Presenting to the Sports Medicine Australia Student Network on Networking and relationship building to enhance your career
I recently delivered a lecture on line with Dr Anita Green to the SMA student network where we covered some important topics that are keys elements of building a career in Sports Medicine.
Dr Green, like myself, is a past President of SMA and is committed to helping develop career opportunities for young clinicians of all SM disciplines. The SMA student network is a key special interest group of SMA and provides opportunities for young and emerging clinicians to pursue a career in Sports Medicine and Sports Science.
It was a pleasure to deliver this workshop and a good number of clinicians and researchers registered for the event.
We divided the workshop into two halves with Dr Green presenting on networking and relationship building and myself on Mentoring and building your brand.Networking
Dr Green covered
Why you benefit
What to do
Who to contact and
How to engage
The key points to consider were detailed
Networks facilitate connection and career growth with improved opportunities to learn and relationships that can help you when you lose you way and need some assistance.
There are a number of events that SMA conducts that you can attend and make these important connections namely:
• Annual SMA National Conference
• State based in person education events
• Large number and variety of webinars
• Sports coverage opportunities
Some tips on how to make the most of your meetings and time with those who might help you are to:
• Focus on what you want to ask (Not what you want to say)
• Move from “Small Talk” to “Deep Talk”
• Focus on your “Value”
• Be clear with your request
Joining SMA and if still a student the Student network are ways to start your journey. Do this by going to the SMA web site.
My presentation focussed on some ways to assist you with getting started in your career.
Finding advisors who may assist with technical details like marketing, finance, business set up and planning etc is an important approach. Identifying and choosing Mentors that might suit your stage of development is a must do activity. You may be surprised that in approaching more established persons in Sports medicine they are willing to assist you, but you need to ask!
Building Relationships is a key to career development and this involves spending time with people and building rapport.
The work environment you find yourself in will be a crucial component of career building and you should look at what is the best environment for you with a focus on assessing an empowered work place via the following criteria:
• Is Time allowed for you to grow & develop, with patience & support provided
• Hard work and persistence by you will be required!
• Seeking Challenging and interesting work, patients, new ideas, clinical and commercial excellence
• Are there Opportunities for learning and growth, education and mentoring
• Do you gain some control over the factors that enable high performance and continuous improvement
• Do you have the ability to have a say and have support for your ideas.
The final aspect of career I spoke of was that of Marketing yourself and developing your brand.
Relationship Marketing is a key for business development
• Put yourself out there, move past comfort and ASK
• Be professional, engaged and not distracted
• Listen with empathy to your patients and athletes. They will gravitate to you when you care and listen and they then tell others about you
• You don’t necessarily need training in marketing as you know how to develop relationships
• Consider methods to develop your brand with appropriate visibility on social media particularly Linked In, write blogs and ask to connect with those you respect and admire in Sports medicine
If you want to learn more, you may consider checking out my book
https://www.michaelkenihan.com.au/book
Overall the workshop emphasised the need to put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to ask!!
You may wish to attend the Careers in Sports Medicine and Science event next week on August 12th where the careers of those from different disciplines will be show cased. Go to the SMA web site to register.
