Q&A with Kristin Myers, Part 3: “Make your career a project.”

“It’s all about change management.”

We’ve all heard the phrase — or at least, something to that affect — before, but what we don’t always hear is how. How can leaders provide their teams with the assurance they need when the future seems uncertain?

According to Kristin Myers, Senior VP of IT at Mount Sinai Health System, it starts with a healthy dose of transparency. The leader’s role, she believes, is to “articulate the vision” by providing a roadmap of where the organization is going, and explaining how they fit into the plan. The key is to help individuals and teams understand that “they’re part of the change,” she said in a recent interview.

Myers comes from experience, having helped guide Mount Sinai through a massive merger with Continuum Health Partners back in 2013. During our discussion, she talked about what the experience taught her, and the organization’s goal to move to a single platform. Myers also discusses the keys to gaining operational buy-in, the qualities she values most in team members, how innovation is being used as a recruiting tool, and how the industry can start to achieve parity in leadership roles.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* Staff development – “It’s about providing feedback in a timely way.”

* Innovation as a recruiting tool

* Appeal of working with an enterprise platform

* Role of women leaders in achieving gender parity

* Value of mentoring & coaching – “We need to make sure we’re networking internally as well as externally.”

* 18 years in the U.S.

* “I’m very lucky I was placed here.”



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Bold Statements

If you encounter a situation where you don’t understand how they got to the conclusion, it’s extremely helpful to sit down with them and have a discussion. I know sometimes people feel like they don’t have time, but I think it’s worth it.

People do sometimes shy away from difficult conversations. But I think you can have these conversations in such a way that it’s more about coaching, mentoring, and showing that you’re invested in this person’s success.

I’d like to see a requirement that there must be a female candidate for every senior leadership role, because I think that will change the conversation, and it will change the process.

I would encourage all women to really look at their careers. Start working on it as a project, really think about where you want to be, and build the confidence to move forward.

Gamble:  When you talk about critical thinking as valued attribute, how can you tell if someone possesses that quality?

Myers:  When you’re interviewing team members, you can present problems or scenarios and really get a sense of how they would walk through them and address them. I think that gives you a sense of their critical thinking skills. But with any of these qualities, it’s about providing feedback in a timely way. If you encounter a situation where you don’t understand how they got to the conclusion, it’s extremely helpful to sit down with them and have a discussion. I know sometimes people feel like they don’t have time, but I think it’s well worth it. It only takes a few minutes — just make sure it’s timely and don’t wait for a performance review.

 

Gamble:  That’s a really good point. I remember a recruiter once telling me that when it comes to the performance review,