goals. We just express them differently because of our perspective comes from the way we grew up, from our family, from the society we grew up, and we had the formative years, the schools we went to. So we bring all of those lenses, but those are also multiple realities. So I am able to communicate with the leaders and help them find simple ways of how to connect with their teams so that they can be successful in their leadership, but also the departments they lead or the organizations they lead reach their organizational goals. So there are a few things that I would teach the leaders in regards to diversity and inclusion and all of that that comes with it, is get to know people from other cultures. I personally myself started working for Cleveland Clinic, and I found out that Cleveland Clinic was the United Nations of healthcare. They were people from so many other cultures, and I loved meeting them, I loved spending time with them. So maybe I was more open because I came from a different country, and I was thirsty and really wanted to connect with others. So I made it a point to learn about the other cultures, about their traditions, what's important to them, what are some of their uh special holidays. And then another thing that I would teach the leaders is take your employees, take them to um for a coffee, just have a conversation, see where they are, also with leadership, and that can be with you know any other place that this can be um, you know, followed is what is the job description? And I am using job uh description as a figure of speech, but it can be something else. So, how can we all be on the same page? A leader has to be on the same page with their employees. A leader also can take advantage of a diverse team. How all these uh team members that are coming from different backgrounds and cultures, because it's not just culture, it's not just the diversity of culture, it's diversity of thought, background. Um all of them bring to the table a different dimension. So in our culture, as we know, in our world, we deal with complex issues. Complex issues need to be addressed with uh best addressed, I think, with the diverse team, because everybody brings us a dimension. You don't have to research it, they are there, they're in your team, and so um that's another thing. Uh, also creating teams like pairing up um employees that are not there yet, with employees that have the skills already and are at a different level, bring them together so everybody feels seen, recognized, they're working together for the same goal. And then you want to make sure that they're very clear about the goals. Sometimes leaders talk about performance, but they forget to share what these goals are. And when you share the goals with your team, they can't help but being excited about it. They feel like team members. So, in short, we want to make people feel recognized, feel seen, feel that they're making a difference, that they're creating impact, that there's room for professional growth for them. Um, and I've been very fortunate to work with um employer source groups, diversity councils. I was the leader for several one of them, several ones of them. And then I want to share with you because I'm very proud, this is just like one of the proud moments in my um existence at uh one of the biggest organizations in healthcare. I created, I founded the global employer source group, and we believe it's the first global employer source group uh in you know, in terms of the corporations. And uh it was uh a product per se that I thought about just by um realizing what the needs of the international employees were while they worked and looked for professional growth and networking and and also on the part of the organization, the human resources, the leaders, how to retain this exceptional talent given the you know the fact that labor uh you know is now uh one of the the biggest challenges that organizations have because people can work wherever they want to. There are no more borders.

How Buzzsprout Powers The Podcast

Patient-Centred Partnerships In Healthcare

Shireen Botha 7:04

Quite a journey. Yeah, yeah, I really appreciate that, Anila. Um before I I continue, I just want to jump in here a little bit about the platform that we're currently using, Anila, for this podcast that you're on today is Buzzsprout. And Buzzsprout is a great platform for people that want to start podcasts because we do these recordings with our guests. Um, and uh I'll go and edit it, but uh all I have to do is upload it to one platform, which is Buzzsprout, and it just gets put out to all the different live streaming platforms out there from Apple, iTunes, uh Deezer, Spotify, you name it, all of them. We're on all of them, just from one upload. And and I give the credit to both because you know, Friends from World Places, this is a place to share stories from other business owners and entrepreneurs and professionals. It is supposed to be a safe space to show support for them uh all over the world. And we do feature nonprofits, which is close to our heart every month to try and make a difference and give a helpline to someone in need. So, you know, if if you have a message that you want to share with the world, or maybe you just have this keen idea to start your own talk show, you know, podcasting is an easy, it's inexpensive and fun way to expand your reach online, to get your message out there. Uh, to start your own podcast, just follow the link in the show notes. This lets Buzz Sprout know that we sent you and help support the show. So just remember Buzz Sprout is passionate about helping you succeed. So, and Anila, you know, as a i care mobile medicine, uh you're building partnerships to expand access, right? So, how does your background in community advocacy shape the way you approach healthcare innovation?

