Latest / Voices of Otolaryngology / Mentorship Matters: Paying it Forward for the Next Generation of Otolaryngologists

Transcript

Mentorship Matters: Paying it Forward for the Next Generation of Otolaryngologists · Voices of Otolaryngology

0:00
Welcome to the Voices of Otolaryngology podcast series, where we spotlight
0:05
diverse perspectives and insights within the field of otolaryngology.
0:08
I'm your host, Rahul Shah.
0:10
Let's jump into it.
0:13
Welcome to the Voices of Otolaryngology.
0:16
I'm Doctor Rahul Shah, your host.
0:18
And you know what I like to say?
0:20
Some days we just got lucky.
0:21
And today we have Doctor Carol Bradford.
0:24
I like to call her “The” Carol Bradford.
0:27
I need to be very respectful to her because she was on the search committee
0:30
that hired me.
0:31
So if any of you have a problem, reach out to “The” Dr.
0:34
Carol Bardford. Carol Bradford. Doctor Bradford, welcome.
0:37
I'm so delighted to be here, Doctor Shah.
0:40
And we're happy to refer to each other as first names for this podcast.
0:45
Right on. Carol.
0:46
Well, we're thrilled.
0:47
Thrilled to have you.
0:48
Really special guest.
0:51
I don't know where to start with.
0:53
When I think of your career, today, we just want to get to know you.
0:57
Could you tell our otolaryngologist we have about 5000 viewers?
1:01
A little bit about yourself.
1:02
I don't know how you summarize yourself in a minute Or 90 seconds.
1:05
And whatever you forget, I'll. I'll plug in. But, Carol.
1:09
First, I'll do personal first.
1:12
I have been married to, the same man for over 43 years.
1:18
I have two beautiful children.
1:21
My my oldest is a son.
1:24
He's a computer science engineer.
1:26
He and his wife, Katie, have a beautiful baby boy.
1:29
And my daughter, pursued medicine like her mother
1:34
and she is now doing family medicine residency in Pittsburgh.
1:38
So, I am a head and neck cancer surgeon/scientist.
1:43
And then I have pursued, leadership in otolaryngology,
1:47
and then in academic medicine.
1:51
Interesting.
1:52
You are very well known in our specialty as a mentor,
1:55
sponsor, advocate, for myself included.
1:59
Interesting. You started with personal.
2:02
Can you reflect on that?
2:03
We talk about wellness and as the dean of Ohio State
2:06
and now interim dean at University of Minnesota, you started with personal
2:09
when you could have talked about grants and leadership and surgery.
2:15
Yeah.
2:15
As I reflect, I mean, I think a lot about,
2:19
work life
2:22
harmony, balance and integration.
2:24
And I think who we are, is really,
2:28
you know, our families, our friends,
2:32
our core values and how we uphold those.
2:35
And I think then that,
2:38
informs, our leadership journey.
2:42
Yeah. Do you always lead that way?
2:44
In your EVP, executive vice president roles over health affairs,
2:50
did you think there's a student behind this?
2:53
There's a family or even with head a neck cancer?
2:56
Just for some of our trainees and attendings out there.
2:58
Do you think about that?
2:59
You put the patient first, so to speak?
3:02
100%, yes.
3:03
So I do introduce myself, personally and professionally.
3:08
I think I just met a finance team on a call this morning,
3:12
and I did talk a little bit about my personal background.
3:16
I will say for learners, it was, many learners will recall me saying
3:21
this in clinic because people would say, this is a T-3N2B base of tongue cancer.
3:29
And I'd say, hold on,
3:32
it's a human.
3:33
It's a is it a, you know, is it a, you know,
3:36
a woman, a man, what's their story?
3:40
And they happened to have a diagnosis of a stage of cancer.
3:46
But I really want to know who they are as a person first.
3:50
And I think that that allows us to be very patient-centered in our care.
