Simply Worth It: Physician Negotiations with Dr. Linda Street

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...

"Ugh, I have to be on call AGAIN", "I have to wash my kids' clothes for school." We all have the bad habit of using words like have to and can't in just about every area of our lives.    The problem is: it disempowers us and robs us of the agency we have to make decisions for ourselves.    How do we start challenging this language and change our self-talk? In this episode, I talk about choice and...

From school assignments to work projects and even everyday decisions, we've been socialized to believe that deadlines are absolute, but are they really?    There's something disempowering about a rigid deadline, especially when we're trying to decide on a job offer, but we can totally challenge that.    How do we gently push back on a deadline?    In this episode, I'm talking about deadlines and w...

Reciprocity is a social construct that goes back centuries, and it's so innate in us that it feels like second nature.    It's also a powerful tool in a negotiation.    When someone gives us something, this built-in need for us to do something for them in return is triggered, and it makes it easier to come to an agreement that satisfies both sides of a negotiation.    Behaviorally, how does recipr...

Whether you're trying to get your dream package, get your kids to do something, or buy a home, negotiation skills come in handy in many situations in our lives.    This is very true in my real estate adventures over the last year as we've been trying to buy a lake property. After 2 attempts that didn't go the way we planned, we finally got something (yay), but I don't consider the last two attempt...

In any negotiation or conversation, language matters. Our choice of words has the power to either create a collaborative environment or an antagonistic one, and we can better inform the outcome when we practice beforehand.    Our mindset flavors the conversations we'll have, and before the negotiation, we can try on different words for size to see what works best.    How do we start this practice...

The sad truth is, toxic work environments are still alive and well in medicine. This isn't just minor annoyances - we're talking work cultures where something undesirable has mutated into something that's genuinely psychologically unsafe.    As a physician, you have a human, basic right to feel safe in your job and if that's not being served where you work, it's time to take action.    What are th...

For many physicians, the idea of being happy in your job feels like just that - an unrealistic idea or pipe dream, but it doesn't have to be.    There are things we can do to foster happiness at work so that showing up every day doesn't feel like diving into a wormhole of depression and job dissatisfaction.    In this episode, I share the 3 pillars of job satisfaction and how to set them up for yo...

Your negotiation went well. You came to an agreement that reflects your worth, but then you get your contract and those stipulations are absent. What steps can you take if the conversation and the contract end up being two different things?    This happens a lot more often than you think, and whether it's a simple case of miscommunication or something far more concerning, you control what happens...

Just like building a home, successfully negotiating your contract is not a solo effort. You need a team of key players to cheer you on and help you navigate the process with your sanity intact.     The earlier in the process you assemble the team, the smoother your negotiation will be and like your dream home, the happier you'll be with the end result.    In this episode, I'm going to share the ke...

For residents making the leap into their very first job, navigating interviews, contracts and salary negotiations can feel like a minefield. On one hand, you want to make sure the value you bring to the table is reflected, but on the other hand, you're socialized to take whatever's offered because of your inexperience.    How do we make sure we're not short-changing ourselves at the negotiating ta...

In any negotiation, fairness is usually a front-of-mind concept - in fact, it's often the measure with which we judge the success of the entire process. But here's the challenge, fairness isn't as simple as a singular yardstick. It's actually made up of multiple facets that sometimes conflict with each other.    With that in mind, how do we take fairness to the negotiating table and make sure we'r...

Getting a job that serves us often requires us to tweak or modify our current work environment, but what if the situation is too far gone and too toxic to salvage?    Many of us are guilty of staying in negative situations a lot longer than we should, damaging not only our careers but also our health. We're typically more biased towards staying with the devil we know, even if it destroys us, so ho...

Non-compete clauses have never been beneficial to physicians. They are notoriously difficult to negotiate out of. They keep us trapped in toxic work cultures, and they back us into career moves that can be harmful.    I'd also argue that non-competes also harm employers and the economy as a whole. Removing this barrier would be highly beneficial to a lot of people, so I'm encouraged by the FTC's p...

If you really think about it, most of the goals and resolutions we set at the beginning of the year are often based on having more - more money, more stuff, and more responsibilities.    In the spirit of un-goals and values, what if we set the intention to have less? Could we achieve more by having a lot less on our plates?    There are plenty of opportunities for excess, but that could create clu...

When we talk about finding that right-fit job, the checklist is usually centered on salary, benefits, schedule, and the tangible things that ensure that it reflects our worth.   The less tangible things also require some thought too, and they can have a bigger impact on how well we thrive in our roles.    Enjoying your job and feeling like your values are being met preserves our happiness and our...

From finishing med school to reaching a certain income level, most of us live our lives by outcome-based, tick-the-box goals - but what if this approach just limits us?    We've been indoctrinated with the idea of setting goals, but having such concrete resolutions can rob us of opportunities to fully enrich our lives.    How do we shift from hard-coded goals to a driving principle for the year? H...

'Tis the season for functioning in survival mode. With busy schedules, to-do lists, holiday plans, and the usual end-of-year stuff, sometimes all we can muster is just "good enough". We can't always be in peak achievement mode, and that's okay.    But when survival mode becomes less a temporary phase, and more a chronic state of being, there's a problem.    How can we tell if survival mode is beco...

Call it gut instinct, a weird vibe, your sixth sense, or your brain picking up subtle cues, intuition is something we all have. As physicians, we get so caught up in the logic of things, it's really easy to shrug off a gut instinct as unreliable, but what if the little nagging feeling holds a lot more wisdom than you give it credit for?    In many ways, we subconsciously know what's best for us, s...

Conversations - the ones we have with ourselves, and the ones we have with others - are such everyday, autopilot things, we can easily forget how powerful they can be.    By fine-tuning our conversational skills, we can tap into a world of possibilities and create moments of transformation, whether it's in your next negotiation, or at the dinner table over the holidays.    What are the ingredients...

Gratitude is one of those things we're socialized to believe is always positive, but there's a lot more nuance to it.   Sometimes saying thank you can go a long way, other times we use gratitude as an excuse to not ask.   What are the advantages of showing gratitude?   Where can gratitude take a turn for the negative?   In this episode, I talk about how to make sure your 'thank you' is working for...

To have a job that truly serves us and allows us to thrive at the highest level, certain boundaries and conditions need to be present. We may be acutely aware of what these things are for ourselves, but our employers can't read our minds.    We have to express our unique needs and spell them out so we can get the support we need to thrive in our jobs.    How do we get key decision-makers to unders...

Big wins, leaps, and accomplishments are often associated with endorphin-rich highs and tons of elation, but what happens when the joy is short-lived, and we're left feeling a little underwhelmed about the whole thing?    Sometimes the after-effect of a win is more anticlimactic than we thought it would be, and that's totally okay. Victory hangovers are a natural part of growing as a person, we wo...

When we show up to a negotiation (or any conversation for that matter) it's not just the words we say that make the ask, our body language does some speaking of its own too.    If we're making a big, bold ask, but our body language screams small - our words won't pack as much of a punch, making it very confusing for the person on the other end.    How do we create more alignment between our words...

Boundaries are associated with protecting ourselves from negativity, and even great things can become toxic without boundaries.    Many of us love our jobs, but because we have so much on our plates, we're always one stressful moment away from completely falling apart.   In healthcare, it feels like we're caught between accepting burnout as part of the job and quitting entirely. So is there a happ...