On Women and Work

Develop women leaders, transform leadership

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I am passionate about developing the next generation of leaders, in particular helping to develop women leaders in health IT. I have joined with Gale Thompson, a renowned leadership coach, to offer a new c change key image li REVISIONservice through StarBridge Advisors called C-change. Our goal is to equip female leaders in health IT with the perspectives, knowledge, skills and support to be an effective leader – her way.

Why are we doing this? We see a world in which female IT professionals hold up half the world in healthcare at all levels.  They are seen, supported, and expected to be leaders.  They are equally as successful and effective as their male colleagues and enabled to be leaders each in their own unique way, drawing on their strengths, values, and personal qualities.  They can effectively bring to leadership both their head and heart.

We want to support the development of female leaders at all stages of their career such that they enter, evolve, and attain leadership positions at a rate equal to their male peers and in a way that fully utilizes their strengths.

To start with, C-change will offer two unique online courses beginning in March:

Preparing Emerging Leaders for Success

This course is aimed at women early in their health IT career who are looking to develop their leadership skills. I will conduct a 6-month online series of participative group webinars for aspiring women leaders. Each series will be limited to 20 participants and include 6 one-hour monthly sessions, each with a presentation and small group breakouts for discussion on the following topics:

Building Confidence – Developing Your Inner Strength and Voice

Finding Your Passion – How to Know When to Make a Move

Negotiating for Success – Negotiation Skills and Crucial Conversations

Building Your Network and Personal Brand – Leveraging Social Media

Making the Right Choices for You – Life/Work Balance

Through this custom-tailored series, you will gain valuable insight and make lasting connections with other aspiring women leaders. Continue reading →

Holiday stress? Remember your big rocks

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It’s holiday season. Are you stressing or relaxing? Are you hosting or bringing a dish to someone’s house? Are you braving the highways or airports? Are you questioning whether you bought the right gifts canstockphoto11846362 (1) holiday stressfor all the right people? Or trying to figure out when you can possibly take time to do gift shopping. Are you arguing with family over something that later you’ll decide was stupid? So many ways to be stressed at this time of year.

And so many ways to be with people we love. On business calls this week I’ve talked with people anxiously waiting for their college age kids to return home for their holiday break, people getting ready to have housefuls of out of town relatives with them for the next week, and others who are taking their family on a ski trip for the holidays.

For me, it’s all about being with loved ones. There will be the annual Schade Family Christmas Sleepover this weekend with my two daughters and their husbands and what I fondly call the “Fab Four” – my four grandkids who range in ages from 2 to 6 years old. Yes, it will be chaotic, but fun.

There will be the Christmas day dinner at my daughter’s house an hour away with her in-law’s family. It is her first time hosting everyone on Christmas and her stress is building. 15 adults and 6 kids for dinner. She works a 12-hour shift as a nurse practitioner on Christmas Eve so she’s trying to figure out when she will get everything done and ready. We’ll get there in time to help before everyone else arrives and she and her husband can delegate any task to us that they want to.

My holiday gift shopping is done. I subscribe to the “keep it simple” approach. It’s too easy to go overboard. For each grandkid, there will be one big present to unwrap. Then each pair of siblings will get an “experience”. Choice of more gymnastics or swim lessons for one family. Annual zoo membership for the other. As one of my daughters said to me a few years ago – get them experiences, they have plenty of toys.

The stockings hung at our house will be from nana and papa, not Santa. Continue reading →

Give the gift of girl power

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Every day is a good day to encourage reading and learning. And every day is a good day to buy books for kids. The holiday season is a time when many of us are looking for book recommendations for the young canstockphoto20702129 (1) girl power booksones in our lives.

With four grandkids and six grand nieces and nephews, I buy a lot of kid’s books. Of these ten young people, six are girls. When looking at books for the girls, I’m particularly interested in finding ones that will inspire them and teach them to be strong, smart girls who can be and do anything they aspire to. And, of course, I like to encourage an interest in STEM fields.

A few of the books I’m looking forward to buying for my granddaughters when they are a little older:

  • Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, by Rachel Ignotofsky, highlights the contributions of women to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
  • Herstory: 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World, by Katherine Halligan, celebrates inspiring women who have changed the world.
  • Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, by Francesca Cavallo, is a collection of bedtime stories of extraordinary women both past and present, each told as a fairy tale.
  • She Persisted and She Persisted Around the World, by Chelsea Clinton, describe the struggles of 26 remarkable, diverse and tenacious women.

There is a great series by Andrea Beaty that I’ve already introduced to my oldest granddaughter who just turned six. I gave her Rosie Revere, Engineer last Christmas. The other two books in the series are Ada Twist, Scientist and Iggy Peck, Architect.  Rosie, Ada, and Iggy are friends who pursue their passions with persistence while celebrating and learning from their failures.

If you have young girls to shop for this holiday season, I hope you will consider one of these books. And if you are looking for organizations to support as you consider your year-end charitable contributions, take a look at Girls Inc. With local organizations in cities across the country they inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Their message couldn’t be any clearer.

