Tag Archives: professional development

Cultivating a network that works for you and others

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My adult daughters have called me the “network queen” at times. They appreciate that I’m willing to introduce them to people who might be helpful to them and their careers in some way. It’s no secret that I do that for anyone who asks.

The value of having a broad network of people you can call on for different situations is priceless. And if you have nurtured your relationships over the years and given graciously of your time, when you ask, you can count on people responding quickly and with a sincere willingness to be helpful.

I had a couple examples of this in the past month.

As part of due diligence on a new business relationship, I reached out to a former colleague and friend who worked with them. She was quick to reply, gave me her input and suggested someone else I should talk to who we both knew. She made the re-introduction for me, and I was able to connect with that person a few days later for additional insight.

My StarBridge Advisors partner and I needed some business advice in an area we were unfamiliar with. We both knew who our “go to” person would be given our past experience with him. I reached out and we were able to do a very valuable 3-way call later that same day.

Someone I knew from my board service with a non-profit organization several years ago reached out to me for advice on a new opportunity she was considering. After catching up on family and life since we last talked a few years ago, I was able to provide useful insight on the organization and opportunity plus offered to serve as a reference in her continued job search.

As I worked on a proposal for services to a new client, I reached out to someone I worked with almost 30 years ago to see if she was still working in the same field that I needed help with. We reconnected and I learned about her new consulting services which I have already referred to someone.

Relationships involve give and take. Maintaining positive mutually beneficial relationships means being available to others when they ask. They are much more than a “connection” on LinkedIn.

As we go into the Fall conference season and have the opportunity to see colleagues in person and make new connections, keep in mind the value of your network to not only you but how your connections might help others. After all, you can probably name many people who have helped you along the way. Be generous with your time and willing to help others. It will pay off many times over.

Related Posts:

Networking and navigating a tight job market

The power of your network and learning from others

Networking, learning and giving back

A decade of blogging: 10 years of insights on healthcare, technology, and leadership

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This week marks 10 years since I became a blogger! With a focus on the intersection of healthcare and technology, a lot has happened in 10 years. For my regular readers, you know I cover much more than healthcare and technology including leadership, career advice, women’s issues, and yes, even politics. And I weave in personal stories at times.

When I started this blog in 2014, I was serving as the CIO at University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers. The social media coordinator in the Communications department encouraged me to start and helped set it up. I leaned on our IT chief of staff to help manage it. From the start, I assumed that I had multiple audiences to speak to – my IT staff (I encouraged them to subscribe but promised to continue my monthly CIO messages aimed at just them), our health system staff, health IT colleagues in the industry, and anyone else who was interested. My first blog was about our major Epic go live a few days later – “Three days and counting….”. It was the first of many practitioner based blogs over the years.

So, why blog? As I wrote in my “About” page:

“One of my passions is the development of the next generation of IT leaders, especially young people who are beginning their careers or who are beginning to take on leadership roles. I’ve been there: a young mother of two with a full-time management job while a part-time graduate student.  I remember the years when I was the only woman at the leadership table. With this weekly blog, I share perspectives on the critical issues facing Health Care IT, the organizational transformations that IT organizations face, the challenges of leadership, and the work we need to do together to keep the paths of opportunity open for all. What we do matters.”

When I left Michigan in early 2016 to start down a path of interim management, consulting and leadership coaching, I took over the blog myself and committed to continuing writing weekly. I had relevant topics each week as I served in four different organizations in interim IT leadership roles in subsequent years and launched StarBridge Advisors with colleagues in late 2016.

If you are a subscriber, you know that my weekly commitment has waned in the past year, and I publish less frequently. As I have reduced and refocused my work commitments, topic ideas come to me less frequently – mostly from events in the industry and beyond, articles, discussions with people I coach and mentor, and my regular contact with health IT leaders.

There have been times when I just can’t be silent on something and go more political. Continue reading →

Celebrating Women’s History Month: Championing Diversity in Health IT

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What better time than Women’s History Month to highlight the many initiatives lifting up women in our health IT industry.

