“I have been pondering quite a bit about management fashions,” Sarah O’Leary, CEO of femtech firm Willow, tells Entrepreneur. “ There’s been plenty of noise and information round, ‘We’d like extra masculine vitality within the office.’ It makes you query as a pacesetter: What’s my model? How efficient is my model? I do not consider that we want extra masculine vitality.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Willow
O’Leary characterizes her management model 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 inside the office. In accordance with the CEO, groups which have belief in one another — and of their leaders — usually tend to perform in a manner that is conducive to success.
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“I consider [flexibility in the workplace] makes us extra productive.”
Instilling belief inside crew 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 staff return-to-office mandates. As a mom of two herself, O’Leary is especially cognizant of the on a regular basis hurdles crew members who’re additionally mother and father face, and she or he needs to help them in any manner potential.
“ If my youngsters’ elementary faculty live performance is occurring at 10 a.m., I will log out,” O’Leary says. “I will 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 crew.”
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Willow is navigating its subsequent development chapter with O’Leary on the helm. The corporate lately introduced its acquisition of UK-based femtech innovator Elvie, which is predicted to spice up income by 50%. Willow additionally continues to associate with organizations that help mother and father. To kick off its Mom’s Day marketing campaign this yr, the corporate introduced a partnership with Canopie, a preventive maternal well being care platform, to donate a million hours of maternal psychological well being help.
“[Being CEO is] a accountability as a lot as it’s a cool title.”
Previous to moving into the CEO function at Willow, O’Leary served as the corporate’s chief industrial officer and “cherished” the work. O’Leary has mirrored quite a bit over the previous yr on her resolution to change into CEO, and she or he says that ambition wasn’t her main motivator; as an alternative, she acknowledged that she was the proper 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 may go. I understood the industrial operations of the enterprise and will convey that along with our product groups. In some sense, [becoming CEO] has put me in a servant chief sort of function — It is a accountability as a lot as it’s a cool title.”
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On the finish of the day, O’Leary means that leaders make sure that their motivation is genuine to them — as a result of that is what is going to assist them lead by way of essentially the most tough instances.
“New tariffs are introduced, and you have to determine that out,” O’Leary says. “It’s problem after problem, and the group seems to be to you and says, ‘What are we going to do?’ This function is absolutely about being keen to take accountability for the folks, merchandise and clients. It is not all glitz and glamor. You are the primary one that will get all of the powerful questions.”
“I have been pondering quite a bit about management fashions,” Sarah O’Leary, CEO of femtech firm Willow, tells Entrepreneur. “ There’s been plenty of noise and information round, ‘We’d like extra masculine vitality within the office.’ It makes you query as a pacesetter: What’s my model? How efficient is my model? I do not consider that we want extra masculine vitality.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Willow
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