Anila Nicklos 9:20

Um I truly believe in um medical care that is patient-centered, patient-focused. And I also believe that we need to meet these patients um where they are and creating the platform to reach them where they are. Um, as the director of strategic partnerships with iCare Mobile Medicine, I look forward to work with companies that we have synergies, that our values um connect, we have the same goals, the same purpose to create an environment where patients can heal uh fast and safely. And so as I do that, what I'm looking for when I connect with other representatives, other uh from other companies, we have very authentic conversations about what does it mean for them to be patient-centered? What does it mean for them to meet patients where they are? What does it mean for them to go above and beyond to help the patients? Um would they go the extra mile? Would they take care of the patient as if they were a family member? And so we start with that, and then we look at what kind of resources do we have in our position that we can also then share whenever it's needed. Um, I believe that especially in medicine, uh, you have to be highly ethical. And it's funny, I don't want to connect it with Mr. Koenig's case as we spoke earlier, because he is in the medical field, and it's mind-boggling that somebody of that um you know background would lose his peace and uh act in the way that he did. But with us, it's like we want to make sure that every person that gets into connection with our patients, that they're highly ethical, they love what they're doing, they go above and beyond, and then they need patients where they are. When you are in that sort of foundation, when although those boxes check, that's when you know that you can then have innovation creating even better experiences, more powerful experiences. Because we do better things when we're all together, when we all come together. We're able to produce better outcomes and results when we all work together.

Tanya Scotece 12:17

Anila, I have a question for you. So the eye care mobile um medicine, so my understanding, and you can share with the listeners, just so everyone's on the same page, is that this um strategic um mobile care for medicine is available in Florida specifically, in the United States, correct? In the Miami area and Orlando area, correct? And I just want to just dive a little bit deeper. So the mission currently is a focus on instead of folks that let's say have an emergent issue or urgent issue, instead of going to a hospital or urgent care facility where there may be long waits or just you know exorbitant times or just unknown, that they can contact your company directly and the physician would go to where they are, whether it be in a home or a hotel if they're traveling, correct? Is that correct as as I'm illustrating it to you? You're absolutely correct, Tanya. Yeah, so so our go ahead. Yeah, so one no one I just want to dive a little bit deeper just for all of our listeners, because we do have a lot of folks that travel to this part of Florida, especially Miami area and the Orlando area, especially because of the parks. So if someone, let's say, is injured and the physician goes to the person's home or hotel, and let's say they need, for example, x-rays or MRI or additional things, how does that get um worked up? For example, like does so what would happen? Obviously, the physician's not coming with their machines. So, can you just walk us through just so people can fully understand the picture as far as what service you provide?

Anila Nicklos 14:06

Thank you so much, Tanya. Thank you.

Tanya Scotece 14:08

That's a great question.

Anila Nicklos 14:10

Um, our organization provides mobile urgent care services to patients in the comfort of their home, hotel, offices, yes, wherever the patients are. And we focus on the patients that have urgent care needs, those are non-life threatening, to where they need to go to the emergency room. And so our medical providers go to those locations, to the patient's location, equipped with the tools to address any issues that they have right there on the spot. For example, they bring with them injections, they bring with them IV fluids, um, they can do testing. So those are some of the things that the patients can take advantage of right there on the spot. In addition, we can prescribe medications for them to the pharmacy of their choice, somewhere close to where they are, if they're guests, or for people that live in a neighborhood, in their pharmacy or neighborhood, wherever they like. Um, we are open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to midnight. Let's say, for example, a patient needs blood work or x-rays. So we can provide that too. Our team members can go to the patients' hotels, offices, yachts, wherever the patients are, and bring um with them, you know, all the tools that they need. For example, x-ray, ultrasounds, EKGs. We can do blood work, collect the blood work in the patient's location, and very conveniently drop it off at a lab where you know it might be the lab of their choice. Within regards to MRIs, Tanya, we don't provide MRIs. I was told that they have started a service where MRIs now are mobile, but I think it's probably um a big truck or something of that sort that can really house the MRI machines because they're so big. Um we cover Miami Dade County, and Miami Dade County has over 50 cities, we cover Broward, over 50 cities. We cover Orlando and Daytona. Those are the locations where the anybody can take advantage of our services. We are Florida's top-rated mobile urgent care with five-star reviews over between 800 and 1,000 reviews. So um we we have left a good taste uh as as patients have utilized our services.

Tanya Scotece 16:49

Thank you. Thank you for that explanation, Anila. So just so just so I'm clear and our listeners are clear. So basically, I understand that the physician can go to the patient's location, home, office, or hotel if they are guests of uh, you know, Florida. And then should they require something else that's also facilitated by the company, correct? If they need further testing, as so it's like a holistic patient, right? You're not just saying, okay, we'll now go to the emergency room. Like you're completing that process if somebody, if a patient would require more than what the team provides at the moment. Is that correct?

Anila Nicklos 17:26

So if there is something else that they need, we would definitely recommend them. There have been a couple of times where patients don't know how sick they are. So during the intake process, they don't necessarily show all the symptoms with us. So when we get there, it seems that they need to be in the emergency room. We would automatically refer them to the emergency room. Um, we're more time out on the urgent care part on as needed basis. You need something. Um, let's say a lot of people experience food poisoning. We can take care of that. Ivy fluids, injections, medications, people feel amazing in a very short time. Some people may have pneumonia or they believe they have pneumonia. So we would go there, evaluate them, order X-ray services, and then find out what's going on. But you always always, just like you are in an urgent care, you go there, you get treated for that particular um episode, and then follow up with your primary care physician. Follow up with and then, but to go to you, uh, your question is so profound because we also have organizations that use us for their services, to where they want us to go and see their patients. So, but also with them, the the goal is to help them with that urgent care need so that they are able to, for some people, they're able to fly back, take the plane, for some people to go to that very important meeting or to that very beautiful event that they have come to uh witness in uh Miami and then just help them with the process.