3:57
You use the word
4:00
it's a story.
4:00
So let's go back to your story.
4:03
You're just not Carol Bradford, president of the Academy.
4:06
You weren't on the search committee.
4:08
You're not a dean.
4:10
What is your story in residency?
4:12
There's absolutely no way you knew you'd be president of the Academy.
4:16
A dean at major institutions.
4:18
What is your what was your mindset as a resident?
4:23
My mindset as a resident, I was blessed, to be,
4:27
selected for residency,
4:30
at Michigan, where I did do medical school.
4:33
Only two residents
4:36
matched that year because we were entering the research fellowship.
4:39
So I was also building my career as a clinician scientist.
4:43
I spent 18 months in the research laboratory of Tom Carey.
4:47
And if you look at my CV, we ended up publishing over 100 papers together.
4:53
So it was a very productive collaboration.
4:56
I was really dedicated to patient care, to learning,
5:01
and to trying to, you know, become the best surgeon I could be.
5:07
I knew I wanted to be a head neck cancer surgeon because I had great mentors,
5:11
that were faculty and other residents.
5:16
And so I had a great time.
5:19
During residency, there
5:20
weren't very many women in my residency.
5:23
Very only a couple ahead of me.
5:26
None.
5:27
But but as I came through the residency,
5:30
there were very few,
5:32
if any, women faculty, and there were women
5:37
residents who were behind me, but but none immediately ahead of me.
5:42
And then what was interesting,
5:45
I was a class advocate or a student council leader in medical school.
5:48
That won't surprise people.
5:50
And I also was very, very blessed to be selected
5:53
to serve as the chief resident my senior year,
5:57
which was the senior leadership role of our residency class.
6:01
And so, yeah, I guess,
6:04
even in residency, I, had,
6:09
leadership skill set that I continued
6:12
to really seek to foster the success of our, my other residents,
6:18
our other residents, so that we could provide the best care for patients.
6:24
What was your mindset as a resident?
6:26
It certainly wasn't to say you weren't chasing the touchdown.
6:32
You weren't saying, I want to be chief resident.
6:34
I want to be fellowship trained head and neck.
6:36
What was your mindset as a resident you used grateful you used.
6:40
It was an honor where you just absorbing it, soaking it in.
6:45
Yeah, I mean, it's obviously incredibly hard work.
6:49
I won't date myself too much, but where there were no work hour restrictions.
6:54
So I was working, fiercely.
6:58
And and it's all about teamwork and residency.
7:01
It's about - we had services, we rotated with colleagues, we lifted up each other.
7:07
We helped each other. We we we always.
7:11
There was no hesitancy to ask questions when we were uncertain.
7:16
And that really the goal was to do the very, very best care and partnership
7:20
with our amazing attending attendings and really,
7:25
you know, seek to learn, a co
7:28
resident was a bookworm and he always scored
7:32
better on the in-service, the in-service exams than I did.
7:36
But my, my senior year, I was really, really proud
7:40
to finally match his in-service score.
7:43
And those were posted anonymously, but everybody knew whose was who's.
7:47
Just to put a little pressure on us to study a little harder.
7:51
That's that's really interesting.
7:53
I don't think the contemporary residents have that mindset.
7:59
I was terrified of the in-service.
8:01
It looks like you were, too, because there was a real marker.
8:04
Am I right? Yes.
8:07
It was posted on the resident room door.
8:10
You know, there were four residents per year back then, so four scores
8:14
and took about a microsecond to figure out
8:17
whose score belonged to who.
8:20
From whence we came from.
8:23
All right, so then you enter fellowship, talk a little bit about your fellowship.
8:27
Lessons learned. You.
8:29
We will be showing this podcast in March, which is WIO month.
8:32
And so by all means, we want to address,
8:35
both of our, our genders, but definitely thinking about our women leaders.
8:39
So fellowship talk a little bit about that where you trained mindset.
