Why I Created The Culture Prescription™
More Than Two Decades of Leadership Lessons, a Few Mistakes, and a Different Way of Thinking About Developing People
By Sharra Schewee-Blair
Founder, The Culture Prescription™
After more than two decades in leadership, I've learned that some of the most important lessons about leading people don't happen in a classroom.
They happen in the middle of a difficult conversation. During an unexpectedly challenging day. When an employee disappoints you. When someone exceeds every expectation you had for them. Or when you realize that the way you've always approached something might actually be part of the problem.
I've experienced all of those moments.
I've also learned that leadership isn't something you master simply because you've held a leadership position for a certain number of years.
Experience provides opportunities to learn. What we do with those opportunities determines how we grow.
That realization eventually became the foundation of The Culture Prescription™.
I Didn't Start Out Leading This Way
Early in my leadership career, I believed being a good leader meant having the answers, maintaining control, and making sure everything happened the way I thought it should.
I was a micromanager.
At the time, I probably would have described myself as someone with high expectations who cared deeply about getting things right. And I did care.
But somewhere along the way, I began recognizing that my approach had limitations.
When you're constantly providing the answers, how do your employees learn to think independently? When everything must be done your way, how do you discover what someone else might contribute?
And when your team depends on you for every decision, are you really developing people, or are you simply creating more work for yourself?
Those weren't necessarily comfortable questions.
But they changed how I thought about leadership.
I began shifting my focus from being the person who had all the answers to becoming the person who helped others develop the confidence and capability to find their own.
Instead of expecting everyone to approach their work exactly as I would, I started recognizing the value of different perspectives, strengths, and experiences.
I discovered that being a leader's biggest resource is far more valuable than being their constant source of direction.
That shift didn't happen overnight. And more than twenty years later, I'm still learning.
People Have Been My Greatest Leadership Teachers
Throughout my career, I've had the privilege of watching people grow into opportunities they might not have initially imagined for themselves.
Some have developed into exceptional team members. Others have pursued additional education, entered new professions, or discovered leadership capabilities they didn't know they possessed.
One particularly meaningful experience has been watching someone begin their career in a clinical support role, pursue further education, become a physician assistant, and eventually return to work as a provider.
There's something incredibly rewarding about witnessing that kind of professional journey.
But experiences like these have also taught me something important.
We don't own the potential we recognize in other people.
Our responsibility is to create an environment where they have an opportunity to discover and develop it.
Sometimes that means providing encouragement. Sometimes it means creating opportunities, offering honest feedback, or allowing someone to struggle through a challenge without immediately stepping in.
And sometimes it means celebrating when someone becomes ready for an opportunity beyond your team.
I've come to believe that one of the greatest measures of leadership is what people become because they had the opportunity to work alongside us.
Leaders shouldn't create dependence. They should create capability.
The Gap Between Learning Leadership and Actually Leading
My experience in healthcare operations has also shaped how I think about leadership development.
Healthcare is an environment where leaders must continuously balance competing priorities.
Patient needs, employee development, operational performance, staffing challenges, regulatory expectations, and organizational initiatives don't arrive one at a time.
They frequently arrive together.
And the people responsible for navigating those challenges are often frontline managers and supervisors who have been promoted because they were exceptional individual contributors.
But being exceptional at your job doesn't automatically prepare you to lead other people.
We can send new managers to leadership classes, provide educational resources, and introduce them to established leadership theories.
All of those things have value.
But what happens when they return to their departments?
What happens when they're preparing for their first difficult performance conversation? When two employees are in conflict? When they need to address a safety concern, communicate an unpopular decision, or rebuild trust with their team?
Knowing a leadership principle and applying it in a complicated situation are two very different things.
That's where I believe organizations have an opportunity to rethink leadership development.
Leadership education should be the beginning of development, not the conclusion.
Leaders need opportunities to apply what they've learned, receive meaningful feedback, reflect on their decisions, and access experienced mentors who understand the realities of operational leadership.
They need development that continues long after the classroom session ends.
And organizations need ways to connect that development to their culture, expectations, and operational priorities.
Why I Created The Culture Prescription™
The Culture Prescription grew from these experiences and a question I've continued asking throughout my career:
What if we became more intentional about the environments we create for other people?
What if leadership development focused not only on what leaders know, but also on how their everyday behaviors influence the people around them?
And what if organizations approached leadership development as an ongoing process rather than an occasional educational event?
I created The Culture Prescription to explore those questions and help translate leadership principles into practical behaviors.
My goal is to connect the principles of leadership and organizational development with the realities of leading people.
Through leadership education, mentoring, coaching, practical resources, and organizational consulting, I want to help leaders and organizations close the gap between understanding effective leadership and consistently practicing it.
This work isn't intended to replace the valuable contributions of organizational development, human resources, education, quality, or safety professionals.
It's about connecting those disciplines with everyday leadership practice and helping organizations reinforce the behaviors they want to see.
Because ultimately, organizational culture is influenced by what people experience every day.
And leaders play an important role in shaping those experiences.
The Five Pillars of The Culture Prescription™
Over time, my leadership experiences evolved into five interconnected principles that now form the foundation of The Culture Prescription.
CONNECT — Build relationships before you need them.
Leadership begins with meaningful relationships. People are more likely to communicate openly, collaborate, and contribute when they experience genuine connection and trust.
VALUE — Recognize the individual, not just the employee.
Every person brings different experiences, strengths, perspectives, and potential. Valuing people means recognizing those differences and creating opportunities for meaningful contributions.
CLARIFY — Create understanding, direction, and accountability.
People deserve to understand expectations, priorities, responsibilities, and how their work contributes to something larger. Clarity helps create the conditions for both confidence and accountability.
IGNITE — Develop capability and create opportunities for growth.
Leadership isn't about demonstrating how capable we are. It's about helping others discover what they're capable of becoming. That requires coaching, encouragement, appropriate autonomy, and opportunities to grow.
LEAVE BETTER — Make your leadership matter beyond your presence.
This is the principle that connects everything.
Did we help someone develop confidence? Did we create an opportunity? Did we strengthen a team, improve a process, or help someone recognize potential they hadn't previously seen?
Our influence as leaders should extend beyond the time someone spends working for us.
I don't believe any leader practices these principles perfectly. I certainly don't.
But I believe they give us something meaningful to work toward.
And that is what The Culture Prescription is ultimately about.
Not perfect leadership.
Intentional leadership that leaves people, teams, and organizations better than we found them.
About the Author
Sharra Schewee-Blair is the founder of The Culture Prescription™, an author, and a healthcare operations leader with more than 20 years of leadership experience.
Her professional background includes ambulatory healthcare operations, developing frontline teams, mentoring emerging professionals, and supporting organizational initiatives focused on leadership development, workplace culture, and high reliability.
She is the author of The Culture Prescription: Leadership Practices for Connecting, Valuing, Clarifying, Igniting, and Leaving People Better Than You Found Them
Drawing on her operational experience and servant-leadership philosophy, Sharra founded The Culture Prescription to help bridge the gap between leadership education and everyday leadership practice.
Through coaching, mentoring, educational resources, and organizational consulting, she focuses on helping leaders build capability, strengthen workplace culture, and develop the people entrusted to their leadership.
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Created by Sharra Schewee-Blair
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