Becker's Hospital Review

24 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP POPULATION HEALTH Allina Health President and COO Lisa Shannon's advice to female leaders: Be authentic By Kelly Gooch L isa Shannon has served as COO of Minneapolis-based Al- lina Health since 2017, and she added president to her title Sept. 24. Before joining Allina, Ms. Shannon was COO of Louisville-based KentuckyOne Health and, before that, COO of Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Mich. She also served as vice president of ambulatory services at OhioHealth in Columbus. Here, she answers Becker's questions for women in healthcare leadership positions: Editor's note: Responses have been edited lightly for length and clarity. Question: Who had the biggest influence on your deci- sion to go into healthcare? Lisa Shannon: roughout my high school years, nutrition and health became increasingly important to me. Going to college, I witnessed a lot of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors impacting people's mental health and well-being. It was not until a little over halfway through college that I made the decision to switch to nutrition and dietetics, and really went into healthcare because of a personal interest in health, well-be- ing and nutrition. Q: What do you enjoy most about being in the industry? LS: Early in my career, I would say the impact on patient lives, from counseling eating disorder patients to working with burn patients in critical recovery and the importance of nutrition to their healing. I quickly learned my ability to influence more patients and communi- ties would be shiing to supporting and serving clinicians and leaders and helping to shape what we do and how we do it for patients. What I really enjoy most is the ability to serve and partner with our clinical colleagues in driving safe, reliable care that is equitable for all patients. Q: What is the greatest challenge you face as a female leader? LS: For female leaders, it's important to be your authentic self and look for role models that support you and your leadership practice and style that allows you connection. ere are wonderful male leaders who have shaped my career, and there are wonderful female leaders who have shaped my career. Sometimes their approaches are differ- ent, and when I witness women trying to lead with an approach that may not be their authentic self, I think there are challenges from that. ere's no reason for you to try to be something you aren't, and au- thentic leadership is critical for results. Q: How do you relax outside of the C-suite? LS: Family and fitness are the most important to me as a mother and wife. I make sure I take care of myself first and start my day with some movement of some kind — whatever activity or exercise it is. Time with family and private time for reflection has been important to me. Q: How do you stay inspired on hard days? LS: e work we do is inspiring and a blessing by itself, and remem- bering the patients we're serving and my own family that have been touched and impacted through healthcare journeys keeps me inspired for what I'm doing and why. ere are leaders working in industries creating products or services they never use. at's not the case in healthcare. e inspiration for our work is all around us, and to be able to lead in an industry that I and people I care about use is a tre- mendous privilege, and energizing. Q: What is your daily mantra? LS: I am always the first awake in the house. Up early, some sort of phys- ical activity, then I can begin my day. Q: What do you consider your greatest career success? LS: It's other people who succeeded. I started my career as a dieti- tian and quickly moved to leadership. I transitioned from clinical di- etetics into education and specifically leader development, then went through a series of roles at a number of organizations. My ability to provide caring and candid feedback to people, to help them become better or do things they didn't imagine possible, will always be what I feel most proud of. Pride from supporting other people or teams to succeed is the joy of leadership. n Study: All-male panels still dominate medical conferences By Mackenzie Bean I ncluding more women on planning committees for medical conferences could help boost gender equi- ty at these events and limit the number of all-male panels, known as "manels," a study published in JAMA Network Open found. Researchers assessed the gender makeup of 98 medi- cal conferences held worldwide between March 2017 and November 2018. Four study findings: 1. Of 23,440 speakers included in the analysis, only 30.1 percent were women. 2. About 36.6 percent of panels were composed sole- ly of men, while just 6.6 percent of panels featured all women. 3. Overall, 96 percent of conferences had at least one all-male panel. 4. Conferences that had women on their planning and steering committees were more likely to also have fe- male speakers. n

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