Simply Worth It: Physician Negotiations with Dr. Linda Street

When we decide to leave a job that's not serving us, it's not always as easy as resigning and having a smooth exit. Very often our contracts are riddled with hurdles and landmines that turn a simple exit into more of a full-on extrication, but that doesn't mean we have no options.    What factors make it hard to exit in a painless way? How do we deal with long notice periods and non-compete clause...

By building up our negotiation skills, we get to put effort into making sure our contracts serve us on the front end and that they have an easy exit.    But what if the contracts we signed a couple of years ago don't have a painless escape route? How do we get ourselves in the best headspace to move forward?    It's easy to get caught up in a shoulda-woulda-coulda tailspin, but shame won't get us...

In negotiations, I always stress the power of leverage and improving your next best alternative. No alternative beats a large stockpile of money earned through your investments.    Earning a high income isn't the same as being wealthy, so now that we've negotiated an amazing salary, the next move is putting that money to work for us. For the average doctor working full-time and feeling overwhelmed...

Kenny Rogers sang "You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away and know when to run." These lyrics are actually very applicable to negotiations - especially when it comes to deciding what your bottom line is.   We talk a lot about setting a high expectation goal, but the minimum we're willing to accept is equally important.    How do we determine what would t...

Negotiation is a highly portable and transferable skill. As physicians, we don't immediately associate negotiation with what we do on a daily basis, but influencing our patients makes us far more skilled negotiators than we think.    I'm joined by a physician who took the negotiating skills she picked up in her patient interactions and applied them to a highly successful real estate business.    H...

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...

People think confidence is something that's magically bestowed upon someone - you either have it or you don't. This mindset has a lot to do with how we define confidence as a society.    What if we could back away from the conventional definition and take things back to the Latin root of the word?     Confidence is a muscle, a skillset and a mindset built around self-trust and we all have it avail...

Every physician is an entrepreneur, even if you're employed. The sooner we lean into this, the closer we get to the kind of contracts that reflect our worth, and make us giddy with excitement.    We are our highest appreciating asset, and we simply can't afford not to invest in and advocate for ourselves, even when it feels uncomfortable.    Everything we want in our careers already exists, but it...

Pay parity is one of those things that sound really, really amazing and attractive. It feels like so many challenges female physicians face could be solved if everyone just earned the same, right?   Well, oftentimes pay parity can create its own set of imbalances that breed discontent, frustration, and being underpaid for your expertise. If mis-aligned or incorrectly implemented, pay parity can be...

Female physicians are painfully aware of the gap between our enormous earning potential, the money that we actually end up taking home, and how hard it feels to cross that chasm.     A good majority of physicians don't know how much they should be making, or even how to advocate for themselves. At the very worst, they don't believe they even deserve to make more money.    Unfortunately, this appro...

Not advocating for ourselves is a deeply wired habit…surely it's who we are by our very nature and it can't be changed, right?   Well, according to a habits expert, no.    Even though not advocating for ourselves feels automatic and innate, it might just be an acquired behavior we can unlearn.   If you've been socialized to sit down, be quiet and be nice, can you start showing up differently?    I...

We live in a culture of convenience and instant communication so it's hardly surprising that doctors often end up providing patient care by way of the inbox, instead of prioritizing visits. Unfortunately this eats into our clinical time and depletes our energy.    If you find yourself hunched over patient emails for hours on end, it's time for a new strategy.    How do we find a solution for an un...

Power dynamics show up everywhere in our lives, especially at work, and they can allow us to thrive or wear us down.   At the heart of power dynamics is one question: is this a "power with" or "power over" environment?    Our employers and jobs can either be our partners and collaborators or feel like territorial overlords who rob us of our much-needed autonomy.   Power dynamics make a huge contri...

In medicine, trauma is embedded in the work that we do.   From unexpected patient outcomes, witnessing people's struggles, to Covid and the small, sneaky, cumulative ways our jobs can start to weigh on us.   In this line of work, we're conditioned to be stoic, to tell ourselves that we're okay even though a lot of trauma is heaped on us.   We pour a lot of ourselves into our patients and our loved...

Even for the most quick-on-their-feet person , winging it in a negotiation isn't the most effective approach. The contract that could make or break your job satisfaction is just too important for you not to prepare in advance.    Just like our oral board exams, we can't be equipped with the most deliberate answers if we haven't planned ahead and anticipated the questions we're going to get.    How...

Contrary to what new grads are told constantly, it's never too early in your career to want a contract that reflects your value and actually advocate for it.   You don't have to be an attending to make a list of must-haves, evaluate employers on a deeper level and start having these conversations early.    In today's episode, I'm joined by a doctor who has done a beautiful job of setting herself u...

Mentorship is one of the biggest drivers of job satisfaction for female physicians.   What can we do if there aren't any formal mentorship opportunities with our employers, or if their programs are more lip service than reality?   The good news is, powerhouse physicians are around us, and many of them are readily available to start mentoring us.   Where can we find them and how do we make the ask?...

The beginning of a new year always brings up resolutions and goals we want to accomplish, but what happens when the same resolution keeps rearing its head every single January?    Well in my case, that persistent resolution is not overworking - something that should be easy with the contract I negotiated for myself, but it's not. I still find myself feeling overwhelmed and overworked. The truth is...

In the last episode, we established that the conversations we have can either create connection or completely shut it down. That difference ultimately comes down to the words we use, and the kinds of chemicals they shoot off in our brains.    Some words and conversations can trigger our fight or flight response, while others trigger happy neurochemical space where transformation is possible.    Ho...

Human beings have conversations all day long, but there's a big difference between conversations that move relationships forward and conversations that go poorly.     In order to take our interactions to the next level, and truly advocate for ourselves, we have to be aware of the different levels of conversations that exist - starting with how we talk to ourselves.    How do we create conversation...

At the negotiation table, good communication skills are an absolute must. We have to find ways to align with the other side, understand their perspective and create a high-trust environment.    What if I told you that these skills are just as necessary at the family gatherings we're going to be having over the next few weeks?    Holidays can be joyful and fun, but being around family can also be s...

Many people believe that clinical medicine is a straight and narrow road with no wiggle room or options - once you pick a model, you're stuck with it forever.    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...

Change is a natural progression of our lives and careers - even as physicians. We won't remain the same people we were when we started practicing medicine, and that's a good thing!    Shifting our jobs to something that aligns with who we truly are should be celebrated, and we should always be able to advocate for the changes we want. Whether we're taking on a new role, changing practices, or modi...

In the context of business, operating leverage dictates the health and value of a company. As physicians, we can use this concept to evaluate what we get out of our jobs, and make sure it's giving us more than it takes from us.    If our jobs deplete us so much that we end up running on empty, it's time to dig into the operating leverage of daily work, and consider some micro-negotiations that can...

85 - 90% of adults function in emotional childhood. We outsource our happiness to others. We blame, rage, lash out and generally avoid taking full responsibility for how we think and feel. It's what we've been taught our entire lives - but unfortunately what we've been taught significantly disempowers us.   The truth is, to have the lives we want, we have to move into emotional adulthood, but how...