One of the highlights of my week was participating in an American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) panel series with several Boston area healthcare leaders. The panel was part of a series focused on early careerists and co-sponsored by the Boston Young Healthcare Professionals (BYHP). The panel was titled “Making the Next Move: Career Positioning and Proactively Managing Your Career Development”.

We covered a range of topics – taking ownership of your own career, knowing yourself and clarifying your roadmap, the work-life balancing act, gender and cultural diversity, personal branding and using social media, and generational differences.

Ted Witherell, Director of Organization Development and Learning Services, at Partners Healthcare was one of the other panelists. He posed three key questions when thinking about your career:

• What brings you joy?
• Are you good at it?
• Does the world need you to do it?

These questions seemed to resonate with the audience. They came up often during the Q&A period as attendees sought to connect the experiences and advice being shared by the panelists with their own situations.

As the only woman on the five-member panel, I wanted to make sure I spoke directly to the women in the audience on challenges women face. At times, one of those challenges is having self-confidence. I encouraged everyone to check out the excellent article from a few years ago, “The Confidence Gap” by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman published in The Atlantic. I highly recommend reading it to understand that “success correlates just as closely with confidence as it does with competence” and “that with work, confidence can be acquired”.

I also addressed the work-life balance that we all struggle with. My colleague, David Muntz, likes to call it “life-work balance”. It’s an interesting way to flip it as you think about what’s most important to you. We all need support systems. Women in particular should let go of being perfectionists, figure out what they can say “no” to, and stop putting so much pressure on themselves.

I learned that lesson many years ago when I was a young mother of two daughters, in a management position and attending graduate school at night for my MBA. I remember very distinctly the night when I realized and accepted I couldn’t be all things to all people – super wife, super mom, and super manager. I figured out a game plan – what could I take off my plate and what help did I need from others.

I am committed to helping develop next generation leaders. To the extent personal experiences from my own career and lessons I’ve learned along the way can help others, I will readily share. Thanks to all the other panelists who were willing to share their stories; we all learned from each other.

For more career advice, I hope you’ll check out some of my previous posts. Remember, you own your own career and need to make the choices that are right for you.

Related Posts:

When to use a career coach

You need to own your own career

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Find your voice, a mentor, and be bold

10 tips for next generation leaders

Family support systems: priceless

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So you didn’t get the job

Taking control of your life

Time for a job change?