Tag Archives: leadership

Nana Camp Chronicles: year 2 insights and adventures

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We held our second Nana Camp last week. Given how well it went (despite my husband and I being exhausted by Friday night), I think we’ll make it an annual event in the summer. Last year I wrote about our first one in my post “Leadership lessons from nana camp”. The rules we agreed on (pictured in that post) hung on our refrigerator until a few months ago when my husband went on a purging spree. Good thing I have a record here so we could revisit and decide on new/revised rules for this year.

Two (ages 10 and 8) of the four grandkids had their first away/overnight camps this year having attended Girl Scout camp. So, they came to Nana Camp with a new perspective. My daughter suggested that the 10-year-old could be a Counselor in Training (CIT) when we were last together as a family on Father’s Day. I wasn’t quite ready for that but I’m a fan of delegation! Not sure what a CIT would mean for us but as a start that day, she wrote down the list of ideas for this year and what they liked from last year. That list of course was put on the refrigerator door. We used it at our camp “orientation” session Monday morning to plan and vote on activities for the week.

The other two (ages 8 and 7) have been to day camps that are mornings only and gotten used to making their own lunches at home while their parents work in their home offices. Love hearing that! Means they all are capable of it and that I could expect them to do more for themselves at breakfast and lunch.

Together on Monday we agreed on activities for the week and what the rules would be. We also talked about their lessons from last year – mainly not to have stupid fights about everything – who sits by who at dinner, who sits by who in the car, who gets the first shower, who walks which dog – you get it! And of course, they are one year older and that much more mature!

Here is this year’s complete list of rules – a slight variation on last year with few additions: Continue reading →

Leadership and crisis management lessons from Pennsylvania

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I love seeing stories of success with lessons to apply to our work in health IT. The recent I-95 collapse in Philadelphia and the re-opening in just 12 days is one of those stories. There was a great opinion piece in the Washington Post on July 16th by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro – “Opinion: We fixed I-95 in 12 days. Here are our lessons for U.S. infrastructure”. Initially experts told the Governor it would be months before they could reopen the highway and get traffic flowing. Instead, they reopened it in just 12 days. Indeed, there are many lessons for leaders in all industries.

Here are the four key takeaways he comments on:

  1. Empower strong leadership
  2. Speed up the bureaucracy
  3. Encourage creativity
  4. Work together

In the face of a crisis, empowering strong leadership is critical. We’ve seen it in healthcare during the pandemic and when responding to any kind of disaster. As Governor Shapiro describes it – “Managers of every component of the project were empowered to be decisive, take ownership and make a call when necessary — not defer and delay to the often-circular bureaucracy. Decisions were made quickly and in a synchronized manner.”

We have plenty of bureaucracy in healthcare including many processes in IT that seem burdensome. Governor Shapiro described how an executive order he signed shortly after taking office that catalogued each of the 2,400 permits, certificates and licenses the state issues and set timelines for each of them resulted in significantly reducing wait times – with one example cutting the time from eight weeks to two days. IT leaders take note – how many processes can be streamlined in your shop?

Innovation in healthcare is greatly needed and there are many bright spots we read about each day. But innovation is not just the new big flashy stuff, it can be a creative and new way to solve a problem that comes from someone on the team or an observer. Governor Shapiro wrote, “Encourage creativity and allow everyone to bring their ideas forward”. The backfill solution to rebuild the collapsed freeway using a recycled glass product was a result of that creativity from PennDOT engineers.

We all know there is no “I” in team. We accomplish great things by working together. In Pennsylvania, state and federal officials coordinated closely with each other and private contractors and organized labor collaborated working 24/7 to get the job done.

While we never want a crisis to manage through, there will be more. These lessons will be key then and every day.

