0:00

Monica H. Kang: Leadership is always evolving. We grow, we learn, and both from being around different people and being in jobs maybe with bosses that we didn't like and bosses that empowered us, we continue to rethink and reflect. What does it mean to really be a good leader, and how do I build skills to be a better leader? Well, today's guest thought a lot about that for sure, especially thinking how she felt at the very beginning of her career when many would say, hey, thats not the way how you become a leader. And she realized, you know what, im not really sure if I like the way how theyre telling me what a leadership is, because it didnt really feel natural. It felt forced. Anyone else felt that way.

0:50

Monica H. Kang: She realized how important, authentic leadership is and why it's so important to pursue your voice and especially when you become a parent and a mother or a father. And as we hold on and show up to the world with all these identities and roles, we rethink about what it means to fully show up as a person and especially as a leader. So with further ado, I'm excited to introduce my guest today, Nicola Fitzpatrick. Nicola is the director of operations at Medtronics, where she has been a product development global leader with over 19 years of experience delivering measurable results in the medical device industry. She has been recognized for consistently exceeding deadlines and meeting business objectives while creating an energized work environment through effective communication at both local and global locations.

1:50

Monica H. Kang: Shes an expert in all stage of medical device product lifecycle management which can be easily applied to other industries. And more importantly, shes super excited to be a new mom and share her journey, looking back at leadership and what it means and how she can better in hopes she can inspire others to know that, hey, where you are right now is a good start.

2:15

Monica H. Kang: So very excited to have my friend Nicola here at safe home, Minnesota. Thank you so much for joining us. Very excited to have you here. So many questions and themes to dive into as we think about leadership and what's changing. And I am curious. For instance, right now you have been in your role leading for quite some time. What would you say you are excited about where leadership trend is heading overall and what you're also worried about?

2:46

Nicola Fitzpatrick: The most exciting thing for me is the acceptance of different types of leadership styles. And this is something I've personally struggled with in that I'm a little bit different, I'm a little bit quirky, and I don't have the standard approach to the corporate leadership style. So what I've loved over the past number of years that the diversity of leadership type is changing. And that's been really exciting for me personally. What worries me a little bit is that if we lose that spark, if we lose the will, I suppose, or just the need to have diversity and leadership types, or if we take the whole diversity approach to an extreme. And that's where I personally am a little bit worried that you have diversity of thought and diversity through race and sex, which I think is amazing and I'm a big advocate for.

3:50

Nicola Fitzpatrick: I think when we focus on diversity in those categories, we forget about diversity of leadership style in a way, and we may conform people to a certain type of style that is claustrophobic and it's not them. So I think that's where I worry a little bit.

4:08

Monica H. Kang: It's a really important point and I want to dig a little bit deeper. So, Nicola, bring us back to, like, way back. Maybe in your first job or like, when you were building your career, where were you and what was your perception of leadership then?

4:20

Nicola Fitzpatrick: My very first role, I would have been an associate engineer. And my perception of leadership was you follow what that person asks you to do. I felt those leaders, I felt personally that they were performing per script, and sometimes it didn't feel authentic, if that makes sense. So it felt that there was more of a yes person mentality and maybe that was the culture back then and maybe more of a culture of tell them what they want to hear. And when I say that, it's how people communicate. Sometimes the senior leadership communicating what they want to hear as opposed to what the reality is, are two very different things. And I think you can package those things differently. You have to be honest and truthful.

5:10

Nicola Fitzpatrick: So for me, I struggled a little bit with that and the understanding of what a leader is and what they should be doing as opposed to how to react to support the business. So what I've learned through my career is the type of leader I don't want to be, if that makes sense. So I have loads of examples of I don't want that to happen to me. So I had a leader who, his advice at the time was tell them what they want to hear. And that's so against me as a person and my values. I struggled with that, or I had a leader tell me before that, hey, Nicola, you need to be this type of person to succeed. And I tried it and it just suffocated me as a person.

