While I have seen and written about some positive aspects of working from home, I have also been thinking a lot about younger women who may be missing out on opportunities to advance their careers during this time. When working in an office setting, there is opportunity for incidental and informal contact – a way to be seen. It’s the networking and informal meetings that often lead to important “drive by” career discussions. These informal meetings are also helpful to me. I recently met a long tenured social worker at my organization in the cafeteria, she provided me with some very good insights on the topic of racism and social injustice. That quick cafeteria discussion gave me new information that helped me better understand what my employees were thinking and feeling.
With so many young women in this position, how do we build an infrastructure to ensure their career progression? I’d like to share some strategies for continuing to advance your career while you are working from home.
Investigate Digital Platforms for Career Advancement
I serve as a mentor for CSweetener, a digital platform that is designed to mentor women to lead in healthcare. With this platform, I am able to mentor women from other organizations and provide them guidance and most importantly, make connections for them. I am thinking about creating something similar in my own organization so that our pipeline development does not suffer.
Talk to Your Boss about Challenges Your Organization is Facing
By understanding the biggest needs and challenges your employer is facing, you can find opportunities to volunteer your services and expertise to help. Look for how to get involved in work outside of your day-to-day job so that you have the opportunity to get “in front of” more people – even if that’s just through your email signature. Letting your boss know you want to step up during challenging times will go a long way.
A new feature on LinkedIn (also a great place to network) allows you to explore over 16,000 free and paid courses.There are many that are extremely relevant to our current moment, as well as options to learn a new skill. A few highlights include:
“Digital Body Language”
“Starting a Memorable Conversation”
“Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging”
“Remote Work Foundations”
“Time Management When Working from Home”
“Data Analytics for Business Professionals”
“Inclusive Leadership”
Reach out to Your Contacts for a Zoom Date
Now is just as good a time as ever to reconnect and ask others what they’ve been doing to stay engaged. You’re armed with an instant topic of conversation since we’re all in the same boat. Are they participating in any groups you could join? Have they developed any practices or habits to help them through working from home? Of course, remember that some people are stretched incredibly thin right now, so be sure to be sensitive with any requests.
Join a Professional Facebook Group
Facebook groups can be an effective place to request or share information with like-minded people in your field. It’s best to find one that’s locally based, so that you’re connecting with people who you could possibly carry relationships into the real world with, but even national groups can help you bounce ideas off of other professionals and be of help to those that are looking for it. Ask around your network and see if your friends or colleagues have found any groups they enjoy.
Virtual or Outdoor Happy Hours
Remember to find ways to connect that don’t involve meetings, business goals or requests for help. Look for ways to have fun with colleagues. If you have Zoom fatigue, find an opportunity to connect outside (socially distanced and masked of course!). Have everyone bring a colleague from their department so you can meet new people.
Leaning into an Opportunity for Change
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, reporter Herminia Ibarra cites a poll asking participants to describe how they’re responding to the Coronavirus, “50% of the 2,000 people who responded reported that it has given them ‘opportunities to try new things or learn new skills.’” She says, “In some cases, these new skills are directly related to working remotely.” Now is a great time to reinvent yourself, follow a path you’ve been too afraid to go down, or use the time you’re not commuting and getting ready to plan your next move.
Tokenism: the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce.
In my last post, I emphasized how good intentions are not enough in taking a stand against racism and injustice. However, too often CEOs and Corporate Boards take action by identifying a person of color, a woman or another minority, promoting them to a leadership role, and they believe that they are meeting the intent of inclusion. Whether intentionally or because they lack perspective, this is simply not enough to change corporate culture and truly create more equitable organizations. All organizations need to rapidly move towards having leadership that actually represents the people they serve.
Finding diverse leaders is something I have long been passionate about. I have chaired our Diversity Council at my organization for the past 13 years and have learned a few things from many of my incredible colleagues. While I have a long way to go, I’d like to offer a few pieces of advice for leaders who want to move toward an inclusive environment and truly create a representative leadership team.
Build and open your network. Be deliberate about reaching out to leaders who identify as racial minorities and ask them to introduce you to their network.
If working with a search firm, ask them to start with a slate of diverse candidates first, not just give you a slate of candidates and include some diverse candidates. If you cannot find a candidate in the initial pool of diverse leaders, you can open that pool up over time.
When hiring a leader, you should understand that we all have built-in biases and that many of us have the benefits of privilege. I strongly suggest that hiring managers take unconscious bias training and refresh what they have learned each time they are hiring a leader.
Include panels of diverse leaders in the interview process. You will not attract diverse leaders if they are not able to see someone that looks like them. This means that you may need to call upon your diverse leaders to carry the burden of participating in many recruitments. But, this approach will ensure that the right questions are asked of the candidates and that the candidates will see visible signs that your organization is committed to diversity.
I want to leave you with some powerful numbers to think about. In her book, White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo highlights how our most powerful institutions are almost completely without the perspective and talents of people of color. As you read these statistics, I invite you to think about what effect having a handful of minorities in leadership positions actually has when confronted with this reality. We need a fundamental shift in how we think about leadership diversity in our organizations, not just checking the box with a few diverse leaders.