Related Posts:

STEM gift ideas for 2017

WANTED: STEM gift ideas for kids

STEM for the holidays

Yes you can: encouraging girls to pursue IT careers

The changing face of leadership

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Ayanna Presley, Sylvania Garcia, Veronica Escobar, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Deb Haaland, Sharice Davids, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, and Lauren Underwood.canstockphoto354515 (1) diversity

These are names you may not recognize now. But you will. They are some of the more than 100 women elected to the House of Representatives on November 6th. Women have never held more than 84 of the 435 house seats according to a November 8th Washington Post article by Mary Jordan – Record number of women heading to Congress.

Ayanna Presley is the first black congressperson elected from Massachusetts. Sylvania Garcia and Veronica Escobar are both from Texas and the first Latino women elected to the House of Representatives. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are the first Muslim women elected to the House. Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids are the first Native American women elected to the House; Sharice is the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in Kansas. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes is the youngest woman ever elected to the House at the age of 29.

Lauren Underwood is a 30-year-old nurse who will be the youngest black woman in Congress. In a district that is 86% white, she beat six men in the primary and unseated a four-term incumbent. Her campaign focused on healthcare.

Another woman to watch is Kyrsten Sinema. She now has a slight lead in the Arizona Senate race but it is still too close to call at the time of this writing. If she wins, she will be the first bisexual person elected to Congress.

Now that’s what I call a diverse group of determined women representing the next generation of leaders in Washington. Continue reading →

Make career choices right for you

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One of the highlights of my week was participating in an American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) panel series with several Boston area healthcare leaders. The panel was part of a series focused canstockphoto13994976 (1) careeron early careerists and co-sponsored by the Boston Young Healthcare Professionals (BYHP). The panel was titled “Making the Next Move: Career Positioning and Proactively Managing Your Career Development”.

We covered a range of topics – taking ownership of your own career, knowing yourself and clarifying your roadmap, the work-life balancing act, gender and cultural diversity, personal branding and using social media, and generational differences.

Ted Witherell, Director of Organization Development and Learning Services, at Partners Healthcare was one of the other panelists. He posed three key questions when thinking about your career:

  • What brings you joy?
  • Are you good at it?
  • Does the world need you to do it?

These questions seemed to resonate with the audience. They came up often during the Q&A period as attendees sought to connect the experiences and advice being shared by the panelists with their own situations.

As the only woman on the five-member panel, I wanted to make sure I spoke directly to the women in the audience on challenges women face. At times, one of those challenges is having self-confidence. I encouraged everyone to check out the excellent article from a few years ago, “The Confidence Gap” by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman published in The Atlantic. I highly recommend reading it to understand that “success correlates just as closely with confidence as it does with competence” and “that with work, confidence can be acquired”.

I also addressed the work-life balance that we all struggle with. Continue reading →

What can we learn from women in leadership?

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It’s been almost four years since I started speaking and writing openly about the challenges facing women at work, the importance of developing women leaders, and encouraging women to pursue STEM careers. canstockphoto7990695 (1) women leadersI have no regrets about being outspoken on women’s issues.

It is encouraging to see organizations like CHIME and HIMSS focus on this in recent years and to see so many younger women share their own stories and provide advice to others.

I was happy to see the recent four-part series that Kate Gamble, Managing Editor of HealthSystemCIO.com, did on Women in HIT leadership.  She interviewed an excellent group of women leaders – Sarah Richardson, California market CIO for HealthCare Partners; Tressa Springmann, SVP and CIO at LifeBridge Health; and Julie Bonello, CIO at Rush Health.

The series covered all the topics you might expect: their early leadership experiences and stories, core leadership competencies needed, the importance and challenge of maintaining work/life balance and supporting your teams, stereotypes of women leaders, the power and importance of mentoring, and learning from male dominated environments.

Their experiences, insight, and advice provide a rich set of lessons to learn from. I highly recommend you read or listen to the series at these links:

Women in HIT Leadership, Part 1: Identifying the Core Leadership Skills

Women in HIT Leadership, Part 2: Challenging Gender Stereotypes

Women in HIT Leadership, Part 3: The Future of the CIO Role

Women in HIT Leadership, Part 4: A Call to Action

In the closing comments of Part 4, Sarah says she is optimistic about the future for women but knows it is up to us as women leaders to make change happen. She quotes Sheryl Sandberg from Lean In, “If not you, then who?” and “If not now, then when?”. And Tressa talks about leading with grace in spite of the obstacles women face. Continue reading →

Family first

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With a family vacation in our future that includes four grandkids between 2 and 5 years old, I am reminded who my big rocks are. While there may be times that vacation week when the level of chaos is more than I want, just being able to spend extended time together will be worth it.

I executed a new master plan two years ago that included living close to my daughters and their families. Since then I have had a chance to spend far more time with them than when I lived and worked halfway across the country.

I hope you all know who your big rocks are. And more importantly, that you make time to spend with them.

With that in mind, I’m sharing the “Do you know your big rocks?”  post I published in April two years ago.

Do you know your big rocks?

