Everybody, I'm Jen Zumstang. And thanks so much to those of you who have joined in real time. We think that that interaction, however you decide to do that, will be enriching to everybody. We also know that there's always a lot going on, especially this time of year and with everything else going on in the world. So we know that some of you will be joining us later on demand or in rewind and are thrilled that you're here as well. And so as we'll talk about later, our plan is to include some other interactions, including this forum or watch out on social media so that we can keep this conversation going. Feel free to keep your camera on. We welcome that. I think Rachel and I in virtual land are happy to know that there are other people with us. But we see your faces. We know you're there. We see your names. And we also welcome you to do what's right for you and the setting that you're in to join us virtually. So we also understand if for whatever reason it's not a good fit to have your camera on, we totally get it. We also really invite you to use the chat, use the raise the hand feature as we go so that you can, again, interact in a way that works for you. And as we'll talk about more, this is an exciting first community session for us. And Rachel and I are happy to jump in and help hopefully feel some momentum from all of us. But we do really want this to develop into a community session and community work going forward that works for everybody and involves everybody. So it's really more than anything an invitation. So in terms of the group, we are going to tell you a little bit about how we got here, I think, but want to just talk about the membership group itself. Hopefully, many of you here are because you saw the community group description and signed up. If you haven't, we welcome that additional membership or tell your friends. And our overall goals for this community are twofold. One is really to provide a mechanism to explicitly value and share the strengths of our members who have introversion preferences and better utilize the strengths in our PM and our community through individual and group leadership development, validation, collegial mentoring, coaching, and providing input to the organization. And today, I think Rachel and I are going to try to offer some of our expertise with our background and training with especially introversion, extroversion, and the Myers-Briggs framework, as well as emotional intelligence. But you all have amazing experiences and expertise. And I think Rachel and I are always interested to grow here, obviously. And so this is, again, a community invitation. We also want to continue to elevate the appreciation for what we can offer as introverted leaders to our teams, to our leadership roles in and outside of the academy, and also help us engage, perhaps, as introverts and navigate when extroversion is really needed, if that's not our preference. Because we all have skills and abilities in all of these areas. And sometimes, that's where we're really going to shine. And we want to support each other and facilitate that. So really, just a welcome to the group. Rachel, I don't know if you want to say a little bit more about how we got here and your excitement, but I do appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, no. Thank you. That was a fantastic intro. For those of you who don't know me, Rachel Brackey-Holman. And I am excited to get this off the ground with Jen. But like she touched on earlier, I think this is very much meant to be a community. So if any of you have ideas or questions or thoughts for future presentations, again, there is an in-person session that we'll get to later where we can connect at the meeting. However, beyond that, we can really do what we want with this community, whether that's occasional article postings in the Fizz Forum platform, whether that's an occasional webinar or a Zoom meeting where we talk about book club kind of topics. I mean, there's all sorts of cool things that we can do with this. So I just want you all to be thinking about what would be useful. What would you find to be entertaining and interesting and engaging? And we're all ears. If we have time at the end, we can talk a little bit about that. I think we will have time at the end. We're not sure we're going to fill up the whole hour and a half with our slides. We intentionally kept our slides pretty lean. But you never know how these conversations go. But certainly, we're all about being like a democratic organization here. So definitely want your voices to be heard. But yes, I'll let you take it away, Jen. Great. Thanks, Rachel. So for this session together virtually, these are our objectives. So being able to list at least three statements or questions or approaches that we can all utilize when networking or meeting new people. Of course, thinking about our upcoming in-person meeting. Although these days, networking is lots of different things. And using our technology is great too. Being able to discuss at least one strength of our introversion preferences and one challenge. Individualizing and your reflection as much as you like for yourself and what you're seeing in your current work. Being able to define emotional intelligence in the context of leadership and knowing options for self-reflection. And then, of course, not exclusively. But people with introversion preferences tend to like to learn by reading. And so we often have a lot of discussions about books and things to share. And so again, all is welcome. But we've got some book recommendations. And really invite your participation in other recommendations as well to keep our personal and professional development growing. So this will be kind of our virtual time. I'll tell you in a bit how this connects to the networking session time that we have in person in the meeting next week. But we will be doing some reflections all for your own personal use. So I encourage you to grab what works for you. If you don't have it already, open Word on your computer. Grab the back of an envelope. Open your phone. Whatever works. We'll do some note taking and brainstorming. So with that, we have the invitation to build on this next week for those of you able to join in person. It's a great kickoff to the meeting on Thursday. It's from our Introverted Leaders Network session. It's from 10 to 11, that local Eastern time in room 337. Rachel and I will be there. So at the very least, you can poke your head in and wave. And we'll happily, quietly wave back. And I will be there the whole time. The amazing Dr. Bracky Holman will be leaving a little bit early so that she can go optimize her role as program planning chair and kick off the entire meeting and plenary in the ballroom that we will join her for as well. So again, as a big celebration of introverted leadership, we've got some good examples here. But we'll be there. The goal for the in-person meeting is to provide some available resources about Myers-Briggs profiles, if that's something you're interested to learn more about. Rachel and I are actually both Myers-Briggs type inventory certified. We did the training course and bring that information to you today, but are happy to chat a whole lot more in person. Again, like Rachel mentioned, want to make sure we get ideas for what to do in the future. There'll be paper out. So you can write them. You can send them. You can chat with us if you like. Practice your networking if you would like to practice. And hopefully build some great connections if that's what you're looking for. And then we're hoping, or I'm hoping, to launch our first annual book exchange. So I'm bringing in a whole bunch of books. We invite you to bring a book if you like. We'll just have a table out to bring a book or leave a book about introversion, leadership, professional development. Maybe grab something to read on the plane to come. Switch it out when you get there. Take a new one for when you go. Again, we just want to build this community. So watch FizzForum for additional follow-ups if you have another way to share information or expertise. And we'll just put out there that our in-person networking in that room, talking is optional. We want you to have time to process. I'm a gregarious introvert. So you're always welcome to connect with me and chat if you're in the mood. If you just want to look around and not say anything, again, that's totally welcome. We get that. So however you're approaching this is fine and right. And we hope to see you in person. So back to our initial work to build on today. We're just going to talk some more about introversion. And really, I think most of this is sharing these elements of introversion in more detail than most of us have encountered, even if you've done the Myers-Briggs. From that framework, partly from the lens that Rachel and I have just found this very helpful. She and I trained together and were chiefs together and have often used AAPM&R as our annual reunion, one of our catch-ups. And some element at the meeting of just the strength of the art introversion, what we're feeling or is more challenging in our work or at the meeting comes up. And this framework just continues to be a place that we find a useful tool. And so we wanted to share that if it works for you. So let's talk a little bit more about Myers-Briggs and introversion. So I do think it's helpful, especially as physicians, to have a little bit of that framework. The Myers-Briggs inventory is based on the theoretical work of Carl Jung. And we'll talk in a sec about why that hopefully is a helpful lens. And part of the focus was during the time it was created, there was a lot of focus on pathology and diagnostics and social behavior. And while we don't want to over-say what's normal, the idea was to approach not pathologic behavior, but our typical normal preferences as human beings. And part of that is acknowledging the wide range of that and the strength in all of those approaches and the strength in having teams and communities that are diverse in those approaches. And so this was a mother-daughter team that developed, did years, decades of work to develop this. And one of the assumptions for how this was