When Our Achievements Are Discredited

For most women, the op-ed by The Wall Street Journal’s Joseph Epstein represents something that’s all too familiar. Without giving it too much more air time, his general argument was that Dr. Jill Biden should consider dropping the “Dr.” from her title since she is not a medical doctor. He goes on to mock her dissertation on “Student Retention at the Community College” Level: Meeting Students’ Needs,” and suggests that her title feels “fraudulent” and “comic.” The condescension, the defense that his argument was directed at both men and women, and the clear disdain for ambitious and accomplished women is something women have dealt with — and continue to deal with — for years. 

There has been much fury over the decision by the Wall Street Journal to publish this, and many have rushed to Dr. Biden’s defense. However, there are many women who deal with this type of attitude that don’t benefit from national outrage and begin to internalize these sexist attempts to diminish our accomplishments. Often, they are less egregious and less public than this op-ed, but nevertheless, common and real. 

I will never forget the time when I was excited to meet a well-known elected official. I was introduced as the President of my organization. The person responded – you are too young and pretty to be President. I felt my face get red, luckily it was an evening event in a dark room. I was left speechless and simply shook his hand. I walked away feeling as though I did not “own the role.”  But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was his problem, not mine. Unfortunately, he is in a position of power and has the ability to make decisions about women and their careers. This incident happened before the # MeToo movement and I often wonder whether that same person would be more aware of how he speaks about women leaders now.

In the words of Michelle Obama (who defended Dr. Biden in a recent Instagram post), “We’re all seeing what also happens to so many professional women, whether their titles are Dr., Ms., Mrs., or even First Lady: All too often our accomplishments are met with skepticism, even derision. We’re doubted by those who choose the weakness of ridicule over the strength of respect. And yet somehow, their words can stick — after decades of work, we’re forced to prove ourselves all over again.” 

Indeed, their words can stick. So my message to any woman reading this today is that next time your accomplishments, whether personal or professional, are belittled, ridiculed or diminished, remember that that is a sign of their weakness. You are not an imposter and there are many people out there who see your hard work and respect it. Tell another woman about your experience, commiserate together, and then commit yourselves to speaking out loudly when you see it being done to other women.

The Role that Leaders Play in Creating the New “Office” Experience

The Role that Leaders Play in Creating the New “Office” Experience

We are all experiencing a big shift in the way we work. Even prior to the pandemic, more people were working remotely than ever before. Now, 42 percent of the U.S. labor force is working from home full-time, according to new research from Stanford University. Most of the stigmas about working from home have eroded as we all adjust to this new reality. Although there are some who crave a return to office or want their teams to return to the office, I think leaders can and will play an important role in creating flexibility in where we work. I am hoping that in our post-COVID world, we will have a more flexible, work-from-home economy. 

I work at a place where most of the staff have been on site at the bedside or in exam rooms caring for patients. But, we still have more than 5,000 people working from home. I also sit on boards that have held all of their meetings remotely for the past 8 months. I could never have imagined this kind of shift. So how do leaders play a role in ensuring that we learn from this new normal and develop new and sustainable work habits?

It starts with modeling the right behaviors and ensuring that you don’t tolerate what I call “AWA (alternative work arrangement) shaming”. I do a combination of AWA and working on site, so that I am visible to those that need to be physically there. I believe that visibility goes a long way towards showing that I value and support their work. At the same time, I am trying to ensure that our leaders get much more comfortable with the idea that oftentimes their teams are more productive at home. 

I practice and get comfortable with my new normal. When I can, I take walks if I have a break during the day. Clearing my head is really important and gives me the opportunity to think and act more purposefully. Until recently, I would have never built that time into my day. I have also been trying to create some boundaries when I work at home. When you are working from home, it is easy to start working from the time you open your eyes until bedtime. I needed to stop that behavior by putting boundaries around my work time and I needed to express that to my leadership team. 

Now that 90% of my closet — the part that comprises my business attire — has been dormant for many months, I have gotten more comfortable with “dressing down”. In the past, I was much more formal at work and hence created a more formal dress code atmosphere with the people around me. That will change now that I have gotten more comfortable with a relaxed business attire at home and in the office. Today I actually wore black jeans and a cardigan sweater to work. I would have never done that in the past but I am committed to creating a new, more comfortable trend.

I do miss being able to grab a tea with a colleague or go to a happy hour networking event after work. But, virtual happy hours and cooking demonstrations have become a new evening event for me. While it is not the same as in-person connections, it is a way to meet our deep need for human connection during this isolating time.

