by Madeline Bell | Oct 22, 2018 | Challenges, Leadership
This past month has brought up many memories from my years as a young woman. With the controversy surrounding Brett Kavanaugh having subsided from the news a bit, it’s left me reflecting on my own experience and has led to conversations with my high school and college friends. We have been asking ourselves, how do these stories relate to our own experiences? Unfortunately, what we’re seeing today is all too familiar.
I attended high school in the 1970’s and college in the early 1980’s. My friends and I recently recalled the measures we took to defend ourselves from being victims of sexual predators among our peers. We protected each other by going to parties in packs and taking inventory to ensure that we didn’t leave a lone female friend behind at a fraternity party. During Senior Week in high school, we literally locked our friend in a bedroom to protect her from a a classmate known for sexual assault.
I cringe thinking about these memories. Why did we go to these parties? Why did I accept these circumstances as normal, when I would never accept them now? Yes, it was a different time. During our coming of age, it was not acceptable to go to the police or talk to our parents. Sadly, we simply took it upon ourselves to deal with horrendous behavior from young men. We did not hold them accountable, nor did we push our parents, teachers, elected officials or community leaders to address the issues that we knew were happening on our college campuses and at high school parties.
My sincere hope is that following this recent controversy, we can all take an honest look at the crimes that Brett Kavanaugh has been accused of committing and collectively admit that the behavior described was not unheard of during that time. Young women have always had to contend with the scenarios described by Dr. Blasey Ford, and they still do. They happen every day. We are making progress, but without acknowledging how frequently these situations occur, we will never help the next generation to stop accepting what generations before them have as normal.
Fast forward, now that I am a leader, with a platform, I can make it clear that sexual harassment and predatory behavior is unacceptable. With more awareness and frankly, more women in leadership positions, I believe we will.
by Madeline Bell | Sep 11, 2018 | Career Change, Confidence, Leadership, Mentoring, Professional Growth, Women in the Workplace
I’m in the privileged position of being able to share advice and mentor other women. It’s something I love doing; something I think is so important to help ensure there are more women leaders. While I enjoy being in this role, it’s so nice when the tables are turned, when I get to meet women who have helped paved the roads to equality before me.
A few weeks ago, I was able to sit down with two local women who inspire me – Suzanne Roberts, an award-winning actress, director, producer and television host, and Dr. Lucy Rorke-Adams, a pioneer in the field of neuropathology. These two women have had extraordinarily different career paths and life stories, but I discovered a common thread that I felt compelled to write about: let’s call it relentless curiosity. Both are going strong at ages 97 and 89 respectively, continuing to pursue passions and contribute to the world.
Suzanne Roberts, who was married to the late Ralph Roberts (founder and CEO of Comcast), has reinvented herself over and over again. Beginning her career as an actress, Suzanne went on to create groundbreaking political television programming which resulted in her book, The Candidate and Television, a guide on how both political parties could utilize the new medium of television. This was during a time when few women were working outside the home, much less leading the way in a new field of communication. She received international recognition for her landmark psychotherapy work with Navajo children, which led to a documentary film, Discoveries in Communication, and worldwide lectures to governmental and medical institutions. For the past 15 years, Suzanne has served as an Emmy Award-winning creator and host of Seeking Solutions with Suzanne, a nationally broadcast weekly informational show targeted to an older adult audience (to reiterate: she decided to create, produce and host a weekly television show when she was 80-years-old!). 
I was recently interviewed for her show, and was in awe of this woman; 97-years-old and she sat in front of me, beautifully dressed, thoroughly prepared for the interview, and never missed a beat as she worked with her production staff to create a compelling episode of television. After she interviewed me, I reversed our roles and asked her a few questions of my own. I wanted to know what motivated her, how she was able to stay so driven in her later years. She seemed almost perplexed by the question, seemingly unaware that how she spends her days is not typical for a woman of her age. After a moment she replied, “Well what else would I do? Sit at home and lunch with the ladies? That’s never been my interest.” When I asked her what advice she would give younger women who hope to be as engaged and passionate as she is in their nineties, she spoke about desire. She knew what she wanted, and simply followed those desires. She described what stood out to me as an insatiable interest in the world – an ambition to meet new people and learn new things every day. She knew what she wanted, and she didn’t let anything stand in her way; not her gender, her age nor expectations of what she should be doing with her time. I couldn’t help but leave the interview feeling hopeful and optimistic for what life may hold for me in my next chapters.