created and used is that these are inborn or innate preferences. And so again, this is not that we don't show up in other ways. It doesn't mean we don't have other strengths. This is really about just how our brains work, how we were brought up, how we were shaped, of what's our default preference so that we understand maybe what's easier or harder in our very big toolkit as human beings of how we can approach things. So part of how the Myers-Briggs is organized is based on Jung's personality theory. And the idea here is that as human beings, we all have two mental processes. We take in information, and then we make decisions about that information. And this is true for all of us, but I think especially as our work as physicians, can really relate to the data we're collecting and what we're getting information about the world and our decisions. And then everyone has preferred ways of using those mental processes. And as human beings, we have at least two worlds, this outer world, truly outside of our physical body with other things, people, and events. And then our internal consciousness, subconscious world of thoughts, feelings, and reflections. So in that scope of things is how the Myers-Briggs dichotomies and preferences are organized, and each can bring a different lens to each process. So one example that's often used is just with our preferences, our innate handedness. So for those of you that have analog materials, or you can just sort of imagine what this is like, write your name or sign your name with your dominant hand. Just give yourself kind of think about what those motions are. And then when you're ready, switch to your non-dominant hand and do the same. So either sign your name or write out your name and take a second, kind of see what that feels like. What's different between dominant and non-dominant. And you're welcome, you put observations in the chat. Feel free to raise your hand if you just had a profound moment in your life where you realized that, I don't know, maybe you've been left-handed your whole life and never knew it, I don't know. Profound realizations maybe later. Talia says, that's awkward. That's, I don't know about you, Rach, but I think that's the first thing that we hear from folks when we do this, right? It's awkward, yeah. And childish. My signature with my left hand looks very like a child did it. And my dominant hand, it looks very automatic, routine, easy. Yeah. And Jiggy says, I'm slow and shaky. Got it. Yeah, we so appreciate this sharing, even though it feels very basic, it kind of connects with this idea of strengths. Abigail's already into the like, oh, I need to practice, which I totally relate to. So I appreciate you saying that. And then, yes, it's all that context, Kristen, of the handwriting and the task at hand and how we evaluate and that fits together. I totally, totally appreciate that. So if this is connecting for you guys, like it does for many people, I think this is a really helpful framework for thinking about kind of personality traits, preferences, and certainly Myers-Briggs in the land of introversion, extroversion, right? I think most of us are pretty comfortable that if you're right-handed, that's just the way it is. If you're left-handed, that's just the way it is. That's kind of your innate preference. And it doesn't mean that you can't write with your non-dominant hand, right? But when you try to use those preferences that are not your innate setting, they feel awkward. They might come across as childish. It might go slower and feel shaky. You might be more self-critical. That's how I feel. And that's kind of the common experience in these Myers-Briggs dichotomies is that especially if you're really strong in the dichotomy for your innate preference on one side, so I have very strong introversion preferences on the scale. And when I'm in a position where I am working to use my extroverted skills, they feel less developed, harder. I need time to do them. Sometimes they go awry and I have to apologize, et cetera, because they're just not as developed. It's not as innate, okay? So again, it's not a judgment, but we hope that this provides some framework about thinking of moving in and out of these preferences, especially for however we were told we should be growing up or told how we should act as physicians or getting ready to go to a meeting and thinking about all the extroverted networking that people might want us to do, et cetera. This can be hopefully a good touchstone. So any questions or other observations just at the moment? We'll move a little bit more into introversion, extroversion. Rachel, did you have anything to add? Yeah, the other thing I just thought I'd throw out there is Jen and I live so much in this conversation of introversion that I thought I would just, in general, society is considered to be fairly extroverted and that most things that are designed kind of usually have majority of extroverts kind of designing them, if that makes any sense. So for me, it was a big aha moment when I recognized that the majority of, and this is in the United States, so I think it's different based on different parts of the world, but the United States generally has, not surprisingly, I think for all of us, assuming most of the people on this Zoom are introverted preferences, it was not a surprise to me when I learned that the majority of Americans, if you look at all the various Myers-Briggs tests that they've done, there's a bigger population that are extroverted. And so sometimes these introverted preferences, and that's actually part of the reason we wanted to create this community, we're kind of in the minority. And so sometimes we're not super comfortable because what is designed around us, it's like the notebooks that never think about left-handed people, right? Or the various school supplies that were never really designed with a left-handed person in mind. I kind of sometimes feel like I'm walking around a world that really doesn't embrace. And certainly there are leaders out there who recognize this and have a lot of experience, and do a really good job of embracing both preferences. But I know that for me, I've always felt like to engage in a big meeting or wherever I'm going, I've always had to use my left hand essentially, which is my non-dominant side, which can be a real vulnerable place to be because I don't feel like an adult in that world. Like I feel childish and all that other stuff. So anyways, I just wanted to throw that out there as kind of another backdrop to this conversation is that we're kind of living in this world and trying to do our best. So that's all I have, Deb. Yeah, and I think that's a great reminder for me that there are folks who spend their whole lives doing research based on the Myers-Briggs. There's just talk about falling down a rabbit hole. It's quite interesting if you're into it. But the dichotomies have different percentages and are fairly stable across cultures, but some variation and an introversion, extroversion is maybe a bit more 50-50 than some other traits. So just that there are more introverts out there that we wanna connect with each other. But like also that Rachel's saying that it can be skewed and certainly the systems that are set up often reward or encourage the extroversion preference. So again, all of these things interact and we're here to say that that is totally fine and we think we can do better. So we're glad you're here. All right, so digging a bit more into the details. Just to remind us, again, most people I've chatted with have done some version of the Myers-Briggs. If you haven't, totally fine. But there are these four dichotomies that reflect those mental processes and how we take in information, make decisions like our world organized. And it's helpful to have a little bit of that lay of the land. So extroversion, introversion is obviously where we're gonna spend most of our time today. And that's really about the internal versus external world we talked about and where we, sort of our default of where our preference or skill is for where we pay attention and our energy. So again, we'll come back to that. Sensing and intuition is about how you take in information. And again, we all do all of these. It's just about maybe what our default preference is. Certainly as physicians, we have to do all eight of these pretty well a lot of the time to be successful in our work for patients. Sensing is more data-driven, like numbers-driven, objective-driven, and intuition is more data from feeling. And that's a little bit different than kind of this decision-making approach of thinking or feeling. It doesn't mean that, you know, that doesn't come with a connotation to it, but kind of whether you default to tend to make decisions with data or through feelings and values first. So it can even be what you address in your decision-making first versus later. And some patterns about whether you start big picture or with the details can go with the sensing, intuition, and thinking, and feeling. And then judging and perceiving is a bit more of a summary dichotomy of how you'd like your world organized. And so this is not that it's judgmental, but it's about decisions and judging and having a very linear organization to things versus more of a spontaneous, not liking that organized structure. And I won't give everything away, but I'll say that Rachel and I share many preferences, but not all, and are quite variable in the different scales. And so, again, we just appreciate as well the diversity that all eight of these and their combinations for the different Myers-Briggs types tend to bring out in people and teams. So let's focus more on kind of this extroversion, introversion differences. Again, this is the dichotomy that helps us have a framework for, as humans, how we default preference to direct and receive energy. So people who prefer extroversion direct their energy and attention outward and tend to be energized by interacting with people and taking action. That's like recharging. And people who prefer introversion tend to default more to directing their energy and attention inward, like thoughts and feelings. This is not about selfishness. It might actually