An Interview With Pirie Jones Grossman
Be a lifelong learner. For me, studying how people learn languages translated pretty quickly to: Well, what else do adults want to learn? How else are adults trying to develop themselves? And so that’s where my career path ended up starting and now 25 years later, I’m still learning.
In today’s dynamic world, the concept of leadership is continuously evolving. While traditional leadership models have often been male-dominated, there is a growing recognition of the unique strengths and perspectives that women bring to these roles. This series aims to explore how women can become more effective leaders by authentically embracing their femininity and innate strengths, rather than conforming to traditional male leadership styles. In this series, we are talking to successful women leaders, coaches, authors, and experts who can provide insights and personal stories on how embracing their inherent feminine qualities has enhanced their leadership abilities. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Chavarria.
Sarah Chavarria is Chief Executive Officer and President of Delta Dental of California and affiliates, an enterprise serving 15 states and Washington, D.C. Sarah was named CEO in January 2024, bringing a bold vision to transform Delta Dental from a dental insurance provider to an oral health care leader. Her strategy focuses on expanding and evolving the business to advance the company’s purpose: to improve health by providing access to quality care. Sarah joined Delta Dental in 2017 and has held Chief People Officer, Chief Operations Officer and President roles. She has more than 25 years of expertise in the health care industry and has impressive experience transforming organizations.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about authentic, feminine leadership, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I’ve been a health care executive for a long time, but first and foremost, I’m a wife, mom and grandma. I believe that starting conversations with who we are sets the tone that we are people first — before our jobs and titles. In fact, we recently rolled out our employer brand campaign called ‘Behind our Smiles’ where employees at Delta Dental of California and affiliates (Delta Dental) are encouraged to update their email signatures to showcase more about who they are as a person as opposed to jumping directly to their job title.
Several of my prior roles — both at Delta Dental and at companies like Optum360 and Dignity — have been within the People or HR organizations. For me, the transition to CEO was a natural one because what I love about health care is the opportunity to help people. I think we all have an innate understanding of the kind of health care experience we want for ourselves and for the people we care about. I’ve spent most of my career helping organizations transform. As CEO, I’m able to transform and improve that experience not just for our employees, but for every stakeholder in the health care ecosystem — from patients to providers to payers. It’s so exciting to be in this position at Delta Dental, working alongside an amazing team and helping to lead our transformation from a dental benefits company to an oral health care company.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
This is an example outside of health care, but it was pivotal to setting the stage for my career. I was in El Paso, Texas, where my dad was stationed in the Army. My first corporate job was at Levi Strauss on the manufacturing floor. A big part of my job was teaching English as a second language and facilitating leadership development. By building relationships with the employees, I learned that many of them were working with a green card and commuting in to work, but really wanted to become U.S. citizens. I began with a small group, volunteering my time to help them study for citizenship. That grew quickly, and I soon realized there were so many employees, family members and neighbors who wanted this, so I pulled together a volunteer program.
Fast forward and long story short, we celebrated 400 new citizens in one single event, which was incredible. What I learned from that experience is that when you genuinely connect with people on an individual level and allow yourself to have empathy for what they need in order to feel whole and work without mental distractions… that’s when you learn the most and make the biggest difference.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I think there’s a lot that makes us stand out — we have strong financial performance and high customer retention rates. We’ve been in this business for close to 70 years and we’re very good at what we do, providing oral health benefits to more than 31 million members across 15 states and Washington, D.C. alongside our incredible provider network — 70,000 strong. But what really makes us stand out, in my view, is our recognition of change and energetic embrace of opportunity associated with that change. The health care sector is always evolving, and we have an opportunity to change with it while still staying laser-focused on our purpose: to improve health by providing access to quality care. That’s why Delta Dental is transforming to support patients’ overall health through quality oral health care.
We recognize we have an opportunity, through the benefits we provide and the way we engage in our communities, to improve overall health for all Americans — including historically underserved groups like seniors. Improving access for Americans is about more than quality oral health care — it’s also about their overall well-being and their mental health. It’s a chance for us to think about how much oral health challenges can impact things like someone’s smile and their self-confidence, which can affect how we connect with one another in the world.
For example, the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation has a Senior Oral Health Partnership Program, where we partner with nonprofit organizations in the communities we serve to improve access to care for seniors at the local level. We know that oral health care access for older adults is an urgent and growing crisis. I’m proud of the work we’re doing to get quality, affordable oral care to thousands of seniors. With oral health intricately linked to heart, brain and mental health, it’s critical to address the unique challenges seniors face in accessing proper dental care.
[Suggested photo placement: Reuters]
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Curiosity: I’m a lifelong learner, and I’ve translated that into my career by not only asking a lot of questions but pausing to listen and reflect on the answers. I’m more than comfortable sitting in silence to ensure I give people time to share with me and really hear them. I also try to ask follow-up questions to show I’m listening and ensure I’m fully understanding what’s being said. Part of my leadership philosophy is that I bring questions, not answers.
