Becker's Hospital Review

WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 37 Bragging at work has its benefits By Alexis Kayser N obody wants to be seen as a "bragger," but it is important to advocate for oneself and take credit on the job, The Wall Street Journal reported. "The fear of bragging strikes all the wrong people," Meredith Fineman, author of Brag Better told the Journal. "It's a matter of getting those 'qualified quiet' to turn up the volume." The Journal recommends sharing details of an effective, successful process so others can mimic your actions, and shouting out anyone who collaborated on a quality project with you. Additionally, it is important to use the word "I" if you were the sole person responsible for a task, rather than attributing it to "we" so as not to sound self-centered. What many fear is bragging is actually telling your own story, Aliza Licht, author of On Brand told the Journal. This allows you to brand yourself and your contributions outside the scope of your institution, allowing more flexibility as your career progresses. A little bit of bragging can go a long way in making your contributions visible and setting yourself up for future promotions, when done correctly. n UCSF: All-woman transplant team makes history By Mariah Taylor U niversity of California San Francisco made history with what it believes is the first all-woman heart transplant team, the San Francisco Times reported Feb. 14. In December, Amy Fiedler, MD, performed a five-hour heart transplant on a 26-year-old female patient. Only aer did Dr. Fiedler realize that all eight members of the surgical team were women. Surgical teams are selected at random. UCSF said this was the first time an all-woman team was assembled in 150 years aer more than 500 heart transplants at the hospital. It could also be the first female heart transplant team in the nation since 1988, according to United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit organization that matches transplant donors and recipients. It is impossible to know for sure, since only patient data is collected, not who performs the surgery. Dana Weisshaar, MD, a volunteer expert with the American Heart Association, told the Times there are no specific figures on female physicians who perform heart transplants, but she was aware of only 21 nationwide. She has never heard of an all-woman heart transplant team before. "In my 26 years of heart failure clinical practice, this is a first," she said in the report. When Dr. Fiedler was recruited by UCSF last summer, she became the only woman among seven heart transplant surgeons at the hospital. "ere was never a female attending surgeon where I trained, so it could never happen," Dr. Fiedler told the Times. "ere are very few attending surgeons in the field of thoracic surgery. Very few." n Workplace 'mansplaining' takes a toll on women By Alexis Kayser Condescension at work is more likely to affect women than men, Fortune reported Feb. 15. The publication examined a series of studies from researchers at East Lansing-based Michigan State University and Fort Collins-based Colorado State University. Both women and men were placed in situations where they were talked down to by a man at a faux work meeting; for example, the man might say, "I don't think you're really understanding the task," and re-explain it, after the participant had time to review the instructions. Fortune described this behavior as "mansplaining," when a man "inaccurately explains something to a woman in a condescending tone. For example, if a female leader is explaining a poor marketing decision in a meeting, and an entry level male worker from a different department interrupts her to explain what he would have done differently, that would be considered mansplaining. The man does not have the same experience or authority in the situation, yet acts condescending toward the woman who does. That distinction is important, because researchers found that women were affected more negatively by mansplainers. Women were more likely to feel uncomfortable and avoid working with the man again. They were also more likely to question their own competency and avoid speaking up again after being spoken down to. Men were more likely to brush the behavior off. The study suggests that this is because men are used to interrupting one another to affirm one another rather than to interrupt to speak over one another. n

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