Michellene Davis Esq. of RWJBarnabas Health: People crave leadership, but not “management,”; Executives need to ensure that they are using their seat to empower the leaders on their team
You can be a leader at any level of an organization, but leaders must be clear about the goal — and laser-focused on the ‘true north’ of the organization and yet, simultaneously, be thinking of the good of the team. I believe that by nature, people crave leadership, but not “management,” not in the sense of traditional management anyway. Executives need to ensure that they are using their seat as executive managers to empower the leaders on their team. They should fully embrace and reflect an understanding that they hired their team members because of the full array of talents and permit them space to thought lead.
As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michellene Davis, Esq.
Michellene Davis, Esq. is a trailblazer and a nationally recognized leader who currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at RWJBarnabas Health, the 15th largest healthcare system in the nation. An effective advocate and researcher, Michellene was also the first African American ever to serve as Chief Policy Counsel to the New Jersey Governor and the first African American woman to serve as State Treasurer in the New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Michellene is a passionate community servant and mentor, having served as immediate past-president of Executive Women of New Jersey (EWNJ), the state’s leading senior-level executive women’s organization that is committed to increasing the presence of women serving on corporate boards and in the top leadership of New Jersey companies.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I had an interesting trajectory in my career. It wasn’t a ladder, but a winding trail. I started as a litigator doing criminal defense work, and during my time I realized that many of the cases were a result of individuals making decisions based on a sense of having no other alternatives. There were structural barriers that needed to be addressed; barriers that forced these individuals to no-win situations. I went into public policy with this in mind and to make a greater impact on how we address keeping people out of these situations.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
One of the interesting stories, when I began leading at RWJBarnabas, I did a lot of work to usher in our current organizational mission, which is centered around social impact and community investment practices. It is the way in which we address the social determinants of health through a policy-led equity framework. It gave me the opportunity to create something from scratch that had not existed here, and, quite frankly, had not existed anywhere else. We were actually the first healthcare system in the country to have a policy led equity framework approach to address the social determinants of health. While my CEO charged me to create it there was a lot of internal tension around it. The process was like pushing a boulder up a steep hill in the hot sun on a slippery surface. It really required that I tap into and hone some skills that I had not previously used or had known were there. I was forced to build internal stakeholder buy-in and partnerships to create interest and, while my role had been about doing so externally, doing so internally was new. Talking about this truth in bringing about cultural change was highlighted when at a dinner where our CEO Barry Ostrowsky, RWJBH CEO was asked about the creation of the new mission is practice, and he turned to me and said, “the godmother of the program is right here, and she can answer your questions.” As I concluded so doing I was approached by someone who Later on, a woman approached me and said, “if you still have those notes when you were building the program, I can assure you that you have a book on your hands,” and that book will be published in September, called “Changing Missions, Changing Lives: How a Change Agent Can Turn the Ship and Create Impact.” I’m particularly grateful to Barry for supporting me and understanding the need for this kind of change. We wouldn’t be where we are without his support.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I was asked to give a keynote speech at a healthcare technology conference, but if you know me you’d know that I’m the least technically savvy person you’d know. Normally, for speeches, I won’t bring notes with me onstage because they can keep me from connecting with the audience, but this time I felt I needed to bring notes, given my lack of technical prowess. I did a lot of research in the realm of technology and I had taken some copious notes using my iPad to bring up on stage. Well, when I arrived I was brought to the green room, where I reviewed my notes and made sure I was ready. Finally, I’m led to the arena where I was given a very gracious introduction. I walked to the podium and made my greeting and my thank yous, and I brought up my iPad to begin the speech only to realize that it was dead because I had not charged the device beforehand! As a result, I’m standing in front of a crowd of 500 people without the ability to reference these copious notes I had taken so much time to prepare. So what was really funny was that my speech ended up being about the ability to draw upon past failures as present power and strategic ability. And at the end of the keynote, I revealed I had worked from an iPad that had never turned on and they burst into uproarious laughter and gave me a standing ovation.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have, what I like to call, a personal board of directors, who fall more in the category of mentors. I probably bother these people 2 to 3 times a year. The interesting thing about this is they’re majority male — one is a former CEO of an international pharmaceutical company, another is a former New Jersey governor, another a hedge fund founder. What I’ve realized over the years is that I didn’t pick them all, some of them picked me.
