Female leaders recently gathered at UPMC Enterprises for a panel discussion titled “Women in Healthcare Leadership.” The event, organized by FLIGHT – Female Leadership, Innovation, and Growth in Healthcare & Technology, featured an hour-long Q&A with both moderator and audience questions.
This post is the second in a three-part series to answer some of the valuable audience questions that panelists didn’t have a chance to address at the event. Below, Ann Evans, CFO of UPMC’s Physician Services Division, weighs in on what she believes will make you heard in a room of people and how she’s dealt with fear and risk throughout her career.
How do you make sure you’re heard in a room full of people?
As an executive, you need to develop your presence in a room. Be confident, make eye contact, and warmly introduce yourself in meetings where you don’t know everyone. Once you’ve established a presence, the most important thing you can do is speak with facts and data-based feedback. What I’ve found is that being prepared with facts and presenting your thoughts in a steady, warm, calm, and focused demeanor helps ensure you’re not only heard, but recognized as a leader.
What fears did you experience while weighing decisions to take risks in your career and what helped you get past those fears?
My fears have always centered on work-life balance. My family is extremely important to me, so when I’ve faced career-related risks, I’ve always tried to determine how it might affect the ability to maintain my role as a mother/wife/sister/daughter. I’ve often turned to mentors for guidance, but also took a closer look at the teams in place behind me. In high-functioning teams, advancements in leadership can and does create opportunities for others to advance as well. Recognizing these situations has allowed me to take calculated risks to grow my career and maintain work-life balance.
About Ann Evans
Ann Marie Evans oversees the Finance function within the UPMC, Health Services Division, Physician Services (PSD). The PSD is comprised of 3,237 employed physicians and 1,724 residents organized into seven corporate entities whose annual expense budget exceeds $1.9 billion. During her tenure Ann served in various roles throughout UPMC in both hospital and physician finance. She holds a Bachelors degree in Accounting/Finance from Eastern New Mexico University and completed the Certified Public Accountants exam.