I’ve known Dr. Lucy Rorke-Adams for many years and she’s always been a hero of mine. As a colleague at CHOP (she retired after 50 years with the hospital at age 86), I’ve been aware of her innumerable contributions to the field of pediatric neuropathology. I’ve also gotten to know her as a person, and been inspired by her innate leadership abilities. I saw down with her last month for my podcast, Breaking Through with Madeline Bell, to dig a little deeper into what has motivated her all of these years. Much to my surprise, there were many similarities to what I heard from Suzanne Roberts the day before.
Lucy originally wanted to be an opera singer until her out-of-town audition with a Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano was cancelled when the singer took sick. Shifting gears, she started as a clinical psychologist and worked evenings in a psychology clinic while earning her medical degree from the University of Minnesota. There were ten women in her cohort, with five making it through the entire program. While Lucy is adamant that her gender never held her back, she did recall going to meet with the Chief of Neurosurgery during her residency, expressing an interest in the specialty. He told her, “You’ll starve to death if you follow that course. No one will send a patient to a woman neurosurgeon.”
She landed on the subspecialty of neuropathology – a relatively under-researched field at the time. She read the available literature on the malformations of children’s brains (most of which was in German – but surprise, surprise, she just happened to be able to read German!) and found little answers to the causes of these malformations. Her work now informs everything we do today in our research on the brains of babies and children. It is no understatement to call her a living legend. She has held various leadership roles, including being the first female president of Philadelphia General Hospital’s medical staff, acting chair of Pathology at CHOP, president of the American Association of Neuropathology, president of the medical staff at CHOP, and unexpectedly helped run the Hospital for 18 months starting in 1986 during an extended search for a chief executive officer. These were not positions Lucy sought out, but fell into because those around her saw her leadership qualities, her extreme capabilities and her brilliance.
There is one anecdote about Lucy that I think aptly describes just why I admire her so much. After her retirement at age 86, she thought a nice post-career hobby was studying Astronomy –not knitting, not playing cards, not even traveling, but learning a new, complex field of science. When the light pollution near her home threated her new passion, she quickly shifted gears. Since then she has poured all of her energy into a foundation that her husband established in 1999, focused on training high school teachers and students in math, physics, chemistry and biology. She recognizes that Americans are falling behind in science, and is laser-focused on improving the education in these STEM subjects.
In an era when we are (rightfully) hyper-aware of the lingering inequalities between men and women, it’s both refreshing and inspiring to see two women who never let their gender hold them back. Both Suzanne and Lucy developed their own unique passions and simply forged ahead despite not having many other women’s examples to follow. I believe their relentless curiosity is a quality we can all cultivate. If we stay open to the world, to ourselves and what we want to accomplish, our lives don’t have to end after retirement. This is a skill I will continue to build, so that when the day comes to reinvent myself, my next passion will be clear.
by Madeline Bell | Aug 5, 2018 | Leadership, Women in the Workplace
I define myself in many ways – a former nurse, an advocate for children, a mother, a grandmother, a female executive and a mentor. I feel that my life experiences have given me a unique perspective that can inspire others. My goal with this blog has always been to share my experiences in the hopes that other women will identify with me and learn from my career path. I also know men who follow my blog to learn leadership tips and hopefully better understand women’s unique workplace challenges. Despite the challenges women still face in the workplace, I’m continually inspired by those who work alongside me at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The work that comes out of our organization continually leads to breakthroughs in pediatric medicine, making children and families safer, healthier and happier. So much of that work is done by women; women who have found success in the traditionally male-dominated fields of scientific research and medicine. These stories are compelling and are not often celebrated enough.
I am very excited to share a new podcast I’ve been working on called Breaking Through with Madeline Bell, where I conduct interviews with the brilliant people, both men and women, who are making – and supporting – incredible breakthroughs in pediatric medicine. I truly believe that hearing from these individuals will help more people understand just how important this work is, while also providing hope that each and every day we are learning more to improve that state of children’s healthcare. Not every episode is focused on breakthroughs from our female researchers, physicians and donors. However, as I come across interesting stories that relate to the Heels of Success mission, I will be diving deeper behind-the-scenes on the blog with women whose career accomplishments can help elevate and inspire other women. I’d love to encourage you to listen to our first three episodes of Breaking Through. You can subscribe and download them here, and we will release a new episode every month.
As always, thank you for your support and interest in the conversations I’m hoping to start. I hope you enjoy the podcast!
