{"podcast":{"title":"Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw","slug":"inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296","podcast_index_feed_id":3258296,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/inspiring-women","website_url":"https://inspiringwomen.show","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/12325a02-f7fb-11ec-a33e-eb24deb6b6ff/image/8ca44c9b61353ea8f1eff71da0c2743c.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Laurie McGraw","episode_count":246,"summary":"Advancing women to healthcare leadership–and keeping them there. Women comprise 70% of the healthcare workforce. They hold just 20% of the C-suite. Each week, host Laurie McGraw bridges that gap through conversations with the women rewriting healthcare’s leadership playbook.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296"},"episode":{"title":"The Disney Benefits Leader Who Calibrates Before She Acts || EP.223","slug":"the-disney-benefits-leader-who-calibrates-before-she-acts-ep-223","published_at":"2025-11-11T09:08:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296/the-disney-benefits-leader-who-calibrates-before-she-acts-ep-223","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/DHT6867246918.mp3?updated=1762346542","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/DHT6867246918.mp3?updated=1762346542","summary":"\"What's the problem we're trying to solve? Because oddly enough, sometimes that's not really understood.\" Before Mercedes Ikard solves a problem, she asks a question most leaders skip: Are we even solving the right problem? In a world demanding immediate action, she's built her leadership on something more powerful: the discipline to pause, listen, understand, and ensure everyone's calibrated on what actually matters before moving forward. As Senior Director of US Benefits Operations at The Walt Disney Company, Mercedes leads benefits strategy for one of the world's most complex workforces—six generations, cast members in theme parks and executives in boardrooms, each with different needs. For Mercedes, this complexity requires constant calibration. \"Empathy I think is important. And I think it's important to be a decent human. If we start out to be a decent human, that really is a good barometer and we really make decisions a lot easier.\" This is where calibration begins. Not with spreadsheets or plan designs, but with a fundamental check: Are we being decent humans? When issues explode in the cultural ethos, Mercedes does a gut check: Is this really an issue within this organization? She's learned to calibrate signal from noise, solving problems that actually impact her workforce rather than chasing topics du jour. In this episode of Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw, discover why constant calibration might be leadership's most powerful skill. Not as hesitation, but as disciplined checking that everything stays aligned with what actually matters. From bifurcating work and home with precision to extending grace in postmortems, Mercedes has built her career on understanding before acting, clarity before speed, grace before perfection. Her superpower isn't speed. It's…","meta_description":"\"What's the problem we're trying to solve? Because oddly enough, sometimes that's not really understood.\" Before Mercedes Ikard solves a problem, she asks…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1444,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296/episodes/the-disney-benefits-leader-who-calibrates-before-she-acts-ep-223/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296/the-disney-benefits-leader-who-calibrates-before-she-acts-ep-223.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}