Image copyright © Dan Nielsen
As a healthcare leader, you’re always busy. The healthcare industry never takes a day off. Healthcare needs don’t stop and give you a break for the holidays. And when you do get a break, there’s just even more work to do when you get back.
With all the busyness of your job, it’s easy to become focused on controlling the day-to-day chaos and just getting through another week. Before you know it, you can get so caught up in “right now” that you forget all about “someday.” Without even realizing it, you come to accept the status quo of your daily life, and you don’t think much about forward progress.
In the midst of the daily chaos it may seem like you can’t afford to take the time to stop and make a plan for your professional growth, but I believe that you really can’t afford not to. If you continue to work to just get through each day and never turn your attention to your professional future, years will pass and you’ll wonder where all the time went and what you have to show for it.
In the Management Tip of the Day from October 11, 2013, the Harvard Business Review offers this advice to busy leaders:
“With the right strategies, even the busiest leaders can find the time for development. But to make that effort fruitful, you need to determine what types of development will increase both personal fulfillment and value to your firm. To come up with the right possibilities, try these techniques:
- Look over your job description for activities that you would love to pursue, but haven’t gotten to yet.
- Think about the dreams that you had for your current position before you started. What did you hope to accomplish?
- Set up a lunch or coffee with people in similar positions, either at your company or at a different company, and ask how they invest in learning.”
Don’t settle for status quo. No matter how busy you are, you can and should find the time to put serious thought into your future. It’s never too soon to plan for professional growth by making an intentional investment in learning. Start today!
