A lesson from your patients – negotiate

Author: Robert F. Priddy, President, third_Evolution

How many times have you said to a patient, “it would help if you would lose about 10 pounds,” only to have the patient respond with, “but I only put on two pounds since my last visit…”

To most physicians there is absolutely no congruity between being told to lose 10 pounds and responding with, “I only gained two.” How do the two fit together?! For you, it’s incongruous, for the patient it’s simple negotiations.

Physicians too often deal in absolutes whereas patients deal in shades of gray. Consider Kubler-Ross’s stages of death and dying… You’ve just told a patient he has cancer. What’s his reaction – no, it can’t be true. You say it again and his response becomes, no, and I won’t accept it – it’s not fair… followed by how can we work around this… What is your patient doing? He’s negotiating.

Interviewing your best – presentation

Author: Bob Priddy

In the previous article, we talked about “preparation” for your interview and the value of developing effective materials, both those presented in writing and verbally. In this second installment on interviewing, the focus is packaging and presentation. Recognizing that fully 60 percent of how you are perceived is non-verbal, your presentation and packaging is of utmost importance.

Beginning at the beginning, the late Mark McCormick, founder of IMG and author of “What they don’t teach you at the Harvard Business School,” states about your attire that the only thing anyone should notice about your business suit is that it fits. In other words, understatement is de rigueur. In my eBook, “Creating the roadmap to your new career,” I recommend Brooks Brothers’ book, “A gentleman gets dressed up.” Unfortunately, Brooks Brothers doesn’t offer a similar tome for women, but the guidelines are the same, dark suit, plain shirt and a tie/scarf of solid color.

Want to work in an American hospital in Barbados?

Author: Bob Priddy

American World Clinics™ announces Barbados Hospital

“If you’re like me, you’re a good physician who cares greatly about your patients and your profession, works hard to provide good jobs and a positive environment for your staff, and just wants to make a decent living doing what you love, practicing medicine,” stated Paul Angelchik, MD, when asked why he was building a new American hospital in Barbados. He continued, “ In today’s adversarial climate however, caring for your patients, being a solid member of the business community and doing your best as a physician, just doesn’t seem to be enough.”

Job Search Expectation versus Realty

Author: Bob Priddy


If you’re thinking about nonclinical careers, you may have already begun looking at company web sites and job boards, trying to get a sense of what’s out there. You may have submitted your credentials online or contacted the recruiter listed with a particularly attractive job. However, none of these attempts has likely been encouraging. Why? What’s up with this?

What’s up is what happens when expectations run into reality.

First, your expectations. When you found your current position, whether a solo practice initially sponsored by a hospital, a partner in a group or an employee with a larger organization, your paths were similar. You
“put the word out” – your CV, either through some colleagues or with a recruiter (or two, or three…) and you waited for the phone to ring. And, it rang. You were invited to interview, everything was paid, and you had enjoyable collegial conversations with other practitioners, and if those were considered positive by all parties, the administrator presented you with a contract. With a little back and forth the deal was done.

You expect the same.

Now, reality. Today, you’re not sure what job you want or even if you want a job, per se. You may want to be a consultant or have some business where you’re the boss. You keep asking, what’s out there, but the answer you get is more likely to be, what do you want? The truth is, you don’t know. You can tell people what you want is something that uses your education and knowledge as well as the skills you’ve developed – you’ll be happy to do anything that fits that bill and has fewer hours than you’re currently working and pays you reasonably. Plus, you’d like it to be intellectually stimulating and challenging, and have some meaning or importance. Does this sound familiar?

Informational Interviews versus Job Interviews

Author: Bob Priddy

I know you’ve heard this before, most of the best jobs are never advertised and a solid networking strategy is the best process for physicians to learn about those best jobs – and it’s true. However, what do you do when your networking lands you an interview for a job you don’t know if you really want. It happens.

Sound networking strategies are built around a set of expectations. You don’t expect the first person you speak with to direct you to a job. Networking is an escalating process where at each level you move closer to people more knowledgeable of your objectives and therefore more likely to introduce you to someone who understands you clearly and can help you do exactly what you with to do.

However, it’s not unusual while debriefing a client following a first or second tier networking meeting to be told, “She said this person is looking for someone with my expertise and they may offer me a job. I don’t think I want to work there. What am I supposed to do.”

Differences Between Business & Medicine

Author: Bob Priddy, President of third_Evolution.

I was recently writing a note to a client and I started a sentence by saying, “You need to appreciate the essential differences between business thinking and physician thinking.” As I continued I began with, “business values risk taking…” and so a list ensued, and I decided it was a message more than my client needed to hear.

What follows is not an exhaustive list, it’s certainly not scientifically verifiable, but it’s a reasonable opinion from a reasonable business person – me. As I thought about this, and I must admit even during the course of writing the article, I found myself adding descriptive words or phrases based on the hundreds of physicians I’ve spoken with over the last seven years, not to mention those I worked with during the previous 23 years in hospital and healthcare administration.

What I’d like you to do with this list is fill in the “You” column with an “up” or “down” arrow: “up” for yes I embrace this and “down” for no, it’s a negative or I can’t/don’t want to think this way. See how many of the business genes you carry. Next add to the list based on your own experience. What personal assets or behavioral genetic predispositions do you have? Do you believe business would embrace them and see them as an “Up” or “Down” arrow? What about other physicians – how do you believe the profession as a whole would respond?