Michael Sherbun is a healthcare executive, behavioral health professional, and entrepreneur based in Olympia, Washington. With more than 37 years of experience, he has built a career focused on improving patient care, developing stronger organizations, and helping people communicate more effectively.
Sherbun grew up on a farm outside Chicago, where his father’s work as a social worker helped shape his early interest in human behavior and mental health. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Purdue University and a Master of Healthcare Administration from Simmons College. He also completed advanced training in Collaborative Problem Solving.
Throughout his career, Sherbun has held senior leadership positions at Ascend Healthcare, Signature Healthcare, Providence Health, and US Healthvest. His responsibilities have included hospital operations, clinical quality, staff development, and organizational improvement. He has also helped train more than 150 school, juvenile detention, and group home programs in managing challenging behavior.
As an author, Sherbun has explored caregiver burnout and the challenges of sustaining a career in demanding healthcare environments. His professional experiences have strengthened his belief that understanding human behavior is essential to effective communication and leadership.
Today, Sherbun founded The Navigator, an initiative focused on behavioral communication, relationship-preserving de-escalation, and burnout prevention. His approach, The Psychology of Conversations, helps families, schools, workplaces, and communities navigate difficult interactions.
Through his work, Sherbun continues to apply decades of experience to helping people build trust, manage conflict, and develop healthier relationships.
How has your definition of success changed throughout your career?
When I was younger, I associated success with professional advancement and taking on greater responsibilities. I wanted to become someone who could make important decisions and have a meaningful impact on the organizations where I worked.
After more than 37 years in behavioral health, my perspective has changed. I have held executive positions, managed hospital operations, and worked with teams facing difficult situations. Those experiences taught me that a title does not necessarily tell you how successful someone is.
Today, I think more about the impact of my decisions and whether the people I have worked with are better equipped to handle challenges because of our time together. I still value professional accomplishments, but I have learned that success also involves how you treat people along the way.
What early experiences helped shape your approach to success?
I grew up on a farm outside Chicago, where I learned the importance of responsibility and following through on commitments. My father worked as a social worker with young people, and his career introduced me to the idea that understanding someone’s circumstances can make a difference in their life.
Those early influences stayed with me when I decided to pursue nursing at Purdue University. At the time, nursing was not the career path many people expected a young man to choose. However, I was interested in healthcare and wanted to work directly with people.
Looking back, I think choosing a path that genuinely interested me, rather than one that simply met other people’s expectations, was an important early decision.
What professional accomplishment are you particularly proud of?
I am proud of the work I have done helping healthcare organizations improve how they respond to challenging behavior.
Throughout my career, I have worked in hospitals and behavioral health programs where staff members regularly encounter stressful and unpredictable situations. I have also helped train more than 150 school, juvenile detention, and group home programs in approaches to managing challenging behavior and de-escalating conflict.
What makes that work meaningful to me is knowing that the skills people develop can influence how they respond during difficult moments. When a professional learns to approach a challenging situation with greater understanding and confidence, that knowledge can continue benefiting others long after the training ends.
What has been one of the most difficult lessons you’ve learned about leadership?
One difficult lesson has been accepting that having the responsibility to make a decision does not mean everyone will agree with it.
During my years in healthcare leadership, I sometimes had to make decisions involving staffing, clinical operations, and organizational expectations. I learned that explaining the reasoning behind a decision was important, but it did not always address how the people affected were experiencing the situation.
Earlier in my career, I probably placed too much emphasis on making sure people understood my explanation. Over time, I became more interested in understanding their concerns.
That does not mean avoiding difficult decisions. It means recognizing that the way you communicate can influence whether people continue to trust you afterward.
How do you measure success when working with other people?
I pay attention to what people can do after our work together.
When I coach basketball, for example, I do not judge progress only by whether a player makes a particular shot. I also consider whether they are developing confidence, learning from mistakes, and becoming more comfortable making decisions under pressure.
I think something similar applies to professional development. If an employee becomes more capable of managing difficult situations without constantly needing direction, I consider that meaningful progress.
I have learned that success is not always about being the person with the answers. Sometimes it involves helping someone else develop the confidence to find their own.
What role has failure played in your professional growth?
I have made decisions throughout my career that I would approach differently today. Sometimes I underestimated how difficult a change would be for employees. Other times, I believed a problem was resolved when the underlying concerns remained.
Those experiences taught me to question my assumptions and pay closer attention to how people respond.
I do not think every disappointing outcome represents a personal failure. Healthcare leadership involves complicated situations, and even reasonable decisions can produce unexpected results.
What matters is whether you are willing to examine what happened and make adjustments rather than defending a decision simply because it was yours.
What does success look like to you today?
Today, success means continuing to learn while using my experience to make a practical difference in people’s lives.
My work developing The Navigator reflects my interest in helping people understand the psychology behind conversations, manage conflict, and preserve relationships. It brings together lessons I have learned from working with patients, families, healthcare professionals, and organizational leaders.
I also value having time for interests outside my professional responsibilities, including coaching basketball and staying active.
After spending much of my life working in demanding environments, I have come to appreciate the importance of maintaining perspective. Professional achievement matters, but so do personal relationships, health, and the ability to enjoy the life you have worked to build.
For me, success means being able to look back on my career knowing I kept growing, took responsibility for my mistakes, and made a positive difference where I could.