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  a...

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...

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 over...

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-cre...

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 h...

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 t...

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 generation...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 benefi...

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 f...

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 m...

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 creat...

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 adv...

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,...

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...

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 th...

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...

Whether it's maternity leave, a self-imposed break, or long periods between jobs, resume gaps are something we're taught to dread. It's like going into career purgatory with no way of coming back.    Could the time away destroy the momentum we've built? How many hurdles will we have to jump over to come back?    In this episode, I share how to mitigate the challenges that can come from stepping aw...

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 o...

When you have an imminent negotiation, there's no time to dig into the nitty-gritty of your beliefs and socialization. That doesn't mean you have to go in unprepared. There are brain hacks you can use to neutralize the mental and emotional hurdles right now.    When your brain offers unhelpful thoughts - how do you pivot? In this episode, I share some quick brain hacks to effectively advocate for...

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.    H...

A few months ago, I set a word for the year and a powerful intention to go with it- less. In a world of overachieving and stressful schedules, I decided to try experimenting with less, and it's been an interesting journey.    Whether it's at work or at home, mercilessly purging things that don't serve us gives us a lot of energy, but how do we go about it?    In this episode, I share an update on...