Street Level Influencer – Meet Molly Hewitt

“A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.” — Coco Chanel

When I began my idea of the Street Level Influencer, I had no idea how positive people would respond to it! I’m excited that it struck a chord with people. Remember, the Street Level Influencer is a reminder that everyone has the ability to radiate positive light in the world around them, and light is brighter when surrounded by shadows.

The Street Level Influencer series is about spreading influence into the cosmos. No one is self-made. We are all the sum of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who’ve touched us in some way. Sometimes, these influences stay longer than others. Sometimes, they come and go like a candle in the wind.

So far in the series, I have shared stories from:

1. Kirk Hamsher
2. Kristy Freewalt
3. Sue Oswalt
4. Okie Smith
5. John Newton
6. Olga Piehler
7. Blake Quinlan
8. James Woods
9. Anthony Eaton
10. Jane Murtaugh
11. Rhonda Owens
12. Dan Huber
13. Shenise Cook
14. Scott McCullough
15. Kim Bozeman
16. Aly McKinster
17. Black Leaders Who’ve Influenced Me

This next individual is someone whom I met in college at Northern Illinois University. We sat right next to one another in the back row of our Irish American History course. We talked occasionally. Maybe we hung out once or twice, I truly can’t recall, but Facebook and LinkedIn have allowed us to stay connected. We grew up following one another digitally, and I am thankful she remained part of my extended network and community.

Molly Hewitt is the SVP – Patient Education for digiCare Health in Nashville, Tennessee. She is an entrepreneur, healthcare educator, and self-described data evangelist! Molly and I have collaborated prior in my article Expecting Harassment: Women and Workplace. She very bravely discussed her experience as a woman in corporate America, and it hasn’t always been a positive one. That article is one of my proudest pieces because I was able to learn so much about being a woman in business from people I know. I wanted to know more from Molly, and she graciously said YES!

So, without further ado, here is my interview with Molly!

So, tell us about your professional background. What do you consider your most important lesson you’ve learned to date?

I have spent the majority of my career in healthcare education. I have worked for nonprofit and for-profit alike creating and designing educational content experiences for healthcare practitioners to stay licensed to practice in the state in which they live. I’m an avid learner and having a career in healthcare education has allowed me to continually be at the forefront of medical news and breakthroughs. As I continued in my career, I went on to achieve my Masters in Education from Northern Illinois University and my MBA from University of Illinois – Chicago.

As I’ve grown as an individual and as an employee, I, as most do, have had my fair share of career changes – whether that’s simply needing a change in my life or being pandemic related. I went on to take opportunities working in customer and user experience (CX and UX) roles for Fortune 500 tech companies and SaaS companies. Those were the roles in which I felt most challenged. A completely different vertical and career path, but I have to say, those were the roles that most challenged me and made me what I consider to be the best version. I learned new skills, I found new passion at work, I had the autonomy to explore – incredibly crucial for a curious mind like myself. These roles are where I discovered Design Thinking. 

The value and concept of the Design Thinking process immediately had my brain working overtime innovating. I enjoyed it so much I went out to get certified in Design Thinking Innovation from Darden School of Business. Once I became an expert in the tenets of innovating processes, teams, products – (you name it I did it) – that’s when my ability to see every experience and interaction within business as an opportunity to improve. That rewire of approach led me to where I am today, which is a female entrepreneur of a health tech company. DigiCare is building a consumer-grade, patient-centric healthcare platform empowering families and care teams to support patients and loved-ones from the comfort of their homes, increasing access to care and improving health equity.

All of that to say, the most important lesson I’ve learned is, only you can put yourself in a box. If you feel you aren’t growing, aren’t being challenged, aren’t being valued – make a change. While it may be scary being outside your comfort zone is where you find the most personal growth.

Speaking of taking your career in your own hands, one of my favorite things about you is your bravery in speaking up and saying what needs to be said. Is this something you’ve always done, or did you need to grow into it?

This is absolutely something I have grown into. The corporate world is a hard world to navigate, especially as a fresh college graduate. I remember coming out of college into my first job, so excited to hit the ground running and feeling like I had a lot to offer.  But, once I was in that first job and sharing ideas in meetings, it felt like every single one got shot down.

