Shabnam Ali grew up as a healthcare insider. Her mother was a GP whose dedication to her patients and community left a lasting impression on her young daughter. Her father was a chemical engineer turned entrepreneur who founded and ran several clinics. After studying management and international business, Shabnam moved into sales and then recruitment until her father called with a favour: could she help find a few doctors for a new practice he was opening?
That favour became a vocation. Ten years later, Shabnam manages seven clinics under Anchor Medical Group Australia, a family-owned business built on the belief that empathetic, supportive environments allow doctors and staff to deliver their best care. Along the way, she became a mother, and the real leadership education began.
Shabnam is far from alone in navigating that intersection. Advancing Women in Healthcare Leadership, a national research initiative led by Monash University, reports that women make up 75% of Australia’s healthcare workforce, yet remain consistently underrepresented at the leadership level. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s 2024–25 Gender Equality Scorecard found that healthcare is the one sector in Australia where women and men hold CEO roles in almost equal proportion (48% to 52%), but the gap between frontline representation and senior leadership remains significant, and the structural barriers that drive it are well documented.
Among them: the entrenched expectation that leadership means full-time, always-on availability. WGEA data shows that 92% of managers across Australia work full-time, with just 7% in part-time arrangements — a reality that sits uncomfortably alongside the fact that caring for children remains, by a significant margin, the leading reason women step back from or limit paid work.
For women in senior roles who are also raising children, the balancing act is central to their leadership story.
Patience as a leadership skill
Ask Shabnam what motherhood has taught her about running a business, and the answer is immediate: patience.
“One of the biggest lessons I have learned since becoming a mother is patience. While it is something I continue to work on every day, it has undoubtedly had a positive influence on the way I lead my team and collaborate with both internal and external stakeholders to achieve stronger business outcomes.”
It is a quality that is easy to underestimate in high-pressure environments, where the pull toward urgency is constant. In healthcare, staff are often managing clinical complexity, patient relationships, and operational demands simultaneously — a leader who can hold steady under pressure sets the tone for an entire organisation.
Motherhood, Shabnam says, also brought a shift in perspective that has deepened her sense of purpose at work.
“Becoming a mum has also given me a greater sense of purpose and perspective. It has strengthened my desire to build something meaningful and lasting — not only professionally, but personally as well. I now feel a strong responsibility to create a legacy for my children, much like the one my mother created for me through her dedication, resilience, and commitment to healthcare and family.”
The weight women carry in healthcare
For women leading healthcare businesses, the pressures are layered in ways that can be difficult to articulate. Shabnam is candid about this. She sees healthcare as an industry unlike most others, one where the emotional stakes of the work never fully switch off.
“On top of the normal business challenges like recruitment, operations, and profitability, there’s also a real emotional investment that comes with working in healthcare. As women in leadership, I think we naturally put a lot of pressure on ourselves and hold ourselves to very high standards, always wanting to give more than 100%.”
That drive is also what makes the work meaningful. But it means the boundary between professional and personal is rarely a clean line. For working mothers, maintaining that boundary requires deliberate, ongoing effort.
Building systems that actually work
Delegation is vital for Shabnam. Building a team she trusts, and being willing to rely on that team, has allowed her to operate sustainably across her personal and professional roles.
“Delegating tasks to my team and relying on the support of those around me has also been incredibly important. Balancing business, leadership, and family life can certainly be challenging, particularly as work does not always operate within fixed timelines. However, implementing these small but intentional changes has had a significant impact on overall productivity, business growth, and the quality of time spent with family.”
Delegation also creates room for real, undivided presence. When Shabnam is at work, she focuses on that. When she is with her children, she focuses on them. She has learned that not every call needs to be answered immediately, and that deliberately disconnecting during family time honours the people she loves.
What the business world can learn from parenting
There is a recurring theme in how Shabnam talks about leadership and motherhood: both require you to keep learning, often without a roadmap.
“I’ve learnt that it’s okay not to have all the answers and that asking for support when you need it is actually really important. As your children grow, the challenges change, and honestly, running a business feels very similar — every stage comes with new lessons, different pressures, and new expectations.”
It is a reframe that cuts through the polished language of leadership development. The willingness to not know, to ask, and to grow helps leaders (and mothers) continue to grow.
What the industry still needs to do
Shabnam believes the healthcare sector has made meaningful progress in recognising and supporting women in leadership. But she is also realistic about where the work continues.
As children grow and family circumstances evolve, the challenges facing working mothers shift too. That means organisations cannot apply a fixed approach and assume it will remain relevant. Support systems need to evolve in step with the people they are designed for, through flexible structures, genuine growth pathways, and leadership that understands the full picture of what its people are managing.
In Shabnam’s experience, when people feel genuinely supported, both professionally and personally, they bring their best to work. That is not a soft consideration. In an industry where performance directly affects patient outcomes, it is a sound business practice.
Shabnam Ali is a Fellow of the Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM) and holds a Diploma in Practice Management and a Bachelor of Commerce in Management and International Business. She is the co-practice manager of Anchor Medical Group Australia, a family-owned business operating seven medical centres across the country.
Sources
Leading from both sides: how motherhood shaped one healthcare leader’s approach to business
Share this article
Key takeaways
Shabnam Ali grew up as a healthcare insider. Her mother was a GP whose dedication to her patients and community left a lasting impression on her young daughter. Her father was a chemical engineer turned entrepreneur who founded and ran several clinics. After studying management and international business, Shabnam moved into sales and then recruitment until her father called with a favour: could she help find a few doctors for a new practice he was opening?
