It’s never too early or too late to create a career that’s your own since there is always time to keep the door open to learning, to try your best, and to allow yourself to grow through experience and time.
Being mentored by those around you can make all the difference and through it all, there are 3 pieces that stand out:
- Listen
- Follow your passion
- Be a servant leader
Listen
Listening is one of the best things you can do, especially when you approach it with the intent to understand what’s going on with patients, a situation, or a colleague rather than going in with an agenda.
If you’re a doctor, listen what your nurses have to say since they can teach you so much and if you’re a care provider, listen to your patients or your patients’ parents since they can tell you exactly what’s going on and, sometimes even, how to treat it.
No one knows the patient better than themselves or their parents, so it’s our job to really hear what they’re telling us.
If you’re a leader or a supervisor, listen to your employees in times of change or conflict, since all that’s needed is to make someone else feel heard.
If you work with vendors, analysts, or other outside partners, listen to them since some of the best relationships are the ones where we take the time to get to know each other and work to figure out how to help each other and look for ways to make a difference.
Many jobs in health care are dealing with people at times in their lives when they may not be at their best so listening to build mutual trust and understanding can make the difference between a transactional exchange and a rich, insightful relationship.
Follow your passion
Is your career fueled by what you love, driven by the reason you got into your field in the first place?
If it’s not, find a way to change that, and success will follow.
If you find yourself stalking out and wanting to do something else, take steps to explore what that could mean and learn from others, finding out where the need is and figuring out how you could apply your skills, experience, and knowledge.
All humans have gifts and uniqueness and everyone has something that wants to accomplish and that is where success lies.
Be a servant leader
Having confidence in your abilities is important and knowing something can always be done better and then working towards it with the help of others will help you continuously improve your skills and benefit others at the same time.
When there’s an issue or a challenge, the only way to truly solve it is to go to the root source and understand where, why, and how it’s happening.
Engaging others to help solve problems brings about a collective mindset for others, and your care or service gets better.
Leading by serving fulfills a deep-seated need in all of you to do good to others.
A career for the future
No matter your role or seniority, whether you’re interacting with patients or supporting the backend systems that make modern care possible, what you do is important, and building a career that you can look back on and be proud of is important.
It’s the everyday opportunities and actions that build a memorable life.
What will you do today that’ll make a positive difference for you, those around you, and the future?
