Episode 34: Transforming Stress into Success: Cultivating a Growth Mindset for Medical Lab Professionals

Welcome to the E Laborate Topics Podcast, where we focus on lab specific strategies for medical laboratory professionals. We're proud to be the healthcare detectives that work behind the scenes to get the results needed to influence medical decisions. Let's grow together and jump right into the lab.

 Welcome back to Elaborate Topics. I'm Lona Small, your career success coach and host for today's episode, and we're diving into a topic, growth mindset, that's going to really help medical lab professionals and alums. to overcome challenges and transform stressful situations into opportunities for growth and success.

And I'm going to start this episode out by going straight into a story about Sarah. I want you to listen to the story and see which part of this resonates with you. So Sarah is a dedicated medical lab professional who's been in her role for five years. And she started thinking about moving to a manager's role someday.

She has the potential, um, she's been doing a lot of work, but recently she's been feeling stuck and despite all the work she's been doing, she started finding herself constantly frustrated by the challenges in the lab. One example is a new automated system was introduced to her lab, and she really struggled with the new software.

And instead of seeing this as an opportunity to expand her skills, she found herself thinking things like, I'm just not tech savvy like the younger techs, and this is too difficult for me. And so she began avoiding tasks that involved the new system. And she started leaving them for others and she went back to doing things the way she had always done it.

And at a meeting when her supervisor suggested that she attended a training session to get up to speed, instead of feeling supported, Sarah felt criticized and she started thinking again. They don't appreciate my years of experience here. They just want to have the younger people who is more adaptable to get these work done.

They just, 1, 2, 3, 4, they just want someone younger and more adaptable. And Sarah started to blame external circumstances. She started to blame the new technology, blame her younger peers, blame her boss. And she felt that if things were different, she'd be more successful. So in her mind, she was that victim of circumstance, and she felt stuck in her current role with no clear way out.

So the more she focused on these thoughts, the more stressed she became, and the more disengaged she became. And her dream of advancing to that managerial role seemed further and further away, and then she began to believe that she wasn't cut out for leadership. And that any efforts to improve would be pointless.

So does any part of Sarah's story resonate with you? And if so, don't feel bad, you're not alone. Because many medical lab professionals face similar challenges with a lot of frustrations. But the key point I want to make out today in this episode is the difference between feeling stuck like Sarah and thriving in your career actually lies between, and I should say it lies with one simple shift.

1, 2, 3, 4. So the key difference between feeling stuff like, stuck, 1, 2, 3, 4. So the key difference between feeling stuck like Sarah and thriving in your career is really one simple shift. And that's the shift from a fixed mindset like Sarah to a growth mindset. And that's what we're That's what we're going to talk about today.

And today I'm going to help you by sharing 10 easy to remember steps or strategies that it's going to help you to apply growth mindset in your daily work and in your daily living, just life in general. And I have some examples that's work related. So let's get started. So the first step is to see challenges as a learning opportunity or learning moments.

So when you're faced with a challenge, a growth mindset helps you to view it as a learning opportunity rather than a roadblock so you don't feel defeated. What you're doing, you're recognizing That every challenge is a chance to improve and a chance to grow. In PQ we say every challenge there is a gift and an opportunity.

And the example I'm going to give, say you got a new testing procedure. and you find that your result is inconsistent. It's easy to feel frustrated, but instead of getting frustrated, you want to ask yourself, what can I learn from this? Is there another variable that I didn't consider? And this mindset helps you to keep calm.

It helps you to know there are possible other ways. You're not frustrated, um, now you're calm, you're focused, you're being proactive, you're trying to turn that challenge into a learning experience. So it could be something that your trainer didn't tell you or maybe the trainer told you that you forgot, you could go back to your pamphlet, go back to the manual, maybe go back to your trainer.

Or maybe something may come to you that you've used a similar methodology, but not that same test, and there are other things to consider. So, whenever there's a challenge, look at it as a learning opportunity. Number two, stay curious. Keep learning. So, curiosity is really key in growth mindset. What it does, it helps you to continually seek for new knowledge, for new skills, and that's so important, especially in our field when things are changing so fast.

So it's so important to be curious. Everything is becoming automated. When I was in the field, micro was manual. Everything is automated. Blood bank is automated. We're not doing manual diff in a lot of areas. It's Cell and Vision. There's total lab automation. So, our field is moving rapidly.

So, curiosity is the key when it comes to a growth mindset. So if there's a new piece of equipment that arrived that you have never used before, instead of feeling overwhelmed, you want to approach it with curiosity.

You want to be the one to attend the training session. If there's additional training that's offered, don't take it personal. You want to read the manual, you want to ask questions. Be curious, and by staying curious, you're not only mastering equipment faster, but you're putting yourself in a position to be that valuable resource when there's this person that's needed to be that trainer or to give updates.

You already did the work because of curiosity, so you're there as that go to person. Number three. turn failures into feedback. With growth mindset, what it does, it really encourages you to see failures, not as a reflection of your ability, but you're looking for it as feedback to improve. So that reduce the fear of failure.

And I know in the culture of our lab, we can't afford to make mistakes. Of course, we have life that's in our hands. But we are humans and not perfect and that's why we put things in place to protect patients like QC and so on. So when you have that perspective where you're not afraid of failure, what that does is it promotes that culture of continuous improvement.

So say for example, you're QC didn't work, and so instead of seeing yourself as a failure or even seeing that as a failure, you want to look at it as a feedback. What is it that you're learning from this? So you want to analyze what went wrong. Was there an error in the way it was prepared, , in terms of the volume, , did something spill, was there a pipetting issue?

You start looking at. What can I learn from this? Was the equipment calibrated? What about the lot? You're like being that detective. Of course, we're in the lab. So you're looking, you're being curious. And so you're using the insight that you gain. Maybe it was a lot, the wrong lot that got mixed up and that is going to help you to adjust your approach.

You could probably found that it was a different lot, so your approach could be different. You could take that feedback to help others. Now we're not going to put same lot on the same shelf. And it also can help to refine your skills as a troubleshooter and also prevent similar issues from happening again.

So you have grown so much just by not seeing failure or taking that personal, but you're looking for feedback on what you can gain from failure. Number four, focus on effort and not just results. So as a, in growth mindset, you want to place a lot of value on your results. on the process that people would say, the effort that you put in, and not just the outcome.

So, what that does, it helps you to stay motivated. You're not demotivated by the results. Oh, my QC failed. But, you're motivated, you're more persistent. So, even when the result is not immediate, sometimes you have to do it again. You're still motivated because you're not just looking at the outcome. So use an example, you're working hard preparing for this presentation and it didn't go well as you hoped.

So instead of dwelling on that outcome, which may not have been perfect, You want to recognize all the work you put into it. You did a lot of research, you did a lot of preparation, and the whole presentation itself was a lot of work. So you have actually grown by doing all that work. So when you're looking at the effort that you've put in, you could just ask for feedback from someone.

How could I improve on my presentation? And so for every presentation, no matter how it goes, you will see it as a step to get better and better. So it's a step to becoming that better communicator. Instead of just doing it once, it didn't go well, I'm not doing it again, I'm not good as a presenter. You see that outcome as just a stepping stone.

So you're focused on the process and the growth. Thank you. And not just that out. Number five, you want to build resilience and you want to bounce back stronger. So resilience is that, to recover quickly from difficulties. So a growth mindset helps you to build resilience by teaching you to view setback more as temporary and something that you can overcome.

So you're in the lab, you're short stabbed. Now you're handling a lot of responsibility. You may be at charge, you're doing your charge duty, you have to take on a desk work, you're just troubleshooting, you're doing all this stuff. So, rather than feeling overwhelmed, you want to remind yourself, I've done this before, I've managed heavier workloads, and especially if you remember, we just came out of COVID where short staff was crazy, and you did a great job there.

Of course, we don't want to go back to it, but you can do it. So, these memories really bolster your confidence. It proves to you that you have resilience. That you can handle this current situation, which is temporary. And so each time you bounce back, you become stronger, you become more capable, because you're like, look, I've done this before, I've bounced back, I can do even more.

Oh, I've been in a situation where I wasn't familiar with, so I can apply for a job as a supervisor that I'm not familiar with. I've done this before. And I became stronger, I became capable, and I can do it again. So that's building resilience, and that's growth, growth mindset. Number six, use positive self talk, and that's so important.

I remember I just did an episode on filling your cup first, and there was one about Self love. And that has a lot to do with how do you talk to yourself. And so, positive self talk is so important. The way you talk to yourself matters. So positive self talk really fosters that growth mindset. It helps you to replace those limiting beliefs with empowering ones.

So if you're preparing for something challenging, say for an exam, a certification exam, and you find yourself thinking things like, I'm never going to pass this. Just stop and replace it with something like I've prepared thoroughly and I'm capable of passing this exam. And so what that does, it shifts those self talk and it reduces that anxiety like, Oh my god, I'm not, not gonna pass.

Imagine going in an exam thinking you're never gonna pass this because it's so difficult and so stressful. It's gonna be, , self fulfilling. So when you shift that self talk It reduces the anxiety, it helps you to focus, and now it's going to enhance your performance on the pressure. You can be more focused, your memory comes back, and you're more successful.