That favour became a vocation. Ten years later, Shabnam manages seven clinics under Anchor Medical Group Australia, a family-owned business built on the belief that empathetic, supportive environments allow doctors and staff to deliver their best care. Along the way, she became a mother, and the real leadership education began.
Shabnam is far from alone in navigating that intersection. Advancing Women in Healthcare Leadership, a national research initiative led by Monash University, reports that women make up 75% of Australia’s healthcare workforce, yet remain consistently underrepresented at the leadership level. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s 2024–25 Gender Equality Scorecard found that healthcare is the one sector in Australia where women and men hold CEO roles in almost equal proportion (48% to 52%), but the gap between frontline representation and senior leadership remains significant, and the structural barriers that drive it are well documented.
Among them: the entrenched expectation that leadership means full-time, always-on availability. WGEA data shows that 92% of managers across Australia work full-time, with just 7% in part-time arrangements — a reality that sits uncomfortably alongside the fact that caring for children remains, by a significant margin, the leading reason women step back from or limit paid work.
For women in senior roles who are also raising children, the balancing act is central to their leadership story.
Patience as a leadership skill
Ask Shabnam what motherhood has taught her about running a business, and the answer is immediate: patience.
“One of the biggest lessons I have learned since becoming a mother is patience. While it is something I continue to work on every day, it has undoubtedly had a positive influence on the way I lead my team and collaborate with both internal and external stakeholders to achieve stronger business outcomes.”
It is a quality that is easy to underestimate in high-pressure environments, where the pull toward urgency is constant. In healthcare, staff are often managing clinical complexity, patient relationships, and operational demands simultaneously — a leader who can hold steady under pressure sets the tone for an entire organisation.
Motherhood, Shabnam says, also brought a shift in perspective that has deepened her sense of purpose at work.
“Becoming a mum has also given me a greater sense of purpose and perspective. It has strengthened my desire to build something meaningful and lasting — not only professionally, but personally as well. I now feel a strong responsibility to create a legacy for my children, much like the one my mother created for me through her dedication, resilience, and commitment to healthcare and family.”
The weight women carry in healthcare
For women leading healthcare businesses, the pressures are layered in ways that can be difficult to articulate. Shabnam is candid about this. She sees healthcare as an industry unlike most others, one where the emotional stakes of the work never fully switch off.
“On top of the normal business challenges like recruitment, operations, and profitability, there’s also a real emotional investment that comes with working in healthcare. As women in leadership, I think we naturally put a lot of pressure on ourselves and hold ourselves to very high standards, always wanting to give more than 100%.”
That drive is also what makes the work meaningful. But it means the boundary between professional and personal is rarely a clean line. For working mothers, maintaining that boundary requires deliberate, ongoing effort.
Building systems that actually work
Delegation is vital for Shabnam. Building a team she trusts, and being willing to rely on that team, has allowed her to operate sustainably across her personal and professional roles.
“Delegating tasks to my team and relying on the support of those around me has also been incredibly important. Balancing business, leadership, and family life can certainly be challenging, particularly as work does not always operate within fixed timelines. However, implementing these small but intentional changes has had a significant impact on overall productivity, business growth, and the quality of time spent with family.”
Delegation also creates room for real, undivided presence. When Shabnam is at work, she focuses on that. When she is with her children, she focuses on them. She has learned that not every call needs to be answered immediately, and that deliberately disconnecting during family time honours the people she loves.
What the business world can learn from parenting
There is a recurring theme in how Shabnam talks about leadership and motherhood: both require you to keep learning, often without a roadmap.
“I’ve learnt that it’s okay not to have all the answers and that asking for support when you need it is actually really important. As your children grow, the challenges change, and honestly, running a business feels very similar — every stage comes with new lessons, different pressures, and new expectations.”
It is a reframe that cuts through the polished language of leadership development. The willingness to not know, to ask, and to grow helps leaders (and mothers) continue to grow.
What the industry still needs to do
Shabnam believes the healthcare sector has made meaningful progress in recognising and supporting women in leadership. But she is also realistic about where the work continues.
As children grow and family circumstances evolve, the challenges facing working mothers shift too. That means organisations cannot apply a fixed approach and assume it will remain relevant. Support systems need to evolve in step with the people they are designed for, through flexible structures, genuine growth pathways, and leadership that understands the full picture of what its people are managing.
In Shabnam’s experience, when people feel genuinely supported, both professionally and personally, they bring their best to work. That is not a soft consideration. In an industry where performance directly affects patient outcomes, it is a sound business practice.
Shabnam Ali is a Fellow of the Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM) and holds a Diploma in Practice Management and a Bachelor of Commerce in Management and International Business. She is the co-practice manager of Anchor Medical Group Australia, a family-owned business operating seven medical centres across the country.
Sources
Share this article
Latest news
Business growth & marketing
Australian-first nomination puts ANDHealth on global medical innovation stage
Business growth & marketing
Could your medical practice pay rent into your retirement fund?
Business growth & marketing
More than a fitout: what modern general practice design says about the future of primary care
Business growth & marketingFinance & investment
Why financial literacy matters more than ever for medical practice owners
Clinical & consumer healthMarket intelligence & industry trendsPolicy reformsPolicy, compliance & governance
Building pressure: what’s straining Australia’s hospitals and how to build resilience
Join our exclusive community!
You might also like
Building pressure: what’s straining Australia’s hospitals and how to build resilience
Healthcare doesn’t have an innovation problem. It has an execution problem.
The power of connection in healthcare: Veri talks business growth with Sharon Armstrong
Beyond the tax return: Using EOFY to build a stronger business
Put your oxygen mask on first: 10 self-care strategies to help you breathe more easily and prevent burnout