It has been 10 years since I started speaking out more publicly as a health IT professional about women’s issues though I am a long-time feminist having come of age during the women’s movement of the 1970s. In 2014, I was asked to do a keynote talk on a topic of my choice at a 200-person health IT conference. It was one of those vendor sponsored, invitation only events. I was the speaker during the first night’s dinner. I titled my talk: “Our Future Workforce – Unlocking the Potential”. I talked about the fact that not enough women were going into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields and the need to encourage and support women at all levels. Prior to the talk I wrote this post – Technology, where are all the women? – and afterwards I wrote this one describing the positive response to my talk – Women and technology, part 2 – from an audience that was probably 80% men!

When I launched this blog several months before that talk in 2014, I made sure to create a category called “On Women and Work” knowing I’d be periodically writing about women’s issues, and not just in March each year.

Fast forward to 2024. I am certainly not a lone voice in our industry. Many women focused initiatives have emerged. Here are just a few to highlight: Continue reading →

The art of mentoring: insights for leaders

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Being a mentor is a fundamental role of leaders. A mentoring relationship may be a formal or informal arrangement. I’m currently participating in two formal mentor programs through the NEHIMSS chapter and the Emerging Leaders Program of RIBBA (Rhode Island Black Business Association). Informally I serve as a mentor for many people.

I’ve written many blogs referencing the importance of being a mentor and having a mentor. Bill Russell and I share a commitment to developing next generation leaders. He outlined his concise framework for mentoring on a recent This Week Health Newsroom podcast – “A Framework for Mentoring”. As Bill explains, it’s all about helping your mentee to expand – their network, experience, knowledge and thinking.

As a leader, you have a broad network, and you can help expose your mentee to it. I truly believe that one of the most important introductions I ever received was as the new CIO at Brigham and Women’s Hospital when I attended my first CHIME conference in early 2000. My boss, John Glaser, CIO at Partners HealthCare, (now called Mass General Brigham) introduced me to his CIO colleagues at other large health systems and academic medical centers.  Those connections helped greatly in my early CIO years and laid the foundation for getting more involved in CHIME. When I mentor people, making introductions to others who can be helpful to them is high on the list early in our conversations.

Expanding a mentee’s experience can happen most effectively when you work together in the same organization. Being able to have your mentee participate in certain meetings or initiatives on your behalf or with you is a powerful show of support and encouragement to them.

And of course, expanding their knowledge and thinking comes from your ongoing discussions and the resources you recommend to them. This Week Health is one of the resources I regularly recommend to mentees and others I talk with who are looking to stay current and relevant. Between the various podcasts, interviews with health IT leaders, and daily news headlines, it is worth checking out and sharing with others. As Bill describes it, “This Week Health is a set of channels and events dedicated to transform healthcare one connection at a time”.

Think back over your career to the people who have mentored you in some way. Guessing you would agree that what mentors do is truly priceless.

Related Posts:

Developing tomorrow’s leaders through mentorship and coaching

Mentoring, role models and sometimes a little nudge

Leaders as mentors

7 Ways to develop the next of generation leaders

From listener to host: conversations with health IT leaders

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I’ve been a fan of podcasts for several years and a regular consumer of many different ones. I’ve shared some of my favorites in past blog posts. My health IT favorites are the multiple shows that ThisWeekHealth offers.

While still an avid listener and consumer, I am also a regular contributor. Since 2022 I’ve been one of the Townhall show hosts for ThisWeekHealth. That means I’m committed to doing one interview a month with a health IT leader along with the 7 other hosts. New Townhall shows are aired every Tuesday and Thursday on the Conference Channel. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing many current and former health IT leaders in the past year including:

We have had so much to cover in my two most recent interviews that my guests each agreed to schedule a part 2. Continue reading →

Developing tomorrow’s leaders through mentorship and coaching

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My commitment to developing next generation leaders is something I’ve often talked and written about. That commitment is as strong as ever.