So whether it's in an exam, whether it's a new instrument, whether it's a busy time at work, whether it's in leadership position where so much is thrown on you. Just positive self talk is really great when it comes to that growth mindset. Number seven, connect with colleagues. That's going to help you with growth.

Connect with colleagues for growth. So growth mindset, I know there's a lot of talk about personal development, which is true, but it's not just about personal development. It's also about learning from others. You want to build strong and supportive relationship with your colleagues. You want to foster that culture of collaboration.

I talk a lot about collaboration. And shared learning is important. So with growth mindset, you are learning from others and they're learning from you. And so if you're in a difficult situation, say for example, you have a complex situation when it comes to maybe identifying a cell or you had a, maybe an assay that was difficult to get your results, don't just struggle alone.

Reach out to someone who has more experience. No shame in that game. And what that does, it's not only solve your issue faster, you can move on with something else, but it helps you to strengthen those professional network, it promotes those collaborative learning environment, and it builds you as a person.

So, it could be you're working on a project, and it doesn't have to be that person that's inside the lab. Sometimes you have to reach out to another lab if you're in leadership, and you have never seen that scenario before, reach out to another leader. The lab could reach out to a nursing colleague. to help to collaborate on some process improvement.

So, that build your network, it expand someone, they may call, call you on something, or you may call them on something, and so you're building strong relationships. Number eight, own your actions and learn from them. So, it's so important to take responsibility for your action, and Whether it's good or bad, so if it's good don't be afraid to say I did it, if it's bad don't be afraid that, to say you did it.

Because that's so important as a cornerstone in growth mindset. What it does, it builds trust, and it builds credibility, while it's providing that foundation for your growth. So you made a mistake, that's an example, you made a mistake by mislabeling a specimen. So instead of just , quickly shifting the blame, the first thing you have to do as someone with growth mindset is acknowledge you made an error.

Then you can reflect on what led to the problem, what caused this mistake, and then you can identify steps to prevent it from happening again. In process improvement, they talk about learning from errors like what happened, how did it happen, how we can prevent it from happening again.

This accountability helps you to show that you're committed for improvement. Because that's really a technique in process improvement. What happened? How did it happen? How can we prevent it from happening again? And it earns your respect. Not only did you acknowledge that you made the error, but you took the next step to identify how did it happen and you came up with a way to prevent it from happening again.

So you're earning respect from your team. Number nine, setting goals and celebrating progress. So with a growth mindset, setting challenging goals is a way to stretch you. But recognizing those small wins along the way is so important. So, you set those goals, you celebrate your progress that keeps you motivated, and it reinforce those positive behavior whenever you do what you need to do, and you celebrate that, reinforce it, and that's so important when it comes to continuous growth.

So . I'm going to use a simple example. You want to improve your packaging technique. You set a specific goal. You want to master this in a month. And then you start tracking your progress. So you could be tracking your daily progress and each time you hit the mark when you come comparing your Pipetting and you're getting reproducible results celebrate just celebrate these small victories and it could be just accuracy, it could be speed, whatever you're working on.

And this keeps you motivated, as I say, and it keeps you focused on your journey. So that's a small goal, but it could be a bigger goal that you set for yourself. And so it's so important to set these small milestones and celebrate. And number ten, you want to balance growth with self care. And you know me, I bring that up, then I probably wouldn't have, it wouldn't be me with an episode.

So it's so important to know that growth mindset isn't all about working non stop. It's about knowing when to go forward and when to rest. So you want to balance that growth with self care and that ensures that you have the energy, you have the mental clarity, I talk about mental fitness, to really perform at your best.

So if you have a lot of projects and you feel burnout, well you need to recognize that pushing harder through it. isn't going to be sustainable. And we made that mistake a lot. We all made that mistake. Let's push harder so we can just get it done. A lot of times there are errors, there's burnout, there's frustration.

And so that's not sustainable. So it's good to schedule breaks. You want to, if it's a long term project, don't work too late. It's talking to myself. You want to prioritize your sleep. You want to engage in activities that's going to recharge you. Things like meditation or a hobby or something. So you want to balance that.

You want to balance that. That's so you can manage the stress, you want to stay focused, you want to be able to maintain the enthusiasm for growth. With burnout, there's no enthusiasm, and so you may decide it's not even worth it, especially if you're trying to move in a managerial role. Is it even worth it?

So we're going to talk about some of those things. common pitfall when people confuse growth mindset with overworking. A lot of people think that pushing harder, working longer hours, taking on every new challenge because they're like challenge yourself, you'll grow, that comes your way. It's growth mindset.

This is not growth mindset. It's not what it's all about. Growth mindset focus on learning and development and not burnout. So we're going to use Sarah again. Go back to that story on Sarah. So post Sarah decided to adopt a growth mindset, but she mistakenly believed that she needed To take on every new task so that she can show her boss that she's doing all this stuff.

