Cultivate your core competencies

Your core competencies make you much more valuable to your organization. Find out ways to nurture and promote those competencies.     

Delegation can make (or break) your career

Delegation is not a soft skill. Physician executives who do not delegate well and strategically cannot expect to achieve the top jobs now or in the future. It's not enough to have great communications skills to convey your vision. You won't achieve that vision alone; you must have a great team to bring that vision to fruition. However, you can't delegate your first and most important step--self-assessment. To maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, you'll need a clear view of what makes you tick. Then start thinking about your executive role in these terms: Conceptualize work mandates as projects; choose people who are better than you for your team; and try to work yourself out of a job. By learning to delegate, physician executives can make their own careers (as well as those on their team) richer and more fulfilled.     

Preparing for a career in medical management. 8 steps to help you evaluate your career path

Making a career switch from clinical practice to medical management requires preparation and planning. There are numerous steps you can take to smooth out the transition. Most importantly, you must find ways to gain valuable leadership and management experiences before you can expect to land a good medical management position. Discover ways to cultivate that experience through staff posts, part-time positions or volunteer work.     

Building trust through promises and performance. Can your organization achieve the stellar results and employee loyalty found at Southwest Airlines?

Establishing a trusting relationship with your employees can help you transform your organization into a top performer. Examine how well-defined visions and goals are some of the keys to building that trust.     

How to be viewed as a sage in your elder years.

Journal Writing, meditation, and telling our stories by reviewing our lives and harvesting the wisdom we've gained are productive activities for the present. The practice of journal writing is an integral part of accepting the aging process and making the elder years enjoyable and fulfilling. Meditation provides a way to center yourself and is particularly helpful during stressful times. It increases your chances of not worrying and improves your ability to concentrate. Another task of successful age-ing that is fueled by journal writing and meditation is life review and passing on your knowledge to others. These disciplines are explored as tools for inner growth and instruction is provided to help get you started.     

Twelve questions to ask about your outcomes monitoring system--Part II

Commercial and customized outcomes monitoring systems designed to assess the results of care, whether clinical outcomes or resource use, are not all of equal value or equally appropriate for every use. In creating each system, its developers had to make critical decisions about such matters as definitions of outcomes for study, selection of patients, selection of data elements, methods and timing of data collection, and method of analysis and reporting. Each system represents a unique set of choices that were made. This series of two articles presents answers to 12 questions that will help users understand the basic workings of an outcomes monitoring system--to be able to distinguish good systems from the mediocre and the bad, and to make wise use of a system already in operation. In addition to the six questions presented in the April 1994 issue of Physician Executive, the following six questions are of critical importance in determining a system's value to you and your organization.     

What turns you on and off?

When you are exploring your career and where you are headed, it is helpful to consider what aspects of your job turn you on, and of course, those that don't. Energizers are activities that excite and invigorate you or people who lift your heart and inspire you. De-energizers are activities or people who drain you, drag you down, depress you. Make lists of those things that energize and de-energize you either at work or in other situations. Try hard to do something to incorporate or change at least the first five on each list and see if you feel more job and life satisfaction. Responses from 30 participants of a recent Career Choices program are provided to help you get started.     

Changing what goes on in your head: how to stop "ain't it awful?"

How can you change your negative thinking? This column describes a process that, on the surface, seems too simplistic to be beneficial, but that works: choose a few good words to repeat to yourself constantly, progress to better thoughts, and then improve what you say to others. If you want to be more satisfied with your work life and your personal life, you must change the internal dialogue in your head. If you have some version of negative internal chatter, you need to substitute positive statements. You need to say something different from what you have been saying every spare minute of the day. You must say it even if it is the biggest lie you have ever heard yourself think. You must say it for days or weeks before you notice a difference in your attitude, relationships, and health. Eventually, you will notice you feel better and people are behaving better.     

Where can we learn about change?

Presented here are some resources--books, consultants, and personal growth practices--that you might find useful in the struggle to become adept at dealing with change. Mastering change is a long process, but unlike building a cathedral or growing apples, as soon as you start you will have something that you can use--some insight, a different way of looking at what is confronting you, something to help jar you to a more creative strategy.     

New, customized news

How can you get the news that you want, when you want it, no matter where you are? The idea of customized news is indeed new. Instead of sitting passively in front of the TV or turning the pages of your newspaper, you can program your computer to search for the news that is of interest to you from myriad sources. The idea of getting the news as you like it is all a product of the wonderful world of cyberspace. Browse the Web and find out if these news services are right for you.     