be very altruistic or you're working through something or working on a patient, but directing your attention to process that internally, perhaps, and tend to be energized by reflecting, including on their own and others' ideas, memories, and experiences. So as other examples, again, people who prefer extroversion generally energize by interacting with others, tend to be seen as sociable and expressive, prefer to communicate face-to-face and work out ideas by talking them through, like really need to do that in order to understand and process and work through these ideas. And people who prefer introversion are energized by the opportunity to reflect, tend to be more private and contained, prefer to communicate by writing and work out ideas by thinking them through instead of more specifically talking. As we go through all these examples, again, I'll just call out that there's no one right way to be in the world. All the ways that you are is the right way. And most people have some things that fall in and out of preference. So it might be that you check a few things from the introversion column and a few things from the extroversion column or your mid-range. All of that is totally fine. There's no like right answer here. You are still welcome in the introversion group if you're not checking everything on that side, it's fine. We love that. But this is just to give you some space to think about what might be true for you, okay? So if we think about the attention side, people who prefer extroversion tend to have broad interests in many things, learn best through doing or discussing and readily take initiative in work and relationships more broadly is kind of the theme there. Whereas people who prefer introversion thinking about where their attention is tend to focus deeper on their interests. So perhaps narrower, a bit deeper, learn best by reflection and mental practice and take initiative when the situation, especially the issue is very important to them or their values. Again, no right or wrong way. These are just patterns that we tend to see. So thinking about that, I wanna invite you to do our first reflection. So it'll take about three to five minutes here and I'll keep track of time to reflect on your leadership roles currently, things that you're aspiring to. I would say we're all leaders as physiatrists for sure, but also maybe what your interests are, what you're looking to do next and your introversion self, whether that's a really strong preference or pretty mild. Again, everybody has introverted and extroverted skills, but what challenges have you faced? What opportunities have you leveraged? When have you taken advantage of your introversion strengths? And then are there any differences depending on your professional setting or different organizations? Is it different with different jobs you've had, different with AAPMNR versus your day job, et cetera? So I will start the timer and I'm gonna turn my camera off just so that you have some mental space for that time, but I'll give you a one minute warning and we'll come back together and see if you guys wanna share, but I'll leave this slide up so you can see it. All righty, so take maybe another minute or so to finish what you've got, collect your thoughts, make a note if you need to come back to something later. And for those of you that are interested, maybe come back on camera when you're done. That is a helpful visual signal for me about where people are at. I am so incredibly grateful for our virtual options and I am so excited for the in-person part of the meeting next week. I really need to do some learning in person, I think, so. All righty, so thanks for jumping in and starting to do some of this, this reflection. Again, this is all just for you, of course, but yeah, there's, we're so excited that there's like 10 of us here. That's wonderful. And so if you guys have thoughts or feel like you want to share or have questions of each other, feel free to just unmute, speak up, put it in the chat. Anybody want to share? We can also structure it too if we want to just hear about maybe, let's start with the good, maybe the opportunities, the opportunities that we've leveraged with that introversion leadership style. I'm curious if anyone, and I'm happy to share what I came up with, but I want to give the floor to whoever else would like to speak up. I'll go ahead and start. My name is Talia Fleming. I'm from New Jersey. I just kind of went down the list of what you guys have listed here. What challenges have you faced? And I'm curious if the group has similar feelings on a couple of these dimensions. I oftentimes find that extroverts in the room are the one that get a lot of attention. Sometimes I'm in meetings and extroverts are speaking a lot of words, but sometimes it's doesn't really make sense or it just sounds like they're talking to be talking and the introverted me is saying I'm quiet, but it doesn't mean that I don't know anything or that I can offer anything. It's just that right now you're taking up space and it's easier for me to wait until you're done and then I'll give my opinion. I'm finding that I'm learning how to navigate that space and how to own my own voice a little bit more and insert myself without depleting my energy all the way going back and forth with other extroverts that just do it more naturally. So that's one thing. So even though I'm quiet doesn't mean that I don't know what I'm talking about or that I don't know what's going on. In terms of opportunities that I have leveraged, I'm finding as I tap into more of my intuitive self and embrace the introvert that's inside of me, I can anticipate things that sometimes extroverts gloss right over. Be it in my clinical experience when patients are telling me stories, or be it the administrators have a challenge, there's a network problem, what are we going to do? And I find that the extrovert in me is thinking I've thought of this already. I saw this problem coming and I've actually mapped out five different solutions. Do you want to see my PowerPoint presentation? So I find that that's almost a superpower that I have. And so again, learning how to use that in a way that also doesn't deplete me. I find that I'm very purposeful, I'm very efficient, and I'm really great at doing those quiet tasks. Sometimes I joke that sometimes I don't mind working on the computer because the computer doesn't talk back to me, you know, I click the button and the letter pops up and this is great. So I'm finding that I'm really good at doing data analysis, and you know just the minutiae that has to be done for certain projects. And with that, I find that sometimes if you're not paying attention, it can be easy to be taken advantage of, because those are the tasks that sometimes don't get all the attention, and other people on the team can maybe get promoted or get another advantage and then you're sitting in the backseat, doing much of the work, but not necessarily getting the attention and the recognition that you really deserve for your contribution. I think that that's important too. In terms of other settings and different organizations and roles, I find that even when I do need to present, or I do need to share, I almost have those pre-race jitters, I don't know how many of you are athletes, but you know you get the butterflies in your stomach Sometimes I have to get myself physically and mentally, I don't want to say like juiced up, but it's almost like putting on a different personality and it's not inauthentic because it's always me, but I almost have to say okay this is my performance mode in terms of, you know, this is how we need to engage in this particular setting, and then at the end of the day, you know, curl in bed with a cup of tea and just kind of relax in my own space. So I'm just curious if other members of the group if any of what I said resonates. I think 100% probably for me and Rachel, if I can speak a little on her behalf based on how much time we've spent together but yeah I would love to hear from others. I love some of what you bring up to Talia because there are like with the dichotomies there's eight different combinations of preferences within introversion right and so that's also part of what we love about building this community. Rachel and I have talked about, you know, really building on those different strengths. So for example, I love hearing about your interest in data and I know you've done, you know, a lot of scholarship and work that makes use of that expertise, and I share a different preference in that area maybe related to data so that I really really value it but it's conceptual, and I'm happy to do a spreadsheet but it will take me 10 hours longer than, you know, it should. So again, these are all good things and and and richness and yeah I really really value and appreciate you sharing that and you've definitely made some agreement in the chat, and then again just giving you some more space to, we can come back to the meeting thing in a bit, but yeah any maybe take one more comment in this area and then move us forward. Sure. What Talia, what you shared resonates with me as well. I'm Sandra Hearn from Ann Arbor, Michigan. I find that I'm very analytical, and the introvert side of me finds it hard to just jump into a conversation spontaneously sometimes. I need that time to analyze and make sure that what I'm contributing adds value and is worth saying. On the flip side of things, I found that it can be, if I can find someone who is willing to slow down a bit or do some asynchronous conversation, things like revisit the concept later, problem solve kind of asynchronously and over time, we can work quite well together. And it's been gratifying to have some professional partnerships where we have that kind of synergy. So I guess I'll share that piece. Yeah, I think what what both of you have said totally resonates with me as well. I just thought the other thing I would share something that has come up for me in a role that I have in my, in my clinic is I have a dyad partnership with, with a more of a business director, and then I'm the medical director. And thankfully we have a fantastic relationship, and he's very extroverted. And