Picture of Leadership
Please provide us with a picture of yourself
Question: Tell us about your current role (please provide your job title) and what you enjoy most about it?
Answer: I’m currently on secondment as an Improvement Director in the National Recovery Support Team at NHS England. My role is to support challenged organisations and systems that are in NOF 4 and the Recovery Support Programme (RSP) to improve and sustainably meet their RSP transition criteria to move into NOF 3. I’m currently supporting both Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin (STW) ICB and Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals (SaTH) in their improvement journey.
My background is in finance, but one of the things I’ve enjoyed about this role is that it has allowed me to work across a variety of areas, including UEC, workforce, leadership and governance, as well as finance. I’ve met some fantastic leaders and I’ve enjoyed seeing the ICB/System and SaTH jointly develop an Improvement Plan, enhance system working, stabilise their UEC performance and recruit some fabulous new staff. We’ll shortly find out if they’ll get additional capital funding for being one of the Top 5 ICBs with the most improved Category 2 responses times.
Question: Can you describe your career story?
Answer: I did a History degree at University (predominantly Indian history and the Social History of Deviance – very niche), and found it very subjective and ‘grey’. I wanted something that was a bit more ‘black and white’ so thought I wanted to be an auditor (in hindsight I would not have been good at this). Unfortunately, I’d been quite ill in my third year at university and had missed the graduate recruiting rounds so had a got a temporary job as a Ward Clerk on the Private Maternity ward at Chelsea & Westminster, which I loved. When the next round of graduate recruiting came round my manager suggested I apply for the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme. I applied to the Big4 and the NHS finance stream. Going through the process made me realise the NHS was a lot more ‘me’ having done a lot of volunteering growing up, so I accepted that offer and the rest is history.
I started out at Tower Hamlets PCT, before moving to Barts and then London. I did my flexi-placement at Deloitte, within their consulting practice, before returning to Barts to do an Income focused role. Post-scheme I worked at the London Ambulance Service, then moved to Guy’s and St. Thomas’, before joining Monitor, the Foundation Trust regulator. A secondment to the Department of Health, followed by a number of mergers brought me to NHS England.
My career to date as allowed me to get involved in the standard finance functions, but also, workforce strategy, mergers & acquisitions, nursing productivity, Secretary of State briefings, transaction reviews, improvement methodologies, regional productivity programmes, and the equality, diversity & inclusion agenda, which is a real passion of mine.
I feel incredibly lucky to have experienced a wide range of healthcare organisations within the NHS. I’d like to have the chance to work in a Mental Health/Community Trust at some point.
Question: Were there any role models who gave you a sense of what it is to be a leader or helped you on your journey?
Answer: There are so many that it’s hard to choose!
- Yarlini Roberts is my sponsor (and CFO at Kingston), and she has been incredibly supportive over the last 5 years and pushed me to look at roles that I’d never consider for myself.
- Amanda Cant, who was Deputy Director at Tower Hamlets PCT and then at the London Ambulance Service during my time there. Amanda took on challenging roles and led teams with compassion and calmness. She was the person who fought for and protected her team no matter what. I will admit that I don’t miss her ‘Paddington hard stare’….
- Ann Johnson who I worked with when she was the Regional CFO for London. She championed EDI at every opportunity, placing it at the forefront of all meeting agendas and throughout recruitment decisions.
Question: What are the top 3 attributes you value most in a leader?
Answer:
- Empathy – being able to understand someone else’s position is key for leaders
- Diligence – I like people who work hard and pull their weight
- Value/Behaviour alignment – I want people who behave in alignment with their values, particularly when leaders say they care about the EDI agenda and follow it up through their actions
Question: What barriers have you faced in your career and how did you overcome them?
Answer: I would preface this by saying that I know that I have a huge degree of privilege. Where I have faced challenges or barriers is due to my gender and my neurodiversity (ADHD). There are strong stereotypes around what a senior finance leader looks like, and how they behave (assertive, technical, unemotional, etc); and I’m very conscious that that doesn’t look or sound like me. We’ve got a long way to go in rebranding what it means to be finance leader (which is why I’m happy to lead this Picture of Leadership workstream) and in the meantime I try to focus on being authentic and if an organisation likes me for me, then we’ll be a good fit.
Question: How have you balanced the competing needs of a modern leadership role? How would you define a modern leadership role (e.g. what skills are required)?
Answer: My definition is linked to the attributes I mentioned above. Behaviour must align to values. The author Sophie Williams talks about allyship as a sticky note label that you have to keep patting on through your actions for the label to stay. I think leadership is similar, and additionally, that it’s not a label you can really give yourself – it’s given to you by other people.
I try to balance the competing needs of my role through prioritisation and relying on the skills and capabilities of my team. I would say that I’m good at being boundaried around work, and not working too many hours, but that’s definitely something that’s on my development plan.
Question 6. The theme for International Women’s Day this year is #AccelerateAction – How are you accelerating action?
Answer: At a national level I sit on the Women in Leadership for Finance network organising group as the London rep – we organise webinars and a national conference, which I have presented at. I lead the ‘Picture of Leadership’ workstream for the London Women in Leadership programme – we raise the profile of female finance leaders, and try to change the definition of what it means to be leader in the finance function. I also sit on my Driving Club Committee as Inclusion Officer. Needless to say, it doesn’t feel like enough when you look at how far we still have to go!
Question 7. What advice would you give to finance staff in furthering their careers and becoming leaders?
Answer: Don’t let you imposter syndrome get in the way – believe in yourself like others do. I never would have gone for the Improvement Director secondment if it hadn’t been for Zoe Pietrzak (East of England RDOF) encouraging me.
Question 9: have you been interviewed/does your organisation interview explicitly use a value-based approach below executive level?
Answer: No, recent interviews were not values based.
Question 10. What do you enjoy doing outside of the working week?
Answer: I love to stay active – playing netball and going to the gym. I also love to travel and always have the next trip planned. Aside from that, it’s hanging out with my gorgeous niece and nephew.