Ten Richest Americans: 100% white
US Congress: 90% white
US governors: 96% white
Top military advisors: 100% white
President and vice president: 100% white
US House Freedom Caucus: 99% white
Current US presidential cabinet: 91% white
People who decide which TV shows we see: 93% white
People who decide which books we read: 90% white
People who decide which news is covered: 85% white
People who decide which music is produced: 95% white
People who directed the one hundred top-grossing films of all time, worldwide: 95% white
Teachers: 82% white
Full-time college professors: 84% white
Owner’s of men’s professional football teams: 97% white
Over the past few months, we have seen a pandemic that has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities, we have seen joblessness and financial despair and we have seen George Floyd killed, to our horror, in front of our eyes. As a result of these injustices, and many others that have long been a part of our society, we continue to see protests in our city and around the country. Many of us know, this is a time for action.
This is a time for leaders to take a stand. It is not enough to have good intentions, it is not enough to say that Black Lives Matter, leaders must act. As a leader, you can start by making your expectations clear – racism is not tolerated at your organization. It is also important for a leader to use their platform in the community.
At my own organization, I sent out a message last week outlining a list of actions that I have and will take towards ending the injustice of racism. Here are a few examples of my commitments:
1. I will leverage trusted advisors: For the last 13 years, I have served as the Chair of Diversity Council at my organization. I have continued to hold this role as CEO. The Council has served as trusted advisors to me on all matters related to diversity, inclusion and equity. I will continue to use the Diversity Council, our Employee Resource Groups and our Chief Diversity Officer, to guide my decisions around policies and programs.
2. I will increase the number of diverse leaders at my organization: In the last five years as CEO, we have hired seven executives and one Department Chair who identify as racial minorities. While that may seem like a step forward, it is clear I have more room to increase the diversity of leaders at my organization. I have set very specific expectations for my team and myself to increase the diversity of our leaders over the next several years.
3. I will promote health equity: As a CEO of a hospital, I will develop a more formal Health Equity Center and appoint a leader to focus on developing clinical programs, based on our research, which will promote health equity.
4. I will raise awareness and set an example: I will use my leadership platform and my organization’s role in the community as a trusted source of information, to inform the public and elected officials about the fact that racism is a public health crisis. I will continue using resources to support programs and services in black communities so that every child has a fair chance at a healthy future.
If you are a leader, it is time to act. Develop a clear list of action steps, make certain that they are measurable, not simply good intentions. Distribute those action steps to your organization and make sure you develop forums where you can listen to the people who identify as racial minorities and let them know that they matter to you. Leaders can make a difference to end the injustices of racism in our organizations and our society.
I have always admired Dr. Eve J. Higginbotham. She is the Vice Dean and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and I consider her both a friend and professional colleague. I sat down to interview her about Diversity in Leadership last year, but I wanted to share a letter she wrote following the death of George Floyd and the ensuing public outrage and awakening we are now seeing. Thank you to Eve for being such a vocal leader. I will be sharing more on my thoughts about how leaders need to be responding to the current moment next week.
My heart is broken. As a community, I know we share the pain of what our nation is experiencing at this time. The disproportionate impact of COVID 19 on communities of color was only the beginning of this angst, as we recognize that these disparities in illness reflect structural inequities in our nation. The deaths of Breonna Taylor and Armaud Arbery were added reminders of the basic belief held by some individuals that black lives do not matter. Then, on the evening of Memorial Day, a video appears that should disturb all of us to our core, the brutal and horrible death of GeorgeFloyd, painfully being executed under the knee of an officer. Now the entire world knows just how devalued black lives are in the country. It is a visual reminder that this is a country that is not a just, fair, and civilized society.
As a democracy, we share a social contract that we will share values and abide by a code of laws. That code was broken under the crushing pressure of police officer’s knee and thus, the protests continue day after day. In previous times, we had national leaders who could articulate unifying messages, to immediately act constructively, to reaffirm our core values, and renew the social contract. Based on the actions of government leaders on June 1, we are either headed towards a military state or for those of us, who remain hopeful, we will emerge a better society, infused with renewed purpose and a refreshed, revised agenda.
I am reminded during this difficult time of the phrase, “to whom much is given, much is required.” As professionals, we have had opportunities that few others will ever realize. We also have responsibilities as medical professionals, in our roles as healers and scientists. Thus, using our gifts, our opportunities, our blessings, what can we do to help craft the alternative path to the one that national leaders appear to endorse. How can we emerge as a better society?
Each of us will need to seriously reflect on this specific question. To get you started, here are a few thoughts to consider. First of all, reflect on your own biases and recognize that we all have biases. I once thought that this was a given, a concept shared by most, however there are many who believe they have no biases which is impossible given the society in which we live, as described above. I start here because once one begins the process of mitigating bias, your thought processes are rebooted to consider other ways to view relationships and the world. For example, the world could easily detect the bias in the interpretation of the first autopsy report of George Floyd, which found no evidence of asphyxiation. Most of us quickly knew that this conclusion was a biased interpretation of findings considering that Mr. Floyd expressed his own diagnosis minutes before passing when he stated, “I can’t breathe.” The initial report noted other chronic conditions that contributed, likely heart disease within the list. However, Mr. Floyd did not complain of chest pain in those final moments, but difficulty breathing! Thus, it was no surprise that a family sponsored autopsy affirmed asyphyxiation as the cause of death.
