Simply Worth It: Physician Negotiations with Dr. Linda Street

Hey ya'll! We're coming back from our hiatus for a special edition episode where I discuss the FTC ruling about noncompetes with non other than Ann Bittinger JD. Ann is a healthcare contract attorney who's my go to for all things physician contracts and we discuss what this means for you AND how to use it even while things are ambiguous and clear as mud.... You can find Ann at bittingerlaw.com and as always you can find me at www.simplystreetmd.com Stay tuned! I'm hoping to resurrect the podcast for a new season soon Also please bear with me! This was an unscheduled add in because of this being such an important topic and ATM I'm my team so its unedited.

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?

The pay gap in medicine is something we’re all too familiar with. While some of it is certainly systemic and structural - there is a mindset piece where we have to bring ourselves to the table. To get jobs and packages that align with our worth, we have to learn to ask for what we want. Between our societal and medical socialization, that can be hard to do, but not impossible. How do we overcome the mindset blocks that make it hard to advocate for ourselves? Why is preparation so critical to our success at the negotiating table? In this episode, I join physician and master certified life coach, and CEO at Weight Loss for Busy Physicians, Dr. Katrina Ubell on her podcast: Weight Loss for Busy Physicians. We discuss the mindset and approach to a successful negotiation. Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode - Facts vs. the stories we tell ourselves about the facts How do we approach negotiation with a more productive mindset instead of an us vs. them mentality? - Mental barriers to advocating for ourselves As women and doctors, we’re socialized to play nice in the sandbox and be grateful for what we have. How do we overcome this mindset? - A rising tide raises all ships We often think only of how a negotiation benefits us, but can advocate for ourselves to improve the lives of others? Guest Bio Dr. Katrina Ubell is a physician and master certified life coach, CEO at Weight Loss for Busy Physicians, and author of “How to Lose Weight for the Last Time: Brain-Based Solutions for Permanent Weight Loss”. She specializes in helping women-identifying doctors who overeat. Her clients no longer need food to make their lives tolerable, resulting in freedom around food and for many, weight loss. Get Dr. Ubell’s newest book “How to Lose Weight for the Last Time” here.

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.

Having an exceptional clinical skill set doesn’t magically translate into great leadership in a world that’s evolving at breakneck speed. At some point we’ll find ourselves leading people whose jobs we don’t know how to do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be effective leaders. Whether we’re working with different specialties or people with an entirely different skill set and perspective, we have to approach the challenge like CEOs. How do we gain the confidence to lead in an unfamiliar area? What are the key skills we need to have? In this episode, I’m continuing my leadership series with the founder and CEO of 304 Coaching, Jen Thornton. We talk about leading in an area that’s not your forte. Jen is available this month (September) in the NegotiatHER facebook group. If you have any questions bring them to her there! Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode - We’re all leading in uncharted territory Even if we’re leading in a field we know, is the world moving so fast that even the familiar can quickly become an unknown? - Bridging the gap and understanding a different thinking model Sometimes the people we’re leading don’t think that we understand where they’re coming from. How do we remedy this? - I don’t see it but change my mind Why is this a statement more leaders should be saying more often? 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 physicians, we’re seen as leaders, but leading in an industry that has become more corporate is challenging. Even though we’re accomplished in our careers, administrative leadership doesn’t always come naturally to us. Adding to this the barriers we encounter as female physicians, leading well can be especially important. Unfortunately, we’re still using leadership techniques from generations past, so we have to create something new so we can thrive. How do we lead effectively in this new world without sacrificing who we are? In this episode, the first of a 4-part series, Leadership Consultant and CEO of 304 Coaching, Jen Thornton returns to share how we can wear our leader hats with confidence. Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode - Bring your whole self to the leadership table How can women physicians lead without sacrificing the other parts of themselves? - No more executive presence, time for dynamic composure We can’t lead the way our predecessors did. What’s expected of us in this era? - You can only control your responses For most of us, the people around us are happy we got a leadership role, but what happens when there’s hostility towards our promotion? 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?