so I have found that relationship to be extremely helpful to me because he can do sorry my light keeps coming off, but I'll talk in the dark But I have found that dyad relationship, it's kind of like I'm a dyad with Jen at the meeting right we walk around and kind of support each other and it's just nice to have, you know, someone there to kind of resonate issues and, you know, it makes the more uncomfortable mingling a little bit more comfortable to have a buddy there for me and my in my work in my clinic having a executive director who I really connect with and we have each other's backs has been extremely helpful because he kind of knows the like lay of the land as far as the like pulse of, and because he's talking to so many people, and then we process it together, and we kind of make a game plan. And then sometimes I carry it forward and sometimes he carries it forward depending on who it's with. And so I have found and that's really kind of the primary place I've had that experience and some of my other leadership roles I don't have quite as much of that dyad. But I found that to be really helpful for me, and I think that helps me specifically partly because of my introversion. Well, keep it coming much more to come, including perhaps that are networking in person on Thursday. This is great and I think as you're hearing to lots of balance. And again, you know that it's not good to just be siloed that's why we want these other dichotomy diversities and think about our own traits as well. Great. So thinking about the networking part of our session and what we offered. I do want to call out that I do think culturally we say networking and we kind of think about happy hour right like working networking is like working the room. And that's a very small probably important but small part of it and so I just, I was at a session actually that a couple years ago that Rachel helped organize that really expanded that definition of networking and thinking about your professional network. Right. And so, this gets kind of, you know, I think it's different things to different people but again it's much more than happy hour. And so I want us to just take a few minutes again three to five minutes thinking ahead I know many of us are coming in person to the meeting, which is a huge opportunity for many things including developing your professional network, thinking about our goals and vision for what our practice will be next or what our leadership will be next, and people who maybe we can connect with at the meeting who can help partner influence leverage. Take us forward in all sorts of areas and having some intention with that I think for everybody but especially that time to reflect as an introvert can be helpful. So, go ahead and just take a couple minutes to think about this middle bullet here what are one to two key ways that you feel like you can positively build your professional network to support your goals at this APM in our meeting. It's a little bit more vague so they can be whatever is true for you but I'll give you maybe a couple of examples just so that this makes sense. So, in a previous life. I was in an academic medicine position and now to community hospital. The next thing I needed to do for my academic position, a while back was to do more editorial work and journal reviews, and so I was thinking about finding a particular person who was the editor of brain injury at the meeting, so that I could give them my info and hopefully increase how much I was reviewing for them right something very very specific, or making sure that Rachel and I carve out time at the annual meeting for our normal joint professional support development because it's super helpful right that one's a little bit easier to come by but if we don't do it intentionally. That time can get away from us. And so it could be all sorts of things, but just giving you some time to reflect. So, feel free to leave your cameras on if you like. If you want to shut that down it's also okay. We'll take about three to five minutes, come up with as much as you like and I'll give you kind of our one minute warning. I'll take another minute or so to collect your thoughts. I'm just going to invite you, if you'd like, to share your goals or something you're thinking about for building your professional network in the chat. Some of that is so that visually you guys can see, so that if there's somebody with a shared interest, that's maybe just a little bit easier to track. And just also, I love the conversation, but want to make sure we get to the emotional intelligence part of what we've promised we'll offer for today. All righty, I do find that building your professional network is challenging for a lot of folks, especially early career. Either just, it's a place of mentorship that I think in medical education can get a little bit lost beyond sort of the basics and some of the more subtle ways. And so just a few of the many, many resources out there. There's a website called Mind Tools, which is a whole professional leadership development website that I personally have found helpful because it almost always has a resource for something that I'm struggling with, but they have a networking skills skill book. And then the Harvard Business Review has all sorts of things, but they have a fairly recent article called Easy Networking Tips for Networking Haters that maybe is a little strong because networking is all different kinds of things, but it does have, I think, good kind of classic introversion tips about moving through a room. So now having in mind kind of some things that you might want to positively build on, I just want to explore more about happy hour for us and introversion, extroversion to, again, give you guys some more conceptual and logistics frameworks that maybe have been helpful for folks. So first, I just want to say my opinion strongly is that you don't have to go to happy hour, okay? So if you dread happy hour and it doesn't help you meet your professional networking goals, you know, culturally, let's give each other permission to not do that if it doesn't help us, right? Some of you may be so thrilled and looking forward to happy hour, and that's awesome and amazing, and I don't want to discourage that at all, but this group, a little bit more introverted, this might be a little bit harder. And so it's not just the default. There's many different ways to do things. So you don't have to go to happy hour, except when you do have to go to happy hour. And I say that, again, just to open up that you are amazing skilled people, you can do this. Sometimes it's totally the right thing to do. It may be the exact perfect way for you to meet that person that you're seeking out. It might be the thing that you want to work on for your professional development. It might be that because of your job role, like when I was residency program director, I kind of had to go to happy hour, at least for a little bit, right? You just got to do it. And that's fine. It's like our other work doesn't have to be your favorite thing, but knowing how to prepare for that so that you can show up at your best, if it's still like not your default amazing skill is totally fine. So thinking through, maybe taking some notes as we look at these dichotomies, whether or not you think happy hour is happy hour, or whether perhaps like me, happy hour is like your worst nightmare. Both are totally fine. Again, it's just kind of culturally what we've set up to reward in some of these settings, which is understandable. So I want you to stay open to ideally, you know, invite you to stay open to the range of preferences within introversion, extroversion, because there's going to be some awesome combos there. Think about how you can use that to your advantage and where for you personally, it might be helpful to plan, adjust, or offer an alternative plan in like meeting up with somebody that might work a lot better for you if this is just like, not a good fit. And I say that as somebody who like those times when I need to go to happy hour, I have, what I've learned is that I have to block an hour before to psych myself up, like we sort of talked about, and then do the time. And then I usually need at least an hour afterwards to decompress. So again, whatever your experience is, that's totally true. That's totally fine. But you're not alone if the happy hour is actually three hours in order to cope with trying to do it well professionally. All right, so enough of that. Let's get into some of that. You might, you know, look at yourself and your skills and your advantages here with introversion, extroversion. I do apologize. This is not as dark or clear as I hoped it would come out. But looking at that range from extroversion to introversion, this is kind of more of a detail of a type two Myers-Briggs profile that has elements of the different facets of introversion, extroversion, and then kind of the polar opposites, and then the mid zone if you have kind of mixed preferences. So this first part of the table is the range of extroversion, introversion, and ways to connect with others. So introversion tends to be more receiving, considering social obligations unimportant and leaving them to others. Sorry, I cannot say it without laughing because it just is so clearly lovingly connected with happy hour, versus assertively outgoing in social situations if you're more of an initiating extrovert, for example. Other things for receiving for those of us who are introverts tend to prefer in-depth discussions about important issues and hate small talk and may be seen by others as quiet and shy, even if you're not quiet and shy. And I think I heard some of that too. But how we're perceived by others professionally and in our clinical care and professional development, of course, can be important. There's a middle zone where sort of it depends, of course, and so you might think about advantages of where you are. What are the times where you are willing to introduce people or where you do feel more comfortable? Or are there ways that you can set up more in-depth discussions if that's what you're comfortable with and try to minimize the small talk? Although I'm going to