E45 | Biology Meets Boardroom: Aim Your Effort Where It Counts

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“Sometimes things happen sometimes.”

Our son said that at five, and it stuck. It’s our family shorthand for uncertainty, resilience, and taking the next right shot. Perfect launchpad for this convo!

Dr. Carla Fowler, MD PhD and Managing Director of THAXA, joined us to riff on performance science that actually helps leaders get big things done.

Carla shared her pivot from medicine to executive coaching, why potency beats busyness, and how biology belongs in every strategy conversation. The result is a field guide for aiming effort where it counts and seeing progress faster. She also shared how her MD/PhD path was fully funded, which removed the sunk-cost pressure and made space for a bold pivot into building THAXA around performance science and leadership.

Here are the three big themes we loved, complete with a leadership tip and a way to make it fun.

1) Potent Over Busy

Carla’s core drumbeat: trade activity for impact. In the lab, her advisor would ask a deceptively simple question, “Why would you run that experiment?” The point wasn’t effort. The point was selection. Everything costs time and money. Power lives in choosing the right question and the highest expected return. Leaders who stop trying to do it all and instead place fewer, smarter bets move faster and feel calmer.

Leadership Tip: Run a weekly Potency Check. List your top five initiatives. Circle the one that would change the scoreboard the most if it jumped ten percent. Protect two calendar blocks for that move. Then ask two screeners for every task:

• If this worked, would it actually move a metric that matters

• Is there a cheaper or faster path to the same learning

Make It Fun: Host a 20 minute Impact Draft. Round 1: Most Potent Move. Round 2: Quick Win. Put the draft board in a shared doc, assign owners, and give the sprint a name your team will remember. Our recent favorite: Operation Rocket Fuel!

2) Results plus Visibility = Career Velocity

Carla spotlighted research showing success rides on two engines: the results you create and the visibility of those results to the right network. In sports, a clock and scoreboard handle this. In companies, outcomes can hide in the noise. Your job is to make progress legible without turning it into a brag-fest. Clarity builds trust. Consistency builds momentum. Visibility makes your hard work count twice.

Leadership Tip: Install a simple visibility system that you can sustain. Try a Friday 3 Bullet note to stakeholders:

1. Outcome achieved

2. Obstacle learned

3. What is next? (Pair that with a living “Wins and Learnings” board so teams can see momentum build.)

Make It Fun: Run Demo Donuts! Once a month, do five-minute live demos of one improvement or insight while everyone grabs a treat. Cameras on. No slide marathons. Visibility turns into a mini celebration!

3) Strategy, Execution, Mindset: Biology in the Loop

Carla simplifies performance into three levers. Strategy aims your effort. Execution systems make the aim doable. Mindset keeps you steady when uncertainty shows up. Biology ties it all together. Sleep, stress regulation, and recovery are fuel. Leaders who respect biology make clearer choices, bounce back faster, and keep their edge during long pushes.

Leadership Tip: Do a quarterly "SEM" Scan:

• Strategy: Are we still solving the right problem for the right customer in the right sequence

• Execution: What single routine would remove the most friction this quarter

• Mindset + Biology: What story and recovery habit will keep us calm and courageous when plans wobble. Lock one upgrade per lever for 90 days.

Make It Fun: Introduce “referee signals” in meetings for flow control. Quick hand cues for “time out,” “your turn,” or “wrap it” keep pace friendly and reduce talking-over. Award a tiny whistle to the best facilitator each month!

Carla’s message is refreshingly usable. Choose potency over busy. (We love that one!)

Pair outcomes with visibility. Balance strategy, execution, and mindset while letting biology do its job. When the unexpected pops up, (and it will) remember our five year old’s wisdom, smile, and take the next right shot.

Sometimes things happen sometimes!

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Dr. Carla Fowler, MD PhD, is the Managing Director of THAXA Executive Coaching. She helps senior leaders aim their effort where it counts using practical performance science. Trained as both physician and scientist, she made a bold pivot about 12 years ago and has been building THAXA ever since, bringing a biology-backed lens to strategy, execution, and mindset.

Carla works with high-responsibility, high-autonomy leaders who want repeatable tools they can teach their teams to handle uncertainty with more options and less drama. Her approach blends “potent over busy” selection with clean visibility so progress is clear to the people who need to see it!

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