Stella Vig has been on the path to clinical leadership for most of her life. A Consultant Surgeon and Croydon NHS Foundation Trust’s Clinical Director, she is also the National Medical Director for Secondary Care and Quality, alongside her existing role as National Clinical Director for Elective Care. Stella has spent seven years in Croydon leading the Trust’s integrated cancer, surgery, and clinical support directorate and has played a pivotal role in the development of the Croydon Elective Centre. Throughout her varied and successful career, Stella’s leadership style has been defined by a quest for equity and parity, and an impressive ability to think outside the box in order to achieve those things.

Stella’s journey to leadership started long before these varied and numerous career achievements. “Dad came over from Punjab in India in the early 1960s”, she reflected. “The story goes that he got off the boat, went the wrong way and ended up in North Wales.” It during this time that Stella’s dad met her mum, a headmistress of her own school in India and brought her over to Wales. The rest was history - and Stella believes the drive she had to ascend to the top was a gift given by her parents in their raising of her. “Right from the start, the conversation in our house was always ‘if you want to do something, then you can go and do it’ - that was really instilled in us from an early age.”

When she was just five years old, “I went to India, and my Nana’s sister had just had cataract surgery and sadly lost sight in both of her eyes. And apparently I said to her ‘don’t worry, I’ll become an eye doctor and I’ll fix you’. So I suppose that’s where it all started.” Although her teachers at school were generally supportive of her, they suggested that she consider becoming a social worker. “I think that was the level they thought I could attain. But mum and dad got really cross with them, told them ‘she wants to be a doctor, a surgeon - so that’s what she’s going to do.”

“It’s his words that made me carry on”

Indeed, that was exactly what Stella did, finding herself studying medicine at Cardiff. Although, the five year old Stella would have been disappointed to learn that as a student, “I realised that eyes were horrible and squishy things to operate on. So I didn’t want to become an eye surgeon any more.”

After graduating Stella began working, “and I met a wonderful surgeon called Kieran Horgan. He sat me down and asked ‘what do you want to do?’ And I said I wanted to be a surgeon but I'm not going to because women obviously don't do surgery. And he said ‘if you want to do it, reach for the top - go for the stars, because if you don't manage it, you’ll know you've tried, but if you do manage it then wonderful.” Stella can’t understate the impact this conversation has had on her trajectory: “it’s his words that made me carry on.” Kieran had an even greater influence on Stella’s life, introducing her to her husband - who is also a surgeon - and they celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in May. It was after she married and had children that the young family relocated to London from Wales, where Stella began her ascent through the ranks of the NHS to her current leadership role.

‘There are so many things that describe who I am’

The conversation then turned to reflections on what changes Stella has witnessed in the NHS over her career, and the value of diversity in the organisations she has worked so hard to champion. She echoed a nuanced perspective that has seen growing credence amongst visible leaders in the NHS and wider society - that perhaps diversity is less useful as a term than intersectionality. “Of course, diversity is important, please don’t think that it isn’t important… But when I think about diversity I think about my own identity. I am Asian. But I'm

also Welsh - I was born in Wales, and I’m inherently proud of being Welsh, but also really proud of being Asian, and Indian, Punjabi. I'm a Hindu, I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a surgeon. I'm a doctor, I'm a manager- there are so many things that describe who I am.”

The logic Stella is following is that it would be very difficult to pin her down as one thing, and her life and her experiences represent a range of different communities. Essentially, true diversity is more than just a variety of faces, and she offered a novel approach to representation: “We need to ensure that we’ve got diverse mindsets as well as diverse faces.” All of this feeds into Stella’s own leadership style, which has grown out of years of experience. “You go through life thinking that if you work hard, doors will be opened. And then you start to realise that there are some doors that just aren’t opened for you. And being in a leadership position you also start to realise that there’s no reason those doors shouldn’t be open.” Stella’s own upbringing instilled in her the belief that anything was possible for her, but many others are not told this.

So how does she tackle this problem of self-belief? “If I need something done, there’s no point asking in the meeting if anyone would like to volunteer, because the same people will volunteer each time, and the quietest person in the room won’t ever put their hand up - because that’s what they’ve been told in school, or whatever the background reason is. But the thing is, that person might be the most fantastic individual, with the right skillset to do the job.” Stella is convinced that for real change to occur, “we need to consider the question of who’s not in the room, for whatever reason, and who should be there?”

“We’ll definitely fail - but that’s the whole point”

The conversation ended where it began, with a thought on childhood. “I was watching a wonderful video the other day, of a man whose daughter is drawing a picture. And he asks her what she’s drawing and she replies that she’s drawing God. And he says that no one knows what God looks like, and she replies ‘they will in a minute!”. As well as being a source of amusement, Stella is thoughtful about the implications of the video. “I think it shows that childlike ability to really trust your judgement and go for it in a way we don’t tend to as adults.”

This can-do philosophy is plainly evident in Stella - an inheritance from her upbringing by her parents as well as a singular sense of drive and determination - and it links back to her desire to see a greater diversity of mindsets. “How do we stop ourselves from being boxed in, by social norms, by the way we’re taught to behave? We’ve got to realise that we don’t necessarily know the best rules and ways of doing things, and we’ve got to allow for individual approaches.”

Stella ended with a thought that echoed down the years from the advice given to her by Kieran Horgan. “ We’re not always going to get it right - in fact we’ll definitely fail - but that’s the whole point. But if we can allow people to have a go and fail in some ways, then they’ll also succeed.”