It took me years to develop the emotional intelligence to understand how and when to speak up. Who would be advocates and who would be naysayers. How would I present or represent my viewpoint to the naysayers?  One of my favorite quotes comes from a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” in which Dr. King states “I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart.” Now, as an experienced businesswoman when I am in a room with a group of people, whether it be personal or professional, before I speak, I ask myself one question and that question is “is this something that I MUST say so that my silence is not a betrayal to self or others?”  If the answer is “yes” then I speak up and have complete faith that the outcome will be as it should. If it’s that I lose a job because I spoke up against sexual harassment or hostility in the workplace, so be it. I will never feel poorly for vocalizing anything that is out of alignment with my personal ethos.

I feel one of the most important things I’ve learned about speaking up is that delivery is key. I can remember times where I would speak up, but so assuredly of myself, it felt like I was a bull in a China shop. What I have learned to hone and master is how I can be authentic to myself and share what I feel is the right decision, direction, approach, etc. in a way that it doesn’t come off as a lead balloon. That I can deliver it through multiple channels, that I don’t have to step on toes while I do it, that it is OK to not have every idea be accepted exactly as I imagined it – compromise can happen to achieve the same goal.  And MOST IMPORTANT, it is not about ego. That I must be able to accept it’s not about me if the job gets done. As long as the result can be the same it doesn’t have to be about me – that was a HUGE learning experience.

I’ve grown to be confident in myself, my skills and what I bring to the table. I can recognize now that not every team or employer may be ready for change and that’s ok.  Other aspects of the job, company, budget, etc. may be reasons why a GREAT idea can’t happen. 

And, since this was not a skill I naturally came into as a single mother to three my consistent message to my children is, “your voice matters. Always. But we will practice how to use it when it is most needed.”

I think you’re an excellent role model for young working women coming up in their respective industries. What is one piece of advice you would give to professional women breaking into their careers?

First, I’m flattered to be considered as such. Best advice I can give those coming up the ranks is to find a female mentor. That mentor also doesn’t have to be on your team and doesn’t even have to be at your company. The women you see in meetings, in the Board Room, speaking at events, etc. the ones who inspire you, be brave enough to ask them to be your mentor. 

In every job I’ve held, I never had a female boss mentor me.  NEVER. The term “it’s a dog-eat-dog world” truly applied in my early years. Women fighting so hard to just be in the room and have an executive title, they weren’t going to pour what they know and the lessons they’ve learned into me. Why? Because I was viewed as a threat.

I started to look at my peers and dug into learning from them. I sent unsolicited emails to female CEO’s at companies I admired for their vision and missions asking them if they had time to be a mentor and if not could they recommend someone.  After 100 emails I received 95 “no”, 3 “Let me connect you to X”, and 2 “yes – I am honored.” I went after the five, and I am a better leader and person because of those women.

This is also a reminder that we as women need to help our young female team members. We need to be their cheerleaders and advocates. It’s something I do at every job I am in, and I learn just as much from these young women as I do from those who mentor me.

We’ve spoken before that your experience with HR has been mostly hit or miss – maybe not the best experiences. Could you share a story that really turned you the wrong way about your experience with HR?

Absolutely. The experience that really disappointed me about HR happened just a year ago.  When Covid-19 hit, working in the live educational event industry, I found myself “pandemic unemployed.”

I HUSTLED to find any work I could get just to pay bills. While I am incredibly thankful to have found work, I also found myself completely unfulfilled by the work I was doing.  Eventually, I was headhunted by the Director of HR for a healthcare education company out East. I was thrilled by this opportunity to get back into healthcare at the job title and pay I knew I was worth.  I thought “Finally! I’m going to get back on track and I can grow with this company.”

As many of us have experienced, the interview process was great, the company appeared to have great cultural tenets for employees and those I interviewed with seemed kind and genuine.  Fast forward two months, and I find myself in a position where one teammate created a very toxic and unhealthy working environment for me. I don’t use those words lightly. There were times when I’d receive phone calls from this person cursing me out and telling me I was stupid but then 5 minutes later receive an email copying my manager and every C-suite executive being very cheery and kind with the dreaded “per our conversation” line embedded.  It was crazy to me, what do you mean “per our conversation?” our conversation was ugly and disrespectful on your end. She hid it so well, and I had nothing to be able to bring to the table to show what was really happening.

