Setting the example

CONNOLLY: Who leaders task for important, high-profile roles or assignments or projects can send a very powerful signal about sponsorship. It goes beyond mentorship to really helping them advance. When you’re in a position of leadership, you have certain additional responsibilities including to the organization, but you also have opportunities to use that position in different ways, and I think that’s where it can really become very powerful.

GUNASEKARAN: We found it more important actually to engage the front lines than some of the senior leadership because they had more data on what’s happening in the real world. We found that our staff members of color and of different sexual orientation were subject to a lot more harassment and abuse than we were fully aware of from our patients. Empowering front- line staff to be part of the solution to help us better understand the realities of our community has been really important. But that isn’t to say that the senior leadership shouldn’t also be held accountable for having the right representation and listening.

EDWARDS: Young people want to be what they see, right? You can’t be what you can’t see. So now my organization is intentional about connecting with high school programs. We actually allow 70 high schoolers who are in the medical academy here locally to do rotations through our hospital system to get exposure to healthcare. We also have a relationship with our local (historically Black college). There are over 100 across the country. Find one that’s close to you in your region and reach out to those students. They are smart, they are hungry, they are humble, they are talented. Give them an opportunity to see what it’s like to walk inside the organization and leadership shoes and give them kind of an expanded dream if you will.