My husband and I often remark about how lucky we are that our kids are grown and we are not homeschooling them while working from home. I’m fortunate to have a living situation that allows me to work from home successfully, but I know a lot of people who don’t have that same luxury of privacy or a designated workspace at home. I have seen some of my colleagues get very creative. One works from his garage to give him space from his children who are attending school virtually. I do worry about the long-term effects caused by the disparity in home offices, and women are disproportionately affected due to child care responsibilities.  

The separation between our work and personal lives can be hard to distinguish right now, so setting boundaries anyway we can is imperative to our success and wellbeing. I am committed to making sure that more flexible working arrangements are sustainable in the future. In the meantime, we are all learning as we go and doing our best to model an “it’s okay to work from home” mindset with our teams.

What’s Happening to Young Working Women?

What’s Happening to Young Working Women?

This week, I was reviewing a few important projects with one of my team members, when I asked about two of the women who had been leading the work. My colleague shared with me that both of the women were on voluntary furlough so that they could care for their young children due to childcare provider closures from the pandemic. She told me about a third high-potential woman who is struggling to home school her children now that their school went back to remote learning. Later that same day, I was talking to an employee who told me that she needed to reduce her hours in order to help her daughter with remote learning. I was crestfallen to hear these stories for two reasons. One, I came to the conclusion that at my organization, we are losing the talent of these young women and two, what does this say about the future of women in the workplace?

After doing a bit of research, I realized the situation we are seeing at my organization is not anecdotal. In September alone, almost 900,000 women dropped out of the workforce in the U.S. According to an analysis by the Center for American Progress (of these, 324,000 were Latinas and 58,000 were Black women.) Millennial mothers are nearly three times more likely than millennial fathers to report being unable to work due to a school or childcare closure from the pandemic. While this massive exit from the job market by young mothers is shocking, this statistic is not a product of the pandemic alone. It represents the intersection of many complex issues.

For many decades, we’ve focused on the progress women have made in narrowing the wage gap, advancing their careers while also having children and generally, “having it all.” But when you really talk to young women who are doing this, they still feel like they’re walking a tightrope and could fall off at any moment. Women are still responsible for the majority of childcare and household duties, as study after study continues to show. Despite being highly educated and represented in the workforce at unprecedented levels, Millennial women are making less than Gen X women. This is in part, due to entering the workforce during the largest economic downtown since the Great Depression. According to the Atlantic, “The generation unlucky enough to enter the labor market in a recession suffers “significant” earnings losses that take years and years to rebound, studies show, something that hard data now backs up.”

The verdict is that this resulted in a full decade of lost wages for this generation of women. 

On top of all of this, the childcare crisis parents are experiencing right now, while amplified, isn’t really new. For example, nearly 2 million parents had to leave work, change jobs or turn down a job offer because of child care obligations in 2016. For 62% of full-time working parents, child care is unaffordable according to a 2018 survey by the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Police at Brandeis University. In fact, the expense of childcare was cited as the number one reason for our declining birth rate according to another survey conducted by the New York Times. 

The culmination is a generation of working mothers who are underpaid, overstretched in terms of household duties, spending an outsized proportion of their income on childcare (as well as the cost of their labor to find, interview, coordinate and manage childcare) and who still feel the extreme pressure of navigating their career growth while raising children (women were found to be twice as likely as fathers to feel their work performance is being judged negatively because of their caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic.) A recent US News & World Report article describes the end result well, “Many working mothers are feeling burned out by the overwhelming demands of both work and home.” 

As leaders, it’s important to recognize that what working mother’s feel did not happen overnight. In 2018, just 28% of mothers with children under 18 said that working full time was ideal (according to the Institute for Family Studies). While I worry deeply about the long term effects of this current crisis for our young working mothers, I am also more committed than ever to supporting the conditions that lead to bringing them back in enthusiastically. This means advocating for changes in how we fund childcare and childcare workers, continuing to look for ways to close the wage gap between not just men and women, but also between women of color, millennial women and older generations, and continuing to push organizations to think about how they support parents to navigate this very complex issue.

How to Stay Focused on Advancing Your Career While Working Remotely

How to Stay Focused on Advancing Your Career While Working Remotely

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.

  1. 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. 

  1. 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.

  1. LinkedIn Learning Courses 

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” 
  1. 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. 

  1. 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. 

  1. 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.  

  1. 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.

Avoiding Tokenism

Avoiding Tokenism

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. 

  1. 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. 
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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
Intentions versus Action: A Leader’s Role in Taking a Stand Against Racism and Injustice

Intentions versus Action: A Leader’s Role in Taking a Stand Against Racism and Injustice

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.