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Leading through a crisis

Lessons from Succession: What not to do as a leader

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I recently wrote a blog post called “Ted Lasso leadership lessons”. If you were a fan of the Ted Lasso series, you can readily see there were many lessons to be learned. Another popular series, Succession, wrapped up around the same time. I wasn’t sure how I could comment on leadership lessons from that series as there didn’t seem to be any characters that you would want to model. But there were plenty of lessons on what not to do as a leader.

Others have figured out what to say about Succession leadership lessons, so I’ll share the insights from one of them. A Forbes article on June 26th by Robert Pearl, MD, titled “5 Fatal Flaws Of Healthcare Leaders: Inspired By HBO’s ‘Succession’” describes five dysfunctional leadership styles to avoid based on some of the lead characters. In his words:

  1. Delusional leaders overestimate their abilities. Their ideas are unrealistic and their vision for the future: pure fiction.
  2. Narcissistic leaders bask in praise and blind loyalty. They reject and punish those who provide honest feedback and fair criticism. Their obsession with status and self-importance blinds them to long-term threats and opportunities, alike.
  3. Immature leaders get promoted before they’re primed and polished. They often lack boundaries and excel at the sport of making others uncomfortable.
  4. Political leaders are better at advancing within an organization than advancing the organization itself. Like chameleons, these leaders change with the scenery, shifting alliances and values as organizational power waxes and wanes.
  5. Compromised leaders are skilled at making promises. They seek support by vowing to fulfill wants and palliate pains.

Dr. Pearl closes the article highlighting three attributes that excellent healthcare leaders must have:

  1. Clear mission and purpose
  2. Experience and expertise
  3. Personal integrity

The third, personal integrity, is particularly critical. As Dr. Pearl says, “Everything changes when an emerging leader becomes the head of an organization and faces a crisis. As risks and pressures intensify, people tend to fall back on approaches and habits they learned in the past, particularly problematic ones.” Without being a spoiler, anyone who watched Succession can see how easily the emerging leaders fell back to their own demise.

I encourage you to read the full article but must warn you with a spoiler alert – if you haven’t seen the show but plan to watch it given all the buzz, bookmark the article to read later.  What buzz you ask? The fourth and final season just received 27 Emmy nominations with a total of 75 nominations over all the seasons.

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Ted Lasso leadership lessons

The transformative power of bold leadership in healthcare

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With reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights under attack in so many states, it was good to see the Summer 2023 Issue of the Brigham magazine in the mail this week. This issue is titled “Care for Every Body – Embracing Inclusive Medicine”. As a former VP and donor to Brigham and Women’s, I receive the paper copy to read. You can access it online here.

The main articles include:

  • Sex & Gender Glossary – essential terms and definitions for understanding sex, gender, and well-being.
  • Pro-Care. Pro-Patient. – describing how the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is working toward reproductive justice for all patients. An alarming data point: If all abortions in the U.S. were to stop, 24% more people would die from pregnancy complications and 39% more non-Hispanic Black people would die.
  • Soul Meets Body – describing how the Center for Transgender Health is breaking barriers and providing state-of-the-art, life changing care for trans and gender diverse people. An alarming data point: 46 states have proposed 491 anti-transgender laws in 2023, more than the previous four years combined.
  • Women ≠ Tiny Men – describing how physician-researchers are working to balance the scales for women’s health.

These articles and the programs described represent bold leadership in healthcare and what we should expect from healthcare providers.

Just as the Winter 2022 Issue titled “Standing Tall for Justice – Cultivating Equity and Inclusion in Medicine” was bold leadership as it covered racial equity in healthcare. And just as Michael Dowling, President and CEO at Northwell Health in New York, regularly shows us what bold leadership means. He doesn’t shy away from controversial issues as he addresses the issue of gun violence and calls for civility and decency in our public discourse.

Dr. Robert Higgins, President, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and EVP, Mass General Brigham comments in the introduction to the Summer 20223 Issue – “While forging the road toward a more inclusive healthcare systems is not an easy or immediately achievable goal, it is a vital commitment we must make. Our sense of humanity depends on it.”

