March 31, 2026: For decades, Lisa Davis was often the only woman in the room, navigating the highest levels of corporate leadership while quietly asking the questions so many women dare not voice out loud. Now, as Founder and CEO of Davis Core Advisory and author of the upcoming book “The Only Woman in the Room”, Lisa joins Sarah to unpack why the workplace system hasn't kept pace with women's ambitions, what separates healthy perseverance from fear-based endurance, and why the rise of AI makes diverse voices more urgent than ever.

Key Points:

• 03:56 Why Work Still Penalizes Women
• 06:40 Stay, Stretch, Or Leave
• 14:25 Leadership Identity Lessons
• 20:04 Book Launch And Farewell

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Flourish Soundbytes: The Only Woman in the Room - Grit and Knowing When to Leave with Lisa Davis

Sarah Richardson: I'm Sarah Richardson, a principal here at this week Health where our mission is healthcare transformation, powered by community. This is Flourish Soundbites, unfiltered Conversations with healthcare leaders. Let's get real,

Welcome back to Flourish. I am Sarah Richardson, and today's soundbite is a special one. I'm joined once again by Lisa Davis, board advisor, former Fortune 500 CIO, and now author of a powerful new book, exploring Perseverance, leadership, and the Questions So many women are quietly Asking at work. Lisa has spent decades operating at the highest levels of leadership. Navigating moments of growth, challenge and reinvention. Her new book, the Only Woman in the Room, brings those experiences together in a deeply human way, tackling questions like when to stay, when to stretch, and when it might be time to choose a new path.

Lisa, welcome back to Flourish, and congratulations on the book.

Sarah Richardson: Likewise, and this book feels very timely. What was happening in your own life or in the conversations that you were having with other women that made you say, it is time to write this?

Lisa Davis: Well, you know, I've been thinking about the book for a couple years, meeting with women, coaching, mentoring women. And we always seem to have the same conversation. smart, driven, capable women always asking me, is it me? And I would say to them, no, it's not you. And I knew that because I had lived it.

For the experiences, the questions that they have, hopefully making it a little bit more easier for them than the journey that I had necessarily experienced. So it was my way of giving back to the community and. During that time of last year, it also became, I felt like forces coming together. Not only was it about that learning and [00:03:00] experience, but it was also a time where women's voices, with the removal of DEI representation of women and other diverse representation began, we began losing ground. We, our voices became missing, and it was more important than ever in my mind that vo female voices are being heard. And Then lastly, I would say with this onslaught of artificial intelligence, I really do believe that it's more important than ever that women's voices and diverse voices are being are at the table in which these decisions are being made and developed.

So it was really a culmination of multiple things that really drove me to write this book last year.

Lisa Davis: I think they're hard to talk about because frankly, the system still penalizes women for talking about them. For sharing, how they are experiencing the environments, how they're trying to navigate if they have families and full-time careers. And the fact of the matter is the system in which we operate the infrastructure.

So the system penalizes [00:05:00] women and when we open and communicate how we do feel, it is always received as if we're the problem. That, why don't you just try a little harder, or you are not balancing correctly, or maybe you just have imposter syndrome? No, we don't have any of those things. It's just that difficult for women to successfully navigate and, and the word I really want to call out is persevere, because what I talk about in the book, Sarah, is my career has been built on grit and perseverance.

We all know we wake up some days and boy, and we're not feeling passionate about anything. It's more survival mode that we go into. So what I really understood through my career was, yes, it was grit. It was perseverance, but it was conviction to my own personal core values and goals. That kept me going every day.

Lisa Davis: I have this conversation today with a lot of women as well, and I think of, I think we know in our gut, and women are fantastic at this, right? We know in our gut The environment is not supporting us. You know, I tell women to ask themselves the question, are you growing in your role?

are you having joy in what you're doing? Are you passionate about what you're doing? Is there a path for continued development to reach your professional goals? and if you reflect on those questions and answer honestly, you begin to realize. That maybe the environment I'm currently in or the role that I'm sitting in is no longer offering me a path of continued growth, learning, development, and support.

It's hard to leave. It's scary. There's fear in leaving and starting over and over again. But one of the key messages that I always like to share is that growth always happens at the exit of your comfort zone. Right. And as soon as we step out of that comfort zone, and I've done that over and over with changing sectors, moving to different roles, and yes, I was terrified at times.

You know, with your eyes closed, whatever, it's time. And It's probably an opportunity for growth and learning and to do something else.

Sarah Richardson: I always tell people if there's not a certain level of like ickiness in

terms of like that it's scary and hard,

Lisa Davis: Yes,

Sarah Richardson: Then you're probably past the point that you needed to make a change in your career.

Lisa Davis: absolutely.

Sarah Richardson: Except the women confuse perseverance with endurance. They

stay longer than they should. And you said it like the gut, the intuition.

When you

Lisa Davis: Yeah, I think it's really a measure against those criteria. You know, I can continue to persevere and endure a role if I'm learning. I'm growing. I'm in a supportive culture and environment. I'm surrounded by a team by leadership, by my peers that are gonna help me in that growth. I'm finding joy and I'm passionate about what I'm doing.

