FOR HEALTHCARE LEADERS & ORGANIZATIONS
You have the expertise.
But it’s the room that decides how far it goes.
Michelle Flemmings, MD
Founder, CEO Working While Female
Helping women turn their expertise into authority to lead what’s next.
30 minutes. You leave with one action to move forward.
What Women Tell Me
Do any of these sound like your week?
Everyone brings you the hard problems, and the decision-making stays somewhere else.
01 The reliable one.
02 Invited, not influential.
You’re at the table, but you can’t see what changes now that you have a seat.
03 Your plan, whose credit?
You wrote it, and it’s no longer clear whose it is.
You’re performing the higher role without the title, pay, or resources and opportunities keep passing you by
04 Already doing the job.
05 You see what’s coming.
You say what’s at risk, but it’s hard to get anyone to listen and move.
The weekend goes to recovering from work, and the rest of your life keeps shrinking.
06 Still tired on Sunday.
If this sounds familiar let’s talk about it.
In Her Words
A healthcare leader I coached:
“Working with Michelle changed how I see myself. She’s patient, deliberate, and mindful - the kind of person who truly listens and helps you to get your own answers rather than handing them to you.”
Meet Michelle Flemmings, MD
I started in the emergency room as a physician, making decisions where lives were in the balance. I became a clinical lead for health transformation at Cerner Community Works, serving more than 300 clients, and later a healthcare industry executive at Oracle.
From the bedside to the boardroom, I had a seat at the table where strategy is built, policy is written, and careers are shaped.
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I was often the only physician, the only woman or person of color, and the one who wasn’t being heard. I kept insisting that patient outcomes and the toll technology takes on people using it belonged in the room where decisions were made. But I was also shrinking myself to make everyone else comfortable, because I believed that was the only way my voice would be heard. The more I did it, the less voice I had. That made it even harder to keep my oath as medicine moved into the digital era, and I started sharing my story on LinkedIn to find out if it was just me.
It wasn’t. Other women were living their own version of the same story, and their responses inspired me to build Working While Female. What I learned in my career, and from those women, became the six steps below.
I work with women in healthcare and health tech whose expertise has outgrown their influence, authority, and pay. You’re carrying more responsibility than your title reflects. You know what you’re doing, and you can see what’s going wrong. Your expertise already matters. I help you read the room, understand who decides, and build a strategy for having a say in what happens next.
The Six Steps
How it works:
Six steps. Each one builds on the last.
01 Start with what you want
Know where you’re going.
02 Be known for your work
On your terms.
03 Read the room and the agenda
Know who decides and who has influence.
04 Connect your expertise to the decision
Show what your work changes
06 Make your ask
05 Build the case
Start from what you’ve already driven.
The role, the authority, or a different room.
What you learn from each ask shapes your next move
YOUR NEXT STEP
Where Is Your Biggest Advancement Challenge?
You know the work you're capable of. But what's getting in the way of your next move?
Take the Strategic Advancement Review to explore five areas that can shape your progress: visibility, advancement clarity, stakeholder influence, executive communication, and value translation.
Answer a few questions, see where you may need to focus, and receive an action guide to help you move forward.
In Her Words:
“I gained the strength and courage to stop accepting less than I was worth and start advocating for myself.”
— Healthcare leader