Tag Archives: career

Making time to give back

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As I noted in my recent post on tips for business travelers, I’ve been on the road a lot lately. Some of that travel has been for what I call “give back time”. Over the years I’ve participated on various boards andcanstockphoto28010569 (1) giving back committees, volunteering my time to advance our industry.

But it’s not all about giving – I get plenty from it as well.

I’m in my sixth year on the AAMI board. For this second three-year term, I’ve also been a member-at-large on the executive committee which means an extra day of meetings twice a year and more materials to review beyond the core board work.

As part of the AAMI board I have had the opportunity to get to know a diverse set of senior leaders in the medical technology industry. This includes the CEO of Steris, the Chief Quality Officer of BD, the Global Product Security & Services Officer for Royal Philips, and the Director for Health Technology Management for the VA – just to name a few. There are several board members from provider organizations including physician and health technology management (HTM) leaders. Along with a healthcare CIO on the board, Pam Arora from Children’s Health in Dallas, I offer a health IT and CIO perspective. Different than the contributions that other members make.

As a board we learn from one another and help advance the mission of AAMI which is to lead global collaboration in the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. Continue reading →

Investing in you: continuous learning

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What was the last webinar you participated in? What was the last podcast you listened to? What was the last book or in-depth article you read to learn something new? The bigger question is do you have a canstockphoto14781905 (1) learningcontinuous learning plan?

One of the things I love about working in healthcare and technology is the pace of change and that there is always something new to learn. But that is also one of the challenges. So how do we keep up?

Don’t doubt that having a continuous learning plan is important for your career. The most recent This Week in Health IT podcast was interviews with six CIOs. Bill Russell asked them each the same five questions. The last question was what did they wish they knew or had done before they started their current role. A theme in the answers was around staff development – needing their staff to develop new skills and developing their leadership teams.

There are many different options and formats for ongoing training and learning to consider. You may prefer reading or webinars or podcasts or classroom training. Most likely you need a combination of all.

A few observations and tips from my own experience:

Reading: What used to be a stack of publications piled up in my office to read has now become a lot of bookmarked articles to read online. I read a lot of articles each week and add more to my list, even though I may not get to them. Having a few good “go to” resources and knowing your key areas of interest help manage and filter out the noise.

Webinars: You could spend several hours a week just doing webinars. Focus on a few “go to” resources and register for the ones that are most relevant to what you need to know. Or register for something new that you want to learn about. Once you put it on your calendar, consider it like any meeting. 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 →

When to use a career coach

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Are you considering a major career change? Are you considering re-tooling and moving in a new direction? Are you trying to figure out if you should “stay or go”? Are you looking at one more big move canstockphoto7379432 (1) careerbefore you retire?

You may be asking yourself some of these questions. You may be turning to family, friends and colleagues for advice and perspective. Or you may be keeping it quiet and trying to figure it out by yourself. Or as unhappy and restless as you may be, you think there are too many barriers to making a change.

You may need encouragement and inspiration. Or you may need help building your confidence to make a change.

I have coached many people over the past several years. Some of them have been focused career coaching engagements. What does this look like?

We start with a bio like any other coaching engagement. I ask you to write a 1-2 page story of what makes you who you are, not the professional bio with a headshot. It is a time to reflect and get in touch with yourself.

We discuss your short-term and long-term career goals. If you have formulated some already, they may need refinement and a reality check.

We look at the range of options you are considering or could consider.

We figure out a framework for evaluating your options and consider the pros and cons of different paths.

We figure out what path makes the most sense and develop a plan to achieve it.

If you are in the middle of a job search, help with your resume and social media profile, interview prep or tips on networking may also be needed.

Sound simple? Maybe. But when you can’t settle on an answer to the “what should I do with the rest of my life” or “what should my next move be”, some outside professional help may be needed.

With a focused 3-month engagement, you will have a better sense of who you are, how you got to where you are, where you want to be, and a plan for how to get there. But be ready to do some deep reflection and hard work.

Related Posts:

You need to own your own career

Time for a job change?

Stand out at the interview

So you didn’t get the job

Investing in you, the value of a coach

Celebrate nurses, but more importantly listen to them

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May 6-12 is National Nurses Week. According to a Gallup Poll, nursing has been the most trusted profession for the past 16 years. It’s no surprise.Nurses Week (002)

Those of us with nurses in our family are grateful that there is someone we can turn to with health questions. They help us navigate complex healthcare systems when we have a worrisome condition and need to see specialists and subspecialists. I’m fortunate to have nurses in my family. I am grateful to them and know that I should never take them for granted.

As the President of the American Nurses Association, Pamela Cipriano, PhD, RN, said, “Nurses provide much more than bedside care. We advocate for patients, deliver primary care, meet the complex needs of patients with chronic conditions, volunteer for disaster relief efforts, and are a trusted voice in boardrooms across the country.”

