As part of our ‘Female Leaders: Inspiring Together’ series, we interviewed Sandrine Letellier – Vice President Global Marketing AWC at ConvaTec – about how she uses humour to deal with the barriers she has faced and how she rationalises self-doubt using methods from her scientific training.
Thanks for taking part in this, Sandrine. To start with, please tell us a little bit about your current role and the company that you work for.
I’m currently the Vice President of Global Marketing at ConvaTec for the wound care division. My team and I are working on developing new products to help patients’ wounds to heal better and more quickly. My team is based all across Europe and the US and we work in collaboration with the research and development team, the clinical team and the commercial team to not only prepare these new innovations but also to help promote them to nurses and physicians.
What inspired you to start a career in the medical device industry initially?
I’ve always been passionate about helping people. My first training was to be a biologist and I focused very quickly on metabolic disease. I specialise in nutrition and metabolic pathologies, so areas such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease were really my focus as I started my PhD. After one year in PhD and fundamental research, I realised that it was an extremely exciting, but very lonely, job. I needed to find the right balance of helping people and being innovative whilst being in a job where I could really work with team members and collaborate on a daily basis. So, I really tried to find my space at the frontier of these two worlds and I’m very pleased I succeed.
As a female leader, what barriers have you encountered during your career within the space?
“The burden of proof of what you’re saying is probably higher and there’s not a lot of space for ‘mediocrity’ when you’re a woman.”
The biggest barrier is the lack of credibility and the fact that I have had to prove myself more than maybe my colleagues, which I think is the same for a lot of women. The burden of proof of what you’re saying is probably higher and there’s not a lot of space for ‘mediocrity’ when you’re a woman. You have to be really good. In the workplace, you experience jokes and microaggression. Very early on my career, I found the best way to overcome a lot of it is by having grace, not taking things personally and by having a sense of humour. I think people can more easily change sides when humour is involved.
How do you maintain your work-life balance when you have a successful career and family commitments?
I make sure my priorities are super clear and I stick by them. I have a clear list in my head and I go through it over and over again. When I spend time with my children, it’s really about quality over quantity. At home or at work, I delegate everything I can; anything that I cannot add value to, I try to delegate. I don’t overthink things, I don’t punish myself for not being at a charity bake sale or not doing the next costume for Victorian day at school. Very early on, when I started having kids and I also wanted to have a career, I accepted I won’t be the mum of the year, but I’m a good enough mum and I think that my kids are pretty happy with me – that’s all that matters!
What accomplishments are you most proud of?
This is tricky because there’s a lot of things that I’m proud of, but the one thing that really, really makes me proud, is the fact that I’m raising three children – two boys and one girl – and in my household, it’s all about equality. My children are raised with a very high sense of fairness. I think that’s something I’m bringing to them, not just me but my husband as well. I think that as an adult, they will take that on board, and they will treat everybody in the same way. That’s something that makes me very proud.
Do you ever suffer from self-doubt and how do you manage that?
“When I see a situation and I am not sure how to address it, I go back to the fundamentals of my scientific training. I get facts, I analyse them, I use assumptions, I build hypotheses, and I put in place a way to validate or invalidate them.”
I think everybody does, it’s very natural and I think it’s very healthy to have doubt. When I see a situation and I am not sure how to address it, I go back to the fundamentals of my scientific training. I get facts, I analyse them, I use assumptions, I build hypotheses, and I put in place a way to validate or invalidate them. I’m not afraid of failure because failure is part of the learning process. At the end of the day, when you continuously learn while doing, there is then less and less occasion for doubt. Doubt comes from the conflicts between your left brain versus your right brain. When you go back to the rational part of your brain then you can get rid of them.
What do you think are the main challenges for women in the medical industry?
What I’ve experienced is the kind of untold pressure that people put to you when you start having a family. I remember when I came back from maternity leave of my third baby, I was working in Switzerland at the time, and my colleague very nicely asked me, ‘are you going to go work part-time now?’ The first time I said ‘oh no, I don’t have any intention to do that.’ The second time I was still gracious. I think after the tenth time people asked me, I was not gracious at all. I said, ‘look, when Paul had his fourth baby, did you ask him the same?’ That is the path of this untold pressure that when you’re a mum and you have children, you have to compromise even if you don’t want to. That was the hardest, but I don’t think it’s specific to the medical industry, as there are quite a lot of women working in this industry because of the nature of the business. So, yes, I would say that’s probably one of the biggest challenges.
What is the best advice that you have ever received?
That I won’t be the mum of the year and that’s ok. Again, when it comes to not attending a church bake sale or not doing some handcrafting, you have to accept that’s fine and that’s enough and it won’t impact on your children’s success in life. That is probably the best advice I was given and that I would give to a young woman who wants to have children and a career. You just have to make your priorities very clear. If there is a very important PTA meeting that you need to go to, then rearrange your schedule to make time for this, there is no manager in the world that wouldn’t let you miss work for important things. It’s about getting your priorities right for you and then living by them.
What women have inspired you the most in your personal professional life?
There are some incredible women at the C-suite level and I’m always amazed to see the level of performance and accomplishment that they’re bringing. I also look up to Christine Lagarde. She’s a French woman, she’s a mother of three and she’s extremely successful. She is a fantastic lawyer and she has a fantastic career in politics. She was also an Olympic champion and she’s incredible. There’s no mediocrity when you look at women who really have success in their careers.
What do you think is the best way to inspire more women into the medical device industry?
“Our industry is all about caring for patients and providing them with solutions to feel better and to have a better life. I think it’s probably the most inspiring purpose that you can have in any business.”
Our industry is all about caring for patients and providing them with solutions to feel better and to have a better life. I think it’s probably the most inspiring purpose that you can have in any business. It’s certainly something that makes me get up in the morning. I can’t see another purpose that is more inspiring!
What’s the one piece of advice that you would give to a young woman starting out in her career?
I would say choose what type of life you want and get your priorities sorted very early on. If you want a family and career, it’s fine, go for it and stick to it. Men are never asked to compromise and to choose so why should we?
I think that women nowadays have a fantastic chance to really shine and to be successful, no matter what industry they’re working in and no matter what they want to do in life. They have probably more opportunity than ever before. Nothing would make me happier than to see successful women at the highest level of all companies. If that’s what you want, go for it!
Our ‘Female Leaders: Inspiring Together’ series is running throughout March with the aim of inspiring and supporting women to become future leaders in their respective industries. Follow us on LinkedIn to join the conversation and hear the insightful stories of our featured female leaders.
