Confidence in Punting

Even though I sort-of-semi-officially announced that I accepted a position at St. Fozzie's, things have not slowed down one bit. In fact, I feel busier than ever. But that yucky feeling at the pit of my stomach, where I internally-shuddered at the fear of the unknown, disappeared. While I knew everything would eventually work out fine, I still (if briefly) wondered what would happen if I gave all this time and effort and it was all for nothing.

Yep, that yucky feeling is definitely gone. The powers-that-be at St. Fozzie's not only created my dream job for me, but matched my asking price.

I know, I know, I'm extremely, extremely blessed!

Anyway, things are progressing well and I've already gotten into two huge operational projects and may end up leading one of them (so exciting!). I'm not sure I'm ready to manage 7 clinical departments, but I figure I'll grow into that responsibility.

I've experienced a lot of growth lately. I attended one of the super-intense Muppet corporate meetings on Thursday and was...fine! I remember my first experiences at those meetings, just feeling utterly lost, overwhelmed, vulnerable, and like a fish out of water. More accurately, I felt like it was "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day." Those meetings provided me a mental and emotional work-out and it always took two night's sleep to fully recover.

Perhaps the mental and emotional training has worked because I'm happy to report that those feelings have passed. Even though there were 31 people in attendance (yes, I counted), there were only 4 women in the room. While I greatly enjoy not having any lines in the ladies room, it's a sweet victory to get over myself and start participating in these meetings. Not only did I meet two of the newer COO's in the system, but I was able to ask a question in the large forum and have the corporate VP of Strategy back up my argument. Don't get me wrong, I still get a bit nervous before the meeting starts. But once everything begins, I have no problem talking to the CEO's, COO's, CFO's and introducing myself to people I don't know.

Like I said, it's a growth experience. This sort of thing takes a lot of practice!

In a concluding, off-the-cuff conversation with Baker, the CEO of St. Swedish Chef Hospital, I asked for some advice. He's a newer administrator and I asked him what he wished he knew when he was just starting out in administration.

He said, "Learn how to punt. And when you have to punt, be confident about it."

Because the NFL Draft was that night, I asked him if he was secretly coaching Tim Tebow or one of the other stand-out QB's. He reiterated the fact that administrators must make a lot of decisions and act on many situations...when you don't know what to do, you punt. Then you feign confidence!

This struck me as sage advice and I keep thinking about how this might pertain to me, as I'm inheriting a world of healthcare reform with Baby Boomer population marching toward Medicare. Hmm. Might have to punt...confidently.

For now, though, I'll just worry about my new operations position and keep on growin'.