Tanya Scotece 19:06

Understood. Understood. I have such a better, clear understanding of eye care mobile medicine that it's it's in in lieu of an urgent care as opposed to in lieu of quote unquote an emergency room. I understand that your services can um, you know, maybe overlap if it's something, for example, non, you know, let's say major equipment necessary. But I understand like people like, you know, again, an immediate need, food poisoning, um, maybe, you know, like a just a triage of some sort, getting them better, getting them back out into the community. So I I get a much, much clearer vision of eye care mobile medicine.

Storytelling As A Bridge-Building Skill

Shireen Botha 19:45

That's wonderful. Yeah. That's a great question, Tanya. Thank you so much for asking that. Yeah, and Nina, I love how you speak about patients, meeting them where they are. Um, I think it's really important nowadays because we've really gotten into a season where we have to advocate for ourselves um to the actual doctors that that are um looking at us. And for so a lot of us, we struggle because we don't feel heard from the doctors that are seeing us. And um, and I love that to actually meet the patient where they are, hear them. Because other than the doctors, they probably know the best about their own bodies as well. Um then, you know what I mean, then then um then obviously the doctors and their professions because they've studied it, but there's some things that that you know we as humans know about ourselves and our bodies, and we might have an inkling of something that they we would really want tested. They should hear the that part out. Um so I'm I digress again, but it's I love what you said then. And so that's what triggered me to talk about that because it is so important to meet a patient where they are. So uh more on your writing, Anila, you have a degree, am I right in literature and right fiction? Is that correct?

Anila Nicklos 21:23

It's in Albanian language and literature.

Shireen Botha 21:25

Okay, right. How has the art of storytelling helped you become a better bridge builder in the corporate world?

Anila Nicklos 21:38

And I have to tell you, that's a great question. I love that question. Sometimes I I believe a part of what I brought into the American culture is my desire, uh my pleasure, like I get pleasure of um speaking with. Others, but then telling stories. A part of myself uh is an educator. So I have a degree in teaching as well. So imagine putting the educator hat on and then the writing hat on. Um I think every time I speak with someone or every time I share a story, sometimes I say to myself, you're taking too long. Just get to the point. But as a writer, I'm painting a picture, and I'm painting a picture of whatever that event is, even just saying, I woke up this morning. I will go on and on and on about how I got up this morning. And so um my experience started in Cleveland with, you know, being involved with corporations, being involved with um organizations, nonprofit, the nonprofit world that made a difference in the lives of the different communities. And I think because of the storytelling, I was able to communicate with all these organizations that our Albanian American community interacted on a daily basis, and then be the bridge because I was able to tell the story of the Albanian community, translate it well into a story so that the American community could understand where we came from, what was important for us, what did you value most? For example, the resiliency piece, sacrificing, family-oriented education. Those were great things to translate into the American society because they felt connected with us right away. They didn't see us as a burden. Let's educate them, let's do this, let's do that. They saw us as partners and we saw them as uh the biggest champions of our existence in Cleveland. I was one of the first leaders in the Albanian American community to do a lot of work with the different organizations, and I wrote articles. I wrote the story in the articles, I wrote the story about different things that our community was doing. I wrote the story about the mayor of one of the cities that the majority of the Albanians lived, Mayor Tom George, who has since passed away. But he was a champion of the Albanian American community. We created programs so that we can tell the Albanian American community that they were very welcomed. And here are the resources. You have the resources in Albanian and in English, here they are. But we told stories, and I told stories when I made it to other organizations where I was a board member of nonprofit organizations. I always told a story, and I think stories have power, stories impact people, stories move people, stories make people hear and feel the emotion. And that's what we want because I think it's very easy with the fast pace of our world today, with all the social media, that our attention span has gone down. But having the ability to tell the story and connect with people makes a difference, and I am now in the process of which has taken me a lot to come to this uh point that I'm going to start writing my first book, my first novel. And thank you. And I started the process when I was in Albania. So it's taken me a couple of decades of detouring, learning, growing, connecting with people, learning about people from other cultures. And I can't wait to tell that story.

Tanya Scotece 26:06

Amazing. I can't wait to read it. I can't wait to read it.

Next Week Tease And Closing

Shireen Botha 26:10

Me as well, yeah. It's amazing. Tune in next week for part three of Friends from Wild Places.

Voiceover 26:18

You've been listening to Friends from Wild Places with Shireen Botha. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast from the links to catch every episode and unleash your passion.