Elevator Speech

My name is Thu Nguyen. I am currently working at Society of Hospital Medicine as PR Marketing Assistant. SHM is a non-profit organization representing hospitalists and the practice of hospital medicine. I help monitor press coverage of the field of hospital medicine and SHM in order to increase media responsiveness. I write e-Wire and blurbs for monthly publication. SHM has several in-house publications including The Hospitalist and Journal of Hospital Medicine, which I help review the content before printing. I have learned communication strategies throughout different projects in this particular healthcare industry. Moreover, I have had opportunities to strengthen different skills besides PR such as data organizing and front desk customer service. I believe that experiences from the time working at SHM can definitely benefit me in the future career.

Elevator Speech

Your assignment for this week is to write your "elevator speech". Wikipedia defines an elevator speech as:

"an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds and 100-150 words)."

To help you, here are a few links:
http://www.creativekeys.net/PowerfulPresentations/article1024.html
http://www.quintcareers.com/elevator_speech_dos-donts.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMFFZ0lj41I&feature=related

 Good luck and have fun! If you need more help, check the May 2009 blog posts :) 

I can honestly say that I've never had any class talking about leadership, management, or strategy (at least in the sense of this question), however I have learned a few things about management and strategy since starting here at SHM.  First off, let me say that my time management skills are not the best.  I have always had to try and plan everything out to make sure I complete anything required of me on time (and, seeing how this blog post is late, I'm not always 100% successful).  In addition, I need to have a strategy to incorporate any additional tasks that come up, and adjust my schedule accordingly.  Issues can come up very unexpectedly, and I need to be flexible in my planning in order to ensure everything is done properly.  I have no doubt that I will learn quite a bit more in my time to come at SHM.

SHM values at work

I think words like leadership and strategy and management sound really nice when you’re learning about them in a classroom because they are so vague. When you actually start working and have to apply those things to your work you can really understand their importance. In my work, I have to have a strategy of some sort before I begin every day or I will never get finished what I have to do. I am always leading someone, and almost all of my time so far at SHM it has been myself. I have to get myself focused and ready to do the work I’m given and not just finish, but give my best work. Management is probably the most important of the three here at SHM. I've learned that you have to be able to manage yourself, your work, and any speed bumps you hit along the way because people are depending on you and need you to do your work the best that you can. Managing yourself, your time, and all the other factors that surround you is essential to being successful in any job, and is very prevalent in every employee here.

So far my experiences at SHM have involved two of the main points three brought up in the blog post for this week. I have had to use strategy in dealing with my given tasks as well as managing when and how I was going to get each task done on time. Leadership hasn't played as strongly of a role here for me yet considering I am more of an aid to both the Education and QI department and don't really have the opportunity to lead anything yet. I'm sure as time progresses I will be given more important things to do in which cases I will be in more of a leadership role. Considering I do not take the general business classes that the rest of you guys do since I am a nursing major and we basically get thrown right into our curriculum I was not given the chance to be taught those things in the classroom setting. Therefore most of my experience has been related to real life. I agree with Thu in the part about how interesting Larry's meeting about SHM was yesterday. I learned a lot more about the company and how it is structured as well as the forthcoming and current issues in the medical world today.

Leadership and Strategy

I have definitely been able to practice my leadership and strategy skills while working at SHM. Because we are given so many different projects and responsibilities, I have been able to put into practice the skills and theories I have learned in the classroom. From this, I have recognized that what I learn in school actually does apply to the real world (go figure). I have learned that it is important to ask questions, take initiative, and voice my opinion. Furthermore, I have been able to see the different types of leadership strategies used by the full time employees here at SHM. This is beneficial to me because I am able to learn from them and take their advice to use in future endeavors.

SHM

I guess I will have a better reflection by the end of this 6-month co-op. But I find this post in the right time since I just had a great opportunity to listen to Larry's presentation yesterday, all about SHM as well as hospital medicine updates. One way that successfully shapes SHM is its organizational structure. SHM has more like an organic structure rather than the hierarchy type. This structure fits the size of the company and fits its changing and innovative environment of hospital medicine in the healthcare industry. Also, this structure benefits SHM in terms of innovation and motivation.
Talking about leadership, I think SHM's leaders allows employees to think outside of the box, to have voice in making the organization better, and to be inspired! Also, in order to motivate employees, I think that SHM focuses on non-monetary satisfaction scores such as extra-curricular activities, friendly work place, sharing moments, relationships between co-workers. I think these together boost work efficiency and job commitment.
And these together also shape SHM's unique culture.
Moving forward, in the growing era of hospital medicine, it might be a challenge for the organization to keep its cultures and organic structure when SHM becomes a big corporate entity, or even a multi-national entity. But, looking forward to see its growth and greater success in the future!

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TN