Chief Change Officer with Vince Chan

Episode #419: Adaira Landry MD — From Mentorship to Micro Skills: Tools for Thriving at Work (Part One)

Release Date: July 5, 2025
Guest: Dr. Adaira Landry, Harvard emergency medicine physician, educator, and co-author of Micro Skills

Episode Overview

In Part One of this powerful two-part series, host Vince Chan sits down with Dr. Adaira Landry to explore her inspiring personal journey, the pivotal role of mentorship in career growth, and the origin story behind her book Micro Skills. Dr. Landry shares how her upbringing, key life experiences, and educational pursuits shaped her commitment to helping others navigate the challenges of professional development. This episode delves into why waiting to feel "ready" can backfire, the value of purposeful learning, and the importance of building both relationships and small, actionable habits for long-term success.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dr. Landry’s Early Years and Educational Journey

[03:00–05:41]

• Upbringing in Rialto, California:

  • Grew up in an under-resourced area without professional role models in her immediate environment.
  • Education was prioritized by her parents; her mother worked two jobs to provide better schooling.

• Academic Trajectory:

  • Accepted to UC Berkeley at 15, started at 16, but was unprepared for navigating the social and strategic aspects of higher education.
  • Lacked awareness about mentorship, networking, and relationship building in academia.

• Learning About Mentorship:

  • “When I got to college, I really just focused on academics. And I think that hurt me a bit because by the time I was in medical school, a lot of my peers were already networking and understanding how to build relationships with other professionals. And I didn't really understand how to do that.” (Dr. Landry, 03:55)

• Career Motivation:

  • Experience of transitioning from feeling unsupported to benefiting from powerful mentor relationships.
  • Driven to help early-career professionals overcome the same barriers she faced: “How do I find people to help me? How do I send an email? How do I deal with conflict?” (05:30)

2. The Calling to Medicine and Emergency Medicine

[05:41–09:39]

• Early Influence:

  • Mother worked in healthcare and nurtured the idea of medicine from an early age.
  • “She would always lift my hands up and say, you have the hands of a surgeon...” (Dr. Landry, 06:14)

• Defining Moments:

  • Helped an unresponsive man on her college campus, showing initiative despite lack of formal training:

    • “I don't know where this came from, because I had absolutely no known skill set here, but I just walked into this area... I just held his hand, and I was like, you're going to be okay.” (07:04)
    • Impact confirmed the desire to help people at their most vulnerable.

  • Later suffered severe burns and faced being alone during a personal emergency, cementing her drive for emergency medicine:

    • “When it comes to emergency medicine, you really are there when someone is in the most pain... Using my own personal experiences of being there for someone and not having someone there for me, it just really inspired me to take on that task.” (08:47)

3. The Power of Networks and Meeting Dr. Reza Lewis

[09:39–11:37]

• Connecting with Her Co-Author:

  • First connected while job searching in Boston with help from mutual mentors.
  • Their relationship developed over casual professional conversations, serendipitous meetings, and eventually, a collaboration rooted in shared interests.

• On Seizing Opportunity:

  • “This was an example of how I said to myself, Reesa is a well known established writer... This is a great collaboration to start with. And I did take her up with it… Both of those things have to happen.” (Dr. Landry, 11:20)

4. Co-Authoring a Book: The Challenges and Rewards

[11:37–16:35]

• Collaboration Dynamics:

  • Compared co-authoring a book to co-founding a startup due to the intensity and complexity involved.

• Division of Labor and Perspective:

  • Balanced writing around their schedules; differences (age, generational experience) became an advantage.
  • “Risa is 15 years older... She has much more experience with baby boomers and Gen X; I have a lot of experience working with millennials and Gen Z. So I think that really helped...” (Dr. Landry, 14:24)

• Learning Through the Process:

  • Both underestimated the full scope of book-writing: marketing, distribution, learning the “language of the literary world.”
  • “Writing a book is truly building a product. Marketing, sales, distribution—like all of these things, beyond just the actual transcription of words from your brain onto the paper...” (12:59)

• Enduring Support:

  • Regardless of future collaborations, deep mutual respect and support formed the foundation of their partnership.

5. Building a "Career Doctor" Identity and Educational Philosophy

[16:35–18:01]

• Host’s Observation:

  • Vince Chan calls them “career doctors,” reflecting their dual roles as physicians and career/leadership advisors.

