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workers preferences toward female leadership. Particularly following advancements in women's roles in Fortune 500 companies. The survey, which included over 5, 800 adults, indicates that younger women increasingly prefer female bosses, while men in their 20s exhibit mixed preferences. And this marks a significant change from previous years when male leadership was favored.

The data also highlights demographic variations with women aged 18 to 29 showing the strongest preference for female leaders, contrasting with older individuals, especially men over 65, who remain less supportive of this trend. Kate, what are some of the key features of this article that stood out for you?

First of all, I absolutely love this topic. I think this is so important. But I did want to share first that when I was in my late 20s, I had a female boss who had a reputation for being really tough. And she was tough. She had very high standards, but she also read people really well and was able to bring out the best in you.

She pulled me aside after a meeting once and told me that she wanted to hear me more. And that gave me this huge confidence boost because if somebody like her who had these high expectations was saw something in me, and it honestly was game changing. So I have had great experiences working for men and women, but I really do understand, where this is coming from.

Now, in terms of this article, some of the key points. are transformational leadership, so women often lead in a transformational manner, fostering inclusivity and collaboration, which enhances organizational culture and effectiveness. And then in terms of strategic imperative, organizations like Virtua Health have made it A strategic priority to promote women to leadership roles, recognizing the value of perspectives in decision making.

And then you have accelerated advancement, which studies indicate that female board directors ascend to leadership positions approximately 20 months faster than their male counterparts, suggesting a growing recognition of women's leadership capabilities. What I love about you sharing that specifically is when you consider the diversity perspective, and it's not just checking a DEIB box, which too many companies maybe fell into some of those traps.

Health care organizations can promote gender diversity and IT leadership. By augmenting comprehensive diversity and inclusion initiatives. And when you include measurable goals for recruiting, hiring, and promoting women into leadership roles, that creates leadership development programs that are tailored to the women in IT and representation on hiring panels and decision making in IT.

Committees. What I also found interesting was that when you have that culture and you foster it specifically around work life balance, you can help attract and retain female talent. And that is important around the regularly evaluating and addressing biases in recruitment and promotion practices. And I want to make sure we preface that it's not just, we're going to go hire a woman for this role.

You hire the most qualified candidate, and yet when you create an opportunity for more women of color, to apply, then people appreciate the intentionality by policies that promote diversity in leadership, especially in IT, where there's often a desert of women in the field, and making them feel comfortable to want to go into that field in the first place.

Yeah, absolutely. And one the topics under this that comes up is mentorship, which I know is very important to you and me. and sponsorship play such a critical role in helping women advance into executive roles by providing guidance, support, and opportunities. Mentors can help women navigate career challenges, build confidence, and develop leadership skills, while sponsors actively advocate for their mentees career advancement by opening doors to visibility projects, promotions, and leadership opportunities.

And most importantly, and we've seen this firsthand, it can create a pipeline of skilled, confident female leaders who are ready to take on executive roles. people always ask me, how do you measure that type of impact? Like how does female leadership influence organizational performance, patient outcomes, and all the context we have around healthcare technology.

And I did the research, not only for this article, but in the past where female leadership has been shown to enhance organizational performance. Better collaboration, empathy, and communication. And I consider the fact that we are in healthcare, and that collaboration, empathy, and communication. Those are just three foundational elements that have to be true.

These qualities contribute to more inclusive decision making, better alignment of IT strategies with the patient needs, and also the clinician alignment, which is really key, and innovative problem solving. If you do not have the relationship, With people in your organization that they know you, they trust you, there's a level of accountability.

You can't go ask for them to lead a project or ask for their help in solving something because the relationship is the First element of being able to go and ask somebody for something. So when you consider the studies that have linked gender diverse leadership teams to higher employee satisfaction and retention, that then improves operational efficiency.

And you and I love being able to talk about better patient outcomes and how female leaders can bring a holistic patient centered approach that drives better care delivery, better alignment of the technology, and more importantly, The access and the equity that goes with the adoption of the technology, both from the provider and from the patient.

Yeah, exactly. And what's interesting to me is that sometimes qualities like empathy, collaboration, effective communication are considered soft skills, but as we're finding out, these are traits that are essential in executive roles. They can contribute to transformational leadership styles that prioritize team cohesion and adaptability, which are vital in the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape and specifically in IT.

Absolutely. And if you're the CIO, the CTO, the CDO, the CISO, pick the role that is leading the organization, especially from the talent acquisition and What are we hiring for? Who are we hiring? Why is it important to have that profile brought into our organization? When I say profile, the profile of capabilities.

May or may not be a female, except that in order to have that inclusive strategy on your team, You're going to find that diverse leaders are better equipped to address complex challenges and drive even the technological advancements that are occurring as well. And so when you look across your table at your team, if there is a gap, then that intentionality around hiring or recruiting people, even from within the organization onto those teams is really key to your point earlier about the boss who said, I want to hear more from you.

I too had a hardcore female boss. My first. Stint in corporate America, and I am forever grateful to her for the things that she taught me to take up space, to be heard, to listen with intentionality, to be willing to take on the assignments that nobody else wanted. And not because they were subpar assignments, it's because they had a huge impact and nobody was gonna pay attention to it until after it was live and successful.

And I took on those types of projects and roles under her tutelage. Wow. The level of confidence and capability at such a young age was really important. I was 19 years old. I was still in college working for her at one of the biggest casinos in the world. And she taught me to be fearless.

That's great. And a part of me does always wonder, would, it were a male boss, would I have been warned? He's tough. Watch out. Not sure, right? You never know. And would he have told you to speak up more? Potentially, yes. And I've had bosses like that as well. So as we think about this ongoing trend and the preference for female leadership, not only can you find the resources necessary here at This Week Health, there are so many outlets for the ability for women to really grow and shine in the healthcare and IT industry.

That we love to bring these ideas forward constantly. I'm glad it's getting the press that it needs and I'm glad that we continue to talk about it as well. Yeah, me too. And very grateful to work at a company that values women leaders. 100%. Remember to share this podcast with a friend or colleague. Use it as a foundation for daily or weekly discussions on the topics that are relevant to you and the industry.

They can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Kate, thanks for joining me today. Thank you. Thanks for listening. That's all for now.