This week I started a 10-month formal mentor program through the NEHIMSS chapter for two different mentees. We’ll talk every other week for 30 minutes focusing on their goals for the mentorship. A few weeks ago, I started my newest coaching engagement with a seasoned IT leader. We are in the early stages of this process, including gathering input from peers. We’ll talk twice a month for an hour with assignments in between. And I’m finalizing a presentation focused on lessons in leadership to deliver virtually in early November to the management team for a CIO colleague at a large academic health system. He brings in an industry expert 6 times a year to share their views and help educate his team.

I’m impressed with the formality and structure of the NEHIMSS mentor program – it appears to be a great model for other chapters and organizations and has evolved since the program was first started in 2014. Mentor and mentee applications are submitted, the mentorship committee then reviews them, makes the matches, and communicates to the pairs with supporting materials including a FAQ and a list of Do’s and Don’ts. Both parties sign a mentorship partnership agreement that includes the mentee’s goals and the roles of the mentor and mentee for each goal.

I have provided professional coaching services for many health IT leaders over the past 7 years. And I have served as both an informal and formal mentor to many during my decades long health IT career. While both have value, coaching and mentoring are different. Continue reading →

HIMSS as a networking event

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For those of you attending HIMSS23 in Chicago next week, it will be a mix of education, vendors, and networking. Let’s face it, while education and the exhibit hall are what our organizations are willing to invest in, networking is what we all look forward to each year. Seeing colleagues we’ve known for years, finally meeting in person people we’ve only known on zoom, and making new connections. Especially after a few years of virtual only conferences.

I won’t be attending this year. But that doesn’t stop me from giving some advice on the networking front.

Whether you are in transition and looking to make connections for your next opportunity or you are focused on learning from your peers and sharing success (and failure) stories from your own work, effective networking is critical to your work and your career.

Here’s some general networking advice:

Network extensions – Everyone you know knows a few more people who could potentially be helpful. Proactively and respectfully work your network.

Professionalism – Always present yourself as the consummate professional whether at work, online, or in business interactions after hours.

Two-way street – Figure out what you need from a connection and what you can offer to them.

Diligent follow-up – If you commit to provide a reference, make an introduction, or something else, be sure to do it in a timely manner.

Networking is one of the greatest values of the annual HIMSS conference and HIMSS provides many ways to find people with similar interests as yours. Here’s some slightly modified advice specific to HIMSS from previous years posts: Continue reading →

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.

Related Posts:

7 Ways to develop the next generation of leaders

10 tips for next generation leaders

 

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 →

From an oversubscribed podcast fan

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If you’re a podcast listener like me, you probably have subscribed to a lot of different podcasts. You get a recommendation from a friend or colleague, somehow you hear about a new podcast on a topic of interest, so you search for it and subscribe. At least that’s what I do. It results in being way oversubscribed. Let’s be honest, you can only listen to so many different podcasts regularly whether on your commute, when you’re working out, or walking the dogs.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the This Week Health channels. I subscribe to all three – Newsroom, Community, and Conference. I am a regular listener of the Daily News shows on Newsroom to keep up and because they are nice and short – about 10-15 minutes each except for the Monday show. I listen to many of the Community Town Hall interviews and humbly note that I’m one of the hosts committed to doing one a month. My interviews so far this year have included John Glaser, Kisha Hawthorn, Lisa Stump, Scott MacLean, and Pamela Arora – leaders in our industry you probably recognize.

Since it’s conference season, Bill Russell and his team at This Week in Health have been doing the Interviews in Action series again – 10-15 minute interviews with many health IT leaders which can be found on the Community channel.

If you want to keep up and learn from others, check them out and encourage your team to listen as well. As in past years, Bill will be doing the end of year highlights shows – they are a great way to introduce others to these podcasts. There will even be one with all the Town Hall hosts covering highlights from our interviews this year. And as Bill has done every year for the past 5 years (congrats Bill on an awesome 5 years!!), we can count on tweaks to current channels and maybe some new programs in the coming year.

Back to the oversubscribed challenge and a bit of a diversion. Continue reading →