Driving operational excellence in healthcare services and transportation

A conversation with Cary Rondon, VP of Operations at Modivcare, offered a refreshingly candid take on what it actually means to lead frontline teams at scale — across countries, cultures, and time zones.

Her message was clear: great operations start with listening.

Cary leads teams from the Philippines to Guatemala to the U.S., managing intake centers that handle sensitive, high-stakes healthcare appointments. The stakes are real, for both the customers and the employees handling the calls.

She credits her leadership evolution to a willingness to learn through failure. “Fail fast, but don’t repeat the same mistake,” she said. That mindset helps her lead with precision, especially in environments where one missed communication can lead to bigger operational issues down the line.

What makes Cary stand out is her approach to communication and context. She believes in giving frontline workers full transparency, what she calls “the answers to the test.” That means clearly defining expectations, performance metrics, and the why behind the work. Because when employees understand what success looks like, they’re more equipped to deliver it.

But Cary also stressed that listening isn’t enough on its own. You have to close the loop. “If you don’t come back and tell people what you did with their feedback, you’ve failed,” she said. In her teams, focus groups don’t just surface problems,  they co-create solutions.

As someone who started as an agent herself, Cary hasn’t lost touch with the daily realities of frontline work. And that perspective informs her leadership every day, from operational planning to how she approaches AI adoption across her teams.

In short, Cary runs her ops team like it’s a system, but she leads like it’s a team. And in industries where retention, performance, and customer satisfaction are tightly linked to frontline engagement, that balance matters.