holding the space

Ming Tang, (interim) Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) and Chief Data and Analytics Officer (CDAO), NHS England

The Women in Science group was established in 2023 as a space for women in leadership positions within a science/technical related role in the UK. This group provides an opportunity for like-minded participants to share common challenges, offer support and guidance for one another through the use of open communication channels. Externally, the group represents credible and successful role models who are keen to be the figureheads in challenging the status quo, promote professionalism, share their experience and learnings and advocate the need to have women in positions of leadership and seniority across the board.

There is a current circularity to my career. I started work as a pharmacist for GSK, in operations, as one of their trainees. Today, as the interim CDIO and CDAO for NHS England, one of the things I find myself working through is how we can revolutionise the way we use health data and what is the supporting technology we need to put in place to improve how medicines are developed, tailored to patient need and then more easily accessed. There is something gratifying about knowing that the work I am doing now will improve the way that the pharmacists starting out their careers today will be able to work in the future.

Before joining the NHS, I was a partner at Accenture where I managed large-scale transformation programs internationally across various sectors including consumer goods, retail, manufacturing, and utilities. These roles involved working with teams to implement changes and develop new operating models within complex systems. Alongside this experience, my time at the NHS has included leading regional commissioning services, managing the national data cell for the NHS Covid-19 response, and overseeing two mergers within NHS England: first, integrating data and analytics between NHS Improvement and NHS England, and second, merging the data functions from NHS Digital into NHS England. As part of the Transformation Directorate Leadership team, I currently lead the digital and technology functions, bringing together the necessary elements to drive transformation through data, analytics, and digital services.

It is an exciting time to be working within NHS England. Of course there are challenges. However, the publication of the government’s 10 Year Health Plan – that has digital and data right at its heart – means there is a collective understanding of what we need to do, by when, to ensure the NHS is fit for the future. Having co-chaired one of the 10 Year Health Plan working groups that focused on how the NHS should allocate its resources to maximise the impact of data and technology, my job now is to deliver. I need to make sure that my teams are supporting the wider system to reinvent the NHS through the three shifts set out in the plan: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.

As I work through with colleagues and stakeholders how we are going to deliver it has been a good time to reflect more broadly on my leadership style.  It has been interesting and it crystalised something important for me. Early career experiences shouldn’t be dismissed as being invaluable just because they happened when you were junior/they were along time ago. As it is all the experiences over my career that have informed how I currently lead.

Knowing yourself

Critical for me is self-understanding. I think it is very important for everyone to reflect on those times where you were being successful and enjoying your work. What were the specific things that made this the case? For me, at the core, is understanding what makes you tick/what do you like doing, what are your capability strengths and what is the working environment in which you best thrive? Knowing these things – but fundamentally knowing yourself – means you can then be proactive in establishing the conditions for yourself and your teams’ success.  

Aligning behind a goal   

It is very important for me to be working with colleagues/teams that are aligned behind a collective goal. Taking the time to co-create the ambition of what you are trying to achieve and finding those individuals who believe in the same purpose is critical. This, however, is not to say a team has to all be the same. In fact, it is the opposite. I spend a lot of time ensuring that across my teams there are people with different, but complimentary skills. This is where it comes back to knowing yourself. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are and know therefore that I need a team where people are good at different things. This means they can lean on me in certain situations but are also empowered to excel at the things they are specifically good at.    

Being curious

The great thing about working with diverse teams is that people come at the same knotty problem from very different perspectives. When I hear a different take on a problem this makes me curious. I want to understand why they are thinking differently, and what this may mean for the way we proceed. I believe though that it is important to not be fearful of disagreeing; healthy debate and tension can lead to better solutions/outcomes. However, returning to the team alignment point, once a way forward has been agreed it is important that everyone pulls in that same direction.  

Knowing your team

As I say above, taking time to build your team is really important. I always strive to move out of manager mode into mentor mode as quickly as I can. I believe one of my key roles as a leader is to give individuals the space to successfully deliver. As a leader there is nothing more satisfying than seeing your teams flourish and individuals gaining confidence and grow as leaders.  Therefore, it is also important that I am supporting people on their own personal change curves, pushing them to do some things slightly out of their comfort zones so they learn to broaden their skillsets and experiences. By knowing my team – what motivates them in good times and what might be driving approaches in more stressful and difficult times – means I can adapt how I am leading to influence the situation in different ways.  

Holding your own

I am going to end where I began, with the importance of knowing yourself. I think it is important that female leaders in our fields, well all fields really, can be strong enough in their own minds of their own capabilities. And can use this knowledge to find their own style/way of leading but to also be confident of calling out when things are not working. I have found when I have done this over the years people are mostly very receptive to making changes. I know through experience that when I am enjoying my work I am a better leader. And I therefore use both the positive and negative experiences over my career to help create the right environments where both I, and my teams, can truly succeed.