Simply Worth It: Physician Negotiations with Dr. Linda Street

Even if you have all your ducks in a row, negotiations can throw us something completely unexpected. One left-field comment can take the wind out of our sails and derail our plans. Instead of letting your brain pull an amygdala hijack and respond rashly, there is a safety lever that will allow us to respond in our best light. How do we respond to the unexpected without sabotaging ourselves? In this episode, I share how to deal with something you weren't ready for in a negotiation. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - Grace in the face of bad news If the conversation uncovers bad news, how do we maintain composure? - A well thought-out response vs. a rash reaction How do we take a productive pause from the conversation and create space to regroup later? - A win-win How do we make sure both parties leave the conversation feeling like value was exchanged?

Conversations are the lifeblood of all human interaction. Leading others and advocating for ourselves is impossible without having effective conversations. From the normal ones we don't have to prepare for, to the sensitive ones we run over and over in our heads, getting good at conversations is a worthy investment. What sets a conversation up for success? How can we use conversations to co-create better solutions? In this episode, we conclude our series with Talent Strategy and Leadership Consultant, and founder and CEO of 304 Coaching, Jen Thornton. Today, we dive into conversations and why getting good at them serves us well, at work and everywhere else. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - But first… How do we avoid blindsiding someone when we pull them into a conversation? - Push-pull There's a difference between a conversation and a vent session. How do we master the dance of conversational push and pull? - A productive pause Sometimes our conversations need a circle-back point, but how do we make it a space of progress, and not a dead end? Guest Bio Jen Thornton is a Talent Strategy and Leadership Consultant and the founder and CEO of 304 Coaching. Jennifer has made it her life's work to grow the kind of teams that inspire, influence, and innovate brand experience. Jen knows just how powerful teams can be when they feel psychologically safe and invested in - and she knows just how crucial that is to any organization that wants to rapidly grow and expand. She brings an unconventional approach to designing innovative workforce development solutions for companies that are facing breakthrough growth and accelerated hiring patterns and the results are expectation-defying and impactful. Jennifer is credentialed through the International Coaching Federation and holds certification in several accredited methodologies, including Conversation Intelligence and Gallup Strengths. For more information, head to https://304coaching.com and listen to her podcast, Let's Fix Leadership on your platform of choice.

When we try to wrap our heads around why leadership is so challenging, we'll soon discover that the mindset piece is what gets in our way. Our mental state is the foundation upon which great leadership is placed, and being a great leader begins with our own relationship with ourselves. When that foundation is stuck in a reactive space, it's hard for us to truly show up as our best selves, and that trickles into our teams and organizations. Who are the 3 horsemen of the reactive leadership apocalypse? How do we take a less stressful approach to leadership? In this episode, we're diving back into leadership with Talent Strategy and Leadership Consultant and CEO of 304 Coaching, Jen Thornton. Today we talk about the mental game of leadership, and how we can turn it into something beautiful that people want to follow. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - The 3 horsemen of reactivity When we're in our reactive stage, what are the telltale signs and how do they manifest in doctor-land? - Tendencies vs. competencies How do we break out of our default reactive thought patterns and behaviors and self-author an engaged response? - A cure for the Monday morning screw its How do we do away with the us vs. them mentality that tends to come up when we're working with hospital administration? Guest Bio Jen Thornton is a Talent Strategy and Leadership Consultant and the founder and CEO of 304 Coaching. Jennifer has made it her life's work to grow the kind of teams that inspire, influence, and innovate brand experience. Jen knows just how powerful teams can be when they feel psychologically safe and invested in - and she knows just how crucial that is to any organization that wants to rapidly grow and expand. She brings an unconventional approach to designing innovative workforce development solutions for companies that are facing breakthrough growth and accelerated hiring patterns and the results are expectation-defying and impactful. Jennifer is credentialed through the International Coaching Federation and holds certification in several accredited methodologies, including Conversation Intelligence and Gallup Strengths. For more information, head to https://304coaching.com and listen to her podcast, Let's Fix Leadership on your platform of choice.