Are you uncomfortable being a bold leader? Do you embrace or shy away from the DEI discussion? The DEI Committee of CHIME is hosting a webinar this Friday, June 30, at 12PM EDT that I highly recommend. It is titled “DE&I in Healthcare 2.0 – Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable in a Safe Space Zone”. Please follow this link to register if you want to learn how to stay DEI focused in an anti-DEI climate.

In a recent podcast interview, I was asked about some of the unique challenges and opportunities of being a CIO in the healthcare sector compared to other industries. I commented on how being in healthcare is mission driven and how we can make a difference in people’s lives. Leaders of our nation’s leading healthcare systems being willing to address the difficult issues and care for every person is one of the reasons I am passionate about working in healthcare.

What we do matters.

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Ted Lasso leadership lessons

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I was late to the “Ted Lasso” series so there were some seasons of binge watching. From its earliest days on Apple TV, I kept hearing about this show from my colleague at StarBridge Advisors, David Muntz. He loved it! My husband and I finally started watching some time last year and saw the season 3 finale last week along with all the other devoted fans.

There are so many lessons to share from this incredibly upbeat soccer coach who we came to know and love. Here are a couple pieces worth reading whether you are a fan or not – no spoilers:

If you haven’t already clicked through to the Becker’s article link above to read perspectives on the lessons from well-known healthcare leaders, please do. In the meantime, here are the lessons:

  1. Lead with empathy.
  2. Being vulnerable doesn’t make you weak.
  3. Optimism is infectious.
  4. Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing.
  5. Winning and losing aren’t everything.
  6. Optimists take more chances.
  7. Everyone differs from everyone else.
  8. Embrace change.
  9. Empowerment breeds confidence.
  10. Winning is an attitude.
  11. Humor cuts through tension.
  12. Courage is the willingness to attempt.
  13. Nobody is bigger than the team.
  14. Be self-aware and genuine. A truly authentic leader doesn’t have the time or the inclination to be anyone but themselves.
  15. Don’t dwell on mistakes or let them define you.
  16. Stay teachable.

I like all of them but 1, 4, and 13 are favorites. Continue reading →

Amplifying the voice of nurses

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May 6-12 is National Nurses Week. Nursing has been the most trusted profession for the past 20 years according to a Gallup Poll. That’s no surprise when you think about the nurses you have interacted with as a patient or as a colleague.

I’ve written a post about nurses almost every year since I started this blog. Do I have anything truly new to say this year? Yes, in that I want to highlight how the past three years has taken a toll on all our clinicians, in particular nurses. The public health emergency is expiring. Health care providers are adapting their policies as they continue to deliver care. We have entered a new phase for healthcare organizations, staff, patients, and families.

Staffing challenges are at the top of the list of concerns for many health executives – staff shortages and clinician burnout. There are no easy solutions. The toll of the past few years on our nurses was highlighted in a May 2nd NPR article by Jaclyn Diaz – “Nearly a third of nurses nationwide say they are likely to leave the profession“. The article starts with some sobering findings from the 2023 Survey of Registered Nurses conducted by AMN Healthcare. The survey examined the impact of COVID-19 on the career plans, job satisfaction, and mental health and wellness of more than 18,000 RNs. Key findings:

  • Close to 1/3 of nurses nationwide say they are likely to leave the profession for another career due to the pandemic. This level is up 7 points since 2021.
  • 89% of RNs said the nursing shortage is worse than five years ago, 80% expect that to get much worse in another five years.
  • Younger generations of nurses are also less satisfied with their jobs compared to their older counterparts.
  • 80% of nurses experience high levels of stress at work, an increase of 16 points from 2021.
  • 77% of nurses reported feeling emotionally drained, up from 62% in 2021.

Of all the blog posts I’ve written about nurses, this one from five years ago has the strongest message – “Celebrate nurses, but more importantly listen to them”.  This is true now more than ever. From the bedside to the boardroom we need to listen, amplify, and prioritize the voice of nurses.

