By Joy King, 2025 Women’s Health Leadership TRUST President
At our May TRUST Forum, we dove deep into what it takes to really lead with empathy thanks to Roxane Battle. She stood before 500 health care leaders and ignited a dialogue that has continued long past her keynote.
Roxane reminded us that too often we judge, or cancel, others and ourselves far too quickly. Sometimes we do that because we’re exhausted or because uncertainty makes us uncomfortable. Other times, we judge quickly because we fear failure, so calling out someone else’s mistake makes us feel momentarily more in control.
But it’s not leadership to erase 99% of someone’s impact due to the 1% they got wrong. No one is perfect, yet the expectations placed on women in leadership—especially women of color—are often impossibly high.
That’s why empathetic leadership is the most courageous kind of leadership we can choose. It’s not soft or passive. Compassionate leadership is hard because it requires vulnerability and a willingness to feel what others are going through.
Roxane offered a model of leadership firmly centered on empathy.
- Use generative listening instead of jumping to conclusions. Pause and ask, ‘What else could be true here?’
- Stay curious and seek different perspectives, especially when it’s uncomfortable.
- Put dignity first. Everyone wants to feel seen and valued regardless of title or circumstance.
- Pause, reflect and rebuild—not alone but as a community—when disruption inevitably happens.
- Lead with integrity and align what you do with who you strive to be. Be the best version of yourself and honor the needs of others.
Empathy is choosing connection over control and values over ego. Empathy is not the easiest path forward; however, it can be the strongest.
At the Women’s Health Leadership TRUST, we’re proud to champion empathetic leadership. We’re a network of women in health care creating personal, professional and community transformations for ourselves and fellow women leaders. We lift one another to lead with purpose. And we hold space for growth over perfection.
Because when women in health care support women, everyone wins.
I am grateful to Roxane for modeling what it means to lead with courage and compassion. And I am forever thankful to the TRUST community for living these values in every role and level.
Let’s keep showing up with love and curiosity to build a future where leadership is both powerful and compassionate.
Joy King serves as the 2025 TRUST President and is the CEO of the Animal Humane Society (AHS), one of the nation’s leading animal welfare organizations. Prior to AHS, Joy spent nine years at NMDP (formerly the National Marrow Donor Program and Be the Match), where she was Chief Advancement Officer and Executive Director of the NMDP Foundation. Joy spent 16 years in leadership roles at the American Cancer Society, ultimately serving as Senior Vice President of Operations for the organization’s Midwest division. Joy has served on the board of Kappa Delta Chi Sorority Inc.’s Emerald Foundation and Jeremiah Program. She has been recognized by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal as a 2015 Women in Business, Twin Cities Business Magazine’s Best In Class Healthcare Executives, Greenspring’s 500 Most Powerful Business Leaders in Minnesota, and Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives.