Standing Out in Your Medical Workplace and Beyond
Do you struggle to stand out from your peers who have similar experience and qualifications?
To start with, you need to make your unique skills and abilities known to your medical bosses and gain access to development activities for procedural and nonclinical skills. Then of course there is getting onto research projects.
And all of this must occur alongside your shifts, study and other commitments.
However, the satisfaction and benefits of achieving successes throughout your career – delivering presentations, getting on to training, promotion to senior and executive roles –drive your effort and perseverance.
A recent webinar I hosted examined these challenges as well as strategies to help doctors achieve these outcomes:
Establishing your brand and expressing your value
“Your personal brand revolves around what other people say about you and personal branding revolves around what you say about yourself.” (Personalbrand.com)
So, if you want people to perceive you in a certain way, you will need to know how the professional value of your unique qualities and achievements can help them.
A great place to start is by reflecting on your:
- Expertise – what practical experience and qualifications do you have that can help you stand out?
- Strengths – what do other people ask for your help with?
- Interests – what makes you want to get up in the morning?
- Ambitions – what are the biggest goals that you can imagine for yourself?
- Achievements – what have you already done that is of benefit to others?
And once you have reflected on and listed these, think about how you can promote the value you represent to get that promotion/pay rise/recognition.
Defining and demonstrating leadership
With leadership being a key criterion for selection into senior medical roles, it’s essential that you undertake activities to develop leadership skills all throughout your years of study and training.
Leadership competencies that are taught and assessed throughout education and training include communication, evidence-based practice, critical reflective practice, self-management, ethical decision making, critical thinking and clinical decision making. However, areas that may not have been addressed comprehensively throughout the foundation years, but which will be expected, include financial management, strategic planning and workforce planning.
“A process of social influence which maximises the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.” Kevin Kruse, author of ‘Employee Engagement’
In my workshops, I explore practical ways to display leadership skills with my clients such as:
- Stepping up – taking on higher responsibilities above your employment level, eg registrar duties during an SRMO year
- Motivating others – consider experiences in which you have influenced others and led a team through a difficult situation such as when resources have been tight
- Questioning the status quo – are you innovative, someone who looks beyond existing systems and strives for improvement for better patient and team outcomes?
Developing confidence in various settings
Your ability to carry out your work and communicate your value to others confidently is another linchpin within your career framework. What I’ve found is that some doctors who are highly confident in their day-to-day work need to develop confidence in important networking settings and interviews.
Assessing strengths and identifying specific successes can help build the sense of confidence in yourself and the confidence that others feel about placing their trust in you.
Differentiating yourself and getting noticed for the right reasons is key to your career success and, in turn, fulfilling your most ambitious goals.
As a career coach for medical practitioners, I frequently help doctors plan for challenging undertakings without losing sight of their ambitions.
If you need help planning the next stage of your career or preparing for an application and interview, contact me for a confidential chat. [email protected]