Much is said nowadays about finding the right work-life balance, however, Sylvia Pan, the soft-spoken general manager of Beijing United Family Hospital (BJU) finds a different meaning in the motto. For her, balancing work and life – in which she pulls double duty as both a caring mother and dedicated leader of one of the capital’s preeminent medical institutions – means recognizing the lessons learned in one and applying them to the other. “The ways to resolve problems in life and work are sometimes similar,” says Pan, with a smile.
It’s an interdisciplinary approach gleaned from her years spent working as a translator for the military, and one that has served her and her community exceptionally well for the more than 25 years that she’s helmed BJU’s mission. Perhaps more importantly though, it’s helped her navigate the sometimes murky waters of a professional parent with grace, agility, and aplomb.
From servicewoman to healthcare professional
After earning an English degree in 1990, Pan took up work in the military’s translation office. At a time when the majority of her colleagues were studying English so they could move and work abroad, choosing to dedicate her life to serving the country she so loves made Pan something of an outlier among her classmates.
What’s more, that military career cultivated a unique sense of perseverance and courage that largely shaped the woman she is today. “There’s a saying in English, ‘hang in there,’ and this is what actually lasts me through all the time,” Pan tells Jingkids.
Since joining United Family in 1996, many people have asked Pan why, with seemingly no connection between the military and the healthcare industry, she would choose to join a sino-foreign medical institution and work there for more than 25 years.
For Pan, the logic is simple and rooted not only in her love of helping others but also in constantly striving to do better. “The military and hospitals have something in common – they both can have significant impacts on people’s lives. United Family has introduced me to a completely new world. It satisfied my curiosity, and the people around me encourage me to keep learning and improving myself.” Likewise, she credits her six years in the military with inspiring her lifelong dedication to the job. “The military has marked me with perseverance and endurance, which gave me the strength to ‘hang in there’ during the most difficult times.”
A trendsetter in China
As China continues developing at a rapid pace, so too have Pan and United Family consistently reinvented themselves over the past 25 years, anticipating new trends and blazing new trails in response to the times. “As a professional manager, one of my missions and abilities is to learn how to recognize the trends,” says Pan. “This is very important.”
For instance, when Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing United Family Hospital recruited emergency room doctors from abroad to prepare for an influx of foreign visitors. However, the anticipated international patients never arrived. As a result, United Family reversed its customer strategy, shifting its key marketing focus from foreign to local clients, and began promoting itself among Chinese enterprises and communities.
“At that time, most of our doctors were full-time foreign doctors,” says Pan. “However, a healthy human resources structure should be spindle-shaped, not dumbbell-shaped. So we had to upgrade the HR structure for our doctors. With the shift in United Family’s target clients, the hospital began to recruit outstanding Chinese doctors.” By refocusing its target clients, Beijing United Family Hospital has been able to cover a broader market and kick-start its high-speed, high-quality development.
More recently, China’s sustained low birth rate and increasingly aging society have prompted Pan to develop new goals for United Family. She points to places such as Japan, the US, and Europe as experiencing the same issues, but adds “our national conditions are different,” though “we are going in similar directions in some aspects.”
Full-time general manager and full-time adoring mom
Though Pan’s penchant for pivoting, adapting, and adjusting to whatever life throws at her has proved indispensable in the workplace, as the mother of a son and daughter 10 years apart, it’s at home and in her parenting style that she truly shines. For instance, given the disparity in their ages, Pan figured out pretty early on that one of her magic weapons would be making sure that neither child feels neglected or forgotten. For example, even on the day his little sister was born, Pan made sure she was available to help her son with his homework in the hospital room after giving birth. “My son was very sensitive to the new addition in the family, even though he didn’t show it,” says Pan, highlighting the importance of reliability for familial harmony. “As a parent, I need to show him that the routines have not changed in this family, and this brings him a sense of security.”
Today, Pan’s son is a teenager while her daughter is in first grade. The siblings have developed their own unique way of communicating with each other, and Pan proudly explains, “Most of the time, I stay out of their talks and leave things to them. Let them decide, so they won’t look for their parents’ help whenever they have a problem.”
Simply put, Pan’s parenting experience and prowess blend a high degree of discipline and endurance, as well as an ability to always stay one step ahead of the rest of the family, another feather in her cap from her military days, and not entirely different from how she anticipates problems in the workplace.
All of which is to say, whether she’s acting as the general manager of Beijing United Family Hospital or a patient mother of two, Pan’s de facto problem-solving strategy prioritizes those in her charge, which has helped her set new professional and parental trends when faced with any issue, big or small, in work and life.
This article appeared in the jingkids 2022 School Choice Guide issue
