“I have been pondering so much about management fashions,” Sarah O’Leary, CEO of femtech firm Willow, tells Entrepreneur. “ There’s been a variety of noise and information round, ‘We want extra masculine power within the office.’ It makes you query as a frontrunner: What’s my type? How efficient is my type? I do not consider that we want extra masculine power.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Willow
O’Leary characterizes her management type and the tradition at Willow, the model behind “patented leak-proof” wearable breast pumps and their equipment, as one which facilities transparency and empathy to construct belief throughout the office. In response to the CEO, groups which have belief in one another — and of their leaders — usually tend to perform in a method that is conducive to success.
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“I consider [flexibility in the workplace] makes us extra productive.”
Instilling belief inside group members means emphasizing a degree of autonomy, O’Leary says. Willow is a “very versatile office,” O’Leary explains, noting that the corporate has by no means given its workers return-to-office mandates. As a mom of two herself, O’Leary is especially cognizant of the on a regular basis hurdles group members who’re additionally mother and father face, and he or she desires to assist them in any method potential.
“ If my children’ elementary college live performance is occurring at 10 a.m., I’ll log off,” O’Leary says. “I’ll go to that, then come again and preserve going with my day. I do not consider that makes us any much less productive. I consider it makes us extra productive. I really feel very passionately that we will construct a tremendously profitable enterprise whereas additionally working in ways in which really feel genuine to our management and group.”
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Willow is navigating its subsequent progress chapter with O’Leary on the helm. The corporate just lately introduced its acquisition of UK-based femtech innovator Elvie, which is anticipated to spice up income by 50%. Willow additionally continues to associate with organizations that assist mother and father. To kick off its Mom’s Day marketing campaign this 12 months, the corporate introduced a partnership with Canopie, a preventive maternal well being care platform, to donate a million hours of maternal psychological well being assist.
“[Being CEO is] a duty as a lot as it’s a cool title.”
Previous to moving into the CEO position at Willow, O’Leary served as the corporate’s chief industrial officer and “liked” the work. O’Leary has mirrored so much over the previous 12 months on her determination to change into CEO, and he or she says that ambition wasn’t her main motivator; as an alternative, she acknowledged that she was the correct particular person for the job at this second.
“I cared deeply about our mission,” O’Leary explains. “I had a imaginative and prescient for the place we might go. I understood the industrial operations of the enterprise and will deliver that along with our product groups. In some sense, [becoming CEO] has put me in a servant chief form of position — It is a duty as a lot as it’s a cool title.”
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On the finish of the day, O’Leary means that leaders be sure that their motivation is genuine to them — as a result of that is what’s going to assist them lead via probably the most tough occasions.
“New tariffs are introduced, and you have to determine that out,” O’Leary says. “It’s problem after problem, and the group appears to you and says, ‘What are we going to do?’ This position is basically about being prepared to take duty for the individuals, merchandise and clients. It isn’t all glitz and glamor. You are the primary one who will get all of the robust questions.”
“I have been pondering so much about management fashions,” Sarah O’Leary, CEO of femtech firm Willow, tells Entrepreneur. “ There’s been a variety of noise and information round, ‘We want extra masculine power within the office.’ It makes you query as a frontrunner: What’s my type? How efficient is my type? I do not consider that we want extra masculine power.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Willow
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