8:43
So I actually
8:43
did an 18 month research fellowship
8:46
I did not do in that era, a head and neck fellowship.
8:50
During my senior year.
8:52
I mean, I had participated in free flaps as a senior.
8:56
A co resident was going to enter ear neurotology fellowship.
9:01
So he and I at that point could flip my last month.
9:05
So in June of long time ago I did an extra month of head and neck,
9:11
and I was really blessed to be able to enter the field
9:14
of head and neck surgery initially, as chief,
9:19
of the service at the VA hospital in Ann Arbor.
9:23
And it was again, I was incredibly blessed to be selected to join the faculty.
9:29
I did look at fellowships.
9:31
I was offered Mark Perkins fellowship in the day,
9:36
but I decided, I was 32 years old, at that moment.
9:41
And I knew I wanted to begin a family.
9:44
And so I, and I had had fabulous
9:47
head and neck training at Michigan as a resident.
9:50
So I chose to join the faculty.
9:54
Yeah, that was a lot of questions I could have asked,
9:57
but I'm going to keep the momentum going very, very interesting.
10:01
Okay.
10:01
So you did the research fellowship and you knew you were superbly trained.
10:07
So you had the surgical skills.
10:09
You had the research mindset. So you were you were set.
10:11
I mean, who wouldn't want to join Michigan's faculty, right?
10:14
I mean, that was going through your mind. Yeah. Right.
10:16
Yeah. Right. Yeah. And it was a different era.
10:18
Now, nowadays, I would say definitely do a head and neck fellowship.
10:22
But this was decades ago.
10:25
And so then, then I was really very, very well
10:28
trained and I was in a very supportive environment.
10:32
Junior faculty member.
10:35
What did you learn?
10:36
What advice do you give to those junior faculty member young physicians sections?
10:41
Those are folks less than seven years out.
10:44
What what were you thinking?
10:46
What kind of advice do you give?
10:48
So I think for, patient care, I think it's really,
10:52
really important to recognize that you still have a lot to learn.
10:56
And so
10:57
and sometimes colleagues will say, oh, can you assume the care of this patient?
11:03
In fact, colleagues were changing their practices.
11:06
So I was absorbing entire practices of colleagues.
11:11
So I was busy out of the gate, both at the VA hospital and the university.
11:16
And I would also say if somebody says, oh, I was going to do this surgery and,
11:20
you know, can you just do the surgery?
11:22
What I one of my early lessons was always reevaluate the patient yourself.
11:27
I trust my colleagues, fab, fabulous colleagues.
11:30
But you need to sort of deeply understand every single patient
11:34
that you're going to be providing care for.
11:38
You know, it was fun
11:39
working with amazing residents and students throughout my career.
11:43
And I've had so many of those wonderful individuals to help train.
11:48
And then I think the other really important thing,
11:52
if you want to be a clinician scientist, you've got to build is
11:55
have to begin building day one, your research career.
11:59
So mine started at the VA
12:02
and, you know, have a little bit of protected time but have support,
12:05
have mentors, have colleagues because it is really, really tough
12:10
to be a strong clinician and to have really a
12:14
a translational or basic science laboratory.
12:20
Let's talk a little bit about mentors.
12:22
And you and I could talk about this for hours.
12:24
So I'll keep it again to like two minutes.
12:26
There's a bi directional relationship with the mentor mentee.
12:30
You mentor me. You're very kind.
12:32
But I will pull you at a meeting and say, Carol, I have a question.
12:36
It's not just like, hey, Carol, could you teach me something?
12:39
You know, usually they're focused questions.
12:41
How did you deal with this? Or.
12:42
I saw on LinkedIn you had this.
12:44
Carol, could you explain it to me?
12:45
What advice do you give to those kind of the young physicians that are out there,
12:49
thinking mentor mentee relationship and maybe a little bit focused on the women?
12:53
Some of the advice. Yeah,
12:55
yeah.