April is a mixed month for me. No, I’m not talking about the fact that we had snow this week. In April, I celebrate many happy milestones, including my birthday and my wedding anniversary. Andcanstockphoto25793802 now, both my daughters have April wedding anniversaries. And the blooming daffodils along the road remind me that spring is finally here. 

Yet, there is always a sad part of April for me. My father died from Hodgkin’s disease on April 23rd, just a few days before my fourth birthday. Losing a parent as a child leaves a hole in your heart and shapes who you are.

Stephen Covey has a great story about “big rocks”. If you’re not familiar with it, just google it. Our families are our big rocks and my daughters remind me of that. And as little as they are, my grandchildren are also big rocks for me.  Every time one of my daughters calls me on FaceTime and I see a cute little toddler smiling at me from my iPhone, I fall in love with them all over again. Continue reading →

Equal Pay Day 2018, like spring, comes four months too late

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Last Tuesday, April 10th was Equal Pay Day – the date each year that marks when the average woman will have earned as much as her male colleagues earned the previous year. Last year it was April 4th.  Forequal pay winter spring pix women of color, Equal Pay Day comes even later. Black women reach the milestone on August 7th and Latina Equal Pay Day is November 1st.

Let’s take a closer look at this situation.

In a Time article, “10 Powerful Women on How #MeToo Has Changed the Fight for Equal Pay”, Jennifer Calfas notes how long it will take to close this gap, given our present rate of progress. Estimates from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research show the pay gap won’t be closed for women until at least 2059, not until 2124 for black women, and as far out as 2233 for Hispanic women. So not in our lifetimes! Think about that when you are talking to your daughters and granddaughters about what they want to be when they grow up.

According to an ABCNews report, tech is one of the better industries. The report says, “In the tech industry — which has been under scrutiny for gender equity issues — women were paid 99.5 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earned, the smallest pay gap by industry found in the study. However, when the control for the same title is removed, women earned 84.7 cents compared to men in the tech industry, moving it to the middle of the industries examined.”

According to the 2018 HIMSS U.S. Compensation Survey based on the feedback of 885 health IT professionals, gender pay disparity exists similar to the overall numbers already noted. Continue reading →

Never underestimate the power of a woman

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I had the opportunity at HIMSS18 to meet several women entrepreneurs who have started their own companies and many women seeking career advice. They are impressive and inspiring. I loved hearing canstockphoto20402689 power business womanthe entrepreneurs’ stories, what lead them to start their own business and the challenges they have overcome. Women looking for career advice didn’t hesitate to approach me and introduce themselves. They asked very focused questions as they reflect on their current situation and consider future options.

The annual #HealthITChicks meetup organized by Jenn Dennard included a panel titled “Making Ladders Lateral”. It was great fun to be part of the panel and hear others’ stories. The recap can be found here and is an easy, quick read.

At the Career Fair, I did a presentation on “Advice for the Aspiring Female Executive” covering current trends and tips for next generation leaders.

Hot off the press, I shared information from the 2018 HIMSS Compensation Survey that showed both good and bad news regarding the gender pay gap. The survey results show that gender pay disparity is persistent. The pay gap is back at the level it was in 2006 after getting worse for a few years. On average women are paid 18% less than men, or said another way, females are paid $0.82 for every $1.00 their male peer is paid. Getting back to the same level as 12 years ago can’t be considered real progress.

The good news is that for women under age 35 and non-management staff, there is very little difference in pay between men and women. The bad news is that the gap for women over 55 and those at the executive level continues. I conclude that this is due to the cumulative effect that years of disparity has had and creates a gap that is very hard to resolve.

I talked about an excellent article from a few years ago, “The Confidence Gap”, by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman published in The Atlantic. I highly recommend reading it to understand that “success correlates just as closely with confidence as it does with competence” and “that with work, confidence can be acquired”.

And I focused on leadership and tips for next generation leaders which I shared in a previous post. Here they are again if you missed them the first time: Continue reading →

Tune in: recommendations for IT podcasts

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How do you keep up with industry news? Do you have a favorite online publication? Are you a reader or a listener? I find myself struggling to keep up with everything I want to read. But I’m doing better, now, with canstockphoto33796857 podcastat least tracking on the headlines and top industry news stories.

For all you busy multi-taskers who may be looking for an alternate way to educate yourself and stay current, 20-30 minute podcasts are a great option. Whether you’ve got a long daily commute, need something to listen to while working out at the gym or while walking the dog, consider listening to podcasts.

Here are some podcast series worth checking out:

This Week in Health IT – This is a new program launched by Bill Russell, CEO at Health Lyrics, focusing on news of the week and a topic of interest. He publishes online every Friday afternoon. I was honored to be on the program last week. We covered the Amazon, JP Morgan, Berkshire Hathaway announcement and the Apple health records app story. Both are examples of the disruptive forces we are seeing in healthcare. Bill and I also talked about the evolving role of the CIO and shared our favorite social media posts of the week.

HealthSystemCIO.com – Anthony Guerra and Kate Gamble have been conducting extensive one-on-one interviews with CIOs for several years. They publish them online as multi-chapter series. These interviews provide insight and experiences for everyone in health IT.  And if you’d rather read the interviews, they are also available as full transcripts. Continue reading →