One in particular, I met at an event where my CEO had nominated me for an award for Executive Women of New Jersey. At the event, I was sitting at the dais and one of the presenting CEOs sitting next to me said, “I read about your background, it’s really interesting. I want to ask you a question. This is what you’re doing now, but what are you going to do next?” I thought that was such an interesting thing to ask, so I turned to him and I asked “what do you mean?” He said, “I’d like to work with you to see where your career might go,” and that’s when he became a member of my personal board of directors. That person has helped me to navigate internal small “p” politics, survive an episode of bullying and to be as forgiving of myself as I am of others.
In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?
In the midst of a busy day, I sometimes have to take a few moments to breathe deeply and quiet my thoughts. If I’m really stressed, I go into another room and look into the mirror and talk to myself out loud because I find that the inner voice in our mind has so many negative thoughts on a daily basis. And when we are stressed, those internal voices actually grow louder. So, I speak aloud to tell myself, “you are prepared, you know your material, you’re the expert in this, and they need your information. You are here to help them understand.” I am then able to leave that moment understanding I am serving a purpose; to be of service to those who need this information and I am here to aid, assist, elevate, and enhance them. This takes the focus off of me and places it squarely on the needs of others, which in turn helps me to deliver. I have always been a firm believer in servant leadership.
As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?
Studies have shown again and again that a diverse executive team outperforms its counterpart on every level. This fact is reflected even in nature; a biologically diverse environment thrives under stress. A 2018 McKinsey report that studies over 1,000 companies across industries in 12 countries found that companies with executive teams in the bottom quartile for both gender diversity and racial and ethnic diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability. The more perspectives, backgrounds, and skillsets we can bring to the table to attack new and developing problems, the better.
We must keep in mind that diversity alone is not enough. Unless there are great efforts to ensure belonging of diversity of thought and voice then it means nothing. The truth is that I’m a devotee of equity, not equality, not mere diversity, and not just inclusion. For me, equity and belonging require an in-depth analysis of power structures, decision making, and pay parity. These are the elements that make employees feel valued, worthy, and appreciated enough to remain within organizations where they have to weather being an only, or a few.
As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.
The first one I’m going to bring up is pay equity — shocking. The fact that in 2020 we’re still arguing for pay equity is deeply frustrating and quite frankly exhausting. While white women make 82 cents on every dollar that a white man makes, Black women were paid 61% of what non-Hispanic white men were paid in 2018. That means it takes the typical Black woman 19 months to be paid what the average white man takes home in 12 months. We know these stats exist, and that they are commonly known, and yet somehow, they are still permitted to exist — that’s not ok. We need to make certain that every organization, every single corporate entity, takes an opportunity to create a strategic plan to address this. I know many organizations say it may be too expensive to address in one fell swoop, so we need to ask “what is your plan?” on an annual basis. We can in fact close the wealth gap, but it requires intention.
We must consistently ask the question “who is at the table?”
Ed Zimmerman, a partner with the law firm Lowenstein Sandler frequently speaks of how he uses his platform to advance gender equity. He is consistently asked to be on panels as an area expert, and at some point, he realized that because he gets all of these requests, that must mean he has the power to make requests of his own. Now when he’s asked to be on a panel of at least 5 people, he requires that at least one of them be a woman; If it’s 10 people that he requires there to be at least 2 women. He writes that because of this ask, some entities stopped asking him to be a speaker altogether and that’s ok with him because that means he doesn’t have to be there.