Attend every training work late in the night to prove she's capable of growth. Maybe she's trying to prove it to herself. Maybe she's trying to prove it to others. She may have a good intention to grow, but that approach gonna quickly, lead to stress, exhaustion, and eventually burnout. So instead true growth mindset would involve that strategic effort.

So you want to decide which skill you or which challenge you want to set as your goal. That's going to help you to grow the most. So it could be that Pareto's principle that 80 20 rule where 20 percent of the Work gonna have the most impact, so find that 20 percent or even less, and once you are strategic in deciding on what is it that's gonna help you grow the most, or what is it that I would enjoy the most doing, then you set those boundaries, you wanna allow yourself the time to rest, to recharge, because growth doesn't mean that constant strain, It actually means being consistent, being purposeful, and that's going to move towards those meaningful improvement.

So remember that adopting a growth mindset should empower you, not exhaust you. It's about finding that balance between stretching yourself, for that new challenge, and taking care of your well being. So, I'm just gonna review those 10 strategies for those who aren't writing, you can write now.

So the first thing is see challenges as a learning moment. Number two, stay curious and keep learning. Number three, turn failures into feedback. Number four, focus on effort and not just the result. Number five, you want to build resilience and bounce back stronger. Number six, you want to use that positive self talk.

Number seven, you want to connect with colleagues for growth. Number eight, you want to own your actions and learn from them. Number nine, you want to set goals and celebrate those small progress. And number ten, you want to balance that growth with self care. Isn't that amazing? All right. So now you can use some of these strategies to apply either at work or at home.

And so how can I actually use that to apply to something that I can even do today? I'm going to go through a five step way to use all those strategies that I mentioned and apply it today. So first you'll want to reflect on your challenges. So think about a recent challenge. How did you react? Did you react like Sarah?

Could you have reframed it with a growth mindset? Ask yourself that question. And then two, you want to create a learning plan. So you want to choose one skill that you want to improve. We, could it be you want to improve the way you communicate when you're under stress? Do you want to improve your presentation skill?

Do you want to improve a technique at work? Set that. And then, you want to set up a plan. So, plan how you learn that skill and set a timeline. We talk about those timelines and milestones. Then you want to find a growth buddy, I call it. So you want to connect with a colleague, you want a coach, a mentor, someone who values a growth mindset.

You want to share experiences with that person and learn from each other's perspective. So, someone that will hold you accountable. You want to say I'm working on this and I want to change the way I look at it. I'm always looking at everybody at work as if I'm the victim. They're always at me. They don't want me to grow.

They don't want me to get that promotion. I want to change that and I want to have a positive outlook. Hold me accountable. And then you want to practice those positive affirmation instead of those negative self talk. So start each day by saying something like, I'm capable. Overcoming any challenge I face today.

So you set that challenge as your goal, , set up your learning plan and your timeline and you have a supporting group and you're doing your positive affirmation. And then the last thing is to celebrate your effort at the end of each day. You want to acknowledge the thing you did well. Of course, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to learn from it, you're going to see those as feedback, and the important thing, acknowledge what you did well, or that one effort that you made some progress or growth, and that will build your confidence, and it will reinforce your positive mindset.

So, try that today. And so, there you have it. These were ten practical steps. strategies or steps that's going to help you as a medical lab professional to move from that fixed mindset to a growth mindset. And it's going to transform those challenges into stepping stones for your career success, for personal fulfillment.

And just remember, like Sarah, you have that power to change how you approach your challenges at work. So with a growth mindset, you can turn any obstacle into opportunities to learn, to grow, and to move faster towards those goals. So thank you for tuning in to Elaborate Topics. and if you found this helpful, please share it with your friends, share it with your colleagues, subscribe and encourage them to subscribe and find more tips and tools and insights to help you to succeed both inside and outside the lab and and it was such a pleasure sharing with you on this episode and so you can reach out to us.

On Direct Impact Broadcasting dot com. That's where you listen to this. One, two, three, four. So thank you so much for listening. And you can listen to this episode on any of your favorite podcasts. platform or direct impact broadcasting. com. You can reach out to us at elaborate topics at direct impact broadcasting.

com or on LinkedIn, or you can reach out to me at lona small at lona small. com. If you're looking to have an impact in your career or in your life while   finding joy and fulfillment until you hear from us again. Just keep growing, keep thriving. Remember you have the power to shape your future starting today.

Have a great one..

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Elaborate Topics, where your hosts discussed relevant strategies for laboratory professionals. Please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast platform and listen to us on directimpactbroadcasting. com. Stay tuned for another episode with information you can use to excel in your laboratory career.