Cathleen M. McCabe, MD, on effectively communicating as a leader

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Hi, I'm Cathleen McCabe and I am the chief medical officer of Eye Health America, the medical director of The Eye Associates on the West coast of Florida, and I am a cataract and refractive surgeon, the past president of the Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgery Society, and I'm currently the chair of the Refractive Surgery Clinical Committee for ASCRS. And happy to be here.

Thank you, Cathy, for being here. And welcome to our Women Ophthalmology Leadership Series. I'd like to start off by asking you a leadership pearl to share.

Yeah, that's always difficult because I think you learn so many things along the way, and you learn really by making mistakes. And so, I would say, you know, learn to delegate, that's really important, it's a hard thing to do. We tend to be, you know, control freaks as my husband would say. But in a good way; we want all the details to line up the way we want them to. And so, I think if you trust the people that you put in positions to actually do other things and help take the load off, you don't micromanage and you realize that when they're not meeting your expectation, it's usually because you didn't communicate effectively what the expectation was. And so pretty much the base of everything that I've learned comes right back to communication skills. It really solves most leadership problems, I think.

Wonderful.

You know, Cathy, communication is so important. I don't think we are ever taught how to communicate professionally and properly, and especially when it's difficult topics or challenging conversations, a lot of us don't have much experience. So how did you accumulate that strength?

Yeah, I would say it's kind of a continuation of everything we learn, right? As parents we learn to communicate better with our children, and then in training we learn to communicate better with our patients, and we know that we get better outcomes, and our patients assimilate the information better when we communicate effectively. And that just keeps on showing the same benefits no matter what position we're in. And so, I think it's drawing on those examples in my life to say really when I think somebody's thinking something, I can come to the wrong conclusions, but if I actually talk to them, we often are thinking very similarly with very few differences and it just makes everything so much more smooth.

And asking for clarification is always a good thing if you're not sure what the message is, don't you think?

I think so, and also asking people to repeat back what they heard or telling them, "Here's what I think you're telling me, is this correct?" And so really just confirming effective communication I think is part of the trick of the whole thing.

Yeah. Great advice. So Cathy, are you ready for question number two?

Okay. I think I am.

I'm sure as you have moved up the ladder of leadership, Cathy, and you've accomplished so much, you must have come across some challenges which obviously you needed to find a solution for, so using your leadership skills, how did you navigate the turbulent waters?

I think that people interacting with people is always the hardest part. It's like for us a surgeons and clinicians, the clinic day sucks my energy, surgery is very invigorating, and I think it's because the communication really when it's done effectively, although it's great and rewarding, it takes a lot out of you. It's tough, right? So sometimes we don't go right to that communication thing and we run from conflict because we don't want to actually deal with those issues. So, I think that some of the challenges have been when I see conflict even between either different staff members and you get drawn into that and they want you to solve the problem, or conflict, you know, between different doctors in the role that I now have. And what I've done in the past that was not correct is really be a resource for them necessarily to come to for everybody, because that's not the best way to manage it always. You have to rely on the people who are in the supervisory role for especially your staff to be able to resolve those things. Or sometimes just for interpersonal they need to talk to each other better. So, I think not being the solver of every conflict that comes your way, just like you don't solve it all for your siblings, or your children when they're fighting with their siblings. That's been a learning experience for me, and I think it's really important to take a step back and maybe set structure in place that helps them communicate better, but don't be the only person that's doing the communicating.

Yeah, those are great tips. And do you have any tips for yourself, advice to your younger self?

Yeah, so many things I wish I knew back then, right? So, I'd say trust your instincts, you're more in tune than you think, you're wiser than you think when you're young. You really don't want to trust your instincts is how I felt at the time, but trust them. Find your people and be grateful and demonstrate that gratitude to them. But those people will help you get through the hard times. And realize that even the people you admire, even the mentors that you get, and get a mentor early, that's another tip, they struggle too. And it's having that network of people who you trust, you care about, that get you through the hard times. But realize that everybody struggles; they have a pearl of wisdom to share as well.

Yeah. Community, right? Lifts us all, right?

Community, absolutely. Yeah.

And I loved what you said, Cathy, about being appreciative of those who help you, letting them know and thank them. That goes a long way.

It does, yeah, even with your staff, you know, I leave every exam room saying thank you to whoever the scribe is, and they probably think it's wrote after a while, but I truly do thank them because my day would be awful, you know, without the support that I have. So genuinely thanking people is really important too.

Gratitude. Exactly, gratitude.

It does.

And with that we're so grateful that you are here with us, that you spent your time in this series with us sharing your leadership advice. Thank you, Cathy.

Well thank you for being part of that whole group of the network that helps support each other too, so I really appreciate you.