Deb Gordon, Senior Client Partner, Korn Ferry
What is your current role?
As a member of the Korn Ferry Healthcare Practice, my role is focused on accelerating client outcomes through executives on demand for leadership roles, consulting needs, and project-based execution. The model has proven to be a strategic lever for organizations going through transformation, transactions, or times of transition.
I came into Korn Ferry through the acquisition of Patina Solutions and celebrated my 10th anniversary with the firm in January. Building lasting relationships is the most rewarding part of this life stage within my 35-year career. A highlight is also serving on the Gillette Children’s Philanthropy Board.
Why did you join the TRUST?
My introduction to the Women’s Health Leadership TRUST was through Allison O’Connor, for which I am very grateful. We were serving on the board of another health care association at the time and I asked her, “Where should I go to meet more women like you who love to make things happen?” Her invitation to attend the Annual TRUST Forum and meet others at her table made all the difference. My membership is well beyond 10 years and counting! My roles within the TRUST have included being an Ambassador and Forum Committee member.
What has been your favorite part of being a member of the TRUST?
The long-standing relationships, friendly culture of women supporting women of all ages and stages in their careers, and a collective dedication to creating stronger alignment to advance the health care industry.
What is the best career advice you’ve received?
Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that influenced your leadership or professional path?
My career began in enterprise-wide computing and communications serving health care clients in Iowa and Nebraska. Four years later, I transferred out of sales and moved to a corporate headquarters in Ohio to become the right arm to the Vice President of Worldwide Strategic Marketing. It was a fast-paced year of corporate bootcamp! The female executive I worked with taught me about running global operations, moving through mergers and acquisitions, corporate rebranding as well as facilitating CEO-to-CEO collaboration. It was an intensive time in my career, learning how to flex and grow change management muscles while developing EQ. Looking back, it influenced my leadership style, ability to write executive communications, and set the groundwork for my understanding how to create net new value through strategic partnerships. In addition, teaming to find new ways to advance a collective position. The culmination of these skills is still put to use in my daily work as a Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry.
How do you balance the demands of your professional and personal life?
We are all jugglers. The key is knowing which are the glass balls that can’t be dropped!
How do you advocate for inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA) within your organization or in the broader health care community?
IDEA is in my DNA as you will read about below. Professionally, I have enjoyed serving on the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) DEI Committee. It was an exceptional experience partnering with such a thoughtful and talented group of healthcare leaders. We collectively defined the Minnesota Chapter charter and objectives, then created new partnerships across communities served. During my time on the ACHE MN Board, I served as a Local Program Council Liaison. Over three years, new governance structures were defined, and leaders were recruited in local markets that continue to thrive today, offering education and programming in the South (Rochester), Central (St. Cloud), and North (Duluth), making professional development more accessible to all while keeping it close to home.
How do you maintain or improve your health and well-being?
Viewing myself as a constant work in process, the focus is still on the basics! Get eight hours of sleep, drink half my weight in ounces of water, and move my body. Years ago, my fitness challenge was to do one 5K a month. After getting a Trek Domane bicycle, this morphed into training to ride RAGBRAI across Iowa. Current favorites are walking and lakeside yoga.
What is something that not many people know about you?
I was born in Germany, the daughter of a Lieutenant Colonel in the military service and was inspired by my mother who went to law school in her 50s – a true inspiration that learning later in life can be most meaningful and rewarding. My leadership development began in the crib. Our family moved for new assignments (on average every 3 years) while I was growing up. This taught me to be adaptive and comfortable with change because it was the only constant. School was attended by kids from around the world. I babysat for children who did not speak English. This required creativity to uncover common ground and be versatile to carry on conversations at all levels.
I was honored to be an exchange student in high school and remain in touch with my host family. It was extraordinary to travel after college to visit multiple countries with the American European Student Union. This upbringing ignited my natural curiosity to learn as much as possible about other cultures and local norms. Through these experiences, I learned that you should never say goodbye, simply “see you later,” with positive intention that paths will cross again. This philosophy became the basis for cultivating meaningful long-term relationships which are ever present today in my personal and professional life.
As a result, it may not come as a surprise that a bulk of my career has focused on Global Business Development with a passion for health and wellbeing. My gifts are helping individuals and organizations imagine and realize their possibilities.
Words of wisdom to live by?
Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” is timeless. As a lover of the great outdoors and someone who seeks out new adventures, the words that speak to me are “two roads diverged into the yellow woods, and I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.” What a beautiful reminder to chart your own path. It’s likely another reason why I enjoy kayaking, canoeing, biking and snowshoeing because they all offer the chance to take new routes as well as create your own tracks in fresh fallen snow.