Soundbooth Friday: Organization is key to marketing yourself

By: Julie McCoy January 16th, 2009

I do a ton of interviews with leading graduate medical education experts every month for our newsletter, Residency Program Alert. Everyone I speak with is so willing to share their expertise, that I inevitably end up with a few tips I can’t fit into the newsletter. That’s why I created Soundbooth Friday- to share all of this valuable information! Every Friday, I’ll upload a clip from an interview that will leave you with a little helpful nugget or food for thought.

Our first installment of Soundbooth Friday is a piece of the interview I did with time management guru Odette Pollar. I mentioned Pollar’s tip about keeping a tidy workspace in a previous post. We also touched upon how coordinators can advocate for themselves and ensure their boss knows the full scope of their role and responsibilities.

Having an organized task management system (to do lists, electronic calendar, etc) not only helps reduce your stress, but it makes it easier for you to demonstrate everything that you do. At the end of every week (4:45pm on a Friday is a great time to do this), go back through your tasks lists and calendar and create a summary of all of the things you did that week. Present that summary sheet to your boss during meetings with him or her.

You can frame this summary as a progress report- a way for the two of you to be on the same page about your program’s projects and major initiatives. But after a few of these meetings, your boss will have a better understanding of all you do in a day.

Keep those summaries in a binder and bring them to human resources during your yearly review.

Although this may seem like your bragging, Pollar says it’s incumbent on you to market yourself. Listen to what she had to say:

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Comments(1) General Interest

Comments

By Jeri L. Whitten, C-TAGME on January 20th, 2009 at 8:29 am

Everyone has more than enough to keep them busy with a very challenging job, but marketing yourself also means being willing to step outside your comfort zone and take on new challenges. Volunteer for a special committee or assignment (whether it’s within your department or within the institution), ask questions, continually strive to be excellent in all that you do. Attend national meetings and take information back to share with your colleagues; share a form or process you do especially well; offer assistance to new colleagues.