IT leaders won’t solve the staffing challenges. But we have a role to play. The systems and solutions we provide and support as health IT leaders and vendors must help nurses do their job more easily and efficiently, not make it harder. We need to reduce the burden on nurses and ensure they are integrally involved in decision making, prioritization, and design processes.

What advice would you give your younger self?

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I love this question. It was one of the questions for a panel I was supposed to be on this week. The NEHIMSS chapter has an annual Women in IT conference, and I was one of four invited panelists for the three-hour event. But 40 miles into my 100-mile drive to the venue, cruising fast on the freeway, my left front tire totally blew out – down to the rim. Scary yes, but I got myself over to the shoulder and called AAA. My second call was to the panel moderator explaining I wouldn’t be able to make it. An hour and a half later I was again on the road with the spare tire that is designed for maximum 50 MPH taking the back roads home to avoid freeway speeds.

I was looking forward to the event and the panel. I love sharing stories with next generation leaders so this was going to be a fun night. I was ready after the usual panel prep call to cover the range of questions we had agreed on.

While I didn’t get to do the panel, I don’t want this question to go to waste – here’s what I was ready to say when asked what advice I would give my younger self:

  • Know your big rocks – I’ve written on this in the past, “Do you know your big rocks?”. It comes from Stephen Covey and it is a spot-on analogy. Our families and closest friends are our big rocks. Don’t let all the little stuff take up your space first leaving no room for your big rocks.
  • Don’t take crap from anyone – In my 30s, two of my peer managers seemed out to get me. One even threatened me. I was the only woman on the management team for a 5-year period. After a lot of stress and wasted energy processing it all at night talking to my incredibly supportive husband, I decided enough was enough. I let our boss know what was going on and told him that I would let him know of any further incidents. He was going to have to deal with it because I couldn’t. In another situation where a male manager from another department got overly friendly with sexual advances, I reported it to compliance. Hard as reporting something may be, it is necessary to stop the behavior if you can’t stop it yourself.
  • Have a strong support system – Whether it is family or friends, everyone needs a support system they can turn to. I could tell plenty of stories about my incredibly supportive husband and how he has been there for me back when I was a young working mother in management and going to school at night for my MBA as well as the decades since (our 47th wedding anniversary is in a few weeks).
  • Accept that you can make choices – One of my staff wanted to consider coming back from maternity leave after she had her first child in a part-time role but worried about how it would stall her career. She was a project leader on a management track. We talked about her options and I encouraged her to keep in mind that she had choices. After a period of part-time work, she eventually came back full-time, picked up again in a leadership role and then had two more children a few years later. She made choices right for her and balanced growing a family with growing her career.
  • Own your own career and be open to the possibilities – Before I left my CIO position at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for a similar role at Michigan Medicine, we were going through major staffing changes in IT. My staff were concerned about their future in supporting legacy systems vs the new EHR coming in. I told them they had to own their own career and be open to the possibilities. When I make that second point now, I emphasize that there are jobs today that no one heard of 5 or 10 years ago and there will be new ones in the future we can’t even imagine now.

There you go – I had plenty more to say on the panel given the other great questions we were going to discuss but wanted to at least share this one.

And after this car experience, my parting advice is keep your AAA membership current and keep your cell phone charged.

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Confidence gap, wage gap, and more

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We have much progress to celebrate as women but sad to say that in 2023, there is still so much more to do. I’ve seen many excellent pieces recently that illustrate the gender gaps that exist in the workplace.

Have you ever heard of “Tall Poppy Syndrome”? I hadn’t. I saw this post on LinkedIn from Women of Influence+ on a study they conducted of over 4,700 women around the world. From the post, their research shows that almost 90% of women worldwide are belittled and undermined because of their success at work. As they say, “The Tallest Poppy, our groundbreaking study, reveals an eye-opening story about how Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) negatively impacts ambitious, high-performing women, and what this means for organizations”. Here is the press release summarizing the results and a link to access their white paper.