If you are walking into a meeting, conference, or panel discussion and everyone is the same gender, the same race, or the same ethnicity, or the same lived experiences and therefore the same or similar perspectives, then what are you going to get out of that environment? You’re not only limiting racial/ethnic diversity, but you’re also limiting the diversity of thought. So I think it’s always important to ask who is at the table and exercise the privilege of your position to hold a seat for others.
I’ll give you a personal story. When my CEO asked me to be the first woman to be the first executive vice president, I asked what the full compensation package was before I’d say yes. I told him I wasn’t negotiating just for me, I was negotiating for every woman who has ever been promoted only to find out she would be paid less than a man with the same title or a man who held the title before her. He laughed and said, “I should have known.” But he engaged in authentic dialogue and I agreed to the position.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?
You can be a leader at any level of an organization, but leaders must be clear about the goal — and laser-focused on the ‘true north’ of the organization and yet, simultaneously, be thinking of the good of the team. I believe that by nature, people crave leadership, but not “management,” not in the sense of traditional management anyway. Executives need to ensure that they are using their seat as executive managers to empower the leaders on their team. They should fully embrace and reflect an understanding that they hired their team members because of the full array of talents and permit them space to thought lead. As a leader, I realize there are multiple reasons for every decision. As an executive, I need to be strategic, forward-thinking, and proactive about how we make those decisions. We don’t have the privilege of sitting back and waiting to be reactive. It is the role of the executive to ensure that the agenda of the organization is forward progressing while ensuring that its people feel valued and as essential elements of a winning formula.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?
One of the biggest myths is the idea that all it takes to be an executive is a mastery of the technical area of your expertise. One of the worst trends I’ve seen in business and government is when we find someone who’s an expert at, say, making widgets for example, and because they are so good at making widgets we say “Oh, we’re going to promote you to oversee this widget unit and you’re going to become a manager.” And because they were so good at making even more widgets, they get promoted even higher. However, what we haven’t done is made sure this individual is an expert at being a convener and collaborator with people. We haven’t invested in them enough to ensure they are fair, and just, and adept at dealing with others who are dissimilar to them. I think it’s a myth that executives need to know what they are doing all of the time. It’s a bad myth, too, because it contributes to an environment of presumptuous arrogance where executives see it as a weakness to acknowledge that there are areas or subjects of which they are too unfamiliar to be the ones making wide sweeping decisions. Rather, I believe that more executives need to utter the truthful words, “I don’t know” with greater frequency in order to encourage intellectual curiosity amongst their teams and to exemplify the need to inquire before we conclude.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
The international phenomenon of women being interrupted or over talked by men still baffles me. It is an unequivocal disempowering experience which has a horrendous impact on morale. Yet, it still continues to happen. Unfortunately, even more than that is the issue of pay inequity. Our male counterparts have the privilege of sitting in every meeting, board, and conference room knowing that they are being paid equivalently. In every single one of these settings, the women who enter these settings know that there is a deep likelihood that they carry the burden of pay inequity which has not only affected them in the present but, has disproportionally had a disparate impact on their retirement savings as well. For women of color, the burden is even heavier, has a generational impact, and serves to further the racial wealth gap.
What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?
Well, now that we are dealing in a COVID-19 world much has changed from how we all thought about our jobs. As a result of the mergers and acquisitions activity rampant in the hospitals and health systems my job covers a much more expansive area than originally anticipated. Despite the fact that I was brought on board to oversee policy and government affairs my current role has bloomed to align with my values of health equity and systems change. The role has also been much more public than I had previously thought. When I was hired by the former CEO I was told that I was to be the face of the healthcare system. Our current CEO doubled down on this when he charged me with elevating the national profile of our changed organizational mission.
Certainly, not everyone is cut out to be an executive. In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?
A successful executive has a heightened level of self-awareness and emotional intelligence. I think we need to recognize that these are not soft skills. I’ve seen leaders with sound technical expertise lack the ability to humbly go into a meeting and ask for help from people who have expertise in areas where the leader is lacking. I think that’s crucial.