As the physician landscape continues to change, how we practice medicine looks different to how it was done before. The more we normalize this change, the better off we'll be and the more effectively we can advocate for ourselves. There's so much room for us to do our jobs better and to make them more sustainable. In order to achieve that though, we have to get comfortable with experimentation and doing things differently. How do we use normalization to our favor? In this episode, I share how to use change to your advantage in a negotiation. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - The power of normalization in negotiation How do we make it normal, and even expect that advocating for ourselves is part of who we are? - "We've never done this before" is an opportunity Why is it so important to push against the barrier of the standard way of doing things? - Rethinking how we practice medicine Can normalization keep more physicians in this field with a lot less burnout?

In our negotiations, we're typically laser focused on that particular job and how it aligns with our lives now, but sometimes we have to zoom out. Sometimes we have to take a 30,000 ft. view and ask ourselves - is this career consistent with the legacy we want to leave behind. In a perfect situation, we want to look back at our careers and express pride and joy with what we accomplished, but we all know that's not always the case in medicine. A lot of us look at this job as something we were called to do but something that's soul-sucking. Is there anything we can do to change that now so we'll look back on it fondly and proudly, with no regrets? In this episode, I talk about the power of thinking of our legacy right now and advocating for it in our jobs. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - Thinking about your legacy decades in advance How do you want to look back at the working portion of your life? - Align today's work with tomorrow's legacy What steps can we take to make sure our schedules align with the lives we want to live? - What I learned from my grandfather How do we make sure we don't end up looking back at our careers with regret?

In this replay, we're revisiting skills of negotiation and we're going to continue our deep dive into influence, and why it's exceptionally important in a negotiation. Having influence in the moment may get you what you want immediately. Maintaining influence in the long run makes it more likely that your requests will be granted, and sometimes without even having to ask. What are the benefits of deliberately working on influence? If you want to be more intentional about being influential, what actions can you take? In this episode, I share the dos and don'ts of building influence, and how it impacts the negotiation process. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - The exponential effect of lasting influence When influence is working in your favor, you don't have to negotiate as hard. Why does it get easier and easier to ask for things the more influential you become? - How to fully engage in the conversation The more present and aware you are in a negotiation, the more influence you will have. What are the nuances we pick up when we actually pay attention? - Why patience and generosity are part of influence Patience is big in physician negotiations because decisions take a while at the organizational level. How can you make room for this in a negotiation?

There's no greater expression of freedom in the workplace than autonomy. Building autonomy into our jobs is as essential as being paid appropriately for what we're doing. It's well-documented that autonomy contributes to greater job satisfaction and retention. How do we make it a part of our jobs? In this week's episode, as we think of the idea of freedom - I talk about autonomy and how to make it part of work. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - Autonomy can be a win-win How do we show that autonomy doesn't just benefit us, but our employers too? - The traits of high autonomy environments What has to exist in culture for autonomy to be achievable? - Autonomous employees are more loyal Can autonomy make a difference in someone staying in the job long term?

The MGMA pay data is valuable information we can leverage to not just get paid better. It can also allow us to advocate changes that keep us in medicine as a whole. This is especially critical now as we deal with a physician shortage, doubled with the retirement of many doctors. With these pressures, paying you what you're worth is a top priority for our employers and we can use this to our advantage. Ultimately: we've made a lot of progress, but there's still a lot of work to do. In this episode, we pick up from where we left off last week - going through the 2023 physician pay data. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - The flexibility factor Are more organizations and hospital systems open to giving us flexibility in our schedules? - Where we have the most leverage With shortages and pending retirements, how do we get employers to buy into keeping us happy? - Production-based compensation vs. guaranteed salaries How can the way we're paid impact how we feel about our jobs?

Clinical medicine isn't a straight and narrow road with no wiggle room or options. The path of patient care isn't rigid at all...there are a few ways for us to treat patients without being pigeonholed into one way to practice. What are the different models for working and earning money? If we crave a little more freedom and flexibility, what's the best path? In today's episode, I talk about the different models clinical physicians can choose, and why knowing all the options gives you an advantage at the negotiating table. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - The pros and cons of practicing medicine under a corporate employer Is autonomy possible in the corporate medicine model, or do we give up flexibility for stability? - Why private practice can be a great fit There's a lot less red tape when you're running your own practice, but what are the risks of running your own business? - How to get more out of your career through locums Why are locums so great for people who want more flexibility in their employment?

