Ep 26 - The Invisible Work That Builds National Visibility Final
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[00:00:00] Hi, I am Stacey Ishman, and today we're gonna be talking about the invisible work that builds national visibility that's not totally invisible, and clearly you know you're doing it, but it's oftentimes the stuff that it may not show up clearly to your chair. Or promotion committee. And so the thing about this is oftentimes we feel like we're not doing enough.
We're not doing all the stuff that looks really obvious on the podium or on, you know, on committees or we're leading things, or at the very least, it's things that you could easily write down in a section of your resume. But if you're an early career physician, you've often taught, I'm like, given the talks, I'm showing up, I'm publishing.
Why aren't I being asked to be on this panel or on that committee, or to do the thing I really wanna do, I wanna be on the guideline. I wanna be respected and known as an expert. And it can be discouraging. And so as you look at your annual meeting, and there's a lot of people having this now, I know that the ENT annual meetings in October, it can be lonely and discouraging and you might think, what am I doing wrong?[00:01:00]
Have I not met the right people? Have I not shown up enough times? I've been at every meeting for six years, or I've only missed one meeting. Or maybe you just take it more personally, you think, maybe I'm not really as good as I think I am, or people don't like the work I'm doing, but let me reassure you that most of the time it's not a sign of anything you've done.
In fact, it's just a sign that people don't pay enough attention and that a lot of the work you do is probably not the stuff that's lighting up the marquee and that everybody can see. And don't let that, that self-doubt niggle at you. But what you wanna do is take some of the visible work that you've done, like presentations or manuscripts or leadership roles, and hold onto those.
And then let's talk about things you can do with that invisible work. Now the other thing to keep in mind, 'cause while those are visible, you see 'em, they're on the program, they might be in one of your journals. The invisible work can oftentimes have great visibility with the leadership or the people that matter.
And so one of the really [00:02:00] great things to know is it works to do some of this invisible work as long as you can highlight it in the right places. So what does it mean when I say invisible work? What it really means is not busy work, although we all do plenty of that. It's not finishing your notes or getting them done in three days or whatever the metric is you're trying to meet, but it is building trusting relationships over time.
This could be all kinds of different ways, but it's quiet ways that you show up and you're memorable. So this may be meeting somebody at a poster session and talking to them and having a good conversation and getting their information and following up with them afterwards. Or a one that I particularly like is if you really enjoy someone's poster or someone's work, you take a picture of it and the PIC poster, you put it on your social media, you tag them.
Everybody likes to be tagged in a meeting. Make sure you use whatever hashtag there is for the overall meeting. So lots of people, especially the leadership, notice that you're helping promote the meeting and then, you know, if you follow up with an email, that's great or you can offer to [00:03:00] have a conversation outside of this about a collaboration or share slides or, you know, just make a friend.
Now the other thing is to join work groups and committees. And this may seem like it's not the high yield way to do it, it's not speaking in front of an audience, but these smaller groups are an opportunity to make real connections, and they oftentimes are a place where you can have a lot of influence, especially if it's in the area of your expertise.
And so it's all an easy way for you to think about how you can be moved up to a higher level by doing the work that you say you will. And I'm gonna tell you, I have someone who's been on a lot of committees and who's chaired many of them. There are a lot of people who raise their hand to be on the committee, but not a lot who raise their hand when you ask for work to be done.
And even fewer who finish the work that they say they're going to do. So if you're going to be on a work group or a committee, please raise your hand and do the work. It's so much easier to do when you get on the committee that's actually relevant to what you wanna do. And so that's another thing to really work on over time.
But honestly, the first committee may not be what you love. My first [00:04:00] committee at my academic institution was the compliance and billing committee. I really didn't know that stuff very well, so it was an opportunity for me to learn, and I turned it into a workshop for the residents. We turned it into a publication like you can Make Lemonade out of anything, and then the other place where you really might find that you can excel.
And it may not be as visible, but can be really impactful as peer reviewing or mentoring others quietly. Now, peer reviewing, we're all very familiar with, and you know, if you do it really well, you might be highlighted as one of the star reviewers. Um, but it also helps you be well known by the heads of the journal.
They absolutely notice who's turning in their things on time, who always says yes, who always says no. And so keep track of that things. It can really help you shine. Now one example is volunteering without a title. And early in my career I was excited about being involved in the Board of Governors for my American Academy.
And so what I did was I raised my hand when they said, would somebody fill out a policy statement or somebody complete a policy [00:05:00] statement? So I wrote the policy statement. I don't even quite remember what it was on anymore 'cause it was about 20 years ago. And the person who was the head of the committee was like, thank you so much for doing this.
You should be on the committee. 'cause I wasn't even on the committee. So they put me on the committee. Then the next thing you know, I, I volunteered a few more times. I did the things I said I was gonna do. I didn't do a crazy amount of stuff, but I, I probably did more than many. And then when there was an opportunity to be a chair of a committee, they said, you should consider being the chair of committee, to which I said, yes, I devoted my time and my energy.
And then that put me on the executive council of the Board of Governors, at which point I got to really understand how things worked and contribute and give my ideas and, and run a committee well, and, you know, help with the bylaws and do some of those things. And so. As I moved forward, then they said, would you like to run for an office in this, in this board of governors?
And I ran for an office and I, I won that. And then I ran for the chair of the Board of Governors, which put me on the executive committee of the board of directors for my academy. So like every one of those steps was really built on being willing to raise my hand and do the [00:06:00] work that I said I was going to do.