I think the only kind of person who should avoid becoming an executive is someone who only wants the title or those who thrive off of exerting power over others. It should not be something that you do for yourself. Executives need to make decisions that are about the institution, the individuals they manage, communities they’re serving, the world as a whole, a market in particular, or the products they’re selling, not about themselves. I think service-oriented leadership is a really key component and a strong trait that will ensure a successful leader.
Executives should also always be looking to collaborate. Nothing is possible without a competent and dedicated team. I have aimed to live by the mantra that praise trickles down; accountability tracks up. When I’m honored or awarded, that honor is not mine, it is on behalf of the tremendous individuals I have the honor to work with and the fantastic work of our team.” The only ones who should not pursue executive leadership are those who can’t recognize that accomplishments do not solely belong to them. Simultaneously, if there’s an issue with a team dynamic or productivity the leader has to also look at themselves in the diagnostic. What is the leader doing to create the issues that have caused the problem? How can the leader quickly recognize the issue, amend their behavior, and pivot in time to redesign a methodology that works for all should be questions that executives are willing to ask themselves.
What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?
Women leaders can help their teams to thrive by making certain that they’re investing in their teams. Get a coach to help your entire team and pay attention to their specific needs. Explain to your team the importance of investing in themselves early in their careers. Formalize sponsorship opportunities so that you have more opportunities to promote team members to project leaders. But more than that, tie these initiatives in with the men in your organization so that they are also aware of the breadth of expertise and skill your team can bring to the table; especially in settings in which they traditionally lack access.
Also, mentor both at work and outside your organization with other women leaders in other settings. When I do reviews, I ask team members what their ultimate career goal is and where they see themselves in the next 5 to 10 years. I can then help them to network with others in that career or position that sets them up for their ultimate career goal. Opportunities like these allow them to advise you on whether their work is aligned with their goals or not and how you can adjust their assignments to be better aligned when possible. You’re investing not just in the work product, but the individual and they can see that you’re willing to invest the time to help them thrive.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I am fortunate that the work that CEO Barry H. Ostrowsky has asked me to lead, our new institutional mission of Social Impact and Community Investment, aims to accomplish exactly that. We are solely dedicated to literally make the world a better place one community at a time. This work is aimed at addressing the social determinants of health through a policy led equity framework that acknowledges the reality that racism is a public health crisis further exacerbated by implicit bias in health.
I will also say I try to make the world a better place just in the way we treat each other. I’ve mentored a great deal of individuals, and when that list of mentorship requests grew too long, we created the Women’s Leadership Alliance at RWJBH. When I realized that many requests were also coming from outside of my organization, I went on the board and became President of Executive Women of New Jersey to ensure that we are driving an inclusive agenda that would serve as a resource for all women looking to climb the corporate ladder.
I also really wanted to ensure that young people felt they had a voice in carving out the future, and so we created the RWJBarnabas Young Professional Advisory Council and the RWJBarnabas Corporate Institute for Internship a paid summer internship designed to build a more diverse future of healthcare administration.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- There will be times in your career that you’ll be scared; go forward anyway. Do it scared. When I was CEO of the New Jersey Lottery, I went through an administration change with a new governor. Usually, in state government a change in governor means that you’ll soon be replaced by a new political appointee. However, the state Treasurer called me to a meeting to ask me to be his chief of staff. I initially said no, because I was scared, but they wore me down. When I got the role, I realized how much larger it was than I expected. I went from an approximate staff size of 150 at the Lottery to a staff of over 7,500 across the department of Treasury. I remember feeling really overwhelmed a few short weeks after starting and I really wanted to leave the role and go back to the Lottery. But I had an inner dialogue that said, it’s ok to be afraid, I just need to keep showing up every day. Soon, I was more excited than scared and that has made all of the difference.