12:56
Find a mentor, find a sponsor, find a coach and find an ally.
13:00
You need them all.
13:01
But let's focus on mentors initially.
13:03
And I think it is bi directional.
13:06
It's based upon trust.
13:08
And be willing to ask the questions that you need.
13:12
You know, because it's a mentor sort of helps guide the pathway.
13:16
What's fascinating as we approach Women
13:22
in Otolaryngology (WIO) month in March
13:24
is really, there were very,
13:28
there were not you can cross gender lines with mentors.
13:32
There were really no otolaryngology mentors really ahead of me.
13:38
So most of my faculty or research mentors were were actually men.
13:44
In my case, I did find a peer mentor who was an eye plastic surgeon,
13:50
dear friend to this day, and we were pregnant at the same time.
13:54
She was at Kellogg Eye Center. I was my first year.
13:56
I did, I was blessed with our son
14:00
Taylor, who is now 32 years old.
14:03
And so, but but but she helped me
14:06
navigate like, how do you manage a surgical career
14:11
and having kids.
14:12
And I never quite got it right because I never took my, maternity
14:19
leave soon enough because my son came early and I had surgery scheduled.
14:23
And so then because I was going to work up to 39 weeks, of course.
14:28
And then for my daughter Morgan, who came two and a half years later,
14:32
I said, okay, I'll just work until 38 weeks.
14:36
That didn't work again!
14:40
I never got it right.
14:43
She arrived early.
14:46
So the young physicians
14:49
that are out there, did you pivot?
14:53
Right.
14:53
We look back, the Carol Bradford, “The” Dr.
14:57
Carol Bradford and say, oh, she had it easy, you know, I mean,
15:00
she everything just just seems to just line up.
15:03
Am I right to say if we looked at your career path,
15:07
it was probably zigzags moving in a way that that you saw the career.
15:11
Can you talk about that?
15:12
Because in hindsight everybody says, oh, it was so easy.
15:15
It was anything but.
15:18
Yeah.
15:18
So I again, I was blessed by great mentors,
15:24
sponsors,
15:27
coaches and allies who believed in me and helped my journey.
15:31
That being said, it's not an easy journey at all.
15:36
Incredibly busy trying
15:39
to build a very busy clinical practice, a research practice, and,
15:44
leadership roles both at my home institution
15:48
and ultimately nationally and internationally.
15:51
So it's a very, very busy life.
15:54
So build your village is another piece of advice.
15:57
So you need help, at work, and you need help at home.
16:01
And build build that that village, of support.
16:06
I would say, you know, one of the hardest things.
16:10
So I was, you know, I was blessed to be, you know, medical student coordinator
16:15
and then residency program director and chief of the VA and then ultimately
16:20
chief of the Head and neck oncology division and then vice chair,
16:27
chair,
16:28
executive vice dean, dean and now interim executive vice president.
16:32
So we'll get all the titles together.
16:35
And those seem to align, pretty well and pretty naturally.
16:39
It was a challenge when I, in the chair journey,
16:42
many people know that I interviewed for many chair jobs before I was blessed
16:48
to be selected to serve as the chair of Otolaryngology at Michigan in 2009.
16:54
What was probably the most challenging is the research funding.
16:58
And it's like a sine wave curve.
17:00
I mean, you're trying to keep your people, your lab, your research going,
17:04
and it is brutally difficult
17:07
as a busy clinician to keep that going.
17:11
And again, we were lucky that just, you know, at one point I was asked like,
17:15
you know what, I need to give up my research career,
17:19
my research laboratory, because funding was waning.
17:23
My chair was supportive of continuing
17:25
to invest in the lab and in me.
17:29
And then and his name is Greg Wolfe.
17:31
I'm very, very grateful.
17:32
I said, what do you what do you want me to give up the lab?
17:34
And he said, no, Carol, don't do that.
