Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Candice Donahoe of Medtronic On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Candice Donahoe.

Candice Donahoe is the Vice President of Sales, Cardiac Rhythm Management, Pacific Region at Medtronic. In this role, Candice leads an integrated team of sales, clinical and technical engineers focused on treating patients with abnormal heart rhythms. It is the oldest and largest of Medtronic’s business units. Her team was recently recognized as Region of the Year with over $15M in revenue growth.

Previously, Candice was US Vice President of Sales for Medtronic’s Deep Brain Stimulation Business, where she provided the overall US sales strategy and guided the marketing and business development opportunities. She also developed and recruited talent and was responsible for capturing market share and delivering revenue growth. Her team executed their goals and exceeded revenue expectations.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

I’m Canadian. I come from a family of physicians, and at a young age my father decided to leave Canada and to practice medicine in the United States. I grew up in San Diego, CA, living in the warm weather, I quickly got into sports. At the age of 10, I chose tennis as one of my favorite sports, and dedicated all my time to the sport. My parents were very dedicated to helping support me, going to lessons and playing in tournaments, and I fell in love with the sport. From then on, it pretty much consumed my life.

I started to practice six or seven days a week and ended up having a great junior career playing tennis, going to national tournaments, and earned a full-ride Division 1 scholarship to Indiana University. We won the Big Ten tennis championship, and at the time, we were ranked number 1 in the Big Ten and number 11 in the country. So, I’d say most of my childhood and story would center around playing tennis and balancing that with school, family, and friends.

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

I came from a family of physicians who went through medical school and were 10–15 years out before they finally paid off their school loans and were seeing a lot of changes in world of medicine. With the business world exploding at the time I graduated, my parents encouraged me to take a different path. I received my degree in finance and spent a few years in different jobs — as a financial analyst, a business valuation analyst and an internal auditor. I was basically in cubicles crunching numbers all day long, not really having much social interaction, and all I could think about is that I need to find another path, there was no way that I could do this for the rest of my life!

Even though I’m an introvert, I needed to have more interaction, so I started networking. I moved into a sales analyst role in a technology company that built and deployed wireless networks. I was supporting the sales team, which I found very engaging and exciting. I enjoyed my conversations with them, and I loved the competitive nature, strategizing, identifying opportunities and closing deals. At that point, I realized sales was something I’d like to pursue.

With my family’s background in medicine, I researched and found that there are pharmaceutical focused roles or medical device roles that could combine my inclination towards medicine and passion for sales. Once I discovered these roles existed, I was “all in” trying to land a job with my focus on the top medical device companies in the world. Twenty years later, and I’ve never turned back!

About four years after I joined Medtronic, I experienced some heart issues, which presented some challenges for me personally and professionally as I was in the midst of growing my sales career and pursuing a management role. Over a 12-year span, I was experiencing a lot of issues including shortness of breath, chest pain, fainting episodes, which were all side effects from medication that I was prescribed; I was then asked to wear monitors and patches that were problematic, and finally, after two EP studies, I had an ablation for atrial flutter. I was told that I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter and syncope. I was better for a little while after the ablation; however, I started to have some more issues once again and it was recommended that I receive an insertable heart monitor that helped doctors determine that I was experiencing a heart rhythm abnormality again. From this personal experience, I was inspired to take my career from the neurosurgery side of our business over to the cardiac side because the work we’re doing in the cardiac business became close to my heart, literally and figuratively.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

One of the most interesting things that happened to me, and it kind of led to what I’m passionate about at Medtronic, is that I was one of the first women sales leaders in my business. At the time, there were only three of us across the nation, and at one point I was a little intimidated coming in, wondering what it is going to be like to work with almost all men. I really didn’t notice or make a big deal about it until people would consistently point that out. I grew up as an athlete, as one of the guys, so I never really thought twice about that until it was more and more commented that I was in the minority. I even had a male competitor of mine say, we never have women stay around long in this business and he had counted on that — he was surprised that I had no intention but to prove myself in this male dominated industry.

Coming into this business in particular, medical device and neurosurgery, there initially were very few women in sales leadership roles. I had to prove myself, and not just once or twice, but multiple times, until people accepted my success. I just kept my head down doing that, which became pivotal for me down the road as far as trying to encourage more women to believe in themselves and have the confidence to take on bigger roles, leadership roles. I wanted to inspire other women to feel like they aren’t confined to one specific role or business, that we too can have success in historically non-diverse businesses. I have made it my mission to recruit and hire diverse talent and help mentor and coach others to have confidence in what they can bring to the table.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Being authentic is number one. I’ve been told that I can be very transparent and candid, which I think helps to create trust among internal colleagues and with external customers. Being who I am and believing in what I have to offer has been instrumental. We all have a different leadership style.

Being a results-oriented and driving accountability has also been a big part of what’s important to me. I believe that if you focus on specific (well communicated!) strategies and drive accountability, you can drive results. That is something I have kept at the forefront of who I am, and I’m sure that comes from my competitive nature. I always try to find a way to make everything a little bit competitive, but fun.

The last thing is just having a positive attitude. This is a big attribute of mine; I always try to bring everything back to our people and our patients. I feel extremely passionate about the fact that we get to support patients and bring devices to patients that will positively change their lives. Being able to be a part of that is truly an honor. We all face challenges, and it can be tough. So, I really try to think about the impact we’re making for patients and the team of people that we have supporting our patients and products — we are the best in the industry!