give you one thing in just a bit to maybe help us with small talk because it was something that I found really helpful. If we look at communicating feelings, thoughts, and interests, as introverts, we tend to be more contained, keeping feelings and interests to ourselves, even assuming that other people might not be interested. I think that's a good one to challenge, actually. As human beings, I think we are interested in each other. I think as physicians, we can often relate to that with our patients. There, of course, will be different degrees, but if you are, you know, for those moments where I'm feeling like, oh, nobody cares about blah, blah, blah, it's not like it has to be the most important thing in the world to them, but most people are going to be fine listening to whatever my favorite thing is, even for a little bit, right? And here's some of that difference in the expressive extroversion of talking a lot, feel easier to get to know, and find it easier to express. In terms of relationships, again, same left to right, extroversion, introversion. There tend to be more intimate relationships in terms of more one-to-one in-depth involvement with, you know, fewer significant people, and then drawing a sharp distinction between, like, friends and acquaintances versus having those lines not so distinguished. And thinking about ways to communicate, socialize, and learn, again, that extroversion, introversion is about energy and where we tend to put our attention, and so introverts tend to be more reflective and learn better by reading and writing and communicate better through writing. I don't know that I've ever been in a happy hour where there was writing, but that could be interesting, right? I mean, it's just some of our cultural defaults. Of course, we can talk, but, you know, is that our strength? Maybe for some of us, but it depends. Here's the part that I think for me becomes really important is also that when I'm connecting with others, I can concentrate better as an introvert on reading written material than listening to someone talk. And so, again, you know, if whatever is true for you is true, but there's nothing wrong with you. This is just how human beings are some of the time. They're opposite some of the time, and so that can make, I think, some of these talking social interactions a bit harder for introverts versus folks that learn better by doing and hearing and like to communicate in person face-to-face or on the phone and do better talking than writing, right? So it depends on the setting. And then the last piece is kind of the level and kind of energy, and again, not all introverts are quiet, but, you know, that can be part of it or one facet of it if you prefer calm, serenity, silence. So I am, you know, again, just it's not about me, but just if it's an opening to share to make that safe, you know, I'm very noise sensitive and the loudness of happy hour and that energy is just really challenging. I like music. I like noise. I play pinball, which is super loud and, you know, it just depends, right? And maybe you're energized by, you know, those enthusiastic introverts are going to like where the action is, even though they have other preferences. Again, all that's fine. But knowing that about yourself can, you know, make it a little bit easier to plan accordingly and connect. So I see great ideas, community things, maybe there's an introverted happy hour, chill hour, something, keep it coming. We'll definitely be into finding ways to do this. So this is just, you know, one invitation to maybe further exploration about Myers-Briggs if this kind of framework works for you. If you're like, this is baloney, that's totally fine. I understand. It's just, I think Rachel and I have found this really helpful over the years. And again, it can just be validating, which we're hoping as part of this group. And if you find things that really relate or ways you can nudge yourself more toward the mid zone, it might be helpful for things like networking. Yeah. And I would just say there's a few things that happen in the Academy meeting that I think can be really easier to access for those with introverted tendencies. They always have like a foundation run, and this is for people who want to go walking or running. I'm not saying everyone on this group has to go for a 5k, but I have enjoyed that in the past because you tend to be in a smaller group and there's like a task at hand. And so I find that I can engage in small talk if there's a little bit more structure to it. And so then I can say like, oh, when's the last race you ran? And like, oh, are you a runner? Or is this just like a one-off? Or do you want to walk together? And so I have found some of the smaller social events, which actually quite a bit of, with all the different community sessions, most of the communities have some sort of in-person option at the meeting. So I would encourage you all to look at those options because that also will be, I'm sure, a much smaller group, and you share a common interest, right? And for me, that is so helpful to navigate that conversation. That's the only other thing I wanted to add, but I love these ideas. I mean, I think I also have found, and Jen touched on this already, but having a partner in crime is like a game changer for me. So just having, and it doesn't have to be, you know, a BFF, but like it can be someone that you went to residency with or someone that you've gotten to know with various committee work or who you work with currently, and you know, you're at the meeting, you know, putting sometimes a little bit of effort and to find each other early in the meeting, then you don't have to like constantly walk around with each other. But I think having a little bit of that, especially in some of like the presidential reception and having a little bit more partnership I have found is super helpful. And then, you know, Jen and I will branch off and go talk to various people and then we can reconvene, but it just feels so good to have kind of a cheerleader by your side and just someone there to chat with if there's nothing else going on too. Yeah. And I think, you know, I will, Rachel will be busy in many ways at the meeting because of her role, but I will offer up for both of us that, you know, we're pretty low key inclusive, want to be, you know, accepting people. And so if you are ever stuck in a meeting and you see one of us, you are a hundred percent welcome to come over and say, hi, I'm an introvert and I just need somewhere to stand for a sec. Just come on over and we'll be like, no problem. You can just hang out here, chat when you're ready, like feel free to look for the two of us or these other lovely, clearly wonderful people on the call today. And just not have to quite be alone in the corner being like, ah, what am I doing next? If you're feeling that perhaps, for example, and just come and be like, I just, I need an introverted break. I'm going to stand here. Okay. I'm going to be like, that's all good. So I think I need a secret handshake really. I know. Right. We'll just, we need an introversion badge, a little code, like help. So Rachel, will you be at the foundation walk, roll run? I have to, I have not totally committed to it yet because of her amazing introverted leadership, but it looks like some of you will be there and you're all, yeah, no. And I, I still have to make sure, cause I have some speaking engagements that continue to develop as we get closer to the meeting. So I, I have to just make sure that I'm not over-committing, but I have not, so I've not committed to it yet, but I love it. It's always a really fun event. And I promise, I mean, it is so early though. We can move on. I totally baited you and I didn't mean to. So thank you all for connecting. And again, not all introverts are quiet. Sorry. So, but if you are, we love that too. All right. This is my last little bit is in my experience, there will be times in our lives where we need to do small talk. If you love that, that's amazing. I'm very jealous. If you're even good at it, I'm even more jealous. And I struggled with this for a long time, just to, again, like try to normalize for, for people, if you're struggling with this too. And, and actually the place that this came up where I really was like, I got to figure this out was in my Press Ganey patient surveys. And what happened was that I actually got some very helpful feedback from my residents at the time that I am introverted enough that if I'm thinking really hard about a case or I'm a little sleep deprived or tired or a little stressed, I lose all of my active extroverted showing you externally what's going on. And I just look very flat and cold. And I had a very observant resident say, I know this is not you and what you mean at all, but I want, I thought you would want to know that you're presenting today as very cold to the patients. Right. Which was totally shocking. I was like, I just, I was thinking really hard about a sick inpatient. And then I was in clinic. And so I just lost what I have to do intentionally, which is all of my extroverting. And that fit with places in my Press Ganey survey that just didn't seem to fit with like people who knew me and worked with me, like there was just a disconnect. So I bit the bullet and found a way to do small talk. And when I go into the clinic room, I say things that make my skin sort of crawl. Like I really like the color of your shirt and I practice really hard so that it sounds good when I say it. And I've gotten to a great place where I do actually mean it. I'm able to have sort of a menu of things and kind of connect with people. But again, I share that story just to say that I think even sometimes where we really don't want to do these things or they feel not valuable to us, they will be valuable to the people who have opposite preferences from us, who could be our bosses, our team members, our family members, our patients. And there may be times where just things like small talk declare themselves to be important. So this is the last exercise we'll do together before I hand it over to Rachel. But I like to just think of this as A to Z. And what we're going to do is I'm going