As I mentioned in last week’s post, I had the opportunity to attend several sessions at the AHIMA conference on leadership. These sessions focused on the role of female leaders in the HIM industry, and, more importantly, the need to bolster this demographic up from its currently low numbers.
In her session, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Are You Up for the Challenge?” Merida Johns, Principal/Owner at The Monarch Center for Women’s Leadership Development, threw out some interesting statistics:
- 50% of today’s workforce is female
- 73% of hospital managers are female
- 18% of hospital CEOs are female
- 4% of healthcare vendor CEOs are female
- 25% of senior healthcare IT positions are held by women
- 79% of female executives think more female executives are needed in the workforce; but only 42% of men feel the same way
- 92% of AHIMA members are female; yet only 6% hold an executive position
Johns suggested that in order to raise the bar (or break the glass ceiling) to propel more women into HIM leadership positions, we need to:
Develop Career Clarity
- identify strengths,
- develop a personal vision,
- know your purpose and
- know what you want
Raise Career Ambitions
- develop big goals,
- categorize the goals,
- break the goals into doable chunks,
- be specific about when you’ll achieve goals, and
- develop a vision board
Raise Confidence
- start success and gratitude journals,
- sideline the inner critic, and
- be in the right place at the right time
Promote Yourself
- accept compliments,
- use social media effectively,
- display awards,
- hone your elevator speech and use it, and
- develop your brand
Amass Social Capital
- get a mentor and a sponsor;
- volunteer, connect and promote;
- use social media; and
- provide benefits to others
Being that I’m an avid tweeter at events (and a fan of educating and empowering women in healthcare IT), I threw out several snippets of the sessions I was in, which resulted in an interesting dialogue between myself and several other folks:
How have you taken the lead and advanced to the next level? Whether you’re in HIT, HIM or HC, how did you position yourself to reach that next career phase? Please share your experiences and advice in the comments below.