Becker's Hospital Review

WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 21 How 4 female hospital executives lead by example Kelly Gooch G ender disparities continue to exist across the U.S. work- force. However, female executives at four Ohio hospi- tals have been able to break down barriers and lead by example at their organizations, the Tribune Chronicle reported June 5. e newspaper recently interviewed these four executives about their careers and leadership styles: • Genie Aubel, president of Mercy Health-St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital • Kathleen Harley, president of Mercy Health-St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital • Char Wray, MSN, RN, president of Mercy Health-St. Joseph Warren Hospital • Krista McFadden, MSN, RN, president and CEO of Dal- las-based Steward Health Care's Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren Here are four quotes from their interviews: 1. Ms. Aubel on her drive to excel: "I'm wired that way. Part of it is how I was raised; it was my parents. ose are the biggest influences in our life to begin with." 2. Ms. Harley on sleeping at the hospital overnight during a snowstorm: "I didn't know how many people weren't showing up, and when we got those 16 inches, I thought, well, if the pres- ident can't show up when there is 16 inches, how can I expect other people to show up, to get in their car and get here?" 3. Ms. Wray on making mistakes: "It's OK to stumble and make a mistake. You just get yourself up and dust yourself off and you go." 4. Ms. McFadden on being present: "It's not about the office and the big chair and the desk and all of those things. It's really about your ability to connect with people and motivate people to be better and do more and sometimes do more with less. e pan- demic showed us it's not always going to be that you're going to have all the resources that you're going to need, so then what?" n A CEO's solutions to getting more women into tech By Kelly Gooch D ialogue is "not enough" to improve diversity in tech, and actionable steps are needed to move the needle, a tech CEO told CNBC. There are female executives who are industry leaders in tech through their work at big corporations and fast growing start- ups. But a joint study by Girls Who Code and Accenture found that the proportion of women to men in tech roles has declined since 1984, and that half of young women who go into the in- dustry leave it by age 35. Additionally, a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data published in April 2021 found that people of color remain underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and math workforce com- pared with their share of all U.S. workers. CNBC recently spoke with Suneera Madhani, co-founder and CEO of Stax, an Orlando, Fla.-based, billion-dollar payment processing platform, about the need for progress in diversity. She told the cable business news channel: "Dialogue was great, but it's not enough. We have to take action. The statis- tics are still the statistics. That is still absurd to me," referenc- ing the dearth of women and minorities in tech. Ms. Madhani said one solution might involve government incentives or mandates for tech companies and investment firms, because this could lead to more women and minorities in tech leadership positions, according to CNBC. "America is the center of the world when it comes to cap- italism. We should hold our [venture funds, private equity groups] and investors accountable," Ms. Madhani told the news channel. "There should be more accountability here to make sure that they are investing in diverse founders." She also said expanding supplier diversity programs could help. n Report finds patterns of bias in performance reviews of women By Georgina Gonzalez W omen, and especially women of color, face clear biases in their performance reports, with manag- ers more likely to reduce their success to stereo- types, according to a new report from language software company Textio. The company took language from performance reviews across employees and analyzed it to reveal the level and prevalence of bias across different groups of employees. It found that women were 11 times more likely to be called abrasive compared to men. Black women were also four times more likely to be called an overachiever compared to white men and Asian men were seven times more likely to be called a genius or brilliant compared to Latina wom- en. Black and Latin people were also called passionate in their reports far more often than white or Asian people. n

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