I would talk to my manager about it, and nothing would be done. I then went to my boss’s boss and was told “you just have to know how to navigate Jane Doe. She is a difficult personality to work with, and this isn’t the first time I have heard this. But just know she really cares about the client, so try to take what she says as not a personal attack but her passion for delivering a well-executed product.”

If a proper protocol had been set-up, my concerns (and others’) should have reported to HR. But they were not.  My manager would accompany me on business trips and told me “I’m only here to serve as a buffer between you and Jane Doe.” That statement threw me for a loop as if I was an equal contributor to the problem at hand. I even asked her if there was something I was doing that she felt I needed a buffer. “No. I am here to protect you.” Protect me. What about any of these words didn’t flag HR.

Fast-forward another 3 months, the situation with Jane Doe has only gotten worse and now I have become a completely deflated employee. That’s when I received an unsolicited private chat message during an all team zoom call from the Senior VP of Sales that said, “I really like the shade of your lipstick today.” Talk about uncomfortable. But, what can I do? An issue MUCH LARGER than an inappropriate comment about lipstick isn’t being addressed, why would they address that? I felt like if I kept bringing up issues, I was sure to be fired.

Maybe a week or two after that, I received a text from an unknown number, that said “If you thought my idea on the planning call today was great, you should see my unofficial CV, I give great back rubs.” EXCUSE ME?! Once I realized this text was from a physician on a volunteer committee I oversee, I had had enough. I called a meeting with the Executive Vice President of the company to tell him everything that had been happening. That I had gone to my supervisors and tried to follow an appropriate internal path before going directly to HR. He told me that he would discuss with HR and would schedule a follow-up call with me about next steps. I thought, “Finally! Someone is listening.” A few days later, I received a meeting invitation with the Executive VP and my manager on the meeting invite. I thought “great, there is a plan, everyone will know how we intend to operate the plan, and we can move forward.”  When I joined the meeting, my manager was not on the call, but rather the Director of HR and the Executive VP – that was the day I was told they were letting me go.

A complete HR failure.

As an HR professional who really cares about the profession and people, I feel disgusted that your experience is unfortunately not isolated. Every time we discuss it, I learn something new and I get angrier. Why do you think you’ve had a poor experience with HR over your professional experience?

I think my poor experience comes from HR professionals who value protecting the company over the employees. 

From the perspective of a non-HR practitioner, what is one simple thing that HR leaders can do today to make their place of employment a better place to work?

Set-up a safe protocol for whistleblowing in which retaliation and loss of employment are not on the table. Employees don’t speak up out of fear. And when you have spoken up, like I have, and been met with retaliation and loss of employment, it creates a learned behavior of “keep your mouth shut.”

We are all people. We are all flawed. A great team of HR professionals and supervisors can easily mitigate issues in the workplace if they are just willing to be creative about the solution. With this specific scenario moving a team member (whether it be me or Jane Doe) to another client could have solved for my toxic environment, having the Senior VP of Sales take a sexual harassment training could have alerted him to the fact his comments were inappropriate, and removing a volunteer who directly made sexual advances from a committee could ensure that no other employees experienced what I did.

As a self-professed avid learner, what is one book you’ve read that has influenced your leadership style? Why?

The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-Line Performance by James Autry.

I was a manager for many years before reading this book. I managed my team the way I wanted to be managed. To be seen, heard, and valued. I didn’t know that Servant Leadership was a leadership style until one of my mentors mentioned it when I was bouncing an employee situation off her and she told me “It sounds like you are naturally a Servant Leader, you should read this book.” So, I did. It helps leaders nurture the needs and goals of those who look to them for leadership. The result is a more productive, successful, and happier organization, and a more meaningful life for the leader. 

Who’s one person in your network that readers should know about?

Tina Phillips. I cannot rave enough about this brilliant woman! She makes brand strategy look easy, she is the networking queen of Nashville, and she has a quiet strength that is one to be envied. Everyone should call her if they are looking for a brand strategist!

How can people connect with you?

I am on LinkedIn and of anyone wanted to email me at mollyhewitt_digicare@outlook.com, I’d welcome the conversation!

What’s one thing you think the world should know about you – personal or professional? Have fun with this one!

I am a pinball fanatic. I think it is a highly underestimated game that requires knowing the goal (or how to win the game), having the skill to accomplish the goal, not giving up when at first you don’t succeed and just a little bit of luck!

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