Advocacy: Lead with your heart

Q. How can I avoid pitfalls in storytelling? 

A. There’s a special kind of ick when a highly profitable health care company posts financially related self-congratulations online at the exact moment CMS is announcing reimbursement reform. It’s the corporate equivalent of bragging about your luxury vacation…at a community health fundraiser. Technically allowed. Cosmically tone-deaf. 

Even worse? Celebrating your latest acquisition, one that profits heavily from cancer patients, while a cancer-related controversy is unfolding in your own patient community. That’s not just misreading the room; that’s forgetting the room exists. It’s like showing up to a wake with a gold-lined press release instead of a casserole. 

In highly profitable health care settings, execs often get too comfortable. Comfortable with margins, private-jet travel or celebrating “shareholder value” while the beneficiaries who fund the sector are choosing between groceries, copays and caregiving support. 

But here’s the truth no one likes to say out loud: CMS reads the room even when we don’t. Their feedback doesn’t arrive as a LinkedIn comment. It shows up later as reimbursement reform. By then, the window for repositioning has closed. 

Another pitfall? Expecting community health and disability advocates to champion your legislative priorities when few to none of them are represented inside your own organization. They’re not props for fly-ins; they’re experts. Lived-experience leaders. Reality-check specialists. If they aren’t inside the building, the building is already unstable. 

Advocacy collapses when corporate mindset drifts too far from the lived experience of the people we claim to serve. 

That’s where we are today. Cuts are coming. They will hurt. And no one deserves an “I told you so.” 

What we do deserve is a reset: one rooted in humility service, and reconnecting with the communities whose needs should guide every decision we make. 

So before hitting “post,” pause and ask: Does this message rebuild trust, or does it widen the gap? 

Because this next HME chapter isn’t about blame; it’s about alignment, listening and leading with our hearts in the work. For all of us, but especially those at the very top. 

Lisa Wells is the founder of Naturally Able, Inc., a consumer healthcare marketing consultancy. See more AI advocacy examples at linktr.ee/lisanaturallyable