17:36
And the very, you know, next six months was all the grants came in.
17:41
And and then we got a head and neck
17:43
cancer SPORE grant that I had a major role on for 12 years.
17:47
And so for me, you know, the research really informed
17:52
clinical trials and was an attempt to transform care
17:56
based upon observations we were making in the clinic.
18:01
Quick story.
18:02
You know, some patients were responding beautifully to chemotherapy
18:06
and radiation with base of tongue cancers, and others weren't responding at all.
18:11
And there was something there. And I knew there was something.
18:14
There were two different diseases.
18:15
And of course, we and others were sort of
18:18
on to the human papilloma virus epidemic,
18:23
really creating these two different biologies of throat cancer.
18:26
So it was fun to be in that journey, and it's fun to bring
18:32
learners and junior faculty along in that journey,
18:35
because it really does create an academic career.
18:41
Let's let's
18:42
really fast forward and then then we'll get back to,
18:45
transitioning to, administrative medicine.
18:50
When did you have to park the ego?
18:55
And what I mean by that is when I moved through administrative health care,
18:58
even in this role, you don't get to operate.
19:02
I don't get to operate. I get to volunteer in clinic.
19:04
And my cup is filled by seeing the kids in the office.
19:08
But I have to give that away to a partner because I'm not at a meeting
19:11
or I need to be somewhere.
19:13
When did that start happening to you and and any advice
19:16
that you give to those, folks that are on the precipice?
19:20
It's, not easy.
19:21
And we love operating.
19:24
Right.
19:25
So, I sorry, Carol.
19:27
Also research you have you had to give away your research.
19:29
So both of those. Carol, please.
19:31
Yeah.
19:31
So, so in the silver platter of life,
19:34
as you add more and more things and you have to take some things off.
19:38
And so as chair,
19:42
I had a 50% clinical practice.
19:45
So then I was getting far more referrals.
19:47
I'd been at Michigan forever.
19:49
And so I was spreading the wealth with my colleagues.
19:53
I built a sentinel lymph node practice
19:55
with the multidisciplinary melanoma clinic at Michigan.
19:59
And then also, gave that practice away to wonderful colleagues
20:04
who still hold that practice today, wonderful colleagues.
20:08
And so you do have to recognize and one of the hard things to give away
20:12
was co-leading the Head
20:14
and Neck Oncology program at the Comprehensive Cancer Center.
20:17
I love that perhaps one of the most.
20:19
And that was one.
20:20
As I became busier and busier,
20:23
I need needed to recognize I needed to give give that role.
20:27
But it's like, you know, giving some of your treasured
20:30
possessions away as you downsize a home.
20:34
It's really a gift to somebody else to be able to build somebody else's career.
20:39
So I don't I'm a I'm very much a servant leader.
20:42
I don't have a big ego.
20:44
And it was really a blessing, to be able to build
20:48
other people's practices and careers.
20:52
And, and those individuals are friends and colleagues,
20:57
and I admire their careers and their accomplishments so much.
21:01
So it really, for me, was a gift to be able to do that.
21:05
Now, when I executive vice dean at Michigan, I had probably,
21:11
30% clinical, effort.
21:15
And I still do, both at Ohio State and now at,
21:19
an and under a week, I start at the University of Minnesota.
21:23
I will still have a clinical practice,
21:27
half day of
21:27
clinic per week, and a very small surgical
21:31
practice of the cases that I'm very comfortable doing.
21:36
Yeah, I envy you there.
21:37
So I'm glad at least I get to be in the clinic.
21:41
You, I want you to describe these words, briefly.
21:45
I've heard them, and you've actually described them to me over
21:48
several years when I've attended your sessions at the annual meeting.
21:51
Mentor. Coach. Sponsor. Ally.
21:54
Let's assume our listeners aren't familiar with these words.
21:57
Kind of you.
21:58
Could you explain them, please?
22:01
Absolutely.