It’s no wonder that many women get “imposter syndrome”, even women in executive level positions. As Becker’s reported in this short article, “75% of female executives get imposter syndrome”, imposter syndrome is doubting one’s abilities and feeling like a fraud. The article notes that women expect lower pay than men, are subject to condescension and have less faith they will be treated equally. This all leads to lowered confidence.

As Becker’s reported in this short article, “The gender ‘confidence gap’ is wide in the workplace”, the confidence gap and wage gap continue. And we are now seeing the promotions gap more clearly. Continue reading →

#EmbraceEquity

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Today is International Women’s Day (IWD) and March is Women’s History Month. The International Women’s Day 2023 campaign theme is #EmbraceEquity. As their website says, “The aim of the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme is to get the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action. International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.”

Yes, we have much progress to celebrate but sad to say that in 2023, there is still so much more to do. Especially with our current political climate and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs being under attack in some states. Take Florida for example where the governor announced in February that he intends to ban state universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, calling them discriminatory.

I continue to participate in CHIME’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee as we start another year of programming for all CHIME members. As leaders, raising awareness and finding ways to take positive and meaningful action for our employees and our patients is what this work is about. This Friday as part of the DE&I Dialogues series, we will host a live webinar entitled, “Why DE&I: Defining Health Disparity, Inequity, and Inequality”. The webinar will cover why DE&I is important in your healthcare organization and how it impacts patient care. Featured speakers are Andrea Daugherty, CIO at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, Cletis Earle, SVP and CIO at Penn State Health, and Dr. Eric Quinones, Chief Healthcare Advisor at World Wide Technology. You can register here for the March 10, 12PM ET webinar. I hope you will join us this Friday and for future DE&I Dialogues as we continue to learn and work together in 2023.

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Leadership means being bold and taking on the tough issues

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As a leader, do you shy away from issues that may be considered too controversial or too political? What if those issues are at the core of delivering healthcare to your community and supporting your team? In our current political environment with the level of discourse so negative and uncivil, it can be hard to take a stand on something. But true leaders do just that.

Michael Dowling, President and CEO at Northwell Health in New York, is the kind of leader who doesn’t shy away from controversial issues. He should be a role model for all of us. I have mentioned him in previous posts on the need for civility and on preventing gun violence. This week I want to highlight his unwavering commitment and national leadership to prevent gun violence.

Under Dowling’s leadership, Northwell Health hosted the 4th Annual Gun Violence Prevention Forum this week. It was an in-person event in New York but open for virtual registration. I can’t tell how many were in the room but in his opening remarks he said there were over 2000 registered virtually.

His opening comments were inspiring. He said we were gathered to learn, to share, to strengthen our commitment to work together in unison, and to hold hands as we march down the road bending the curve of gun violence. He challenged us to each rethink and reimagine the obligation and responsibility of leadership. As health systems, to ask who are we, what do we stand for and believe in. He said we need to inspire others that this is health. That we can’t improve health unless we go upstream. And that health is more than medicine. Whether inside the organization or outside, to take on difficult topics. To make sure others get involved and feel bad about not doing so. He talked about the progress made. He reminded us that big issues and big successes are the result of a constellation of small things. And he encouraged us to be optimistic, that people follow optimistic leaders. He asked us to be proud, committed and fearlessly optimistic.

He talked about the National Health Care CEO Council on Gun Violence Prevention and Safety taking the pledge to prioritize the health and safety of our communities. 50 health system CEOs have signed the pledge and are united to fight gun violence. He talked about how even a few years ago he couldn’t get anyone to sign something like this. The response he got back then was it’s too political, their board wouldn’t like it, there were NRA members on their board, and so on. 50 is progress and we can hope that in the future it will be hundreds. Continue reading →