Ep. 585 - Cedars-Sinai Medical Network Vice President & COO Alen Voskanian - How COOs Can Beat Burnout Before It Breaks Them
Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold
Second in Command with Cameron Herold
4.9 • 225 Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are you secretly running on empty, wondering if burnout is targeting you next?
In this episode, Alen Voskanian, COO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Network and author, pulls back the curtain on the raw realities beneath operations leadership. From the constant grind of clinical environments to the personal toll of endless firefighting, Voskanian exposes why burnout hits high performers hardest and how ignoring your creative side can quietly sabotage your impact. This isn’t just about wellness platitudes. It’s a real-world look at chasing fulfillment, designing systems that beat chaos, and the unexpected arts that make leaders resilient.
If you’re a COO (or run with one), you can’t afford to miss these insights. The game has changed. Listen now or risk staying stuck in cycles that will bury both your team and your spirit. This is the side of leadership nobody else is showing you.
Sponsored by
Genius Network - An exclusive community for highly successful entrepreneurs, connecting you with top-tier leaders, strategic insights, and powerful relationships to help you grow your business faster and smarter.
Learn more: https://www.geniusnetwork.com/
Timestamped Highlights
00:25 – The real reason burnout is rampant among COOs and physicians
04:12 – The under-the-radar roles that secretly prepared him for operations
07:29 – Three unconventional ways to master leadership fast
12:18 – Why stand-up comedy became his secret tool for resilience
15:57 – The hidden danger in neglecting your creative life as a leader
19:53 – Brutal realities of burnout nobody is willing to admit
29:55 – How lean principles are quietly transforming healthcare operations
39:09 – What people on their deathbeds taught him about fulfillment and regret
About the Guest
Alen Voskanian, MD, MBA, is the Vice President and COO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Network. A board-certified physician in Family Medicine and Hospice & Palliative Medicine, he’s also an author and sought-after keynote speaker. Alen is known for transforming healthcare to improve access and quality. He holds degrees from UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and an MBA from Indiana University. He’s a former innovation advisor for CMS, a Cunniff-Dixon/Hastings Center Physician Award winner, and a Health Innovators Fellow with the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Mentioned Resources
- “Reclaiming the Joy of Medicine” by Alen Voskanian
- Indiana University School of Medicine – Physician MBA track
- Ryan Holiday, “The Daily Dad”
- Lean, Six Sigma, and performance improvement frameworks
- LinkedIn (as a platform for learning and connection)
- Coursera (for free courses)
- Clean Six Sigma concepts from Toyota production
About the Co-Host
Sivana Brewer is a Fractional COO for Remote Teams and former COO at Closers.io, where she helped scale the company to multiple eight figures and built over 500+ sales teams in just 2.5 years. She specializes in leadership development, remote operations, and systems that empower teams to grow sustainably.
🔗 Connect with Sivana on LinkedIn
Important Links
- Connect with Cameron: Website | LinkedIn
- Explore the COO Alliance - The World’s Leading Community for Seconds in Command
- Get Cameron’s book: Second in Command: Unleash the Power of Your COO Book
- Take his course: Invest In Your Leaders Online Course (Use promo code PODCAST10 before the end of the month for 10% off)
- Chat or video call with AI Cameron via Delphi
The Second in Command Podcast is an original production hosted by Cameron Herold. Brought to you by COO Alliance. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.
Sponsored by
Genius Network - An exclusive community for highly successful entrepreneurs, connecting you with top-tier leaders, strategic insights, and powerful relationships to help you grow your business faster and smarter.
Learn more: https://www.geniusnetwork.com/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Burnout usually happens when the conditions at work are so challenging, often related, |
| 0:07.0 | at least in healthcare, to bureaucracy, to tasks that are not fulfilling that over time lead to burnout. |
| 0:16.0 | And I sometimes call them like pebbles in the shoes of a doctor or a nurse like little things that |
| 0:24.1 | day in day out like overcoming those things leads to burnout. |
| 0:33.7 | Welcome to the second in command podcast produced by the COO Alliance and brought to you by its founder, Cameron Harold. |
| 0:42.0 | In the Second in Command podcast, we talked to top COOs who share the insights, strategies, and tactics that made them the chief behind the chief. |
| 0:50.4 | And now here's your co-host, former CEO of a multi-eight-figure remote company and alumni |
| 0:56.6 | member of the COO Alliance, Savannah Brewer. |
| 1:07.1 | Today on Second in Command, I'm joined by Dr. Allen Voscanian, the vice president and CEO of Cedarsinai Medical Network, and someone who brings a really rare perspective to operational leadership. |
| 1:21.0 | Alan isn't just a health care executive. He is a board certified physician in family medicine and hospice and palliative care, an innovation |
| 1:30.0 | advisor to Medicare and Medicaid, and a nationally recognized leader in end-of-life care. |
| 1:35.6 | His career sits at the intersection of high-stakes operations, human experience, and system-level |
| 1:40.6 | transformation. |
| 1:41.8 | In this conversation, we go deeper than your typical COO playbook. |
| 1:45.5 | We talk about burnout, what it actually is, what it isn't, and how it shows up in both |
| 1:51.2 | ourselves and our teams. We explore what hospice work has taught him about leadership, |
| 1:56.3 | decision-making, what really matters when the stakes are high. And we get into something that doesn't get |
| 2:01.8 | talked about enough in operations, which is the role of art, creativity, and filling up our cups |
| 2:07.4 | in becoming a more effective operator as a result. This is one of those conversations that |
| 2:13.2 | will challenge how you think about performance, leadership, and the human side of running organizations. |
| 2:18.9 | Let's get into it. |
| 2:23.0 | We are live with Alan. Welcome to the Second In Command podcast. |
... |
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