5:56

Nicola Fitzpatrick: I struggled really hard in my role and even how to execute because I felt I was so fake and I was trying to be this fake person all the time, it just took so much energy. Whereas when I took a step back and asked myself, what kind of leader do I want to be? What are my values? How can I bring my best self to what I do? I feel I've really found my feet in the past number of years. This has been a long journey for me. I've been in the workforce for nearly 20 years, so next year I'll be working 20 years as an engineer or in that environment. So I think it's been a journey and there's been lots of pivots for me.

6:37

Nicola Fitzpatrick: But I do feel the last five years I've really come into my own as a leader, understood what my strengths are, what I can bring to the table. But equally, I have a leader who sees those strengths and helps me and promotes me to bring my best self to what I do. And that combination has worked really well for me.

6:59

Monica H. Kang: That's really powerful. And thank you for sharing, because I think often we don't share enough about that. Hey, it's a journey. And there's all these things that is influencing and shaping us, what we think leadership is and how we feel about it. But something changed. Tell us what changed. And was there a tipping point? Was it an event or was it something gradual?

7:20

Nicola Fitzpatrick: For me, it was gradual. I just felt personally, I wasn't developing the way I wanted to be. I felt I could give more and do more and I wasn't getting the opportunities. So I just took a step back and just looked at where I was, where I needed to go and what I needed to do for myself. So a key part of that was I did go back and do an MBA, I did a part time MBA. So it worked really well for me. I was able to still progress my career, but equally, I was learning with amazing people, and there were so many people from different industries I was able to learn from.

7:57

Nicola Fitzpatrick: And I think I just really wanted to learn and wanted to share those learnings with my current employers so that I could better not just myself, but my employees as well. So I live by the philosophy of, if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got. How can we do things different to have a different outcome? So using that thought process, that's how I started to apply myself. And to be fair, I did see success with that. And I know it's a cliche to be an authentic leader, but that is what I did. I just went back to being me and I started bringing the best parts of me to work and to those that I mentor and coach through my.

8:40

Monica H. Kang: Current role, how would you define good leadership now, and how is that different from your past definition?

8:47

Nicola Fitzpatrick: Yes, it's a good question. Good leadership for me is someone who is present there to listen and someone who you can just easily contact and not afraid to contact. I think sometimes there is this fear of reaching out to a leader. And for me, my whole process is, you know, I work in a manufacturing environment. I have product builders who are part of my team. So my philosophy is, it doesn't matter where you are. From a title perspective, everyone has a voice, everyone is valued. And with that baseline or that foundation, a great leader is someone that anybody can reach out to if they have a grievance and are comfortable doing that and having that conversation. And I've had that through my career, and I love it.

9:34

Nicola Fitzpatrick: I love when someone calls me out on something or says, hey, we could have done this a better way, and we talk it through. And that's something I love personally because it helps me grow, but it gives that individual a voice as well. So for me, good leadership is just being present, being there, and being willing to listen, but equally being vulnerable and saying, you don't have all the answers, because we don't as leaders. And that's why you have a team around you that together you'll have those answers or find a solution. So I think for me, that's something that I seek out in a leader. And I do gravitate to people who have a lot of experience, to be honest, because I personally believe that they've seen so much. And those life learnings and skills are something that I gravitate to.

10:22

Nicola Fitzpatrick: So I do get curious and I reach out to those nuggets of people who have that information. And, yeah, that's something I enjoy. Love it.

10:30

Monica H. Kang: Love it. Tell me a little bit more. How big is your team now? How many people are you overseeing, and what are the type of projects that you often have to, I guess, kind of understand with day to day as a leader?

10:42

Nicola Fitzpatrick: Yep, perfect. I currently have nine people reporting into me, and these are really experienced individuals. They're super. I have supervisors and program managers and then senior program managers. So I very experienced team reporting into me. And then the beauty of my role at the moment is that I'm growing an organization at the moment, which I'm really excited about. So I work in medical device. It's new product development, and we are building a new therapy. So with the new therapy, we have new products around it to help support our patients. So with that extensive team, our organization that I'm building, we have just over 50 people and it's global. So we are based in Ireland, in the US and also in Mexico. And that's something I love as part of my role.

