While I’ll admit that as a man this is a hard topic for me to write about. I also acknowledge that it’s an important topic for me and others in the health IT community to talk about. In fact, the reality that this topic is uncomfortable or at least challenging to talk about illustrates why it’s so important to push this discussion forward.
Lest you think I was going to share the 4 areas of focus to more intentionally support women in healthcare IT leadership, I can allay that concern. Instead, I want to share a slide that was used in a presentation at HIMSS21 and was on social media thanks to the HIT Like a Girl podcast. The slide is titled “Get Women into Executive Leadership.”
The 4 areas to focus on to make a difference in getting women into executive leadership. #HIMSS21 pic.twitter.com/NbwCV5qTK3
— HIT Like a Girl podcast (@hitlikeagirlpod) August 11, 2021
For those who can’t see the embedded tweet above, here’s the list of 4 items:
Messaging: Attract women at all levels of the organization, including entry levels
Ops/Finance Exposure: Create programs to put women in P&L roles
Compensation: Tie gender diversity to executive compensation
Networking: Create programs that give women exposure to executive leadership & problem-solving
Of course, the slide also shares a bunch of details for each, so be sure to check out the full slide here.
What do you think of these ideas? How is your organization doing with this? Is there anything missing from this list that you’d add? Let us know in the comments on on Twitter with @hcittoday.