If you don't feel those things and those are not part of the environment that you're in. that is not healthy perseverance or endurance, that becomes almost fear-based. and I would say find an advocate. Find a coach. Find a sponsor a group of, of you know, people that support you and have these conversations of why am I continuing to endure this day after day?

Sarah Richardson: Yeah. When you, when you look back at your career, was there a moment where stretching rather than leaving might have changed your trajectory in a meaningful way?

Lisa Davis: Hmm. There's so many examples. Um, I, I became better at, in my career and in my journey, recognizing the signs more quickly. And understanding, because I think many women, many people do this, they think it's me. It must be something that I'm doing wrong. and we have a tendency to blame ourselves if that environment, that lack of support, that lack of growth or opportunity becomes stagnant.

I think as we continue to have experience and grow in our careers, we recognized those signs earlier. And you know, I'll give an example. Even when I was at Intel, and this is in the book, I mean, I thought this was a place that I would retire. I loved what I was doing. I was, oh, it was probably the five.

I'm not going to be promoted here. I'm not in a supportive culture that is gonna allow me to reach my professional goals. And the company was shifting and moving in a different direction. And it was interesting because a recruiter had caught me at Blue Shield to California, I don't know, about six, eight months prior, and the timing wasn't right.

And I said, oh, oh, no, no, no. I'm perfectly happy here. I'm not interested in anything else. And by golly, that eight months later, after I had had that epiphany of, I see the signs they called and I said, you know what? I'd like to learn more. Tell me more about what this opportunity is. So there's been.

in.

Sarah Richardson: I remember a situation where I was at a company I absolutely loved and looked around. I thought, wow, this is as far as I can go here. Yes, it's pretty, it's pretty heart wrenching when you decide to move on from something you actually love yet won't get you to the next thing that you know you're capable.

Lisa Davis: Yes.

Sarah Richardson: Of doing, and you write honestly about leadership identity,

especially how it evolves over time. What surprised you the most about yourself as you reflected back while writing this book?

And philosophy that I have today, and I think like many women. You know, I've, and I shared them in the book, I made choices that weren't the right choices. You know, hindsight is 2020. You make them, at a time where they may be fear-based. Certainly when I was younger, you know, I probably took me twice as long to reach where I wanted to go because of the crazy path and choices I made in my career.

What does authenticity, what is wealth? Um, so each chapter, even though I believe all of the nine principles that I chose are principles that have. Guided me and allowed me to persevere and succeed in what I needed to learn in order to do that. But each one of them stands on its own. And I hope a healthy conversation and [00:17:00] dialogue comes from each of those chapters.

because I think everyone has their own personal journey and course of how they would handle certain things. And what I'm trying to do is shared what worked. What didn't work, and probably more, more importantly, what to expect as you continue to climb the corporate ladder or work towards your ultimate personal and professional goals.

Sarah Richardson: I appreciate you mention. This is not a book for women, only

Lisa Davis: Yes,

Sarah Richardson: for male allies, men in the workforce, appreciating the perspective, but also the principles are gonna apply universally in

many cases because the decisions we make. in the timeframe of our lives that we make them. Sometimes, my goodness, if we can read your book and say, wow, she made that decision 'cause she was 30.

How does she handle it at X? We've all said, gosh, I wish I knew then what I know now.

Lisa Davis: You could have won it.

Lisa Davis: I think it's a combination of all three, because I think all three can be applicable. we have a huge responsibility and I believe women can do more. One, we need to have our voices heard, and I've always believed, Sarah, that part of my job has always been to reach back and pull other women forward.

Today we're at 22% in the market. That's also correlates to representation in ai. we are more than half this population. We are, in many cases, primary breadwinners. Women will be stepping into the largest, transfer of wealth over the next 10 years, and our voices need to be represented. So I'm, I really want this book.

And for women to recognize, one, the book is written for at all levels of your career. Two, like you called out, we wouldn't be where we are without male allies. And I'm being, you know, so grateful for the male allies that I had in my own career, or I wouldn't have been in the roles that I was in. And it's a call to action and understanding the responsibility we have as women to have our voices heard.

Sarah Richardson: Every time. Yes, the book goes on sale. It's actually on presale now,

Lisa Davis: pre-sale.

Sarah Richardson: presale for Kindle

Yes.

And

officially launches March 31st. What. Are you most excited or maybe even nervous about about when it comes to how readers will experience it as they engage?

Lisa Davis: I was having this conversation with my publisher this morning, and it, and you know what we, I, it reminded me of, um, I'm a huge swifty. Um, so my Swifty fans out there, and I remember when Taylor Swift put out her last. Album and there was all this negative pus publicity about the album. And she came on and she said, you know what, art is in the eye of the beholder.

So it's certainly vulnerable when you're putting out a lot of personal information. And I've been trying to navigate that vulnerability of what I've shared and how it will be received because, it does come from the heart.

And if today's conversation resonated with you, I encourage you to share this episode with a colleague or friend who may be asking those same quiet questions. Again, Lisa, thank you so much

Lisa Davis: Thank you Sarah. Really appreciate the time and the conversation today.

Sarah Richardson: always, and for our listeners, until next time, keep flourishing.

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