to give you again this three to five minutes. If you're writing or typing, you're just going to write the letters A through Z like on the left. So A, B, C, D, et cetera. And I want you to come up with as many topics, interests, things as you can for each letter. So again, we're going to come back and use these, but it might be art, apples, baseball, exercise. You're just trying to come up with things for each letter. And then we'll come back and think about what to do with that. All right. So three minutes. On you go. All righty, just keeping us moving with all of our great discussion here. I'm just very energized by our group. And feel free to keep working on this. Obviously, you can come up with something we'll come to you at two in the morning about an exciting topic that starts with X. I don't know. But how to use this potentially, if it works for you, is a little bit of a cheat sheet, especially for small talk, happy hour kind of stuff. And to me, it's the small talk safety net, right? Where you then have some sort of list that over time you'll find refines and kind of works for you. Potential small talk topics that you can actually authentically, wonderfully talk about with people, even if you kind of hate small talk. And I think that if, you know, a lot of people I've talked with, if you try this a little bit, you'll find something you can settle into. And you might actually enjoy it more than you used to, or find people with shared interests. So this can be pretty cool. And I think you can look at what you're comfortable sharing, what you'd like to ask other people about. And the way that this works is you just have your A to Z list in your head of things to potentially talk about at happy hour. So for example, I might go up and I like art, I like art museums. So if there's a lull in the conversation, I might say something like, hey, I like to try to go to an art museum every time I'm in a meeting. Does anybody have any suggestions? Right? And then the other thing I love about this topic piece is that if you get silence, it's the perfect excuse to move on in a nice way. And so you can say, okay, well, thanks. I'm going to go ask these people. See you later. Have a good meeting. Right? So even if it's short, if there's a blank, or you get to the end of that topic, you can actually work the room and talk to multiple people, ask multiple people the same thing. I'm not super into baseball, but my husband is. So I get a lot of baseball in the house. And of course, this year, I'm in Seattle and the Mariners have made it into the postseason, which is epic. I think that's probably all Petal Essman will be talking about with me when I see him later. He's been so excited for this anyway. So, you know, I can come up with some elements, you know, all right, most important question of the day, are you a dog person or a cat person? Right? You can take this all sorts of places that you're hopefully comfortable with. And again, I think maybe even enjoy these conversations more instead of like many introverts sort of being in the corner and being like, I don't even like, where do I even start? Right? So find me, come stand next to me. If you like, you're always welcome. You can ask me what art museum I want to or Rachel, and then, you know, we'll support each other. We can rock this. It'll be good. Right. Just a little plug for small talk too, is I exactly like Jen, I, my first few years of being in practice, I kept getting my patient satisfaction and it kept saying so professional, like so professional. It never said anything negative. It was like, she was so professional. And then it would say like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, and generally like positive, you know, like most patients. And I was like, what is this professional thing? You know, like why? And so I think I then, and I don't get that anymore whatsoever. And I think what's changed is a few things. Like I'm in Colorado. So I know different parts of the country are a little different about what do you call a patient when you walk in the room? Do you say, Mr. Smith, or do you say, Hey, John, how are you? And I went from saying, Mr. Smith to John. And I found one of the primary reasons I did it is so many of my patients are like PhDs or doctors. And I would socially, it would be very socially awkward. Cause I, hi, Mr. Smith. Oh, I'm actually Dr. Smith. Maybe like, oh, you know, I missed that up. So then I decided to go to first names because it stopped that awkwardness from happening. And then for whatever reason, I just feel like patients, at least in my demographic and the patients I'm treating respond much more favorably to their first name. And again, there's a lot of different style things here. So I made that change. And the other change I made is usually there's some clue that they come in with. They're wearing a hat that maybe says the Seattle Mariners, or they're wearing a t-shirt that has some emblem or something. And I just find it interesting. And I initially started doing it because I felt like I should. And so I started saying like, oh, are you a Seattle Mariners fan? Blah, blah, blah. And it would always end up like me getting to know the patient a whole lot more. And so then it just deepened my connection with them, which as an introvert is, I mean, I know this is important for extroverts too, but it made, they stood out in my brain in a totally different way than had I just kind of gotten right to business and didn't have any of that more out of medicine conversation. And so for me, that's been a game changer as far as I don't get the, she's so professional in my, not that that's a bad thing, but I kept getting that in my, and I was like, what is the like subtext here? And I was kind of annoyed that that's like everyone thought of me. And so I don't get that anymore. And then also I just feel like I have kind of a brief, it's not usually long, but a really brief little conversation before getting into the need of why they're here. And it just, it actually probably brought it brightens my day more than it brightens theirs because being too like rush, rush, like businessy with all my patients was just kind of losing the like funness of it. And so anyway, so I'm just plugging a small talk, you know, even a meeting like AA of saying like, you know, do you want to find an art museum? It might lead to actually I'm an artist. And like, you might then find out some really interesting things about that person that again, that might actually, you know, end in a, you know, some sort of friendship or professional relationship, which I think has. So I would, I would, I'm trying to talk up small talk because I also get how hard it can be, but I have found it also, if you can just get it a little bit, it can be so rewarding. Agreed. And so this is an exercise from this book, the art of mingling. It's a lovely book that I think many people have found helpful as one resource, if you'd like to work on mastering a room. And I'm going to move us forward with the rest of our time here for Rachel to lead this part of our community show, which we hope you all will also jump in and lead in the future as we launch more meetings, et cetera, to think about emotional intelligence. Great. Yeah. Thanks, Jen. You did a really nice job with talking about introversion. So I will, I can make this as long or as brief as we want it to be. So I wanted to touch on emotional intelligence. That is not, you know, really what this community is, is, you know, labeled, right? Like we're not but I, I have found emotional intelligence and some of the readings I've done in this area to be really impactful for me. And I think it's impactful. It would have been impactful whether I was introverted or extroverted, but I, I felt that this is one of those core leadership principles that I think is so key that I wanted to share it with this group and kind of go through just a real broad conversation about this. So and I, and I also feel like understanding kind of emotional intelligence and what it stands for can sometimes help maybe those of us who are introverted, maybe find specific things we could work on and address, you know, if we're trying to improve the impact of our leadership and, and maybe make it easier, less energy draining and that sort of thing. And there's a lot of information out there, a lot of books, there's a lot of papers and I'll get to that a little bit later as far as recommendations. You can go to the next slide. And so, you know, emotional intelligence is defined by Google. I know EI or EQ is what it's often referred to. It does get a lot of press. I'm assuming all of you have heard it in some form of another, because it certainly has gotten a lot of attention regarding medicine as well, leadership in medicine. But in general, the thought, you know, the definition is that it's capacity to be aware of control and express one's emotions and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. Emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success. So I have found as I've, you know, I'm sure all of you have seen very effective leaders and then those who are less. And, and I think this is maybe one of those pieces that makes a big difference between the effective and the less effective. So really the way I think of emotional intelligence, breaking this definition down is understanding yourself and what motivates you and what your weaknesses are and what your strengths are. And then also being able to under regulate that and then understanding, yeah, you got it, you can go to the next thing. And then understanding, you know, all of the things, what's going to get me through the happy hour. Like what, what, where are my social skills? Am I actually really good at, you know, happy hour? Am I, maybe this is not a strength. So how can I work on this? And so just those, those awarenesses, like some people just haven't really even kind of done a lot of reflection on that. And then regulating yourself and self-awareness are all pieces of this. And again, emotional intelligence, EI, EQ, I kind of throw them all around. I usually refer to it just as emotional intelligence or EI. But there's a lot that's encompassed within this