- Flexibility: Sometimes the best opportunities or solutions are the ones we didn’t see coming. Resist the temptation to immediately default to your pre-existing assumptions or prior convictions. Be open to new ideas or approaches, whether they come from the people you work with, the things you read, or anywhere else you can draw inspiration.
- Forward-thinking: Leaders can’t just sit still and celebrate success; we have to look to the future and ensure we’re successful for years to come. I think leaders across any organization will face a time when they need to revisit their purpose to ensure they remain an industry leader for the next 70 years. That’s why we’ve redefined our vision as an oral health care company.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader? I’m curious to understand how these challenges have shaped your leadership.
We welcome comments and questions from anyone in the company during our all-employee meetings using online tools, and we approve most questions to make them visible to anyone watching. Thousands of people tune in, so there’s some risk involved in keeping this channel open. Some might suggest that turning off the comments — or at least hiding them — could be advisable.
Lots of companies do choose this path, and I can understand why. But for me, when you’re driving change and cultivating a culture that leans into that change, it’s worth weathering the potential for discomfort. Transparency is central to strong communication that flows both ways, so even if it has the potential to cause an awkward moment, that’s a trade-off I’m willing to make. I believe in our team and I trust them to bring candor in a constructive way.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you share a personal experience where embracing your unique leadership style, which might not align with traditional expectations, led to a significant positive impact in your organization or team?
Before I made the move to Delta Dental, I spent some time as a Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness in a corporate role within a larger hospital system. One of my primary areas of focus was transformation. We were driving change across the entire organization, and we know that change can be a challenge. I repeatedly found myself at odds with one member of the executive team at our flagship hospital — we had competing perspectives, and we were both passionate. She complained to my boss, my boss gave me the feedback, and it was just clear neither of us were feeling good about the direction of our interaction.
At the end of the day, though, the root of the conflict was actually a good thing: our belief in and hope for the organization. It was clear we both wanted the same thing: for our teams to succeed. So, I reached out to her and I said, “hey, let’s carve out some time together — let’s disagree in private, work through that disagreement, and surprise everyone by coming to the table on the same page. Imagine how powerful that could be for the organization.” She agreed and it was a truly amazing experience. We went on to drive an incredible transformation together. We saved $15 million in year one, we turned the model on its head, and we positioned the broader organization to participate in its first diversification exercise. It was a big win, and it was rooted not in immediate consensus or falling in line, but active collaboration.
In your journey as a leader, how have you balanced demonstrating resilience, often seen as a masculine trait, with showing vulnerability, which is equally powerful, but typically feminine? Can you give an example where this balance created a meaningful difference?
I lead based on vision, inspiration, and what our people and organization need. We’re an almost 70-year-old insurance company in health care. I walked in about eight years ago to an organization that was very command-and-control and had been incredibly successful operating that way. But the market continues to change, and I knew that to set us up for the transformation we’re embarking on now, we had to intentionally design our culture to be one that listens, connects and is ready and eager to innovate in a way that aligns with our core purpose.
One example I’m proud of is the study Delta Dental conducted on the connection between oral health and menopause. Did you know 84% of menopausal women don’t know hormonal changes can impact their oral health? And that’s despite the fact 70% have experienced a menopause-related oral health symptom, like dry mouth or gum inflammation. What’s more, only 2% have discussed their oral health concerns with their dentist. This data has garnered an incredible amount of attention across the health care industry and is helping to break down the stigma on menopause. It’s been featured in major outlets like PBS, Forbes and Fast Company and is being used to drive real change.
I’ve been open about my own menopause journey and that required quite a bit of vulnerability at the start, but it’s been empowering to see the impact this openness can have.
As a woman in leadership, how have you navigated and challenged gender stereotypes, especially in situations where traditional male-dominated approaches are the norm? What strategies have you employed to remain authentic to your style?
I became Delta Dental’s first female CEO in 2023. However, I approach each and every interaction with the same empathy and curiosity that I did back when I started my career at Levi Strauss. I seek to understand people as people, no matter their gender, title, race, ethnicity or background. We have five generations in the workforce right now, which is unprecedented. This requires employers to take into consideration the life experiences, expectations, and relationship that these generations have with work/life balance, health care and overall health.
It’s important that people feel comfortable speaking up about what’s not working, what they need help with, or what they don’t understand. Like I said, I come to meetings with more questions than answers. That empowers the team to replicate that openness and establish that trust amongst their own team, which ultimately leads to more innovation and better results.
How do you utilize emotional intelligence and active listening to create an inclusive environment in your team or organization? Could you share a specific instance where these qualities particularly enhanced team dynamics or performance?
Workplaces everywhere shifted during the pandemic. With many people working from home and facing many unknowns and challenges, it brought issues to the surface for our employees that demanded more emotional intelligence and active listening than ever. So, we set out to make communication a strength.
We heard that employees wanted an outlet to voice their feelings and share their experiences throughout that unknown. That sparked the creation of a virtual meeting series called ‘Seen and Heard.’ The idea was simple: employees took time from their workday and gathered to have open conversations on a range of topics from being a working parent to learning about the COVID vaccine. Sometimes we brought experts in, other times it was employees listening and learning from each other. We knew we had to create an environment where employees felt heard, and that their contributions meant something.
