u/Visual_Reading7969

Am I the only one who is completely over LinkedIn?
The constant platitudes. The same regurgitated messages: “KPIs… Keep People Informed!” The same AI-slop graphics. And the exact same cadence, tone, and voice in every post, clearly generated by AI:
“Leadership isn’t just about XYZ. It’s about blah, blah, blah…”

It’s the same recycled content over and over and over again. At this point, LinkedIn feels less like a professional networking platform and more like thousands of people using the same AI prompt to talk to each other and put on their little performances. It’s exhausting.

What’s even more annoying is when I see coworkers who can’t be bothered to respond to an email, yet they’re painting the web with their incessant LinkedIn activity.

If it weren’t for recruiters headhunting on there, I’d be OUT.

I’m about four weeks away from finishing my MHA, and I currently work as a director for a well-known academic health system. My role is pretty niche, but that’s also been one of my biggest strengths. It’s allowed me to develop deep expertise, lead a great team, and contribute to some meaningful organizational initiatives. I also hold two well-known professional certifications, but I’m intentionally leaving out some details (including the certifications) because I’m trying to avoid making this post too identifiable.

Overall, I feel incredibly fortunate. I’ve had opportunities throughout my career that I’m genuinely grateful for, and I enjoy (for the most part) where I work. But lately I’ve started feeling like I’ve reached the point where I’m ready for a broader challenge.
I don’t necessarily mean a bigger title just for the sake of a bigger title. What I’m really looking for is the opportunity to have a larger organizational impact. I feel like I’ve accomplished what I set out to accomplish in my current role, and I’d love the chance to apply what I’ve learned to a broader part of a different organization.

Long term, I’d like to move into a Senior Director or Executive Director role with broader operational responsibility—something in revenue cycle, finance-adjacent operations, health system enterprise, or another enterprise operations function. My current role overlaps with many of those areas, but because I’ve become highly specialized, it’s been difficult to branch into adjacent functions internally. I actually get the impression that my leadership values me enough in my current role that they’re reluctant to move me elsewhere, which is flattering, but it also makes it harder to grow.

One challenge is networking. I know many executive relationships are built through conferences and industry events, but extensive travel isn’t very feasible for me, so I’m trying to think outside the box.

For those of you who are VPs, Senior Directors, Executive Directors, or have hired leaders into those kinds of roles:

-How did you expand beyond a highly specialized leadership role?

-What makes someone stand out when they’re trying to pivot into a broader operational position?

-If you were hiring for one of these roles, what would convince you to take a chance on someone who has been very successful in a niche area but is ready for a wider scope?

I’d really appreciate any advice. I’m not looking to leave my organization tomorrow—I just want to be intentional about positioning myself for the next stage of my career and making an even bigger impact wherever that ends up being.

I’m a director at a large organization and once a month our department joins a leadership call with my VP and another division. There are usually 50+ people on the call, including my team.

Ironically, I’m completely fine leading meetings with my own team, having difficult conversations, interviewing, or speaking one-on-one with senior leaders. But for some reason, these monthly updates completely derail me. My update is only about 2 minutes long. I’m always well prepared and even have a read out loud script that I read verbatim. Yet as soon as I unmute, my heart races, my voice shakes, I start talking too fast, and I just want it to be over.

Today was probably the worst it’s ever been. It was noticeable enough that a couple of people on my team messaged me afterward asking if I was okay.
I’m honestly pretty embarrassed because I know my material. It’s not a lack of preparation. It feels like my body goes into fight-or-flight for no logical reason.

I do have a prescription for propranolol for situational anxiety, but I don’t take it regularly. I’m starting to wonder if these monthly leadership meetings are exactly the type of situation I should be using it for (obviously as prescribed by my doctor).

For those of you in leadership roles who have experienced something similar:

-Did you ever get over it?
-What actually helped?
- Did you stick with a script or switch to bullet points?
-If you’ve been prescribed propranolol, did it make a meaningful difference for situations like this?
-Are there any other strategies that significantly reduced the physical symptoms?

I’m not looking for generic “just practice” advice. I’d really like to hear from people who have dealt with this themselves and found something that genuinely made a difference.

For additional context: I’ve had generalized anxiety disorder for years and have a history of panic attacks. I’m also in my last semester of my masters and we just moved out of state a couple weeks ago. So I do have a lot going on. Presenting is hands down my least favorite part of my job and now I’m starting to second guess my path forward as a senior director and above 🙁