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you help articulate a few of the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ve had to overcome while working in a male-dominated industry?

I never viewed myself necessarily as an outsider as I focused on just being me, a person; however, sometimes people did view me as the outsider, or even outlier, because I am different. This was particularly hard for me at first because, on top of being one of the few women in my field at the time, I was also an introvert in an extrovert’s world.

There are so many people who think differently and operate differently; this diversity of thought can offer a lot of benefits to a business or organization. I realized that you could find ways to be successful while staying true to your own leadership style. I encourage that with other people that I lead, or even when I’m recruiting talent. I try to have diverse talent, diverse skills on leadership teams, so we can all learn from each other. That’s something I’m passionate about, and it’s been fun to see different types of leaders having success and winning awards. Over twenty years, I’ve watched our industry and our company dramatically change, and I believe it’s for the better. We have more female doctors in some of our previously male dominated professions, we have more women in our company in sales leadership roles and it has helped us think differently to drive new ideas and innovation.

My heart condition presented challenges for me, as well. I tried to keep it quiet as much as possible for a long time and just try to execute because, as a female, you put a lot of pressure on yourself to show up every day, and in some instances, try to be as perfect as you can. But no one’s perfect. When I started to have some of the heart issues, I didn’t want anyone to know because I may be perceived as weak.

As a leader, I’ve realized the importance of being vulnerable, which is why I’m not afraid to share my story. I have even received some notes from people saying, “Wow! Who would have thought that you were dealing with any of these things on the side?” I think it is important people see we all have our own challenges and things that we’re going through. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t still strive to achieve goals and have success and share so others can learn from it.

Can you share a few of the things you have done to gain acceptance among your male peers and the general work community? What did your female co-workers do? Can you share some stories or examples?

I think my authenticity and transparency created a level of trust and my competitive work ethic drove results which lead to acceptance

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

It’s important to create clear pathways for growth with actionable goals for developing more diversity among the company. There must be an awareness of the need to strengthen the presence of women leaders at all levels of an organization and share benchmarking. The buy needs to happen at all levels of leadership. Increasing the education and training around what diversity can bring to a business — there are multiple studies out there that prove the value of having more women in leadership roles.

Male colleagues also need to champion their female colleagues and build their pipeline of female leaders to help ensure women are getting a seat at the table and that they are heard.

Additionally, having inclusive networks and communities where women can engage and learn from each other is important. We do a great job with this at Medtronic.

It is also important that an organization shows gender parity, creates benefits that show that they value women and that they champion their development.

Ok thank you for all of that. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Embrace what makes you different and have confidence in yourself because that is often what makes you successful. For example, at one point I almost quit when I realized there were only three introverts, out of forty-five sales leaders, in a room as we were doing a Myers-Briggs test. I thought I’m in the wrong career. I had to really do a lot of self-reflection during that time and realize that you can be different, and you can bring value, and you don’t have to be exactly like everyone else.
2. Have a positive attitude and let your voice be heard!
3. Be authentic and transparent, it will go a long way in evoking trust among your team and customers.
4. Find your supporters, have sponsors and be a role model to others.
5. Learn as much as you can as fast as you can!

If you had a close woman friend who came to you with a choice of entering a field that is male-dominated or female-dominated, what would you advise her? Would you advise a woman friend to start a career in a field or industry that’s traditionally been mostly men? Can you explain what you mean?

I do a lot of leadership and mentoring of women, and I encourage them to really take a chance and go for the job they want, whatever it is. Ultimately, we can do whatever we put our mind to. I want to encourage other women they have what it takes to be in roles that may have historically been male dominated.

I would tell her to embrace all the things that set her apart as a strength rather than a weakness because those attributes may very well be exactly what makes her successful. I would also encourage that person to understand it takes a strong support system to set themselves up for success.

I would encourage them to get a mentor and learn from the best in the industry.

Have you seen things change for women working in male-dominated industries, over the past ten years? How do you anticipate that it might improve in the future? Can you please explain what you mean?

Oh absolutely, especially being in this industry for twenty years; it’s encouraging to see the strides that we’ve made for women in leadership roles and just in general. There are specific goals and targets in place to help attract and retain women, and to drive diversity. So yes, things have dramatically changed.

There’s also more awareness around gender equity today. Through our employee resource groups and similar things, there were a lot of different studies rolled out on the value of having more diverse teams and more women on your leadership teams or women in board rooms. We have really embraced all of that and made meaningful change, which has been so incredibly exciting to see.

There are a lot of studies out there suggesting that if women don’t believe they have all the job qualifications, they may not pursue the job. So, we’re really trying to pull women up and make sure that we have sponsorship programs in place. I think it will all continuously be a focus as we move forward, but the amount of headway we are making in this area is incredible.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Sheryl Sandberg — Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. She inspired change, and men and women around the world were influenced by her message. Her work influenced the founder of our company, Earl Bakken and he added to his dream board that he “dreamed a world where women lead” and he asked his leaders to lean in and increase representation of women who lead and he asked that we inspect metrics at all levels to make that happen. She is truly an inspiration to all of us.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.