Tag Archives: women in leadership

Leadership revisited

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It’s a new year. Time to reflect and look ahead. Whether you are a leader or an aspiring leader, there is always room to develop your own leadership skills and find ways to help others develop. Over the years, I’ve often written on leadership. Here is a short list of posts worth revisiting:

10 Tips for next generation leaders

7 Ways to develop the next generation of leaders

Leading through a crisis

What we should expect of leaders

Inspiring and developing new leaders – learning from the best

Lead by example

Leader as conductor

Note – I am taking a short break from writing new posts in January. With all the blog posts I’ve written over the past 7 plus years, I’m using this break to share some of my “classics”. Thank you for being a subscriber – I hope you will encourage your colleagues to subscribe in the coming year.

Developing next generation leaders (literally)

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Over the course of my 35+ year career in health IT management, I have led, coached, and mentored many IT professionals. And situationally I’ve mentored my adult daughters – meaning when they ask for advice. In doing so, I have found analogies with some of my mentees and coachees who are similar ages and at a similar stage in their career.

I am always happy and proud when I see any of them grow and develop, take on new opportunities, and progress in their career. And it’s nice to hear feedback on how I’ve helped on their journey as I continue to work with others.

Now we’re at the “literal” part in this blog post’s title – next generation leaders in my own family.  Both my daughters received awards this year from their employers recognizing their contributions and leadership. My oldest daughter, Katie Killinger, MSN, BSN, NP-C, is the Chief NP of Orthopedic/Spine Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. She received the second annual APP in Excellence Award which recognizes the important contributions Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) make to the hospital. My youngest daughter, Ann Ochiltree, works in the seafood industry and is the Sr. Manager, Executive Communications & Administration at Thai Union North America. She was recognized with the Big 6 Value Award – Innovation. I am very proud of both my daughters and love seeing the examples they are setting for their own young children.

To even mention my daughters here may be considered “parental bragging” as my husband calls it. But I mention them in a broader context of how leaders lead and influence in many different circumstances. Continue reading →

STEM or not, own your career

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Did you know that November 8th was national STEM day? I admit that I didn’t realize it until I was tagged in a comment on a LinkedIn post about national STEM day. Geeta Nayyar, SVP Executive Medical Director at Salesforce, shared some important but disappointing statistics on women and STEM in that post. While women make up about 47% of the total workforce, she notes that we are statistically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – STEM fields. Women make up only 29% of the STEM labor force, 19% of STEM company board members are women, and among STEM industry CEOs, only 3% are women. No wonder I so often am the only woman in the Zoom room when talking with technology firms. We can and must do better.

In her post, Geeta encouraged people to tag inspiring women leaders they know. I’m grateful and humbled that Linda Stotsky, Content Marketing Strategist at Boston Software Systems, tagged me and several other women in her comment.

I have long been a proponent of more women going into STEM fields and have willingly shared my own stories. I started out as a programmer in the early 1980s and then moved into health IT management for the rest of my career – a field that has been male dominated. I recall a long stretch in the late 1980s when I was the only woman on an all-male IT leadership team and the challenges I faced. Challenges I overcame and that I have helped other women overcome since then.

I was honored to be one of the first women interviewed for the new podcast series, The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare, produced by The Krinsky Company. In this interview I share stories and lessons from my career, give career advice, and provide tips for developing next generation leaders.

As I always say, you have to own your own career and be open to the possibilities. Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace and the possibilities are unlimited. If a STEM career is right for you, go for it. Be sure to find role models and mentors who can support you and help you overcome the challenges you may face.

Related Posts:

Make career choices right for you

10 tips for next generation leaders

Career advice revisited

When to use a career coach

Role models who inspire

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Who inspires you? Is it an historical figure, a well-known contemporary figure, or someone you know personally? If you are like me, it is probably a number of people. I pose this question to you during Women’s History Month and must ask myself that same question.

Being on zoom calls from my home office every day, people are quick to notice and comment on the Ruth Bader Ginsburg portrait on the wall. She was truly an inspiring role model and her legacy lives on. The portrait is by a local artist, Taryn Nunez. I bought it at the 2020 Women’s Fund of Rhode Island (WFRI) annual fundraiser and silent auction (all virtual of course). WFRI invests in women and girls through research, advocacy, grant making, and strategic partnerships designed to achieve gender equity through systemic change. I support WFRI both financially and with volunteer time. I love that my RBG art is a conversation starter for both men and women who I “zoom” with. And I often hear stories of their daughters who consider RBG their hero.

