Don’t undersell yourself: Advice for women leaders from a DFC partner
DFC’s 2X Women’s Initiative invests in women at all levels of the economic pyramid, from low-income entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers to senior business leaders. DFC’s recent financing to Africa Healthcare Network (AHN) qualified as a 2X transaction because of the company’s large share of women in senior management, including Chief Operating Officer Priyanka Venkannagari.
Here, Venkannagari, who oversees AHN’s cross country functional teams including biomedical engineering, clinical operations, analytics, supply chain, new center projects, and maintenance, talks about what she’s learned as a woman in senior leadership. AHN is the largest dialysis provider in East Africa and is using a DFC loan to support its continued expansion to bolster chronic disease treatment on the continent.
What challenges have you faced as a woman in management and how did you work to overcome them?
While I’m lucky to have worked with a lot of powerful women leaders, I am still in situations where I find myself in largely male-dominated meetings or working with male-dominant teams. That combined with the expectation of how women are meant to act can make it difficult to have my voice heard at the table. I’ve continued to work on my style and confidence in these situations and built an approach that works for me to ensure my opinions are heard. I’ve also seen similar issues with women that I manage, so it’s been important to work on structural initiatives to ensure we prevent biases in the workplace.
Africa Healthcare Networks is a business that has multiple women in senior leadership. In your experience, how does this diverse leadership benefit the business of delivering quality healthcare?
About half our senior team cross country is female. Having female leaders helps us attract and retain more junior female leaders, which has been extremely valuable to us in ensuring we have quality talent and multiple perspectives at the table, which has many times gotten us to better outcomes. We also provide services to many women in the region and being able to empathize with their needs is important for our growth.
How does Africa Healthcare Network work to consider the specific needs of women patients/customers?
We foster a culture of diversity and inclusion and value high-quality service. We believe that patients (men and women) will go where they are treated best. Ensuring these values permeate through our organization has allowed us to ensure we treat all patients well.
What advice do you have for aspiring women leaders?
Focus on your strengths and don’t undersell yourself. I would say that sometimes we are our own biggest critics and have too much self-doubt. As a manager, I’ve seen that women tend to downplay their achievements. That is something we need to get better at. Having a strong support system has been extremely helpful, so it is important to ensure that those support systems exist formally and informally. I’ve also learned that being vulnerable can be a powerful tool. We may want to show exterior perfection, but that does not always resonate. Being vulnerable allows you to break down barriers and often is the most successful way at managing tough dynamics.