What made this work was that we not only listened to what employees had to say, but we transparently communicated progress and actions along the way. We make the most of communications channels like Town Halls, talking very directly about where we are and where we’re going. What used to be a major pain point — communications — has now become the top-performing area in our employee feedback survey, scoring anywhere from 12 to 17 points above industry benchmark.
What role has mentorship played in developing your authentic leadership style, and how do you communicate authentically to inspire and empower both your mentors and mentees?
When I meet with mentees or leaders, I ask them questions to ensure they’re spending and organizing their time focused on what adds the most value. I also ask if they’re taking time for just themselves to process — to sit and think. When you’re moving from meeting to meeting, you can’t bring your best thinking because there isn’t enough time to sit in that thought for long enough, so I try to help them make space and maximize their days.
I also think it’s important to think about mentor/mentee relationships as a two-way street — it’s not just about one person talking and the other person listening. Mentors can learn a lot from mentees, whether it’s a different perspective on work that’s happening within your own organization or a broader view from outside your own walls. I’ve benefited greatly from this dynamic in my own career.
Based on your experience and research, can you please share “5 Ways Leading Authentically As A Woman Will Affect Your Leadership”?
- Communicate, communicate, communicate. Throughout life, I’ve had passion for communication, and I speak several languages fluently. In fact, I studied linguistics in college, and that education led to a deep interest in and appreciation for the way we interact with one another. I grew up in Germany, where my father was stationed during his time in the Army. This desire for communicating with more people led me to my first job, teaching English as a second language. It’s still critical to my success today.
- Be a lifelong learner. For me, studying how people learn languages translated pretty quickly to: Well, what else do adults want to learn? How else are adults trying to develop themselves? And so that’s where my career path ended up starting and now 25 years later, I’m still learning.
- Keep listening. When I started in my role at Delta Dental, I was flying out to meet with employees and inviting them to roundtables, walking up to them in their workspaces and asking one question: “If this was a company that you would want your children, your neighbors, your cousins, to work at, what would it be?” Then we used these insights to inform our purpose: to improve health by providing access to quality care. These defining principles enable us to have a shared vision around where we’re going together, and how we’ll do it.
- To think innovatively, think holistically. Like the menopause study and efforts I’ve mentioned earlier, we’re looking for innovative ways to deliver on our purpose to deliver quality care for patients.
- Be open and transparent. We know change is constant, so I operate under the philosophy that I’ll share what I know, when I know it and how I’m thinking about it. I might not have a decision, but we live in a time where information travels fast, so I think I owe it to employees to communicate what I do know.
Are there potential pitfalls or challenges associated with being an empathetic leader? How can these be addressed?
I mentioned that I tend to come to meetings with questions rather than answers. It’s important to think about the nature of those questions, too. I like to bring questions that open the door to conversations about the “how” associated with a decision. Who will be impacted? How will they feel? Whose help do you need to get this done? Do they know? I love this approach, because these are truly non-confrontational questions — they’re rooted in a desire to work together in pursuit of a solution. The questions we ask invite discussion, they encourage collaboration, and — more often than not — they yield new ideas. That’s one of the things I like most about being a leader who leads with empathy, and so often, some of the best ideas come from this kind of dialogue.
One of the things that makes these ideas special is the fact that the team believes in them. But the challenge arises when those ideas, for whatever reason, can’t be implemented in the way the team wants. That can be a real disappointment to the person who brought the idea to the table because they believed in it. Part of the job of being a leader, though, is making sure the team knows that while we can’t apply this thinking or proposal right now, we can still learn and benefit from the process. That’s critical, because you don’t ever want to discourage people at any levels of the organization from bringing their best ideas to the discussion.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Fundamentally, the work we do is all about improving health by providing access to quality care. Certainly that means we’re deeply focused on our more than 31 million customers around the nation. But to go a click deeper, one of the things we can do to maximize our impact is to be really thoughtful about how we take care of people who take care of others. And for us, that means really understanding, committing to, and investing in our partnership with the 70,000 incredible providers we work with to ensure dentists can spend their time focused on their patients and their overall health, not on the ins-and-outs of filing claims.
We recently stood up an effort we’re calling “Partnered for Patients.” It’s a way for us to ensure we’re providing the support dentists need in pursuit of our shared goal: happy and healthy patients. Providers are working with patients every single day to advocate for their oral and overall health. Our role is to strengthen and even accelerate or amplify their work by being thoughtful about how we show up: making it easy to file claims, prioritizing fast payment, learning from dentists’ insights through a new Provider Advisory Council, and more. Looking even further down the road, we can advance the future of the industry through our Community Care Foundation, which grants scholarships to train the next generation of dental assistants, invests in research and education, and raises awareness about the correlation between oral health and overall health.
It’s a huge area of opportunity not just for our company, but also for providers and patients.
How can our readers further follow you online?
You can find me on LinkedIn and follow me to hear the latest on how Delta Dental is improving health by providing access to quality care.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Leading with Heart: Sarah Chavarria Of Delta Dental On The Power of Authentic Women’s Leadership was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.