22:02
So a mentor is, you know, first that's like that person, like, what do I do?
22:07
How do I build my academic career?
22:09
Where should I where should I do my residency?
22:13
What what faculty job should I choose?
22:15
What?
22:17
What what
22:19
physician practice should I join as an otolaryngologist?
22:23
And so it's really giving advice.
22:26
Wise advice.
22:28
Coaching is a nuance.
22:30
I look, my daughter, Morgan, was a collegiate
22:35
gymnast,
22:37
and,
22:40
a coach really corrects you.
22:43
So, like, you know, like, you know, on this routine,
22:48
by the way, you know, you needed to spin quicker.
22:51
You needed to stick your landing whatever.
22:53
You need to visualize your routine.
22:55
So a coach really
22:57
is observing you and saying, hey,
23:00
when you gave that talk, or when you approach this case,
23:04
or when you presented at this national meeting or when you wrote
23:09
your specific aims for this grant, my advice,
23:12
you know, it's again, more advice, but but I would it's correct.
23:16
It's almost corrective coaching.
23:19
And, you know, I've also had been blessed to work with executive coaching.
23:24
So you bring them stuff to them, but they also have the chance to observe
23:28
you and say, hey, you know, maybe you want to be a better listener or
23:35
hold back on your comments and say at the and have a little bit more presence.
23:39
So again, real coaching advice.
23:43
Sponsorship.
23:44
I have great examples of that is that when somebody nominates you to be
23:50
president of the our
23:52
national specialty or executive vice president and CEO.
23:56
And so people nominate us, put our names forward.
24:02
And I am blessed to have had many sponsors, allies.
24:06
You know, this is,
24:10
allies, I think are people who have your same
24:14
some of your same lived experiences and help you navigate
24:19
those circumstances that are based on lived experience.
24:23
So being a woman in otolaryngology is one lived, experience.
24:29
It's one lived identity.
24:30
And so you can be an ally to people who cross
24:35
gender lines and cross, backgrounds.
24:38
But I think, recognizing, people's different
24:43
lived experiences and their journey is how I look at allyship.
24:48
You're fully transparent.
24:50
I'm all over the place, and you know that through through your dealings with me,
24:54
you mentioned a couple minutes ago, maybe ten minutes ago,
24:56
that you interviewed for several chair roles.
25:00
You're fully transparent.
25:02
You're not shy about that.
25:04
What makes you so transparent?
25:08
I know a lot of people.
25:09
They'll interview.
25:10
They'll be coy, they'll keep it quiet.
25:11
They don't want to talk about it.
25:13
And you say, you know, it might not have worked, but I ended up where I wanted.
25:17
You talk a little bit about where that confidence comes from.
25:21
So I think it's a great question.
25:23
So thank you, Rahul, It's a great question.
25:25
And so I think the reason I share that is because
25:30
other people have that same lived experience.
25:33
Nobody talks about it.
25:35
I've had so many people tell me, and I talked about all the chair jobs
25:39
I didn't get before I was selected
25:42
for the Michigan one, which was complex,
25:45
in and of itself, it's helped
25:48
other people who are searching for leadership roles
25:52
and might be finishing second.
25:55
And I will say to today, to this audience, I have finished second, third, fourth
26:00
or fifth for more roles than anybody will ever imagine.
26:04
And that's just part of it. It's just part of it.
26:07
And these, these jobs, these positions are highly competitive.
26:12
There are always many great candidates,
26:15
and sometimes it's just really what an institution
26:19
and an organization is looking for
26:22
in a particular season or journey.
26:25
And we all bring different talents to the table.
26:29
So I think it's a great question.
26:32
You we have a couple more questions and I promise
26:34
you're so gracious to, let us do this podcast as you step into your new role.
26:40
And I'm sure you're very, very busy. So just a couple more questions.
26:43
You talk about the silver platter
26:45
when life gives you your silver platter, not everything fits on that platter.
