Deep listening and bridging the gap between social care and healthcare

Mirjam Lämmle (-Weber) reflects on the start of her Sciana journey, leadership, and her first few months as CEO of the Swiss Cancer League

Mirjam Lämmle (-Weber) is CEO of the Swiss Cancer League, having previously served as a member of its management board. Mirjam began her professional journey as a social worker. After years of experience in psychosocial counselling in various fields, she continued her career at the Canton of Bern, where she was responsible for care planning in the field of health promotion and addiction and later in the Federal Office of Public Health, where she managed the national strategy of addiction.

She holds master's degrees in social work and in leadership and management and recently earned an international EMBA at the Universities of Bern and Rochester (USA). Mirjam is a member of Sciana's sixth cohort.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Sciana Network: What attracted you to apply for Sciana: The Health Leaders Network?

Mirjam Lämmle: “There were several reasons. First of all, I'm a very curious person. I really love to talk with people from different backgrounds, professionally and also culturally. It seemed very attractive to me to meet people [who] work in the same field but with other priorities and perspectives […]

The other reason was that I'm still working on my leadership skills. I'm very eager to improve them. I just accomplished an EMBA and also accomplished a MAS in leadership but I got the feeling that to improve my leadership, I want to talk to people in similar fields and positions and to reflect, and that's what I hope to find here with Sciana. For me, leadership involves working together with employees, developing and guiding them, but also changing structures – for example, in health and social services – by responsibly taking on the leadership of processes.

SN: Part of the Sciana Network's mission is to equip leaders in healthcare to tackle future challenges. What's a challenge you're facing in your work?

ML: There are several challenges, but what is really a challenge that is very close to my heart is how to bridge the field of social care with the field of healthcare in Switzerland.

In my organisation, for example, we work in the middle of those two fields. There are issues about finance but also about sharing knowledge: about how those systems and the people who work in the systems could work better together to address the big issues in our society in the area of access to healthcare and integration.

It will be crucial to bridge those two fields because you can't separate health issues from social determinants and vice versa. I am very committed to equal opportunities and easy access to support and healthcare – there is still a lot to be done in this area, even in Switzerland.

SN: An added benefit of the Sciana Network is that you get to learn more about the health systems in other countries. In your case, it would be Germany and the UK. Are you familiar with these health systems? Is there anything in particular you're looking to learn about them further?

ML: I thought I was quite familiar, but now that I've spoken to my colleagues from the UK and Germany, I realise that I'm not because every health system – also our own - has a high complexity.

What I'm really eager to learn about is the UK system. Although the UK's healthcare system faces major challenges, I see great potential in the approaches to integrated care when it comes to addressing social and health factors. We are also trying to implement some of these ideas in Switzerland, for example, by having social workers in GP practices. I repeat: health cannot be considered in isolation from a person's social situation.

SN: In August 2024, you started your new role as CEO of the Swiss Cancer League. What are your priorities, and what are you looking to achieve?

ML: [I want] to keep listening to my co-workers - the most important skill in leadership, and deep listening is something I also learned here in Salzburg. I want to create something with my co-workers, and I am very eager to face the challenges with my great team […]

I want to bring in questions that are particularly close to my heart. For example, low-threshold access to our services and the relevance of the social determinants for health. Those are two issues that I want to bring more into focus for the Swiss Cancer League. An important way of doing this is to work very closely with cancer patients and their relatives, involving them in the design of our services. They are the real experts.

SN: You previously worked for the Swiss Cancer League as a member of its management board. When making that transition to CEO in August, what was going through your mind going from one area to another? Was it easy and/or seamless?

ML: As CEO, I have to have all the divisions with the same priority under my umbrella. That means I also had to let go [of] a part, which is my previous position and the topics and projects that were really close to my heart.

So, it was also [about] letting go… What I did in the first six months to get the right perspective on our organisation was to have a 30-minute conversation with each of our 115 employees. I want to know my employees and their expertise, I want to know what their perspective on our company is, what they love about their work, and where they still see room for improvement in our collaboration. I have learned an enormous amount from these one-on-one meetings. I now have a better sense of the strengths of the Swiss Cancer League and the working atmosphere in our organisation.

SN: How would you reflect on your first few months as CEO? Knowing what you know, is there something you'd go back and tell yourself when you first started the role?

ML: After nine months in my new role, I have learnt that I can find my own style of managing the company. There is no right or wrong way of doing things – the most important thing is that I remain true to myself and to proactively seek honest feedback. There are some very lonely moments for a CEO – getting through them isn't easy. But it's also okay to make mistakes, to feel uncertain, and to ask for support – from my great team, from a wonderful coach whom I see once a month, and from the members of our board.

Looking back, I would tell myself to take each day as it comes, not to seek perfection, and to go to work feeling happy. Fortunately, that's what I do!

SN: Your first residential meeting coincided with European Mental Health Week. What's one thing that you do to protect or support your mental health?

ML: I absolutely need time for myself. So, even if my weeks are very full with our five kids and work, I try to find those spaces […] What I really need is sports multiple times a week and a lot of music. So, I listen to music. I sing in an acapella quartet and in a jazz duo, and I know which music will calm me down, which music will motivate me, and which music will keep me running or going. I also find a lot of strength in my relationship with my husband and close friends. They and my family are my most important source of wellbeing.

SN: During your cohort's first residential meeting, you offered to be a "sparring partner" for Fellows? Can you elaborate more on this?

ML: I love helping to solve challenging leadership cases with co-workers or with teams. I think I have a talent to quickly get an overview of and a feel for challenging social situations and then help find ways to resolve them.

I think that's a social worker part in me! I'm a trained social worker, so I'm very used to listening, to taking on other perspectives and to interacting, too, and that's what I love.

SN: What are your hopes for Cohort 6's third residential meeting in May?

ML: Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the second meeting of our cohort in November for personal reasons. I am all the more delighted to see all the Fellows again and to be immersed in an inspiring exchange. The diversity of experience in the cohort is incredible - spending time with these people is a real gift!

Our healthcare system faces a multitude of challenges. Financing of increasingly complex systems, inclusion, equal access to health, intergenerational cohesion, loneliness, mental health... to name just a few challenges. I want to address how we, as health leaders, can contribute. 

Even if we as individuals can only make small steps, they do make a difference. I also know this from my perspective as a social worker: small differences in a person's everyday life can have a huge impact and affect entire family systems and generations. Therefore, let us take small steps together and leave a positive mark on our society.