- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on how CEOs should handle a cancer diagnosis.
- The big story: Reciprocal trade tariffs.
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- Analyst notes from JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Wedbush.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. Accenture CEO Julie Sweet announced yesterday that her breast cancer has come back, noting in a memo to staff that “the prognosis from my doctor is excellent; the cancer was caught early, and my condition is curable.”
Nothing makes you feel more vulnerable at work than sharing a life-altering health diagnosis, especially as a leader who is supposed to project strength. As the CEO of a major public company, she also disclosed her cancer diagnosis in an 8K as such information is considered material to shareholders. It’s no longer acceptable to keep people in the dark, as the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs did when he hid his pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2003 and attributed his severe weight loss in 2009 to a “hormone imbalance,” complaining that “curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction.”
Sweet has handled her health challenges differently. First diagnosed with breast cancer 11 years ago, she talks about how it has made her reflect on her purpose and motivation as a leader. Showing vulnerability can be an inspiration. Just ask Arthur Sadoun, the CEO of Publicis Groupe. Diagnosed with HPV-related cancer in 2022, he went on to launch a cross-industry coalition called “Working with Cancer” at Davos two years ago. The goal: to persuade companies to create a more open and supportive environment for people with cancer and those who care for them. When I saw him last month, he had signed up more than 2,500 companies with more than 35 million employees.
I wish that was around when my husband’s ski injury six years ago turned out to be cancer of unknown primary. He endured it quietly and died in March 2020 at the age of 55, as the pandemic left my kids and me to largely mourn alone. There’s another reason why Sweet’s candor about her early detection of cancer is powerful: the number of women getting screened for cancer has taken a step back in the last five years, dropping to 10% from 12%, according to the Hologic Global Women’s Health Index. The U.S. has dropped to 37 from 26 in the global ranking. As Hologic CEO Steve MacMillan told me when we met in Davos, “I think it’s a combination of women putting off care to emphasize others and there’s a bit of concern about whether all the experts are right.” When leaders like Sweet and Sadoun speak out, it raises the odds their workers will be proactive about their own health too.
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Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady, diane.brady@fortune.com, LinkedIn.
