How HBA's Woman Of The Year Became A Successful Leader

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

As Jennifer Cook strides across the stage at the Hilton New York Midtown, it is difficult to envision the 2016 Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association’s (HBA) Woman of the Year (WOTY) as being anything but extremely confident. But during her acceptance speech, the Roche executive paints a very different portrait of her early self. “When I was growing up, I was shy, very studious, and quite frankly, insecure,” she admits. “I’ve always had a strong regard for authority and was very willing to follow instructions, trusting that people in charge must know best.”

An experience during a training course when Cook first began managing people helped her to understand that this view of authority might not be the best. “It was a simulation,” she shares. “You are stranded in the desert with a set of supplies (e.g., bottled water, salt tablets, a parachute) and you have to decide, first on your own then as a team, what choices to make.” During the team part of the exercise, the group is supposed to develop a rank-ordered list of the most important supplies and a rationale as to why they chose those supplies. Though Cook shared her ideas, they were quickly shot down. “A teammate in my group had served in the military, and he was a very forceful person,” Cook recalls. “When we started the group discussion, he completed dominated, and he was very clear about what we needed to do.” As a result, Cook basically ended up going along to get along. “When the coach tallied up our scores though, guess what, we died,” she admits. But had she followed her own list, the group would have survived. “In the debrief of that exercise, the coach helped me to understand that by withholding what I thought, I was actually harming the team,” she says. “That was such a good way to reframe this for me to get over my reticence to speak and see it as possibly depriving others of benefit.” Cook had to have the courage to stand up to a louder, more authoritative voice, because her voice and ideas were equally, if not more valuable, in that moment. Cook explains that to become a successful leader required her achieving three courage milestones.

Cook’s Courage Milestones

As Cook shares stories that shaped her approach to leadership, she provides a list of courage milestones:

• breaking through my fear of failure
• learning to let go of control
• counting on the value of others.

 The first courage milestone Cook had to overcome (i.e., breaking through her fear of failure) she describes as becoming comfortable in her own skin. “Early in my career I was introverted, self-critical, and a perfectionist,” she states. “One of my deep-seated discomforts was being sure that I was right before deciding to speak up.” As evidenced in the simulation, being right, while still ending up dead, is not a desirable outcome. “I needed to expose myself to the risk of being wrong.” As her jobs got bigger than anything she could do alone, Cook came to understand that successful leaders need to find the nerve to entrust and empower others, because the relentless pursuit of individual perfection is not only a hopeless desire for control, but can come at the detriment to others. “Breaking through my fear of failure was my first courage milestone,” she shares. “As I built the courage to admit my own limits, ask for help, and laugh about my mistakes, people around me became much more comfortable, and I, much more approachable. By admitting to not having the answers, I could turn my focus outward and invite other people into the conversation.”

According to Cook, helping people to feel valuable enables them to bring value. “Too much of management still seems to be based on a command–and-control approach,” she states. “I believe people do their best work because they want to, not because we tell them to.” As a leader, Cook strives to create an environment where people feel inspired, valued, and included, so they will want to bring their very best. This learning to let go of control was Cook’s second courage milestone. As she explains, “Being perfect is not only impossible it’s not even that interesting.” Cook shares that it will feel risky because it goes against the iconic image often held of leaders — that person in the front of the room seeming to have all the answers. For Cook, learning to let go requires becoming vulnerable and letting others see your imperfections. “By being vulnerable myself, I opened the door to risk taking in others,” she explains. This helped Cook to achieve her third courage milestone — counting on the value of others.     

Is Your Diversity Strategy Inclusive?

In her role of heading up Roche’s European operations, which involves 28 countries and nearly 6,000 people, she takes the time to connect with people about business, as well as their personal interests. “In valuing the individual and what matters to them you will learn the meaning of inclusion,” she explains. Inclusion takes us beyond the concept of diversity. “As leaders we are seeking diversity because we know it is good for the business, but as individuals we seek affinity,” she explains. “Diversity emphasizes differences, and differences make us uncomfortable. Is that feeling of being set apart something you want to intentionally inflict on other people?” Cook believes that by pushing only for diversity you are asking people to fight against strong natural tendencies. Further, she believes that by asking people to accept being uncomfortable just because “it is the right thing to do” is something people can’t and won’t do in any sustained way. Instead, Cook suggests striving to create an inclusive environment that invites every person to participate. “If you are genuinely interested in the contributions of each person, without a label, if you are asking for their input and listening to their ideas, you create an environment where the differences are not the focus, but the comfort to contribute is.” An inclusive approach to leadership lowers barriers and lets people bring their best selves forward. “Any behavior that singles out one group and excludes another runs the risk of being divisive.”

How Big Is Your Brave?

As Cook concludes her speech at the HBA showcase event, she encourages attendees to consider whether they are working on being someone others think they should be, or committed to being their best self. “Do you have the courage to look in the mirror and say, this is who I am, and say it to others?” she asks. “I can only be me, and as Oscar Wilde said, ‘Everyone else is already taken.’”

According to Cook, being genuine requires being brave, and with that, she asks the audience the following — “How Big Is Your Brave? Are you brave enough to choose to be yourself, not what someone defines for you as success? Do you have the courage to be curious about whom your colleagues really are, what motivates them, to invite them to share and do more? Are you ready to take the bold step to embrace the confidence you have earned to make it all possible? How big is your brave?”