• Motivation for Further Education:

  • Pursued a general Master’s in Education from Harvard, focusing on technology, innovation, and the flexibility such a degree offered.

• Applicability and Self-Care:

  • Chose a broad education degree for career versatility and mental health: “...a master's of general education would be more widely understood than a master's of medical education... It was really transferable as far as the skill set.” (Dr. Landry, 19:43)

6. Translating Educational Expertise into Teaching and Book Writing

[21:09–22:58]

• Bridging Knowledge Gaps:

  • Emphasized that content knowledge doesn’t guarantee teaching effectiveness—true teaching means breaking down large concepts, not making assumptions, and engaging learners.
  • “I didn't want to be one of those teachers who is in the front of the classroom speaking to themselves... I really wanted to learn how to engage people, how to tell stories, how to be multimedia...” (21:27)

• Applying Evidence-Based Practice:

  • Sought theory and practice on how adults learn best, directly influencing both her teaching style and the structure of Micro Skills.

7. The Origin and Significance of "Micro Skills"

[22:58–25:40]

• Evolving The Book Title:

  • The initial working title, “Chiseled,” was found to be vague and potentially off-putting.
  • Landed on “Micro Skills” inspired by medical training focusing on the granular, stepwise mastery of complex procedures.

• Intent of the Book:

  • “If you don't get into the weeds of it, then you can totally miss some really important skill sets. And so we really wanted to dive really deep into those critical actions and key aspects of developing these larger goals...” (Dr. Landry, 24:50)
  • Focuses on breaking down big goals (like communication or conflict management) into actionable, repeatable habits.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On learning to network:
  "I have the potential to succeed, but I don't have the strategy. I don't know how to leverage the resources around me."
  — Dr. Adaira Landry [03:52]

• On why she pursued emergency medicine:
  "I just want to offer that to more people. And I guess, selfishly, I want to feel good about myself as I do it."
  — Dr. Adaira Landry [07:52]

• On seizing opportunities with mentors:
  "This was an example… I did take her up with it… Both of those things have to happen."
  — Dr. Adaira Landry [11:30]

• On writing a book as a startup:
  "Writing a book is truly building a product. Marketing, sales, distribution—like all of these things, beyond just the actual transcription of words from your brain onto the paper..."
  — Dr. Adaira Landry [12:59]

• On the value of a generalist degree:
  "I have this mindset of go bigger so that it's more applicable, more generalized... eventually there's a chance that I leave medicine altogether or I leave academia altogether, and a master's of general education would be more widely understood..."
  — Dr. Adaira Landry [18:55]

• On breaking down teaching concepts:
  "A lot of people have impeccable knowledge in a particular niche or craft and don't know how to teach it... What I got from that Master's of education... was the skill set of taking large concepts and breaking them down into something that is easy to understand."
  — Dr. Adaira Landry [21:13]

• On choosing "Micro Skills" as the title:
  "The idea... comes actually from a term that I heard when I was training to be a doctor... If you don't get into the weeds of it, then you can totally miss some really important skill sets."
  — Dr. Adaira Landry [24:23]

Timestamps to Key Segments

• Dr. Landry’s Upbringing & Early Mentorship Lessons: [03:00–05:41]
• Emergency Medicine Origin Stories: [06:04–09:39]
• Building and Leveraging Professional Networks: [09:57–11:37]
• Challenges and Synchronicity of Co-Authoring: [11:37–16:35]
• Educational Philosophy and Its Influence: [18:01–22:58]
• Book Title and Its Underlying Message: [22:58–25:40]
• Preview for Part Two: [25:40–End]

Tone & Takeaways

This episode delivers practical wisdom in a warm, candid, and motivational tone. Dr. Landry's candor about setbacks, learning curves, and personal motivations makes her advice relatable and actionable. The importance of mentorship, ownership, self-directed learning, and deep work on micro skills are positioned as universal tools for anyone aiming to "outgrow themselves" and elevate their impact at work and beyond.

Stay Tuned:
Part Two will further unpack the concept of micro skills—small, repeatable habits for transformative growth in communication, conflict management, and everyday leadership.

[Episode summary by Chief Change Officer Podcast Summarizer]