Madeline
by Madeline Bell | Aug 28, 2017 | Leadership
As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, leaders are watched. Whether you realize it or not, followers listen to you, even when you don’t intend to send messages. It is for this reason that I am often very cautious about staying focused on messages of leadership and organizational culture while steering away from political messages. I have not used my leadership platform to make any statements that may be misconstrued as political. In fact, I value people from “both sides of the aisle” and I have worked along side of both Democrats and Republicans.
I have kept to this practice until recently, when I began speaking out to advocate for preserving Medicaid funding for children. I was even a bit uncomfortable putting my views out there but I felt that I need to be the voice of children who cannot vote or speak for themselves – who better than me, who has the ear of elected officials? Now, I must take that a step further, as I believe all leaders need to do when we face intolerance. I cannot insulate the people I work with from some of the hate in this country but I can make my workplace a safe and tolerant place for all employees and patients. And, I can use my leadership platform to send messages to employees. Here is an excerpt from a recent message I sent to employees:
“…It was painful to see the hatred that unfolded in Charlottesville, but it inspired me to work even harder to model the values we are reinforcing. I am confident that tolerance and equality will overwhelmingly defeat hate and violence. We have a shared responsibility to make our workplace a place where all staff, visitors and patients feel respected, welcome and safe. By promoting a culture of respect and diversity, we can deliver on this commitment and send a strong message that our team of 14,000 will not stand for anything less….”
If you are a leader, now is the time to use your platform in more deliberate ways to influence others. It is much easier to be complacent, but as history tells us, dangerous things can happen when leaders look the other way.
by Amy Hou | Sep 22, 2016 | Leadership, Leading Teams
Photo by Jeff Fusco
I took a bit of a break due to a trip to the summer Olympics in Rio and a 9-day trip to London. Now that I am back from that travel, I plan to update the blog more regularly!
Over the summer I guided an older gentleman on a tour of CHOP. He had a special historical connection to the Hospital and has been a longtime supporter. I felt grateful for the opportunity to spend time with him since he is the retired CEO of a very successful company. Although he is no longer CEO, he remains on the board. Along the way, he had some good advice for me.
He told me the story behind hiring the CEO who replaced him. He said that he had two candidates, one who had the very best Ivy League School business credentials with an impeccable resume of experience. The second candidate he considered was someone from a less prestigious business school and not as experienced.
His company selected the second candidate for the role. Although he did not have the same pedigree, this former CEO told me that the board hired the second candidate simply because he embodied the company’s values.
His comment made me reflect on the organizational values where I work — Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence — and the importance of assessing those values in the people that I hire. Experience can be gained, but embracing and truly living your organizational values is what is most critical to success. When you hire people, reflect on your values and the values of the company where you work. Make certain that you ask questions and reference check to better understand how well your candidate embodies those values. Don’t get distracted from what’s important by placing all your focus on pedigree and experience.
I always tell people that everyone you hire is a reflection on you and an extension of your leadership. Ensuring that you surround yourself with people who espouse your values is an important foundational step toward making sure they represent you as the leader and the place where you work.
by Amy Hou | May 2, 2016 | Leadership, Leading Teams, Mentoring, Professional Growth, Starting Out
Over the past month, I have spoken to three people about their future career options. Each was seeking career advancement and an executive title. In each case, I told them that chasing a title is not actually the best way to advance. Of course, that seems easy for me to say with the title of President and CEO. But hear me out…
When I probed about their interest in title progression, I heard them make comments such as, “I want to have credibility and I want a seat at the table.” I continue to hear this from others that I have mentored over the years. They hold the misconception, as many do, that a title will buy them leadership credibility and followership. But the title is not the ticket to leadership. There are other qualities that shape a leader and that, most importantly, generate followership.
One of those qualities is possessing influencing skills. These are skills which help you understand how influence works in your organization and how you can use that influence to better carry out your leadership goals.
More than a title, aspiring and current leaders need to understand that gaining followership from influencing people is critical to success. So, what does that look like? How does one gain influence? First, one must identify the stakeholders. These are the people that are impacted by a certain decision. Once you’ve identified them, spend time with them. Share your viewpoint on a situation and ask them to identify others that may help you to lead in a certain direction.
An effective leader does not say “Do this!” and expect it to be automatically done. An effective leader creates a map of who needs to be involved, who will be impacted, and who is in a position to help me lead.
Even with the title of President and CEO, I use my influencing skills to lead far more than my title. It is with influencing skills that one actually get things done.
