Femtech CEO on Leadership: Don’t ‘Need More Masculine Energy’

“I have been considering loads about leadership models,” Sarah O’Leary, CEO of femtech firm Willow, tells Entrepreneur. “ There’s been lots of noise and information round, ‘We want extra masculine energy within the office.’ It makes you query as a pacesetter: What’s my model? How efficient is my model? I do not imagine that we’d like extra masculine vitality.”

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Willow}

O’Leary characterizes her leadership style 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 keeping with the CEO, groups which have belief in one another — and of their leaders — usually tend to perform in a means that is conducive to success.

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“I imagine [flexibility in the workplace] makes us extra productive.”

Instilling belief inside group members means emphasizing a stage of autonomy, O’Leary says. Willow is a “very flexible workplace,” 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 group members who’re additionally mother and father face, and he or she desires to help them in any means doable.

“ If my children’ elementary faculty live performance is occurring at 10 a.m., I will log off,” O’Leary says. “I will go to that, then come again and hold going with my day. I do not imagine that makes us any much less productive. I imagine it makes us extra productive. I really feel very passionately that we are able to construct a tremendously profitable enterprise whereas additionally working in ways in which really feel genuine to our leadership 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 predicted to spice up income by 50%. Willow additionally continues to associate with organizations that help mother and father. To kick off its Mother’s Day marketing campaign this yr, the corporate announced 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 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 “cherished” the work. O’Leary has mirrored loads over the previous yr on her choice to become CEO, and he or she says that ambition wasn’t her main motivator; as an alternative, she acknowledged that she was the suitable individual 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 carry that along with our product groups. In some sense, [becoming CEO] has put me in a servant leader 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 certain that their motivation is genuine to them — as a result of that is what’s going to assist them lead by means of 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 seems to be to you and says, ‘What are we going to do?’ This position is absolutely about being prepared to take duty for the folks, merchandise and customers. It is not all glitz and glamor. You are the primary one that will get all of the robust questions.”