I also have a picture on my desk that only I see. It is my mother a few years before she died from cancer. I am now the same age that she was when she died – a rather sobering fact. We grew up in very different times. She did not live long enough to see my life as a wife and mother beyond the first few years nor how my career has evolved. She was widowed in her early 40s and raised the four of us on her own. She inspired me at a young age to be strong, independent, and giving. Volunteer work was something we all did. We did not have much, but we could always help others who had less.

I must admit that growing up I didn’t have female heroes, but I read a lot of biographies of famous women. Continue reading →

Women need male allies

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One of the last glass ceilings has been shattered. Senator Kamala Harris is now Vice President Elect Kamala Harris. She will be the first woman to hold this office. In her speech on November 7, she paid homage to the women who worked to secure and protect the right to vote and the women still fighting to be heard as she said, “Tonight I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision to see what can be unburdened by what has been. And I stand on their shoulders.”

And to future generations, she said: “But while I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before. And we will applaud you every step of the way.”

The fight for women’s rights and equity is not one that women can wage alone. We need male allies. The good news is that we have many and probably many more that just need some encouragement.

I am seeing an increasing number of resources available on how men can be better allies and support women. Here are two recent articles worth sharing: Continue reading →

Vote your values

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My mother was just a little girl when women in this country won the right to vote in 1920. Her mother raised her to be a strong and independent woman. And in turn she raised my sister, two brothers, and me to not only be strong and independent but also to be kind and caring. We learned early on about social justice and equality. My sister and I came of age during the women’s movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We each have two daughters. Along with our husbands, we raised them to be strong, independent, kind, and caring women.

This week marks the centennial anniversary of women having the right to vote. The passage of the 19th amendment guaranteed and protected women’s constitutional right to vote. But this right did not come easy. The suffrage movement dates to the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention that passed a resolution in favor of women’s suffrage. A women’s right to vote came only after the suffragists organized for decades, marched in the streets, and were arrested. But they persisted and finally succeeded 70 years later.

This week also marks another historic first. Senator Kamala Harris is the first woman of color to be nominated for the second highest office in our country by a major political party.

White men are 31% of the U.S. population but hold 65% of elected offices. White men have long governed and made policy decisions affecting all of us. There continue to be record numbers of women running for office at local, state, and national levels. The face of government is changing. It is looking more like all of us and therefore more representative.

The right to vote is a fundamental right of a free society. Voter suppression is real and takes various forms. This is the time to be informed – know the rules and deadlines in your state. Make sure you are registered. Know your options for mail-in or in-person voting. Exercise your right. Live your values.

As I walk my neighborhood 3-4 miles a day, I see many yard signs for candidates in advance of a local primary in September. I expect to see yard signs for the November 3rd election soon. But the yard signs that have the greatest impact are the ones that express the values and beliefs of the people who live there – the ones that say:

We Believe: Black Lives Matter — No Human is Illegal — Love is Love — Women’s Rights are Human Rights — Science is Real — Water is Life — Kindness is Everything — Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere

Vote on November 3rd or before if you can. Vote your values – for you and generations to come. 

Resources: 

When We All Vote

Fair Fight

#EachforEqual

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That’s the hashtag for International Women’s Day (IWD) 2020. The theme this year is “an equal world is an enabled world”. Sunday, March 8th, was IWD. According to the official website, “International Women’s Day has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organization specific.”

But it needs to be more than a day to celebrate women, it needs to be a yearlong commitment by all of us. Fighting for gender equality every day in every situation you are in. At work, at school, in your community, with your friends and family, and in politics.

Speaking of politics, I can’t help but go there. While nearly all the female candidates for president have suspended their campaigns, I wonder if I will see a female president in my lifetime. I truly want to believe it’s not if, but rather when. As one of those candidates, Senator Elizabeth Warren, met thousands of young girls across the country, she used the phrase “that’s what girls do”. Meaning, they run for president. She made a pinky promise with them that someday there would be a woman president.

Several well qualified women ran for president. Why they didn’t get enough support to win the nomination is not one common story. But I do believe they were all held to a different standard than the men running – as women often are. For one, there’s the notion of “likable”. Something that doesn’t get asked about male candidates.

I’ve read many articles and analysis about Senator Warren who appeared to have the best chance at the nomination. I’ve heard stories that a high percentage of people said they would vote for a woman but they didn’t think their neighbors would. That old self-defeating thinking. Men are often judged on their potential while women are often judged on their performance. Can enough people picture a woman president to someday make it a reality?

