Humble and mindful

Be humble and mindful.

These are good words to live by, in my view.

I started my career in Global Health in 2007. I was no expert: I had landed a job as a Program Assistant with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Having just moved back to Seattle after a whirlwind adventure in Australia, Europe and back again, I knew nothing about the foundation’s work and only that Bill & Melinda had a ton of money and it seemed they were trying to give back. But, I quickly realized how incredibly interesting the work was, and I was hooked! The foundation was small-ish at the time, roughly 300 employees, but growing fast. The Global Health work was split across three teams: Discovery, Development and Delivery and all of the disease focused programatic work was housed under one Infectious Disease team. I had the luck of working with a group of brilliant, zany and enthusiastic people and had a manager-stroke-mentor who encouraged my involvement in the programmatic work beyond the boundaries of my administrative role. This series of fortuitous events and connections pushed me on a path to graduate training in public health and health economics and the decade that unfolded from there has been a wonderful experience of learning and working across a range of different topics and disciplines, eventually returning to the Gates Foundation in 2012 where I worked as a Program Officer focused on a range of health topics.

But this post isn’t about me and my background, but rather a reflection on some of the influences that underlie the way I work. I was refelcting the other day about the guiding principles that the Gates Foundation had adopted in its early years as an organization. These principles formed a working code of conduct for both what the foundation focused on strategically and how it operated as an organization. One of these principles was, “We are humble and mindful.” I always really liked this principle, both in my personal life, but also in the particular work environment that was and is the Gates Foundation. Great power necessitates great responsibility, and with the size of the foundation’s investment budgets, the importance of remaining humble and mindful seemed incredibly important. We were enabling so much important research, development and health intervention delivery around the globe, and by nature of the sheer amount of investment, the foundation was and is incredibly influential in steering the global health agenda.

Be humble and mindful.

I always wondered as a Program Officer whether my grantees were always being honest with me. It’s a fine balance, toeing the line between open and honest scientific debate and not wanting to offend or “bite the hand that feeds you,” so to speak. I always wanted to know the underlying stories: what was really working and not working on the ground? Where were there turf wars between partners and what was causing it? I never supposed that I knew more than my grantees and valued so much the intelligence and sharing of information that I received. I learned so much in that role, and that collegiate learning environment and being in a position exposed to so much information will be what I miss most about my role.

Be humble and mindful.

I’m now embarking on a new life and setting up a small little conuslting business with the simple goal of hoping to remain engaged in interesting projects and connected to addressing issues I care about. This move was precipated by a personal decision to move with my famiy to Australia to be close to my husband’s side of the family. I am busy networking and talking to as many people as possible, editing my online profiles and setting up this website. One theme that keeps coming up in these conversations is the importance of self-promotion. As a small business, selling yourself and your services is all of a sudden front and center. I find this part incredibly challenging. Where my tendency is to downplay and share or distrubte credit, I’m being coached to highlight achievements, to choose verabge that makes my accomplishments stand out. To sell myslef as an expert.

Be humble and mindful.

And I know it can get tough out there: fierce competition for contracts, especially the lucrative ones. Lot’s of politics. we’re only human afterall.

But I will still try to remain humble and mindful. Maybe to a fault. I don’t want my name in lights, I just want to do good work that maybe here and there contributes to making a meaningful difference to people who will never know my name. I’m so fortunate to be in the position I’m in. to be born where I was, to have had the opportunities I’ve had, to meet the people I’ve met.

I suppose in the end this post is really about gratitute. And an invitation: the more humility and consciousness we can generate in our communities of practice, arguable the more impact we can have as a collective.

Give it a try.

Be humble and mindful.