and they're finding that emotional intelligence is really a big factor in burnout for physicians and is a big factor in our patients. Meaning if we're not attending to, there's a lot of literature out there about if we're not aware of the emotions that our patients are living with and addressing them appropriately, especially around depression, anxiety, and anger. If we're not really looking at those, there's been a lot of work that shows that they will not, no matter what kind of medical treatment they're getting, they're likely to not have as good of an outcome. So I think medicine hasn't quite caught up to this enough that we're implementing it and, and like clinical care as much, but I, I, so I feel like it's like a top down approach. I think if we all understand a little bit better for ourselves, we've got to start with ourselves first. We can then actually help our patients start to identify some of this. And so that's my goal with kind of introducing this, but we'll go to the next slide. And so when, when you break down emotional intelligence, I think of it again, as kind of an inner, there's the inner awareness, which is the top here, self-awareness and self-management. And then there's the more extroverted behavior. So the social awareness and the relationship management. And so one thing that I do think I'm making some assumptions here is I do think in general, those of us with introverted tendencies are probably a little bit more competent in the top and a little, because we do, we spend more time with ourselves. We maybe reflect a bit more. Are we again, a lot of assumptions here. And then when it comes to the more external world, you know, if I don't, if I go to three happy hours a year versus 30, which is probably like a legitimate comparison of an introverted person to an extroverted person. If my happy hour at AAPMNR meeting is like one of the three I go to a year, I'm just going to be less effective. Like it's, I'm going to really have to either bring a lot of energy to it. And, you know, and, but those who do this like weekly or, you know, every few weeks with their work friends or their neighborhood or whatever, you know, they just, it's, it's, again, it's a skill. And so you can think about where we're drawn. We almost then kind of, you know, it's okay to have that introversion tendency. However, when there's so much professional communication that happens at some of these meetings and these big group settings, you know, just being aware that it's maybe something you want to bring some extra energy to and something that you can work on just like Jen was covering some ideas for, for mingling. We can go to the next slide. And then, you know, as far as again, another topic within emotional intelligence is the social awareness. And so I know, you know, just with my own personal experience, this is something, sometimes I'm probably not my strong suit. So if there's maybe some grumblings or things like that, if I'm kind of hanging out in my office and not out in the halls with the other people talking about what they're doing this weekend and things like that, I might not get a sense of something that could be significant going on with somebody or, you know, set some issue there. And that that's where I've found my relationships with some of those who are more extroverted in my clinic to be really helpful. Cause they almost clue me in like, Hey, did you know that so-and-so is really having a tough time with, you know, their kid is really sick or something, you know, and I often am completely out of the loop. And so I don't know if many of you who are introverted share that, but that I have found to be a real struggle is socially. I'm sometimes kind of behind knowing all the things that are going on with people, which can then make it even more challenging to connect, right, because you're behind. And as far as the information that everyone else knows. So again, it takes me a little bit of effort to get that information and to, but certainly I do put some effort into here. But the reason I wanted to bring this is, you know, those who have really strong social awareness are those who have a lot of empathy, you know, organizational awareness. And what that means is, you know, and I have a clinic of, let's say there's about 50 of us who are here on a regular basis. There's always the official hierarchy of like, who's this and who's that, but then there's the unofficial hierarchy. And if you're a little bit detached and a little bit more kind of removed from that, sometimes you might not always approach the right people with the right issues that could help you, like either send the message more effectively or communicate this in the best way possible. And so I know for me, it's an area that I've had to work on and I've fallen, like gone into pitfalls, right? Like I've maybe said something not attuned to the mood of what was happening. And that probably goes into my tea as well of the Myers-Briggs, not so much the introversion, but I do think they kind of play together there. And again, there's no sense of this at saying that this is not, again, these slides are not really actually meant to be an introversion versus extroversion. This is really talking about the overarching emotional intelligence topic. And I'm making the assumptions and deductions that these are maybe some of the areas that I have personally focused on. That's probably because of my introversion, but also my tea in Myers-Briggs, which is the more logical thinking, which I'm sometimes, again, a little bit disconnected. So you get those two combined and I can really go down a rabbit hole and be pretty isolated and unaware of the lay of the land. And so I've had to really work on that and get some allies to help me with that. Any questions about this? I just want to pause, but any thoughts? I can just keep, I'll keep plowing through and then we can have some time for discussion. But again, some social awareness strategies, they're listed here, but some things that are really helpful. Body language is so important. I think introverts probably have a strength in that area, right? I think we're pretty good at reading people by sitting back and not always speaking first. We can kind of observe and observe that, but those are some things, strategies that can be helpful. And certainly listening, I think, again, is something that generally those with the introverted preference are quite good at. And I know it's served me very well, both in leadership roles and also patient care. I know, I think I know within five minutes of being in a patient room of what they want because I'm listening primarily. And when you know what someone wants, it's a whole lot easier to have the conversation about what you're offering and then maybe why you're not offering the thing that you're pretty sure that they want, right? And so it helps me give clinical advice, I think, in a context that helps me with patient care as well. And then we can move on to the next slide. So relationship management, again, being proactive, again, going back to some of Jen's slides, I am definitely, and again, there's a lot of assumptions here, but I'm definitely not very proactive when it comes to relationship management. I love being invited places and I don't tend to invite a lot of people places. And I don't tend to be like, let's go to this Chinese museum like our Chinese restaurant, invite everybody you know, and let's just meet at seven and it'll be great. And I wish I had, that's kind of like my, I wish I was like that, but I just am not. I sometimes will really make an effort, especially in my role in an academic organization with residents and fellows and junior faculty who are really excited to see some of the faculty again. I try to do a little bit more of that or I delegate to some of my more extroverted colleagues. And I have found that to be really helpful because then they always know like the latest and greatest place to go. And then, you know, and then that gets off the ground and is moving forward. But as far as, you know, relationship management, that's really just talking about building your networks, which again was what Jen was really touching on and is something that can be a really important part of these meetings. And again, you know, when it comes to your goals for these meetings, you know, this is gonna be a really interesting meeting next week because we haven't met in three years. And I know, I'm curious what other people wrote for self-reflection, but a lot of my reflection was just about how I wanna reconnect with people. I don't have a huge agenda because it's gonna be almost somewhat novel. I've certainly been to a lot of meetings, but because it's been so long, I think it's just gonna be really an interesting meeting, catching up with people. And there's a lot that I'm sure has happened in people's lives in three years that I'm maybe not aware of that I wouldn't have picked up on social media. So I think it's just gonna be, I think it's gonna be really wonderful in a reunion. And it'll be interesting. My prediction, we'll see, I haven't been to a meeting yet. Like I know some of you have gone to AAP and other types of meetings, but I kind of wonder if there's gonna be a little bit more of a human side to it of like, how are you doing? And like, are you still working in the same place? Are you still living in the same state that you were the last time I saw you? Because you just think about how much time has passed. It's just kind of crazy. But when it comes to management strategies for relationships, again, these are all things that all of us do, but being open and curious and asking questions and finding out what's going on with people. And I think this is for work, not so much social, but taking feedback well can be a really important piece. Just like Jen was sharing earlier that her resident was brave enough to share some observations. I know we all have gotten feedback like that, or hopefully we've gotten feedback like that before. That's so helpful because those are the people that you really wanna, you want those people in your life because they're gonna help you be better and show you maybe some of your blind spots