Megha Agarwal is a clinical research fellow in the University of Oxford’s Radcliffe Department of Medicine (RDM). She took part in the Women in Leadership training course organised by the NIHR Oxford BRC’s Cardiovascular Theme, the first such training provided by the BRC specifically aimed at women.
Megha currently works in the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility (CCRF), one of the RDM’s core clinical research facilities. She has taken time out of her clinical training as a cardiology registrar to do a three- or four-year programme of research leading to a PhD.
Her research is focused on heart failure and imaging in cardiology and is combining this with her interests in maternal cardiology and hypertension research. She is a key member of an Oxford BRC-supported study looking at the long-term outcomes of women newly diagnosed with a cardiovascular condition during pregnancy. In addition, she is leading a study examining the long-term effects of high blood pressure in pregnancy, including whether this can lead to earlier heart failure later on in life.
Although she does not currently manage any staff, she will when she returns to her clinical duties. And the Women in Leadership course, run by Milly Sinclair and provided by the Oxford BRC’s Cardiovascular Theme, offered her the chance to develop the confidence and expertise she needs to be a leader.
“Clinical roles are very defined, and you naturally become a leader because your role is hierarchical; you’re automatically a leader, not because of the person you are, but because that day you are the ‘medical register on-call’. I was trying to work out and learn leadership skills within myself, so it’s more me that’s seen as a leader rather than my role. The hierarchy within the research environment is different, it is more difficult to lead as a student, so I really wanted to explore that.
“I discovered that there is a leadership aspect to my research role; I am leading my own project and leading research-driven clinics. There are definitely things in terms of confidence and values that I can take away from the course.”
Megha said she was particularly drawn to the course because it was specifically geared towards at women.
“There are naturally differences in the way men and women conduct themselves. Women might be more considered when they speak in a meeting or downplay their achievements. It was nice to be in a group of women where we could openly say that. It felt safer to develop those skills and to have the shared experiences.”
One of the key elements of the training was about understanding your own characteristics and how that informed different scenarios. Megha said: “I think we learned a lot about building up our own confidence and really understanding how we portray ourselves to the outer world.”
As well as the module on leading oneself, there were also parts of the training addressing how you lead others and how you need to understand and define the culture of the team.
“That was good because it showed that we really need to understand the values of the people that we’re working with and understand the values of the whole team and make sure that they align. If you want to step into a leadership position, then you need to explore what those values are within the team and ensure that everyone believes in the common goal,” Megha explained.
The Women in Leadership consists of three full-day sessions as well as two one-to-one sessions with the trainer. There were also discussions with triads, comprising other people on the course, which allowed participants to reflect on the training and share their observations. There will be a final follow-up session in May.
“I would definitely recommend the course to other people,” Megha said. “I think they will benefit from the safe space to reflect and think away from the daily grind of work. It gives you that breathing space and thinking space to reflect on yourself and how you can improve dynamics within your team. But also to gain confidence to step into a leadership role or improve your leadership if you’re in that role already.”