11:30

Nicola Fitzpatrick: So when you ask me about day to day, it's a lot of calls. I'm not going to lie, it's a lot of calls because we're a global team and it's a lot of solution driven conversations. So people come to me because of my experience, but also because of my network within medtronics and also I'm very problem solving person. So if someone reached out to me, we bounce ideas off each other and we would talk through it and we'd figure out the plan together. Or we use it as a coaching or mentoring session where the individual who's reached out to me ends up with the plan. And they always knew it was there. It was only a matter of asking the right questions to get the right answer.

12:09

Nicola Fitzpatrick: So there are those day to day activities as a functional manager or a support within the operations organization. So I primarily focus on manufacturing. And then the flip side of manufacturing is there's issues and that's knee jerk reactions and you need to figure out really good solutions because, and quick fixes because we're working with medical devices and quality is number one and patient safety is number one and that's how we operate. So it's dynamic. Anything could happen on a given day and it's really weird. Everything always happens on a Friday. When you're trying to finish your weekend, an issue crops up. So hopefully people in a manufacturing environment or industry can relate to that in some way, shape or form.

12:56

Monica H. Kang: And I assume also being global is helpful, but also like, you know, kind of looking out for the time zones. I almost wonder, like, I hope that you make sure you sleep and rest. How do you, what advice and tip do you have in managing when you have such a global team and in a global company with different time zones? Because I think it's a whole other issue and different challenge and skills as well.

13:18

Nicola Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I think it's been a balancing act. So what has really helped me is obviously I moved location, so I was on the west coast in San Francisco and then I moved on Central Time zone, correct? Yeah, I was in San Francisco and then in 2020 we moved to Minneapolis St. Paul. That 2 hours difference has made a massive impact on my life and my lifestyle. And the big reason for that is instead of having an eight hour time difference between San Francisco and Ireland, it's 6 hours. That means I've gained 2 hours with my team in Ireland, which has been life changing. So instead of getting having calls at five or 06:00 a.m. I can still start the day at 08:00 a.m. And I get amazing crossover between my west coast teammates, but also with my team in Ireland.

14:09

Nicola Fitzpatrick: So for me, that move alone was significant from a lifestyle perspective and it was one of the big drivers for moving as well. And yeah, it's worked out in my favor. How do I make it work? I think what's really important for me and something I've learned throughout my career, not just being as a functional manager, I was in project management, program management as well, understanding what's important to people. I have team members and their family is number one. If their family is number one, I'm not going to set up a call at 06:00 p.m. In the evening. They need to be at home with their family.

14:41

Nicola Fitzpatrick: So when you have a global team, my biggest advice I would give to leaders or anyone who's in functional management is understand what's important to your team and then do your best to try and accommodate what their currencies are. What is that important value for them? If you work around that, you're going to have a team that really respects you and who support you. So I think for me that is something I've learned throughout my career and it's something that served me really well, but it shows that you're very respectful to that individual.

15:15

Monica H. Kang: And speaking of family, I know you're a new mom as well. Congratulations. Thank for your family to start that chapter and also opportunities and challenges and so shed a little bit more light. Also having family abroad as well. How do you balance all of that?

15:33

Nicola Fitzpatrick: Ill be honest, its hard. And when they say it takes a village to our family, I can see why. We have a beautiful daughter whos nearly ten months old. Ive been so fortunate with my employer that I was able to take six months total 24 weeks fully paid maternity leave. It was supported by my boss. My peers were amazing as well. That was just such a mental relief to me knowing that I had this time available and I was supported by amazing team members and friends to take that time off. I think for me it was really important to take that time off and I did. I did not work, I did not log in to work. I really was very european about it and I did take the time off. I needed it personally to heal but I also needed to bond.

16:27

Nicola Fitzpatrick: And when you become a mom. And your previous title was director of operations. Now I'm mom, I'm wife. I'm director of operations. Like, you gain a title, which has been amazing but definitely challenges. When I was going back to work, I struggled a little bit on what my role was going to because we had a reorganization while I was out on maternity leave. So coming back into work and figuring out what my purpose was, how do I help people? Where do I add the most benefit? I struggled with that, to be completely honest. But I did find my footing after a few months.

