Leaders in health share advice on supporting women in leadership

Dame Sally Davies, the UK special envoy on antimicrobial resistance, joins Sciana: The Health Leaders Network to share her leadership story and takeaways

Sciana: Health Leaders Network invited Dame Sally Davies, the UK special envoy for antimicrobial resistance, to an in-depth and personal discussion about women and leadership earlier this year.

A former chief medical officer for England, Davies discussed a longstanding challenge around gendered norms in leadership. Sciana participants Shera Chok (Cohort 2), Anna Babette Stier (Cohort 4), and senior ambassador David Behan also shared insights from their experience.

Davies and Sciana members then proposed different ways of negotiating with - and overcoming - gender barriers and bias.

At the session, held for International Women’s Day, important themes emerged around ways to promote equality, inclusion, and diversity in leadership and organisations. We pulled out some key takeaways from this in-depth discussion to advise organisations and people in leadership roles.

1. GOING BEYOND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND INCLUSION

Advice to organisations

Davies emphasised that supporting women as employees and leaders means allowing women and other minorities to make changes that enable their success and the greater whole.

When Davies established the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) in 2016, she noticed several challenges facing female scientists. For example, in bidding into £800 million over five years for setting up Biomedical Research Centers, the NHS, and especially academic institutions, lacked female representation in these applications every five years.

Davies said, “I was so embarrassed.” Davies sent letters to every medical school and hospital in the country, making it clear that they would not shortlist academic institutions for funding without the Athena Swan Charter Award at the silver level for women in science at the next five-year competition point. Although she received “some really nasty stuff” in response, she also received gratitude.

In Anna Babette Stier’s experience, this also means being open to a different management style that diverges from hierarchical, traditional masculinity scripts in leadership culture.

Organisations should be prepared to adapt and accept change. For example, women leaders might prefer to invest time in team feedback and appreciation, develop trusting relationships with staff, and build a more cooperative, transparent, and open working culture.

Advice to leaders

Despite some negative institutional responses, Davies’ actions to support other female scientists make clear that leaders looking to advance equality and diversity must be willing to act boldly to defend these values. In addition, they must have the courage to face some of the negative responses that come with making long-term changes and shifting the whole system.

Stier encourages leaders to focus on improving organisational culture and avoid imitating the behaviour that inhibits a more cooperative and caring culture. Build alliances with like-minded people with similar values and learn from strong women leaders. Take steps to be an authentic leader, which “entails sharing doubts and being fallible and transparent with your colleagues.” and overcome patterns that imply the notion that leadership must hurt to be real and effective.

Stier highlights symbolic action, such as reorganising hierarchical allocation and redesigning staff office space, is a great way to tackle power dynamics and create a different relationship between people.

2. TAKE DELIBERATE ACTION TO TACKLE IMPOSTER SYNDROME

Advice to organisations

In highlighting imposter syndrome as a challenge to her performance, Davies’ personal story illuminated the importance of investing in training for leaders in topics such as negotiation and emotional intelligence. For her, these were critical factors to her career progression in the NHS. By the mid-90s, she became regional director for R&D for London and was responsible for 53 per cent of the money allocated for R&D in the entire NHS, which other Regional Directors found difficult.

Shera Chok underlined the value of joining professional development networks, especially for ethnic minority women to progress in male-dominated sectors and career paths. Chok co-founded the Shuri Network in 2019, the first NHS professional development network of BAME women in digital health to address this challenge.

Advice to leaders

Discuss possible training options at work. When Davies realised she needed more skills to perform her role effectively, she laid out a clear set of scenarios to her manager: she would leave, suffer burnout, or receive additional training paid for by her manager. Davies’ manager agreed she could study emotional intelligence at the European Business School. She said, “What I learned there has stayed with me, and it’s probably a big reason for why I am where I am.”

Be patient, don’t underestimate your knowledge, and embrace the mantra ”fake it ‘till you make it.” Despite her success at building a successful sickle cell disease service – the largest in the UK, Davies drew on this state of mind when joining an important research funding committee chaired by several famous professors.

Davies mentioned “imposter syndrome got easier” and added that “the first year, I said very little… The second year, I joined in and said something because I’d worked out what was going on and what was needed. By the end of the third year, they asked me to chair it…” 

3. FEELING VALUED, ENGAGED, AND RECOGNISED

Advice to organisations

Retaining women and other minorities in leadership roles and allowing them to flourish entails ensuring that they are engaged and valued.

Advice to women in leadership

Define and reinforce your non-negotiables – even if that means leaving. In Davies’ stories, she shared countless examples of unwavering resolve to stand up and make clear what she was willing to accept.

Davies became one of two NHS  national deputy directors for R&D as her career progressed. An opportunity to apply for the national director-general post later emerged, which she took with both hands. When looking at the shortlist of candidates, Davies spoke to the chief medical officer (CMO) and laid out a few conditions and scenarios following a discussion with her executive coach. First, she told him, “I need to tell you I don’t respect any of the men that are going in that you’re going to shortlist. I’ve decided I’ll apply, and if you don’t take me, I’m giving up R&D because I’m not doing it for someone I don’t respect.”

Later, when looking at the shortlist of candidates for the chief medical officer (CMO) post, Davies laid out a few conditions and scenarios with the Head of the Department of Health, highlighting two conditions: if she got the job, she would continue her R&D work and if not appointed Davies would shift her reporting line from the new CMO to the Department Head.

Davies advanced through the application process and was on each occasion able to get the job offer.

Advice to men in leadership

Reflecting on his leadership journey, senior ambassador David Behan emphasised the importance of creating an environment where the organisation attends to people’s physical and psycho-emotional health and wellbeing. He mentioned the key to achieving this was tolearn and actively listen, shifting from “broadcast mode” to “receiving mode.” 

Behan recommends asking questions, such as “What’s getting in the way of you being the best you can be?” In addition, he said emotional intelligence is “the most essential skill of leaders today.”

4. MENTORS AND CHAMPIONS

Advice to organisations

Support a spirit of mentorship within your organisation and explore different mentorship schemes to implement within your organisation. Support and encourage women and staff from minority groups by creating opportunities for them to gain experience and exposure to leaders in your organisaiton. External programs and networks can also help connect them to role models and peer support networks. The Shuri Network is an example.

Advice to leaders

Davies recommends finding a set of mentors who can help you think through what best to do, and make sure to be in touch with champions who can best connect you to the right people and useful opportunities.

FURTHER REFLECTIONS

Inclusion is only the first step. Organisations will need to be receptive to change if they are committed to diversity.

Like many other organisational culture change initiatives, such as safety culture in health care, change efforts start with assessing the organisation’s preparedness for change. So what are the key signs organisations are prepared to welcome and adapt to diversity in the workplace?

Another theme to explore further is organisational practices for work/family reconciliation, a commonly reported challenge among women in the workforce.