This blog, written by Sara Morgan, an experienced Chief Nurse and healthcare leader, highlights her perspective on leadership and professional development, drawing on a career spanning nursing, emergency care and healthcare management. She recently participated in the Cambridge and Financial Times Women in Leadership Programme.
I joined the Cambridge and Financial Times Women in Leadership Programme as an experienced director in my company. I’d been in my role for more than eight years and was capable, competent, and delivering good results. I was also in need of fresh perspective and inspiration for my future trajectory. The programme gave me something my day job rarely did: the chance to look up, sideways and all around. Not just at myself and my teams, but at my organisation, sector and the wider world in which we all operate.
Learning from my colleagues
Working in healthcare, my focus was always on the day-to-day job at hand and I rarely had, or took, the opportunity to look outside my silo. My fellow participants, coming from a wide range of backgrounds and industries, had stories and lessons to offer that were unexpectedly relevant to my work and development. It was educational and intellectually stimulating. I started asking different questions that helped me consider and clarify future directions.
New Questions = New Answers
These new questions were both self-directed and outward-looking. What motivates me? What motivates the people I’m working with? How do I leverage those motivations to reach the outcomes we’re aiming for? How does understanding that shape the way I influence horizontally, across and outside of an organisation, rather than just up and down? The answers I found have changed how I show up in almost every working relationship.
What is my intention?
I began to actively think about my executive presence. Not just how I spoke or presented information, but how I prepared for different interactions. What information am I consuming and from what sources? How am I sharing my achievements, and which audiences am I targeting? These were all questions I had not thought about before, meaning that I was missing opportunities to maximise my own value. Now, I’m working towards being deliberate rather than default.
What’s next?
I haven’t fully answered this question yet, but the possibilities are wider than they were before the programme. I actively ask myself: what do I want to do, and how? Where are my time and my expertise genuinely valuable — and where could it be put to best use? The world, professionally speaking, is wider than it was before. So is my curiosity. For this, I must thank the network of fellow thinkers and supportive women that I worked with on the programme. The connections we made and the skills we sharpened will stay with me into the future.
This programme provided a genuine step change in how I view my work and myself. I’m incredibly pleased I did it and cannot recommend it highly enough.