Networking--getting to know more people

One of the first and often the most difficult tasks for job seekers is increasing their networks--the number of people they know. A large percentage of people get jobs because people knew them and thought they would be good at it. People must know who you are and what you do in order to recommend you for a job. Networking should be an ongoing process, so that when you need a new position, you have people you already know that you can contact.     

Medicine, management, and me.

What is medical management? How do you learn about it? How do you get into it? Is there a future in it? Is medical management for you? Can you do it? What will it mean to your original plans for your life in medicine? Is it worth the sacrifice? Get comfortable. I have a story to tell you. It may help if you hear about medical management from a medical director who has preceded you. I doubt I can answer all your questions. I can, however, tell you about one physician's visions, expectations, decisions, experiences, and rewards from what can be loosely called "medical management." If you find something of help in your decision making in this account, my telling it is worthwhile.     

How to make the pitch for a part-time workload

Are you planning on moving from full-time to part-time hours? You'll need a game plan to negotiate what you want, including establishing a timeline and agreeing on productivity expectations. If you can agree on a reasonable timeframe that doesn't inconvenience anyone or endanger important results or relationships, you have a high probability of getting your boss' okay. If you and the boss can't agree on what you must produce, don't consider part-time work unless you thrive on combat. Once you negotiate your new schedule, consider the issue of managing co-worker resentment. Here are the best hints for keeping co-worker envy and resentment at a manageable level: Don't be secretive; keep a low profile; attend all office frolics; and ask for a trial period.     

Becoming a customer “owning” corporation

You know you “own” the customer when … You are their first choice. They look to you to solve their problems. They share confidential information with you. They talk to you about their plans. They accept your advice and ideas. You are involved early on in their decisions. They discuss options (as opposed to just price and discounts) with you. They give you feedback (good or bad) before you ask. They recommend others to you (and you to others). They trust you to take decisions on their behalf. They want you to succeed.     

Negotiate the salary you want

How can physician executives negotiate the salary and terms that they want for a new position? The idea of negotiation raises the anxiety level of all but a few people, those who thrive on the thrill of competitive bargaining. Most physicians do not relish the process and view it as a type of conflict. But without knowing what you want to accomplish and preparing to ask for it, you may well leave the meeting frustrated and unhappy with the offer. Determine what you want before you get into an important negotiation. You will get clear on what you want much quicker and you will remember the points better when you talk to the other person.     

Welcome everything

The failure of management is largely a failure to bring our whole selves to it. What parts of your self do you bring to your work? Do you bring only the management mind, only logic, only the company guidelines? Or do you bring your passions, your values, your soul, your deepest self? Do you react? Or do you respond? Letting go of what you think you know can be the first step to a creative and powerful response. Many of the tools we use in management can actually remove us from the experience and make it harder to respond. Reacting closes down options. Responding opens up possibilities and nurtures trust. This is kindness transformed into a business imperative--responsiveness.     

Building trust and collaboration between physicians and administrators

If you think someone else's behavior is blocking you from achieving a goal, think again. As a physician leader, there may be something you can do to take responsibility for a situation and make the necessary changes. Learn how you can help build the trust and cooperation needed to make change happen.     

Putting "teeth" in your résumé

How can physician executives get the kind of management experience they need to move to the next level? Is the MBA the end all or can significant management experience and top assignments impress recruiters and CEOs? Here are some important questions to ask yourself about each job you have held as you prepare to move forward in your career: How did I improve the organization? How did I contribute to greater efficiency? How did I affect productivity? How did my work increase the bottom line? Thinking about these questions can help you put teeth in your résumé and get you where you want to go. When you can answer those questions from your own experience, you will have created a powerful career track record that is likely to impress the next CEO whose staff you want to join.     

Will you be ready when the pink slip arrives?

Are you prepared to ride the waves of change? Will you be ready when the pink slip arrives? Health care executives who can jump a little higher and run a little faster will go further in the draft. Those of you who are prepared for change will always be appealing to recruiters and prospective employers. How can you ride these turbulent waves and not capsize? This article explores some suggestions for positioning yourself: Proper positioning with the inevitable changes in mind will help you move your career in a forward direction.     

Salary negotiations the smart way.

No one holds all the cards in a job interview, unless one party to the negotiations gives them to the other. To obtain the salary that you deserve, you have to do some homework to determine your market value and you have to stick to your guns during the bargaining. Taking less than you, and the prospective employer, know you're worth is a sure road to disaster.