17:06

Nicola Fitzpatrick: The other part I struggled with as a new mom and as a leader was that I thought I felt pressure, and maybe it was me putting pressure on myself to hit the ground running and to be fully up to speed. So I'd been out of the projects that I was supporting and my team for six months. There was decisions made when I was out on maternity leave, and that's fine. You work around what decisions were made and you try to execute. But I found myself the very first day I was back in the office trying to be up to speed on everything. I will admit that I had thousands of emails and I did just hit delete because that was in the past. So that was very refreshing to do that, because if it's in the past, you can't do anything about it.

17:48

Nicola Fitzpatrick: But that's something I struggled with, was that balance of trying to come back into the workplace as a new mom, but trying to prove yourself that, hey, you've taken this extended period of time off. I'm still able to do it all. And I'm learning that you can't do it all. You have to prioritize sometimes, and you need to be okay with that prioritization, like at peace with yourself and don't beat yourself up about it.

18:14

Monica H. Kang: Could you share an example of how we can know how to prioritize and what we do? What are situations you've had to make those decisions?

18:23

Nicola Fitzpatrick: Yes. This week has been pretty tough. My daughter was sick with a bug, and I don't have my family here, so my family are all in Ireland, and I have wonderful in laws, and my husband just happens to be away for this week. And Murphy's law applied and everything went wrong. So we introduced her daughter to daycare last week, and she was in daycare three days on day four. She was very ill and I had no options. So thankfully, I was able to work from home. I was trying to work from home. It wasn't working. I could not do both. It's physically not possible to mind a child and work at the same time. And I just had to make that choice at noon saying, sorry, I can't do this, and I had to stop work to care for my child.

19:12

Nicola Fitzpatrick: And that was my priority then. Was there guilt associated with. From a work perspective? Yes. And the stuff and things I needed to get done, I couldn't. People are extremely understanding in those situations, which I really appreciate. And it's really the testament to the amazing people I work with. But again, as a female, as a new mom, you feel like you're letting people down. So it's just balancing that need. And it's interesting, this week I felt I've had to work harder and more to compensate for that time, but that's an expectation I put on myself. No one asked that from me. So I think that's something I need to be mindful of as I go through this journey. And this has been the first time that this has ever turned up for me.

19:59

Nicola Fitzpatrick: So this particular situation when poor Kira was sick, and so I'm just trying to balance that and I know there's going to be more. So this is just a journey for me. And there will be times when both I and my husband are home who's going to have to take that step back as Kira has more illnesses? Because that's what I'm learning. Daycare presents a lot of illnesses.

20:23

Monica H. Kang: Well, thank you, daycares, both for the goods and bad, needing to look out for all of it. And thank you, Nicola, for humanizing just the wholesome of both the joy and the challenges that are very real. I hope she feels better very soon. And thank you for still making time to be here. In the midst of this, we'll send good thoughts your way and to the families that way. She has speedy recovery, but you're hitting on something really key, which is, I feel like it's 2024. There's still so much data, research. Why are we still not getting this? Why are we still having this problem? Because I think from a societal point of view, there's just so much benefit if we have better maternity support, paternity support, childcare support. I mean, they're our next generation of futures.

21:07

Monica H. Kang: Like, they are going to be the audience who's going to help change new policies, set new innovations. It is not wasted. And in fact, even more probably the best investment we are doing as a society to make sure we take care of our future. And of course, not have the parents burn out. And yet the very examples you're sharing is very real. And in fact, I'm so grateful that you got to have and be in an organization that is supported. But as we know here, as we speak, unfortunately, many of the other individuals around the world, whether it's due to country company, even if colleagues are amazing, they just don't have that support. And so I'm curious to hear your thoughts, like, if you had the magic wand.

21:47

Monica H. Kang: And I understand for folks who's listening, you know, maybe we'll start with the ideation part, but what do you think we have to be really doing and being more serious about to address this maybe systematic problem of, like, how we think about parenting and especially even as a leader, to continue to grow and succeed? Because I think on a macro other scale, the other problem has been, especially maybe for female leaders and even for male leaders, that they would not have kids. Because it's like, you know what, I can't, even though I want to have children, even if I want to get married or like, and again, like, for some people, it's a personal choice, but I think it's a really important point to raise that it's become an either or. And it doesn't have to be.

