Lisa Murphy, vice president and deputy general counsel of Cambia Health Solutions.

Name: Lisa Murphy

Category: In-House: Insurance

Firm/Company: Cambia Health Solutions

Title: Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary

Time in Position: Since 2016

What was your route to the top?

The first 10 years of my career were in Washington, D.C., at a major law firm and at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. They ­prepared me well for a position as an in-house attorney with my ­current employer, which owns and operates Blue Plans in the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain regions. I've spent 17 years at Cambia, first supporting its core insurance business and then supporting its innovative activities through ­investments, startups and corporate finance. My real "break" from a leadership perspective was when Cambia hired a new GC in 2008 and, with his mentorship and support, I was able to grow my role and my scope of influence at the company. One other key factor that has been critical for my career is that my spouse gave up his own legal career to be the primary caregiver for our three boys (two of whom are now in college).

What is the best leadership advice you've given or received, and why do you think it was effective?

The best leadership advice I've received is, "It's not what you preach, it's what you tolerate." This is from the book "Extreme Ownership" by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. The advice is simple in principle, but hard in real life. I realized that some challenges we were having in our department were linked to the perception that some team members lived by different rules. While not everything can always be equal, the rules of the game need to be the same.

Looking back, what do you wish you had known when you started out in the legal profession?

First, I wish I'd pursued a joint JD/MBA degree, given how important it is to understand the underlying business drivers when practicing in almost every legal field. In law school, I wish I had better understood the various careers attorneys can have. Once at my firm, I wish I had understood that many of the opportunities I received as a junior associate weren't typical—and I should have leveraged those experiences for additional opportunities. Finally, I wish I had known how important it would be to prioritize developing long-term relationships from the beginning of my career.

What is the most valuable career advice anyone has ever given you?

There are two pieces of advice that have significantly impacted my career. The first was early in my time at Cambia: a subsidiary had a data situation, and no one on the business seemed to be taking the lead on resolving it. I was perplexed until my then-manager pointed out that I was the one who needed to make decisions and lead the team. In saying that, he gave me permission to "play big" and not worry too much about going outside the lines of a strictly legal role. That approach has served me well in my career. The second piece of advice was from a magazine article, quoting Jack Welch: "There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them and they have consequences." Those words have helped me over the years as I grappled with allocating my time and energy between work, my health and my family.