Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/692604
56 56 EXECUTIVE NOTES Catherine Jacobson, President and CEO of Milwaukee-based Froedtert Health "Keep your eye on the ball. Be careful not to focus so much on your next promotion that you lose sight of excelling in your current role. Good work where you are can pave the way to where you go next. Don't wait for advancement opportunities to come to you. Get involved in projects unrelated to or in addition to your current job. Busy managers may not be aware of your interests, so talk to your boss and other leaders about what you can do to grow. If you are not getting the opportunities you're seeking in your regular job, look outside your organization. Volunteering in a community organization or becoming involved in a professional association are great ways to build your leadership skills, and they also provide valuable networking. Ultimately, you own your career. e process of looking at other possibilities can lead you to appreciate your current situation, or give you a clearer idea of what you want. You may decide to stay where you are or strategically pick your next position, but either way, the decision is yours, and you own it. If you are not finding fulfillment and advancement in the work you are doing, then you need to move on. Find something you're good at and be great at it. Identify your niche — the thing you do best — and polish it until you shine. It will elevate you above the crowd and build your confidence. Be willing to take risks. A troubled organization may be the perfect opportunity to hone your skills and could lead to rapid advancement. Even if the gamble fails, you will have learned valuable lessons along the way. Over my career, I have taken a few calculated risks that have made a huge difference in my advancement. Always do the right thing. Do what you say you will do, always keep your word and always maintain honesty in your work. You will be surprised at the times this will be tested, and sometimes compromising will get you out of a hard spot. But sacrificing your integrity will always come back to haunt you in the way people think of you, and it will impact your ability to succeed. And you won't feel good about yourself in the morning, either." Jon Pryor, MD, CEO of Minneapolis-based Hennepin County Medical Center "Read the newspaper and think beyond healthcare. Reading the newspaper is a great way to gain a broad perspective of the issues and the advances in various areas that might be applied to healthcare. Many of the great developments in the world occur when someone brings an idea from one area into another. Every morning, I skim through my local paper. On Sunday morning, I take 90 minutes or so to read e New York Times and inevitably find at least one article about business, leadership, IT, social media, politics, arts, culture and science that is relevant to the business of healthcare. Sitting there reading the paper with my cup of coffee in hand gives me some down time to think: How does or can this information affect my health system and our patients? I oen take it to my leadership team the following day to discuss its applications to our patients and the care we deliver. Another major benefit of staying apprised of the news? Being able to avoid that dreaded 'deer in the headlights' look if you're caught off guard when asked about an important topic of the day. It's so important to stay current and think ahead to where healthcare is going, not where it's been. To succeed in healthcare you need to know more than healthcare." Stephen Hanson, CEO of Louisville, Ky.-based Baptist Health "Particularly for those like myself that don't have a medical background, learn how to listen to doctors, nurses and other clinicians. Give meetings your full attention. Stay away from iPhones, start and finish meetings on time and make the best use of everyone's time. Be responsive to texts, emails and particularly to phone calls. When I receive a call, I try to return it the same day. We all have to work very hard, but we also need to have some time away from work. I can be as effective away from work, but part of it is how we take time at the beginning and end of each day and week to reflect and plan. We're a faith-based system, so I have my Bible and I read passages to reflect. It's important to make time for family, faith and personal growth. Find and keep a few mentors. ey don't have to be healthcare-related, and they can be younger than you. Keep notes, whether virtually or on a hard copy. e most successful people do so. I take notes and use them to organize my thoughts, then I send them to the target audience. ere is a skill to working with boards. ey require a lot of attention and communication. You have to have passion for this field or you should get out. You have to feel this. I know some clinicians are suffering from burnout, but if they don't have a dying passion for this field and making it better, they should find other ways to make a living. Have a sense of humility and be in it for the long haul. Work on the ability to make the individual you're around feel like they're the only person in the world. Doing little things like that make people feel a bit more special." Mariann Byerwalter, Interim President and CEO of Stanford (Calif.) Health Care "Change is a constant in healthcare, which means recent graduates should expect to keep sharpening their skills and updating their knowledge throughout their careers. We are in an era when professional opportunities in healthcare are growing at a rapid rate, with exciting career paths that did not even exist a decade ago in fields such as digital health. Talented individuals who combine expertise in multiple fields, such as nurses who become bioinformatics experts, will be in significant demand. Interdisciplinary skills are a valuable resume highlight, even for entry-level positions."