22:26

Monica H. Kang: Why are we making it an either or choice? So big theme it is.

22:32

Nicola Fitzpatrick: There's so much there to unpack. But I think for me, I just take a step back from it and go, what I know, even with myself, if I'm not 100% okay in work, I'm not my best self. And this is where I struggle a little bit for an individual who's had a baby and six months or six weeks maternity leave, and they're back. How can you physically and mentally be okay coming back to work? And I work in a mostly male dominated function in operations. I've had team members who are dads, and they do take paternity leave, and I embrace it, and I think it's fantastic. So irrespective of maternity leave or paternity leave, we should be offering this to employees. If your team is healthy and happy, it speaks for itself. The results are there. It's a no brainer.

23:27

Nicola Fitzpatrick: And I think for me, as someone who's irish, when I came here to the US, I'm on disability leave for being pregnant. I don't understand why pregnancy is considered a disability. So that's something that I've had to get my head around. When you apply for FMLA benefits through the US, so even the terminology we use for someone who is pregnant or.

23:50

Monica H. Kang: Carrying a baby, what does the acronym mean for those who don't know, FMLA.

23:55

Nicola Fitzpatrick: FMLA is family, medical leave, absenteeism. And then if you look into the details, you get twelve weeks. My understanding within the US is everyone's entitled to it for twelve weeks, paid or unpaid. And that's where the difficulty is the unpaid part. And I think if politicians or the government could just look at it as, hey, these are future taxpayers, if you just put it down to tax and money, would that change the perception of give people time? Like if you look at having a family as an economy driver, I know so many economies are struggling with this, how can you reward it? And one of the ways to reward are through maternity and paternity benefits.

24:39

Nicola Fitzpatrick: And I think we need to recognize this adoption and surrogacy and whoever is making a family in whatever way you want to, how do you ensure that we're looking after those individuals, keeping them safe and healthy, so that when they return to the workforce, they're returning as their best selves. And that's when you get the best rewards out of people. Not that you've worked 15 hours a day and you're absolutely depressed of energy and you can't support what you're doing yourself, you can't look after yourself, you can't execute and work, or you can't look after your family or friends or your dog or you cat, whatever it is. That's where I really struggle. And that to me was a big driver behind being a leader.

25:25

Nicola Fitzpatrick: To take all that time off and to show you can do it, you can take that time off and you don't get. My hope is, and I know it's not going to happen, but I won't, this won't go against me as I try to progress, and I know that's not going to happen, my performance shouldn't be valued less just because I had a baby or just because I've taken a holiday for 24 weeks, which it wasn't a holiday, it was eye opening, to be completely honest, it was busy.

25:52

Monica H. Kang: No, thank you so much for sharing that. For folks who are listening, I think especially whether they are a parent or a leader or anyone, I mean, we all know somebody who are in any of those roles or in those hats. And so thank you for humanizing it, making it real. And as you have honestly pointed out, it's not going to be one solution, but by raising awareness and understanding. And I think theme that's coming back to me is actually the very first comment you shared as were starting this conversation, which is the power of authenticity. Like the fact that we can't also talk about this, even openly, or explore these different themes, even if it's messy. We're not paretting people to show up authentically, fully as themselves.

26:34

Monica H. Kang: And so the opportunity to just even hash out, talk about it, I think is so key. So thank you, Nicola, for modeling that. Being here to share it with us openly and exploring all of it. I'm curious, what's your kind of final wisdom and advice that you'll share with our listeners as they think about wherever they are in their journey and how they can be a better leader in thinking about all of this, too?

26:57

Nicola Fitzpatrick: Yeah. I think the biggest advice I'd give to someone is that if someone is asking you to change your leadership style, you have to ask, is this the right place for me? It comes back to being your authentic self, and it will be really difficult to try and be something you're not. I'm not saying that I am perfect. I'm not by any means. I try to better myself and I take feedback really well and I try to improve. But I would say if someone is fundamentally saying that you have to be a completely different person in how you lead, I would say that would be a little bit of a red flag for me. So be your true self and be open and honest.