26:49
You have to make those value judgments.
26:51
Give us an example of where you made the wrong judgment
26:54
and you said, shoot, I should have let go of that leadership
26:57
role or bummer, I pass it on to Rahul, he's failed to deliver.
27:01
Now I need to spend more of my time to rectify that error, you know?
27:06
And what did you learn from that?
27:08
And how to better allocate your time is what I'm asking.
27:12
So, I
27:14
the most, I, I love working with fabulous executive assistants.
27:20
I am a person that always says yes.
27:22
So my hardest I my calendar is impossible to manage
27:28
because I say yes, yes, yes yes yes.
27:31
And so I think I don't think
27:34
I, I don't live with too many regrets.
27:37
I think every position, every leadership role
27:41
I have put my heart and soul into.
27:43
And if you can't dedicate enough time to, to a role,
27:46
we ought to not accept that role.
27:50
I think when I have said yes too much,
27:54
and how I know it is that you start doing nothing, well, you've got, you know,
28:00
a busy clinic and surgical schedule, you've got grants due.
28:04
You've got presentations at national meetings.
28:07
You're you're reviewing papers for journals
28:10
and you are suddenly not taking care of yourself.
28:15
You're not sleeping well, and your well-being is challenged.
28:19
And that's why I've been such a huge advocate
28:23
for this thing I call work life
28:26
balance, integration or harmony.
28:29
We all know when it's out of balance because you're not doing anything well.
28:34
You're not taking care of yourself so that you can't be your best self.
28:39
And you can't take care of others.
28:40
And I think that
28:43
as otolaryngologists,
28:45
we are caring for patients who are suffering with cancer,
28:51
with hearing loss, with breathing problems, with
28:55
all sorts of problems.
28:56
And so for us to be our best selves, we have to make sure
29:02
when we add things on and in our plate is full,
29:05
we have no choice but to take something off.
29:08
And it's a lot like,
29:10
you know, it's hard to give clothes that you once loved away also,
29:15
but that's also really healthy is to free yourselves of those, those, those things.
29:20
So I think it's a gift to give a role,
29:24
to, to to nominate a colleague
29:27
or to delegate, a role for a colleague.
29:30
And I think for me, you know, those were some of the hardest things.
29:35
They were
29:36
some of the things that really helped build other people's careers the most.
29:41
But two more questions, I promise.
29:43
I have to keep saying that because I could talk to you forever.
29:46
You and I have sat on panels before
29:49
and we talked about what you say no to and what you say yes to.
29:53
And you and I are both of the same ilk.
29:56
And I wrote this down.
29:57
You said yes four times.
29:59
Yes, yes yes, yes. You say yes a lot.
30:03
Contemporary coaching
30:05
for work life balance I intentionally use those words in quotes.
30:09
Says say no, say no, say no, say no.
30:13
But you're saying and you and I say, yeah, you say yes.
30:17
But then you give something up and you just give, give some guidance on that.
30:22
Yeah, I, I think don't say yes to things you don't love.
30:28
Say yes to the things that you're passionate about.
30:32
So what are those things?
30:34
For me, it was clearly leadership roles
30:36
where it could have a big impact upon humankind.
30:40
Yes to roles.
30:44
Again, having served as,
30:47
the, the a president, one of the, the president of our specialty society.
30:52
Society.
30:53
What an enormous honor that was, to have an impact.
30:59
But there are other things that probably are I'm not great at,
31:02
so other people are editors of journals.
31:05
Carol Bradford is not going to be an editor of a journal
31:09
because and I do I try to do strong reviews,
31:13
but I have to recognize I've got a very, very full plate.
31:16
And if I say yes to too many reviews, then I will get behind on other tasks.
31:22
I do think, so just be very strategic
31:27
in what you say yes to and follow, you know, follow your dreams, follow
31:34
your passions, follow those things that that really,
31:37
really, you know, are your “why.” Yeah.
