Q&A: How changing your beliefs can advance your career trajectory

Key takeaways:

• Recalibrating your beliefs will allow you to unlock your full potential.
• Change the narrative for yourself and the women around you.

CHICAGO — Your mindset and beliefs have a direct impact on your career performance, according to Laura Desveaux, PhD, PT, scientific director and learning health system program lead at Trillium Health Partners’ Institute for Better Health.

During her talk at Women in Medicine Summit, Desveaux discussed how our beliefs directly impact our successes and failures.

Healio spoke with Desveaux about some of the biggest challenges faced by women in medicine as well as the importance of meetings like the summit for professional development and pursuing gender equity in health care.

Healio: What is the take-home message of your talk on how we hold ourselves back?

Desveaux: Your mindset and what you believe are key drivers of performance. What you believe has a direct impact on what you achieve; systematically recalibrating your beliefs will unlock your full potential.

Healio: What is one key piece of advice that you can offer our readers?

Desveaux: You have complete control over becoming the author of your career — take the pen and trust yourself.

Healio: What is hindering women the most in the field and how can we go about fixing that?

Desveaux: There are system barriers and systematic bias that create obstacles for women in medicine and it is important that we work with male allies and women in leadership to create more equitable structures and policies.

Additionally, as women, we often don’t realize how we are standing in our own way, which has certainly been the case for me and many others I have worked with. As individuals, we can stop waiting for someone to give us the next great role and instead create opportunities for ourselves. Start small. Surround yourself with people who lift you up and talk about you when you aren’t in the room. Change the narrative for yourself and the women around you.

Healio: Why are meetings like Women in Medicine Summit so important for the field?

Desveaux: I look for any opportunity to surround myself with brilliant, like-minded professionals who are impact-driven, and this summit delivers on that every year.

Meetings like this are important as it gives attendees time to share experiences and insights — a key catalyst for professional development — and generate cross-jurisdictional learnings to help support better performance for individuals, organizations and health systems.

Reference:

• Desveaux L. Leading yourself: How you hold yourself back and what to do about it. Presented at: Women in Medicine Summit; Sept. 13-14, 2024; Chicago.

For more information:

Laura Desveaux, PhD, PT, can be reached at laura@lauradesveaux.com.