27:33

Nicola Fitzpatrick: I would say the other bit of advice I will give is that, and this is a little bit of opposite advice for people who work as leaders. It's difficult. You do not get thanked when you're a leader. And I think there is an expectation as a leader to give, and I know my leadership style is to give a lot of myself to other people to ensure they're okay, to ensure the environment they're working in is okay. It's okay to ask that leader, how are you doing? Are you okay? Or just a simple thank you. That little bit of acknowledgement does go a long way. I do think that anyone who is a functional manager or in leadership roles, they do take on a lot and just set that little bit of perspective. For individuals who are reporting into leaders.

28:21

Nicola Fitzpatrick: Sometimes it can feel like a thankless job and it can be a lonely road, and it's something just people always want to progress to the next thing, which I fully support. Just be mindful that the higher you go up, it is a little bit more lonely every step you take. And just to be aware of that and that thank yous become less and just be prepared for that. As a leader, it is something that I've not struggled with, but I've definitely noticed more as I've progressed through my career.

28:54

Monica H. Kang: No, thank you for sharing those. It kind of reminds me of forgetting the specific phrase, but you know how when things go well, people don't compliment, but when things fall apart, they definitely know who to criticize, whether it's an event, whether it's at an organization. And so, you know, shout out really to all the leaders I know, like especially we're in a workplace and any point, of course, history, there's never always been an easy time. But I think there's a lot more complexity that's being demanded of leaders today, of expectation, excellence, both technical expertise as well as the many soft skills. Soft skills that are intangible but very tangible and very difficult to navigate, and the expectation to continue to hone. Thank you for highlighting that. To know that it's a continuing journey.

29:38

Monica H. Kang: Final question, but not the least, but what's the best way folks can stay in touch with you and follow up with you?

29:44

Nicola Fitzpatrick: Oh, I'm on LinkedIn, so you can look me up on LinkedIn. Hopefully you'll share that. Yeah, please, if people want to chat more about leadership or just learn about my career journey or advice, I'm more than welcome to chat to people. And yeah, just find me on LinkedIn and we'll make some time.

30:01

Monica H. Kang: Thank you so much for sharing that. And folks, you know the drill. We always share our guests information in the show notes. You can find that at our blog page. If you cannot find, just simply email us@infoinnovatorsbox.com but nicola, thank you so much. This was such a treat. I know folks will revisit many of these conversations and we're just so grateful for your leadership and reminding us in how we can lead as a new mom and also in all that joy. And so thank you so much. And folks will be back again with another story soon.

30:31

Nicola Fitzpatrick: Thank you. Bye bye. Monica H. Kang: Thank you. Monica H. Kang: Thank you again, Nicola, for such an inspiring journey in time with us, in reminding us that you don't have to have all the answers from the beginning, but it starts with that awareness and gut check to say, is this who I really am? And who am I really? And how do I strive to be as meta as those questions sound? I feel every time I ask them, I learn something new about myself and I'm humbly reminded that leadership is a journey and there is really no end to how you go about it. So continue to invest, grow, and I appreciate you all for tuning in today for another story and reflecting on these insights. So, Nicola, thank you again, and thank you all for joining me.

31:20

Monica H. Kang: We'll be back again next week as we continue to think about theme rethinking leadership, how this time we think about growth, how do we then train people differently, and what is perhaps the way we should think differently about it? Curious? Well, tune in. I'll see you next week at Dear Workplace by InnovatorsBox. This is your host, Monica Kang. Have a lovely day. Thanks again for joining us. This is your host, Monica Kang at Dear Workplace, and I'm so glad you are here. This show is possible thanks to our amazing podcast team who has worked with me at InnovatorsBox Studios.

32:03

Monica H. Kang: Shout out to audio engineering and producing by Sam Lehmart, Audio Engineering assistant by Ravi Lad, website and marketing support by Kree Pandey, Graphic Support by Lea Orsini, Christine Eribal, and original music by InnovatorsBox Studios. And writing, interviewing, podcasting, directing, and all that jazz by me, Monica Kang. Share us your feedback and suggestions as we continue to look to improve and answer the questions that you have about the workplace. Have a great day and I'll see you soon.