An impending negotiation can spark many different emotions, from anticipation and hope to nervousness and even dread. What if all those emotions show up all at once, creating a simmering stew of overwhelm? Not good. We're not always going to go into a negotiation feeling 100% positive about it, and that's okay. It's important, however, to parse through those emotions so we can effectively go to bat for ourselves. How do we work through a hodgepodge of emotions if the negotiation has us all over the place? In this episode, I talk about getting into the right headspace if you're feeling all the things. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - A thought download exercise If the negotiation is bringing up all sorts of feelings, how do we sort through them? - Fact vs. story Can we decide the thoughts we want to show up with even if parts of the situation are out of our control? - Choose success ahead of time Agreement or no agreement, how do we make sure we come out of a negotiation feeling good about ourselves?

We've discussed BATNAs and the huge advantage they grant us at the negotiating table. Most of us think of set-in-stone BATNAs, but what about the more theoretical ones? What about "phantom BATNAs" - the not-so-certain options we keep in our back pockets? Materializing these phantom BATNAs into something real can be hugely helpful. How do we shore up our phantom BATNAs so they truly bolster our confidence in negotiations? In this episode, I talk about how to bring a theoretical BATNA to life. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - The advantage of having even theoretical alternatives Are you more ambitious with a BATNA, even if it's a phantom one? - How to invest in other options What steps can we take to fortify our phantom BATNAs? - The best lens to see all your opportunities through When you have a BATNA every avenue you evaluate is going to be held to that standard. Does that bring us closer to what serves us?

In our lives and careers, we're taught to work, make money, save it, and enjoy it later. Unfortunately, this delayed gratification mentality robs us of the experiences we can have right now when we have our health and are young enough to enjoy them. But just like stocks, life experiences pay dividends too and if we can negotiate for them in our contracts, we can enjoy more of our lives now. How do we carve out room for meaningful life experiences? In this episode, I reflect on what I've been learning in Bill Perkins' book, Die With Zero. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - Enhance your job for maximum life experience What, aside from salary, would be valuable for you to negotiate for to enhance your life? - What can you negotiate for to be a happier individual How can you advocate for more time off or just a little more room in your schedule for yourself? - You don't have to wait till retirement Are there ways for us to make those bucket list things a reality for us right now?

In negotiation and in our jobs in general, the importance of our words and the language we use can't be stressed enough. Our language can make the difference between mutual success and stalled progress. Whether we're talking with our leaders, or we're the leaders ourselves, there are ways to use conversational intelligence to get on the same page with whoever we're talking to. What language choices are helpful and beneficial at work? How do we make the transition from being led to becoming a leader? In this episode, I'm joined by Leadership Consultant and the founder of 304 Coaching (and my personal coach), Jen Thornton. She shares some awesome insight into the language of leadership. Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode - The easiest way to become a better leader When you're a new leader, how do you smoothly settle into that role? - Zoom in, not out How do we have more aligned and productive conversations with our leaders? - How to cement loyalty When it comes to our work as physicians, hard days come with the territory, how do we keep a high standard of leadership intact? Guest Bio Jen Thornton is a Talent Strategy and Leadership Consultant and the founder and CEO of 304 Coaching. Jennifer has made it her life's work to grow the kind of teams that inspire, influence, and innovate brand experience. Jen knows just how powerful teams can be when they feel psychologically safe and invested in - and she knows just how crucial that is to any organization that wants to rapidly grow and expand. She brings an unconventional approach to designing innovative workforce development solutions for companies that are facing breakthrough growth and accelerated hiring patterns and the results are expectation-defying and impactful. Jennifer is credentialed through the International Coaching Federation and holds certification in several accredited methodologies, including Conversation Intelligence and Gallup Strengths. For more information, head to https://304coaching.com and listen to her podcast, Let's Fix Leadership on your platform of choice.