31:41
Excellent. Excellent example.
31:43
Same here. Coach.
31:45
I don't have the fortitude, the diligence,
31:49
the attention to details, to be an editor.
31:50
So you a very, very good example.
31:54
Let's start wrapping up.
31:56
You started personal, and I've had the pleasure
31:58
of meeting your husband, and what a hoot.
32:00
I love chatting with him. So much fun.
32:03
And then you talked about resilience.
32:05
I like what you said.
32:06
And again, I have a shared there with you.
32:09
I don't win a lot. Second, third, fourth, fifth.
32:11
But somehow let's bring resilience back to where you started with personal.
32:16
What fills your cup?
32:17
What gives you that resilience to keep going even though you're fifth?
32:20
You didn't make a podium. You didn't get a medal.
32:23
What keeps you going?
32:25
So that's a great question.
32:27
And, my “why” is to make a positive impact.
32:31
And what fills my cup professionally is,
32:35
when people share that I've had a positive impact
32:40
upon their life and their career
32:43
and, and for me, that will always be my way.
32:47
And so as I am in transition leaving, they are stepping away
32:52
from the Ohio State University and joining the University of Minnesota.
32:56
I've had an opportunity for people
33:00
to, say words of appreciation
33:04
and gratitude, and that really does, very much fill my cup.
33:08
I think on the personal front, I think that, being there
33:13
for family and friends,
33:17
and being a resource to our family
33:21
members has also been incredibly, important to me.
33:26
And I think also being a good friend to friends, we all need friends in life.
33:31
And so again, I feel richly blessed,
33:35
to have, built a village
33:38
of great colleagues like you, Rahul,
33:42
great friends, great family,
33:46
and a full and rich, life
33:50
where I only hope to have a positive impact upon
33:55
all communities we serve collectively.
33:59
All right, so now we're almost done.
34:01
You're.
34:01
I don't want you to overthink this.
34:03
You're walking out the door.
34:05
Do you put on the Buckeye hat or the “maize and blue”?
34:09
You got to pick one.
34:11
You're walking out the door.
34:12
What hat do you put on?
34:15
Right now I'm in Michigan, so right now I would
34:18
I am I wardrobe is according to the state I love it.
34:21
So right now I would walk out the door in maize and blue.
34:26
But pretty soon it's going to be maroon and gold.
34:30
That's right.
34:31
In the Buckeye State it's scarlet and grey.
34:34
That. And and it's Dave?
34:36
Is that right, Mr. Bradford? Dave.
34:37
So you and Dave are driving down. You're like, all right, wait.
34:40
Change the wardrobe. We're going to go into Ohio I love that.
34:42
What an awesome answer.
34:44
I need to give you the final word.
34:45
But before I do that I want to thank you.
34:48
You use the words make a big impact on humankind and you have.
34:53
It gives me chills to think about that, thinking about your impact. It
34:58
transcends WIO.
34:58
It transcends otolaryngology. You're affecting medical students.
35:01
You're affecting millions of patients.
35:04
That was your dream, and you've done it.
35:06
Thank you so much.
35:07
“The” Dr. Carol Bradford.
35:08
I'll give you the last word.
35:10
So thank you for the opportunity.
35:12
And thank you, Rahul, for your leadership of the Academy.
35:16
We are all blessed and I think this is a great podcast.
35:20
Voices of Otolaryngology.
35:22
So hats off to you.
35:23
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share a few thoughts today.
35:28
Thank you, Doctor Bradford.
35:30
we hope today's episode sparked some fresh ideas.
35:33
If it resonated with you, please subscribe and share it with friends.
35:37
Have thoughts or suggestions?
35:38
Use the feedback form in the show notes.
35:40
We'd love to hear from you, and don't forget to follow us on social media
35:44
for highlights behind the scenes content and updates.
35:47
Thanks for listening. See you next time!