When my daughter first considered a nursing career back in the early 2000’s, I was very supportive. I thought that with her personality, people focus, and an incredible ability to multi-task she would be an excellent nurse. I told her that she could take many different paths as a nurse over time. She already had a bachelors degree in Hospitality Administration/Management with a minor in Business, so she decided to attend a combined nursing/nurse practitioner (NP) program to get her BS in Nursing and her Masters in Science and Nursing.

She worked as a bedside nurse, first on a cardiac surgery stepdown unit and then on a cardiac surgery ICU. Her first nurse practitioner opportunity was working with patients who have atrial fibrillation (known as Afib). She later moved to orthopedics where she is now the Chief NP on a busy and growing inpatient ortho unit.

She balances clinical patient care with administrative responsibilities. And she is always looking at how to improve processes and care. Continue reading →

Sabbaticals for CIOs – why not?

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I talk to several CIOs each week. I listen to them and try to figure out how we might help them through our advisory services at StarBridge Advisors. Depending on where the CIO is in his or her career, they canstockphoto51125301 sabbaticalsometimes ask, “How and when can I join you at StarBridge?”. The idea of getting off the permanent CIO track and having more flexibility can be appealing.

The idea of a “substitute CIO” came up from one of the CIOs I talked to recently. He was thinking about how to get his organization prepared for someone else to lead for a period with the knowledge that he would be back after several months. I told him it sounded like a sabbatical to me – not a bad idea.

Sabbatical means a rest from work or a break. When we think about sabbaticals, we typically think of professors and ministers. It’s a time for them to go away, reflect, study, research, write, and get rejuvenated.

Just think what a CIO could do with an opportunity like that!

When I was working as a CIO fulltime and would visit other countries on vacation, I thought how awesome it would be to spend several months studying another country’s healthcare system. The lessons and new ideas I could bring back to my organization. But that’s just one idea. What about taking time to learn about leading edge healthcare organizations in the U.S. Or studying a particular problem that every healthcare organization is trying to solve. Or working with start-ups on a new and innovative product.

Wouldn’t our industry benefit from letting our senior practitioners step back from the day-to-day and go deeper on work we need to do?

You earn vacation time each year, so why not earn sabbatical time? Continue reading →

Being valued, doing meaningful work

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I’ve had at least three different conversations in recent days providing career advice to colleagues. Different industries, organizations and types of roles. And each person was at a different stage of their canstockphoto10463933 (002) career choicescareer. Yet, there were common themes we discussed that are worth sharing:

Being valued – Do people listen to you? Is your input taken seriously? Is your work appreciated? For most people, there are many signs each work week that show whether you are valued or not. Don’t ignore them.

Doing meaningful work – We each define what we consider meaningful and what we are passionate about. And we all probably do some tasks that we dislike as part of our jobs. Overall, finding your passion and doing work that you consider meaningful can keep you happy and motivated to go back every day.

Options – As you consider to stay or go, to move up or out, there is always more than one option. Make sure you are clear with yourself and stay grounded in what really matters to you as you frame and evaluate those options.

On your terms – Take control of the discussion and shape the opportunity if there is room for negotiation on the type of work and the role. Remember that you own your own career.

Trust – Do you trust the people you are working with or negotiating with? 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 →

Find your voice, a mentor, and be bold

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The week started with #Oprah2020 trending on Twitter. If you missed Oprah’s inspirational speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday night you can find it on YouTube. Who doesn’t love Oprah? But, should we canstockphoto13471338 (002) mentorelect another president who lacks government experience?

But these aren’t the questions I want to address. A Slate article by Dahlia Lithwick got my attention on Monday. She said the real message of Oprah’s speech wasn’t about her but about us. Do we feel empowered enough to act. She focused on women running for office at all levels. And that led me to think more about empowerment.

While that buzz was happening on Monday, I was in a daylong meeting with a small group of women leaders from various industries. We had been brought together by the first female president of a large, national organization to discuss the challenges women in leadership face. It was an insightful discussion as stories were shared, dissected, and analyzed.

As I bring this back to health IT, I’m not going to rehash the stories and lessons from my experience as a female IT leader over the years. I’ve shared some of them in previous posts. Rather, I want to again encourage you to take steps to own your career and find ways to develop yourself. Find your voice and speak up. Find the mentors you need to help you. And be bold.

HIMSS18 is less than 2 months away. To get the most out of the annual conference you need to make choices and plan your time there carefully. There are many ways to invest in “you” while there, including education and networking.

I’ve had the opportunity to present at many previous HIMSS conferences on a range of topics. This year, I was asked to support the Career Fair and the Women in HIT sessions. I’m committed to developing the next generation of leaders, so I gladly said yes! Continue reading →