Now, another example might be peer reviewing. I once agreed to, you know, agreed to do a whole bunch of manuscript reviews. I gotta say, don't do a whole bunch at once. That was maybe not my best moment, but I took the time and I did them and they were thoughtful and over time and really not that much time, I was asked if I was interested in being an associate editor and somebody who helped.
Generate the people who review those things and gave an a higher level opinion and you know, conglomerated all those reviews together and helped people write better papers, helped figure out what things should actually be in our literature. Um, the third thing is guideline and policy work. And this is an area where I think people really can have an impact, especially if your name shows up on the guideline.
There's almost nothing that gives you more authority than having written one of the seminal guidelines on whatever area it is, especially again in an area in which you might have some interest. And this is also an area you cannot hide. This is invisible work to the specialty, but not invisible work in the room.
[00:07:00] Everybody knows who's doing the work and who's not. And some of it's just having read the literature and being willing to put your hand up and say yes. Um, the next thing that I really think is important, that's really important is when you need to make that invisible work visible. Now, sometimes these things don't pay off until you shine a light on them. So early in my career, I had a mentor who was very supportive and collaborative, and I wrote chapters. I would jump in and co-author articles. I would be, I was actually like a participant in his research studies if he needed one.
I did a lot of behind the scenes stuff, but it didn't seem like, you know, he was putting me forward for all of the meetings that he was speaking at locally and nationally and internationally. And so one day I sat down and I said. I would love to be speaking at these meetings. I'd love to be asked to be on panels, like, would you be willing to do that for me?
And he said, oh, is that, what do you want that? Like, he had no idea. He wasn't purposely excluding me. He just didn't know that I needed that. And so it had never occurred to him, and I had never asked. And so once I said it out [00:08:00] loud, he was more than happy to put my name forward and to sponsor me. So the lesson for me is do not assume that your mentors know your goals, and don't be afraid to ask for sponsorship.
I know we talked to mentors and they should really be understanding what we're looking for, but it might be he, you know, that we're not saying it in the words that they're able to hear or they have a lot of people they're helping, but it's much easier to sponsor if somebody walks in the room and tells you, this is what I'm looking for.
Can you do it for me? And he was perfectly happy to do that. So I really do recommend for early career physicians. Walk in the room, have the conversation or the zoom room or the text message or however you feel comfortable, but it is really powerful to walk in and say, I'm really interested in doing this.
Would you support me or Would you promote me? Or would you, um, add my name to the program next time you're in a room where they're looking for those kinds of things? And it is much easier to get a yes than you think it will be, especially from the people you've worked with for years and who are already on your side.
Now, I want you to imagine this. I want you to think about whatever it is your dream is. Are you speaking on the [00:09:00] program at a national meeting? Are you chairing the main committee that you care about? Um, are you on the board of directors helping really change the flavor of things? Are you a program director and you get to really help residents flourish?
Are you a curriculum development person who's creating the best course for medical students? Pick the thing, but really think about the fact. What is gonna get you there? What's one step you can do that can get you there? Can you email somebody? Can you ask them to sponsor you? Can you just ask to go to the meeting?
I can tell you in my otolaryngology society, most of the meetings are open to anybody to attend, and you can walk in the room and attend those meetings, and it gives you an opportunity to really impact then whatever your subspecialty is. And the way to get on the committee is to have shown up and signed in.
Make sure you sign in, make sure you're visible, that the chair knows you're there. Raise your hand and offer an opinion or offer to help. Even if you're not on the committee, you can say, I'm not on the committee yet. My name's Stacey Ishman, would love to be on this committee in the future, but right now, I would love to help.
What can I do to help? That's what I would say, but without the hand raise. If the [00:10:00] hand raise, use it for a specific task. I'm perfectly happy to help with the literature review on subject X, but I can tell you the way to get on those committees is to have shown up. To have raised your hand, to have talked to the chair if you didn't raise your hand.
And you're much more likely to be the person they pick out of the random assortment of people they don't know next time. If you're not able to make the meeting, the other thing you could do is you can have a senior person who works with you, vouch for you, especially if it's somebody they know, or at least a senior person in your institution who has a lot of authority who can say, you know, I can tell you Stacey Ishman will get the work done.
She'll be great. You should pick her. 'cause not a lot of people do that. And it's really kind of hard when you have a list of 20 people for four spots and you don't know how to differentiate them. So what to do next, I want you to pick one strategy to implement this week. So follow ups with some of those contacts from the last conference you attended or volunteer for committee in your professional society.
You might wanna tell a mentor how you want them to sponsor you or track your individual work. Track that invisible work. I was on the committee, I wrote this guideline. Those things are all things that you should be writing down and [00:11:00] show national participation and overtime prominence. And I want you to say yes strategically to opportunities that align with your career goals.
And say no to the ones that don't. But thank you so much. I want you to know that that invisible work that you do today is absolutely what's gonna set your stage for your promotion in the future and your opportunity to mentor and sponsor others. So if you would, I would really appreciate if you would share this podcast and or video, um, with somebody who you think might also benefit from this information.
And if you could subscribe whether you are in any of the platforms that we happen to be presenting this in, um, feel free if you need more information to come to my website @medicalmetrocoaching.com. Where we can set you up with a one-on-one appointment or we can help enroll you in our academic Kickstarter course, um, or whatever next thing we have coming.
So I look forward to talking to you next week.
