I heard an excellent panel of successful female healthcare leaders on Becker’s Healthcare Women’s Leadership Forum, July 31, 2020. Here are some of the panelists’ best tips for women to succeed in healthcare leadership. (Note: Men, you don’t need to stop reading, these apply to you too, and you can share them with your wives and daughters.)
- How you show up is really important. Show up with confidence and competence whether in the board room or the organization.
- If you lack confidence and want to be heard… come prepared, understand the metrics, outcomes and engagement needed.
- Don’t worry about being liked. Don’t be afraid to speak out. Share your knowledge and competence.
- Don’t apologize before stating a fact or strong opinion.
- Educate early and middle careerists on unconscious bias to work towards eliminating it.
- If a clinician wants a C-Suite role, encourage her to develop interpersonal skills. She needs to prepare to move from being in control of a practice or OR, to being part of a team that works toward achieving the organization’s goals.
- Learn to deal with conflict effectively.
- Use your collaboration skills to build relationships and achieve positive outcomes.
- Prepare for upcoming opportunities in advance, develop the needed skill sets.
- Identify high potential up and comers you can help.
- Ask for a sponsor or mentor if you need one.
- You want your team to do their best work to serve patients. Look for what the team is missing. No one has every quality. What do you need to make a clinical team more equitable? Need different skills, races, genders, ethnicities to provide all needed strengths. Leaders should ask, “Am I looking for something/someone different than myself?” Look for diversity of thought and skill to expand the team and see the world differently. The team should reflect the diversity of the patient population for greatest effectiveness.
- Several panelists mentioned the benefits of coaching. An executive coach can assist in building your strengths and identifying areas of opportunity. If you need someone to help drive your career forward, contact Joanne@RisingStarsLLC.com.
Thank you to Becker’s Healthcare Review, facilitator Molly Gamble and the following panelists for an excellent presentation:
- Roxanna L. Gapstur, PhD, RN, President and Chief Executive Officer, WellSpan Health
- Karen Murphy, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, Founding Director, Steele Institute for Healthcare Innovation, Geisinger
- Sue Murphy, Chief Experience Officer, University of Chicago Medicine
- Elizabeth Mort, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President, Quality & Safety, Mass General Hospital and Mass General Physicians Organization
- Angela Shippy, MD, FACP, FHM, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical & Quality Officer, Memorial Hermann Health System
- Nikki Sumpter, SPHR, SCP, Chief Human Resources Officer, Atlantic Health System
- Lynette Chappell Williams, Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Penn State Health and Associate Dean, Diversity & Inclusion and Instructor, Penn State College of Medicine