Like many women, I’m tired. Continue reading →

It’s handoff time again

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This week I will do a handoff to the new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN), Seth Maynard. I’ve been serving as interim CTO since late May of last year. Seth recently served as CTO at Yale New Haven Health System and is ready to take over from me. We have already had several transition conversations, but we have plenty more to cover in the coming days as part of the handoff.

Anyone who has relocated to join an organization at a senior management level knows there is much to learn. It’s a new market, a new organization, a new set of leaders, a new team, a new culture, a new set of projects, and new issues. Yes, there is much similarity between health care organizations, and you have your experience and knowledge to draw on from the past. But the learning curve in a new organization is still a steep one.

My overarching goal for this week is like my previous interim to permanent handoffs – provide as smooth and comprehensive a handoff as possible. Ultimately, I’m there to ensure the permanent leader gets off to a good start and is successful. That means:

  • Sharing background information that is most critical and useful passing along as much needed knowledge and insight as possible
  • Conducting the meetings that are a critical part of the handoff including focused time with the management team, an introduction at the monthly all staff meeting, as well as initial discussions with key partner departments
  • Ensuring that together we don’t miss a beat on current issues that need leadership direction
  • Stepping back and letting the new leader start making decisions and address issues providing support as needed

When I started this interim, Continue reading →

HIMSS20 – are you ready?

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If you work in health IT, you know that the annual HIMSS conference is the biggest industry event each year whether you are headed to Orlando in three weeks or not. The number of emails, blog posts, social media posts, and articles providing guidance and recommendations on HIMSS20 grows with each passing day.

In the next two weeks I’m wrapping up my current interim CTO engagement at University of Vermont Health Network and handing off to the new CTO. If like me you are super busy at work, making your game plan for HIMSS20 is probably low on your priority list. With so much info out there, I decided to pull together some resources that might help in your preparation.

Whether you are attending in person or following the happenings from a distance, the Official HIMSS20 Hashtag Guide will help you focus in on your areas of interest. My top picks this year are #WomenInHIT, #HealthcareStartup, #HealthcareInnovation, and #PatientEngagement. And of course, you’ll want to follow all the HIMSS digital influencers. You can follow and engage with them using hashtag #BeTheChange. If you’re looking for who the 2020 social media ambassadors are, the digital influencers have replaced them with a new and more expansive program.

Several recent blog posts are worth checking out for more previews and tips:

With my focus on developing women leaders in health IT, I’m looking forward to the Women in Healthcare and Tech: Closing the Gap to Strategic Leadership session on March 10 from 10:30AM-11:30AM. A panel of trailblazers with backgrounds in healthcare and technology will discuss empowering women and closing the gap to strategic leadership. Continue reading →

Modeling leadership, empowering others

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I had the opportunity to meet all the IT interns at The University of Vermont Health Network this week. Several of them are working on infrastructure teams that I am now responsible for as the interim Chief Technology c change key image update right align 2Officer. They are all excited to be working with us, learning and contributing.

When it was my turn to introduce myself, I told them I’m committed to developing next generation leaders and am happy to make time to meet with any of them this summer if they want to talk and get career advice. My days are busy, but I hope at least some of them take me up on the offer. I will find the time.

We all need role models and people who are willing to help us develop and grow professionally. Female leaders in health IT represent only 30% of senior leadership so it’s not yet a level playing field. With our StarBridge Advisors C-change service, we focus on developing women leaders in health IT through online courses and coaching.

On June 18, Gale Thompson and I will be presenting a webinar, “Develop Women Leaders, Transform Leadership” as part of the HIMSS Women in Health IT series.

The learning objectives are to:

  • Recognize that you are not the only one struggling with how to be effective, successful, and fulfilled.
  • Learn how you can make foundational shifts with intention to craft the leader you want to be and the life you want to live.
  • Discover clear, thoughtful steps you can take to steer your career progression while attending to your personal and family commitments. Explore ways you can be proactive in getting what you need/want both professionally and personally.
  • Learn to give yourself permission to invest in your own well-being and leadership growth and commit to taking that next step.

For more information or to register for the webinar, click here.

Related Posts:

Develop women leaders, transform leadership

Make career choices right for you

What can we learn from women in leadership?

10 tips for next generation leaders

MiChart summer interns — a win-win!