Bascom Palmer’s Kendall Donaldson, MD, MS, on creating a culture of camaraderie and togetherness

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Hi, my name is Kendall Donaldson and I practice cornea, refractive, and cataract surgery at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, Florida. I'm also the Medical Director of Bascom Palmer Implantation and I've spent about seven years directing the cornea fellowship program at Bascom Palmer.

Welcome, Kendall. Thank you so much for being here and part of our Women Ophthalmology Healio Leadership Series. I'd like to start off by asking you to share a pearl from your leadership experience.

Well, I really appreciate the opportunity to be here with both of you who I look up as colleagues and friends. So the greatest pearl I would say would be, I think of every interaction with either my patients, my staff, or you know, my colleagues that are younger than me that I'm fostering, it's an opportunity to empower them to become the best that they can be. And we're very fortunate in the roles that we play that we're able to have that influence over people to really do things; it's not about just what we do, it's about why we're doing that and you know, I think having a higher meaning to what we're doing is really helpful. So, being able to create a culture is also very important and that's something I thought about since establishing our practice in Plantation many, many years ago so crating a culture of camaraderie and working together so I think that's very important to have the right culture in your practice.

And you know, helping others, and empowering others around you, whether they're staff or colleague, doesn't that make you feel so wonderful that you're giving back to your community?

So sometimes, you kind of feel like you're just in the rat race of treating each patient and getting through your patient load each day but thinking of how we're making an impact, a greater impact doing things like coming to meetings like this, interacting with our colleagues and having friends in the industry has really made things much more meaningful to me and you know, even when I'm trying to empower my staff and create that culture, giving them their own little ownership within the practice, even if it's a technician, is really special with our dry eye patients, I try to give them ownership of individual things so that they can feel that they have their own responsibility and that they have, meaning that they're bringing rather than just going through each patient and just kind of trudging through the hours of the day. SO, I think it brings more meaning and it helps create that culture within the practice.

Absolutely and that special ownership and that special responsibility makes them feel so good.

- Exactly.

- They really do.

- I mean, I have some techs that just really appreciate the research side of things and so we've given them some special responsibilities for those things rather than just being a general tech. So, everybody has their own little special thing so they can each feel special about the job that they're doing so I think that's really helped at least in my practice.

You're making them shine.

Yeah, you're - Spotlighting them, exactly.

So, Kendall, are you ready for the next question?

- I am ready Cynthia, concerned but ready, yes.

I'm sure along the way, you've had such a wonderfully successful career, Kendall, in being the director of so many different projects and aspects, I'm sure you've come across some challenges. Can you share a challenge with us where with your leadership skills, you've been able to find a workaround and success?

That's a great question, Cynthia. So, I would say my biggest challenge through the years is having the proper work-home balance. I have three kids and obviously, a busy work life and a busy home life and so sometimes we have to block time for ourselves, you know, whether it be at meetings like this or time each evening with our families and make sure we take some time for ourselves, whether it be going to the gym or doing some yoga or going to a movie with our kids. But sometimes work can kind of take over our lives and blocking time for those who are important in our lives and always showing appreciation in making them a priority, I think, is really important because I would say I have struggled with that at some points where work can kind of take over our lives. And so finding the right balance that keeps everyone in our lives happy can be really tricky and we have to prioritize that so.

I totally agree. We have to not only prioritize it but actually plan it. Because if you leave it to happenstance, work takes over over.

It really can.

So you have to block like you said and say, "This is time "for my family," or "This is time for me "to go get a massage," or whatever it might be.

So really put it on our schedule. You know, this is the time for my family, this is the time for me, so scheduling it, just like we schedule everything else in our lives so blocking that on our schedule as well, so, yes, I think that's important.

I agree.

And I didn't learn that until much later in life and I wish I thought about it a little bit sooner and I tried to tell my fellows and younger colleagues to kind of do that for themselves too because I can see the same tendencies with them a lot of times.

Well our work is so pervasive, right?

- Yes, absolutely.

And so it's important to block time for self care which includes our friends, our family, and all the things that empower us. So, on that note, what is the best advice that you could give your younger self?

So, I would tell my younger self the importance of mentors in life and I have been very fortunate to have mentors and friends, our friend group in ophthalmology certainly are great mentors, but having more mentors. And I didn't really think about how important that was early on in my career. I had a few specific mentors at Bascom Palmer but even having mentors around the world or around the country. And as I went to more meetings, interacted more professionally, I have many mentors and each of them are great at different things. So, one person I feel might mentor me more in a particular area and another in another area, so having four or five different mentors for different aspects of your practice in life I think is very very helpful. And I think I discounted that more in my early career. But ophthalmology, in general, is concentrating more in those early years after practice, so hopefully we're doing a better job helping those that are coming after us and so I'm trying to prioritize that as well but I wish I had more of that when I was early in my career.

Yeah, sometimes it's hard to find mentors because we're all unicorns so there isn't someone perhaps just like you that could mentor you in all aspects so it's a really important point to have mentors for different aspects of your life.

And I think at one point, I realized that the mentorship works both ways because the mentor gets something out of it as well so it works from the mentee and for the mentor as well so then it gives us fulfillment to mentor someone else but it definitely works both ways.

Well, Kendall, thank you so much for being with us and for participating in this Women Leadership Series. We really appreciate your pearls and your advice. Thank you.

Thank you so much for inviting me.

Thank you.