Our jobs naturally occupy a fair amount of our time and mental space. When that follows us off the clock, we’re letting work live rent free in our heads. Of course, there are times we’re brainstorming solutions creatively, but I’m talking about the silent vent sessions and brain tantrums that sap our energy and make work feel even harder. How do we stop thinking about work when we aren’t at work? Today, you’ll learn what to do when work starts to dominate your thoughts, round the clock. Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode - Striking a healthy balance What’s the difference between thinking about work in a healthy way and it living in your head rent-free? - How to transition from doctor you to “everything else” you Doing our jobs and living our lives can easily bleed into each other. How do we decompress between one part of our lives and the others? - Occupy your brain with thoughts that serve you Instead of ruminating about work all day, how do we set aside time to brainstorm solutions proactively?

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?

So you’ve successfully negotiated for a contract that aligns with you, but when you show up to work, you realize that it’s not what you signed up for. Maybe it’s a total bait-and-switch situation, or there are some small boundaries that aren’t being honored. When reality doesn’t quite match with what was advertised, how do you regroup and go back to the drawing board? How do you determine if the job is even worth salvaging? In this replay of one of my most popular episodes, I talk about ways to take action so you can get the job back on track or find something that better serves you. Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode - Facts vs. stories How do we distinguish between the things that really need to be changed and things that our brains are just amplifying? - How to determine your non-negotiables When you were promised certain things that aren’t being honored, do you try to fix it or is it time to look for another option? - Why leaving a bad-fit environment is NOT a failure What valuable insights do we get out of a job we left early because it ultimately wasn’t what we signed up for?

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?

By their very nature, negotiations are high cortisol events, and that can make it hard to feel good about how we show up. Thankfully, stress can be managed, reduced, or even eliminated by having a battle plan before the negotiation. It eliminates ambiguity, builds up confidence, and ultimately makes us advocate for ourselves more effectively. What steps can we take to reduce stress on the front end? In this episode, I share strategies that will help you get ready for the negotiation. Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode - Any plan is better than no plan Are we going to be more at ease when we show up prepared? - Crowdsource for success How can insight from other people help us show up more confidently? - Use data to your advantage Data makes us more confident. How do we arm ourselves with valuable information before the 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?

For many physicians, data sets like the MGMA provide more than enough clarity on what to negotiate for. That’s not the case for everyone. If your role happens to fall outside of the scope of the data set, how do you ensure that you’re compensated for the value you bring to the table? Remember: a lack of data doesn’t mean we accept whatever’s put in front of us. It just means we need to get creative about sourcing the info we need. In this episode, I talk about what to do when your role and its compensation aren’t clearly defined by standard data sets. Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode - Great sources of non-standard pay data How do we tap into our network when there’s no go-to data? - Accounting for C-suite roles If your role isn’t 100% clinical, how do you know what to negotiate for? - When you don’t have years of data to pull from… If we’re in a newer role without a ton of pay data behind it, how do we make sure we’re sufficiently compensated for the value we bring?

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?

One of the best ways to see if we’re being paid what we’re worth is compensation data. Now that the latest MGMA DataDive has dropped, we can learn a lot about where we stand. My ultimate takeaway from this information? We have a lot more leverage and opportunity to advocate for ourselves right now. How has inflation played into compensation? Did productivity go up with pay? In this episode, I dive into the data and share the actions we can take from it. Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode - The good news and the bad news None of us have kept up with inflation, how can we negotiate so that we can catch up even a little? - Owning the value you bring as a new physician New grads and new hires have set an encouraging trend in compensation, what can we learn from them? - The link between where you live and how much $$$ you get paid Regional arbitrage is real. Can we earn more by getting a new job in a next-door state?

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?

In last week’s episode, I talked about an impending negotiation and how I was preparing for it. Unfortunately, things didn’t go well. An agreement couldn’t be reached, and in the aftermath, I’ve been reeling and working through the emotional fallout. Sometimes the outcome of a negotiation isn’t what we hoped for, and it’s okay not to be okay. How do we cope with a disappointing result? In this episode, I share the lessons I’ve learned after my negotiation didn’t go well. Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode - Allow space for it to suck Why do we need to create room to feel our feelings, even the not-so-great ones? - The truth you know vs. what they’re saying about you When your narrative and the other side’s narrative are divergent, how do you deal with it? - The most important decision you’ll make Even when things don’t go our way, how do we control our definition of success?

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?