Hospital and health system leaders often face constant decision-making, and they must manage personal responsibilities. For women in C-suite roles, maintaining personal well-being amid these demands can be particularly challenging.
Becker's recently spoke with three female executives about their strategies for balancing work and life, and encouraging their teams to do the same. From setting PTO boundaries to investing in small daily habits, their insights reflect their experiences and previous advice.
Below are their responses, listed alphabetically.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Denise Brooks-Williams. Executive Vice President and COO of Henry Ford Health (Detroit): What I would say in my role, and what I try to offer and support and endorse — not only with my team but within our whole division — is that PTO or time off is planned for that purpose. Most organizations have been thoughtful about what it takes to renew and have the appropriate self-care.
I believe all of our team members work incredibly hard. Yes, we always look at the executives and say how busy it is, but we're all managing our families and our lives. Being able to take care of ourselves and renew is incredibly important.
So I do encourage, and I want people to take the time that they've earned to do what they would like. If that's travel, that's great. If that's just taking the time to be connected with your children, with activities and events — so I really do think it is important.
And as a leader, I think sometimes you have to both model and encourage people to do it, because we are all working incredibly hard. It certainly isn't limited to leaders. Everybody needs that encouragement because that time is there for them to be able to renew and refresh and reconnect, and we all need it.
I have a leader who said to me recently, 'I'm going to be off on Friday and Monday,' and I was up at 3:30 this morning looking at various emails. And guess who was emailing? That leader. And so I had to text and said, 'Hey, I thought you were off today,' because it's so easy, right? We're so connected.
They have their cell phone, they have their iPad. So the unplugging part — we certainly do talk about that, as well. That maybe is more a little bit of a leadership opportunity, to be OK to be away. So we do talk a lot about, 'Hey, we've got this. If I'm here, I will cover whatever the issues or emergencies are that arise.'
Because if you don't unplug, a couple of days off maybe isn't a big deal. But if you're actually taking vacation and the intent is to be away, I absolutely encourage people to be away. Turn off your devices, and allow yourself to be present with whatever it is that you're doing.
Kira Carter-Robertson. COO of University of Michigan Health – Sparrow (Lansing, Mich.): Sometimes you find mentors or individuals in your life that you don't even realize at the time what they're telling you, how influential it will be in your life. But very early on — it's actually during my fellowship assignment — I got to spend time with one of our pediatric physicians. He ran our pediatric center at the hospital, and I don't know why he told me that, but he sat down and shared with me.
He said, 'Kira, I'm not quite sure why they put you with me or what I'm supposed to teach you. You could probably teach me something,' he said. 'But when I was little, I remember all of these stories about my dad, whether it was fishing or all these things that we did together. And,' he said, 'as I've gotten older, I've reflected back that my kids don't have those same stories with me in them. My wife has been instrumental in filling in the gaps in our home. But,' he said, 'one of the things that struck me — and I'm even embarrassed even more as I reflect back — if I would do something different, I don't know if I would because I've enjoyed where my sacrifices have brought me.
'So,' he said, 'I'm wiser now, trying to make up for it now. But I think my advice to you as you grow up in your career, don't make the sacrifices early on that someone else could fill in for. Just make it second nature to make sure that you are plugging in and prioritizing, so that when you move up in your career, you've already developed a habit of putting family, putting personal well-being, putting those things first. And,' he said, 'it doesn't mean that it won't come without some give or take. Sometimes it doesn't always balance out perfectly, but then you don't ever have to say the 'what if, could have, should have,' because you wouldn't have known life any other way.'
I've always taken that to heart, and it really helped me — this concept that I think we hear about and I think we as women try to strive for — this concept of workplace balance. There is no workplace balance. There are times in our lives where home requires more focus, and we need to lean into home. And there are other times where work requires more focus, and we may have to lean into work.
And so, I think it's just trying to create those daily habits. So whether it is waking up a few minutes early just to have a little bit of quiet time, maybe it's making sure you grab your gym bag to run to the gym after work. I think it's just those little daily things that we have to invest in that just help us create that harmony and well-being overall.
Wendy Wilcox, MD. Chief Women's Health Officer at NYC Health + Hospitals (New York City): I find that connecting with team members is incredibly important, and a lot of times the lift that you need within a day. I have found that to try to recognize my own — I'm not very good at it, but I'm trying to be better at recognizing my own signs of fatigue and tiredness.
I actually, just to show you how terrible I am, in June, I'm on a board of America's Essential Hospitals and was headed to the board meeting, and I'd been feeling under the weather. I knew it wasn't COVID, thought I was getting better — got on the plane, got to San Diego, and I wasn't feeling well.
I said, 'I can either be sick here in this hotel room, or I can go home.' I took the Red Eye, went home because I was supposed to stay for the conference, but I didn't. And then the next day, my partner said, 'You're not really getting better. Maybe you should go in [to see the physician].' So, I went to my physician. She said, 'Really happy you came in. You have walking pneumonia.'
And so then I thought, 'OK, I should never have gotten on that plane.' So, I am trying to do better at reading my own biometric signs and then just saying, 'stop.' But I grew up in an era where that was not really the case, so we all are just starting to do better with that.