- Give yourself some grace. As women, we have a tendency to want to know everything when we walk through the door. It’s been shown that for some, women can have 7 out of 10 qualifications for a job description and not apply because of the missing 3. A man will have 3 qualifications and say the other 7 don’t matter. We’re allowed to do some learning on the job. When I became Chief of Staff of the Treasury, I experienced just that, but I gave myself some time to learn on the job and was able to excel in the role; quickly ascending to Deputy State Treasurer and then Treasurer
- Failure is inevitable. You can get back up again. There will be opportunities to negotiate for a raise and you’ll get a no. But that doesn’t reflect your value or your worth. In my experience, there’s always something greater. Mistakes can be your best teachers. Be willing to take a calculated risk every once in a while, innovation requires it.
- Know your worth and add tax. I oversee areas that no one understands. I have a background in government affairs. Others may have backgrounds in communications or marketing. These are areas that I have observed that people without the requisite training and experience tend to be presumptuous about. I’ve had those who have read a political headline attempt to tell me how to do my job and watched others had their marketing work consistently compared to their competitors by those whose expertise is a totally different area altogether. It’s important to not internalize this occurrence. It can be a challenge, and I will admit that it can, in fact, be quite weathering, but we have to be sure to cling to the Eleanor Roosevelt quote that, “no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” For example, when I served as the acting state Treasurer, we had a meeting with oil lobbyists and their CEO client and when I entered the room and asked if they would like to begin the meeting, one of the lobbyists looked at me in front of his client and asked to wait for the treasurer to arrive before starting. I looked at him and said, “Well, the Treasurer is about to leave this room.” I wanted their client to know that they had not done their homework and that his lobbyist’s insulting behavior which assumed that a young Black woman could not be the state Treasurer, could cost them. I left that room. Implicit bias and a lack of cultural competency can cost businesses every day
- You are entitled to be happy. As executives, we find ourselves in really demanding roles. We spend a lot of time “doing,” but we’re rarely permitted to just “be” — to take a break and rest. We don’t have to live a life where we are miserable the majority of the time and have to wait for vacation to be happy. We’re entitled to be happy in our day-to-day. We are allowed to find joy and you are entitled to change things when you don’t feel that.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
It would be a movement for equity, one that dismantles the structural and systemic racism that increases health care disparities, and one that ends poverty. I think we’re witnessing this in part with the current anti-racism movement. I have referred to it as the great awakening. For those of us who have been committed to racial equity systems change for years, it’s interesting to watch colleagues across the country beginning to recognize the reality of lived experience for their colleagues, neighbors, friends and family members of color.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite quote is by Shirly Chisholm, the first African American woman to run for President of the United States, “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.”
I aim to live this on a daily basis. Even though I’m in private industry, much of what I do permits me to exercise my dedication to serving others. We drive the employee engagement and volunteer platform under social impact. We address the social determinants of health and ask questions like “how do we bring affordable food access to food deserts and food swamps?”; “how do we affect change in neighborhoods or households where violence is an issue?”; “what do we do about education and economic disparity?” Each of these questions is about how we expand our resources, our networks, our influence in order to effectuate systems change. How do we take care of the least of us? What are we doing to chip away at transgenerational poverty? and what are we doing to fix structures that proliferate an underclass? These are the questions I and my team ask ourselves on a daily basis. The call to servant leadership requires more of us to ask these same types of questions. We are called to be active change agents. What are you challenging? What are you changing?
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them
I really need to dine with Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest. I’m an Ellevest investor and love the creation of an investment platform designed for women. More, EWNJ is also an Ellevest investor as it was important to me during my tenure as president to ensure that our investment portfolio reflected our principle interest and our mission. I’ve been super excited to witness their organizational response to the call to be anti-racist and to achieve economic equity and to close the wealth gap for women of color generally and Black women specifically. They’re one organization to watch. I think the future is exceptionally bright for them and as a result, for all of us. Sallie, give me a call, I’d be happy to speak with you about the health — wealth connection.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Michellene Davis of RWJBarnabas Health: People crave leadership, but not “management,”; Execut was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.