Theexample of Mr. Floyd’s autopsy report reminds me of the biased “science” of Samuel Morton and his attempts to create a ranking for the skulls he filled with seeds to measure their volumes. This misguided experiment haunts our society to this day. It reminds of Benjamin Rush, who recruited African Americans to care for patients who were seriously ill with yellow fever because of perceived immunity to the disease. This perceived immunity continues to haunt us today based on initial beliefs among some individuals that believed that African Americans were immune to COVID 19. Of course, we know now that this previous understanding is ludicrous. While we cannot erase the misguided findings of these physicians and scientists, we can document an alternative narrative based on data, refreshed understanding of the impact of previous practice, and a new paradigm to understand pathophysiology and care for patients without using the framing put forward by Morton centuries ago.
As the title suggests, my heart may be broken but I remain sustained by hope. The chant “Keep Hope Alive” encouraged me to get up every day “to fight the good fight” in the 60s and the 70s, and I hear that same phrase now in this moment. As a biomedical scientific community, we have to move away from the use of “race” as defined by Morton which was erroneously captured as a biological construct. I was hopeful when the Human Genome Project was completed, demonstrating that we are 99.9% the same, however, the practice unfortunately continues to be still trapped in an outdated mindset. Certainly we need to discuss the institutionalized racism that contributes to the health and disease, however the term “race” should remain a social construct and not a biological construct. We need to remove “race-corrected” risk factors and therapeutic strategies and distill the key contributors to disease down to specific biologically measurable findings. In my own discipline of ophthalmology, the best example is the use of central corneal thickness to define who is likely to develop glaucoma among ocular hypertensives, and not simply the phenotypic presentation of a patient. Thus, one can examine an African American patient with thick central corneas and ocular hypertension and follow that patient rather than immediately treat. Each discipline has similar examples, and thus there is the opportunity to reframe the interpretation of findings in an unbiased way.
Yes, I am hopeful that this next generation of physicians and scientists will be forever transformed by these last several weeks and at the very least move the practice of medicine and scientific discovery to a more equitable platform. Besides voting in every election, these are just a few of the actions we have within our grasp. By implementing a new way of thinking and acting upon that reframing, we can expect to arrive at a new plateau, where black lives matter, and renew the social contract for everyone.
After being at home every day with my two-year-old daughter and my husband for 10 plus weeks, we’ve found some new clarity on how we want our family life to operate going forward. Over the weekend, a conversation about egg muffins became an a-ha moment. For those who’ve don’t know about this Pinterest-inspired convenience breakfast, they are mini frittatas that you can make ahead of time for a week of busy mornings, everyone rushing to get ready for work and daycare. I casually mentioned that we hadn’t made them in a while, and we should make a batch. As the words left my mouth, I realized – we don’t need to eat breakfast quickly (or in the car) anymore. We’ve enjoyed eating three meals a day at our dinner table together as a family for almost three months. No one is commuting, we’re not doing daily pickups and dropoffs at daycare. There is simply more time.
Another a-ha moment was on our daughter’s birthday. We had a big party planned to celebrate her turning two, which we were sad to cancel. But when the day came, we realized that she was probably happier spending time with just us rather than having a house full of people singing happy birthday to her (I still have video of her crying as we all sang to her at her first birthday party). As we sat there with her eating pizza and Face-timing with family, we also reflected on how much more exhausted and less present we’d be if we were entertaining for 50 people.
There is a silver lining to this virus that I think many families can relate to. We typically have (exhausting) play dates, work commitments and weekend plans with friends and family. We spend time researching 30 minute meals and efficient meal prep ideas, we take late-day phone calls from the car to maximize our workday before daycare pickup, we spend all weekend cleaning the mess that our hurricane of a schedule creates in our home. We enjoy only a few hours each weekday with our daughter. Now, we have almost 40 extra hours a week to watch her grow and change. While the stress of balancing two careers without childcare has been hard, we’ve found a way to share the load and make it work (though that is not the case for many women). We realize how much we can actually get done in fewer hours, and we’ve made the decision to reduce how many hours she’s in daycare for the future. We’re lucky to have this option, but it made me realize how much I wish it was the norm. Many families have no choice but to go along with the 40+ hour workweeks that our culture has deemed the “right” way to do things.
In our social circles and our workplaces, there seems to be a new level of acceptance of putting family first. The expectations on our time and energy have lowered. I don’t feel bad when I’m on the phone with a client and my child is yelling for more crackers in the background. We’re seeing how easily meetings can be phone calls, emails or video conferences. We’re all in the same boat, and the important work still gets done. Yes, we are missing the connection that physical proximity brings, but it’s giving us the chance to reset and learn which obligations fill us up, and which take away from our precious energy. It’s given us the mental space to re-evaluate our priorities and try to change our lives in any way we can to align with them. It’s not possible for everyone, but it’s my hope that American work culture can start to change, allowing people to more easily put family first.