and things like that. And then some emotional, so some reading. So this is kind of the, there's a lot of different texts on emotional reading. I know there's one that's like 2.0 or something like that. And then I think this is one of the original texts and it's pretty lengthy and very, but excellent. And there's a lot in here. I would encourage any of you who are interested in learning more about emotional intelligence to pick up this book because not only do I think it will help you with your own professional development, but there's a lot in here about how we can help our patients around this topic of emotional intelligence because it really is a blind spot for a lot of what we learn in medical school and how we manage our patients and so I do think that there's probably gonna be a movement and there probably already is. I know some of you are doing more of this probably than I am, but really addressing the psychological components to people's pathology and making sure that we're addressing the anxiety while I'm also addressing the herniated disc. And if I ignore the anxiety, guess what? The treatment for the herniated disc is maybe not gonna be as effective as it would have been had I done both. So, but anyway, so it's an interesting book from both perspectives. There are a lot of different ways to get tested. There are different, various different options. And so I just wrote them down here. This by no means is an exhaustive list and I have no relationship with any of these organizations. I think the one, a lot of leadership programs that people go through will include some sort of emotional intelligence testing in it and then give you the results and talk about those. And so there's a lot of different products used. And I think even the emotional intelligence 2.0 it kind of, there's a test and then there's a book that comes with it and you can kind of read more about it. So there's ways to do this without being enrolled in some large leadership program just for your own personal development. And what's really nice about, what's a little different about emotional intelligence versus Myers-Briggs is, Myers-Briggs is very much about are you right-handed or left-handed, right? And again, the whole point of this and I hope what you're taking away is there's nothing bad about being introverted. There's no right way and wrong way. And that's for emotional intelligence, there's a little bit more of a, you can improve your emotional intelligence with work in certain areas. And so again, the purpose of this community is not for us to all become extroverts. But to make us all better, right? And more effective. And for emotional intelligence, there are ways to actually kind of improve your scores, so to speak. And the keys for that is really understanding where you maybe fall short and that's where some of the testing can come in, really understanding kind of all the different components of emotional intelligence because it's much more complex and layered than the Myers-Briggs. But if you have a strong motivation to learn, if you have a sense that you're lower in emotional intelligence, struggling with managing your own emotions and reading others' emotions. I think a great example of this is if you have a super angry patient and we've all had those patients where we walk in the room and they're already basically yelling at you and you haven't ever met them before. I think one test for emotional intelligence is how do you respond to that? Do you raise your voice? Or, and there goes my light again, do you raise your voice or are you able to maintain a very level mood and bring them down to where you are? And calm, calm them down so that you can have a functional clinical experience with them so that you can actually problem solve and get some things accomplished. So anyway, so those are kind of ways that you can maybe see like, how do I respond in these situations? Is this something I need to work on? Because until we can kind of maintain our own presence of minds and our emotions, it's hard for us to respond to those who maybe have very strong emotions, who are having very strong emotions around us. And then practicing, it takes a lot of practice, takes some coaching. If this is something you think you're very weak in, there are a lot of professional coaches out there who can help with this. And then seeking feedback on behavior. So some organizations, and this is something that kind of surprises me just in general, is most organizations don't do a lot of 360 evaluations, but I would encourage you to ask for them if you're trying to grow professionally, if you feel like you've hit kind of a wall and you're feeling like you're not being heard accurately or you're just really, things aren't coming out the way you mean for them to come out or you're not as effective as you'd like to be. Sometimes 360 evaluations are sometimes tricky as they can be, and they can be a little bit humbling. They can be very helpful because they can show you how you're showing up and maybe give you some guidance. So these are some just basic ideas and ways to improve your emotional intelligence. So I won't read them all out, but again, I kind of covered them in our conversation as I've approached the topic. I'm gonna turn the light on because it's annoying me that it's dark. Thank you, Dr. Bracke. And I'm just gonna acknowledge really quick that we're close to our end of our scheduled time. And of course, as always, we expect people to move in and out of these groups as needed. And I will trust that we're okay to keep going as long as our AAPM and our support with Sarah says that's okay. I do have another 20 minutes or so that I can stay on, Rachel, but if you guys need to drop off, feel free, or we can keep going until we've wrapped up for people because we're so thrilled to get this going. But yeah, some other great books. And then if we have other ways that we can be helpful right now or ways to connect, that's great. Yeah, I think instead of, the only slides that are remaining are just a few books that I've found to be really helpful. The Five Disjunctions of a Team and Wolfpack. But I wanted to just leave it open for conversation because I think that's much more useful than going through these books. And I'm happy to talk about the books when we're in person or just offline in this form. So whatever is easier, but I wanted to give our group a little bit of time to just talk about whatever's on people's minds. So huge gratitude to you guys for being here. We weren't sure kicking off who would show up and we hope that our session was at least able to bring you some connection and information. And we look forward to learning from you as well in a variety of different ways. I did put this in the chat, but just the reminder that for those of you who are coming in person, we hope to see you on Thursday. If you're not coming, again, we get it, still totally welcome. And my plan is to kind of parallel on social media or Fistforum what we're doing so that you guys can still contribute. And if you've got a book to bring for the exchange, feel free. But so I'll stop sharing for there and then see what else you guys would like to talk or connect about for today. I see a hand raised. Kristen, go for it. Hi, I'm Kristen. Thank you. This is wonderful. I am going to be there in person. So I did jot everybody's names down, who like I saw, I will try to introduce myself. I'm also, I think this is how sometimes people recognize me, I almost always have like a French braid or a Dutch braid, and it's not super common. So if you see me, say hello. I'm from New Jersey. I'm going to do my best to get there. I don't know that I'll be there at 10 a.m. because I'm coming to Baltimore from New Jersey, from northern New Jersey. So it's sort of at the whims of the traffic gods. But this was really incredibly helpful. I feel like I felt less a little bit less alone, which is nice. And hearing some of the challenges that and strengths that we have was really, really rewarding. I have a question on the forum. I just as you were telling us, we were there. I went over to my communities to add this. So we're not our own community. Right. It would be in the general. No, we are. There's an introverted leadership, introverted leaders, membership community in. Because I literally while you were talking, I went there and I didn't see it. I find it real quick for a screen share, but you might have to get added as like, I don't know when they do this, but I think at some point you check what communities you might be interested or want to follow. And so I just wonder if I'm on all communities and I'm looking at all because I don't think I had anything checked. But general, I didn't realize it was that useful. And I have all community types, all communities, alphabetical. I don't see it, so I don't know, maybe it's just me. It's such integrated. So I'm saying it has MC in front of it, I think, for member community. And it's on page two of introverted leader. Oh, you know what? I looked at I, I see it. Yeah, it's a member community. Yeah. All right. Thank you for letting us know because that we want people to be able to navigate and tell a friend. Yeah, no, I just looked at it. That's super helpful, Kristen. Thank you. Yeah. Other things, folks? Again, incredible gratitude. Yes. Yeah. Thank you all for joining us. Anything more that you would like to see covered in future sessions or anything you'd like to discuss more in the in-person? Because we don't have much structure there. We just thought we would make it a meet and greet and just get to practice our A to Z happy hour conversations or not. And we get to just. Kristen, no worries about not being there. You know, it's just one of many options. But Sandra, were you going to say something? Thank you for the session, Jen and Rachel. I found it very helpful. One of the things that I'm working on is I found that one of my ways of expressing kind of investment in someone or care for them is to kind of step back, solve problems for them. And that can come off as not necessarily that warm. So I'm learning to build up kind of how I express that warmth instead of just kind of saying, OK, people are having trouble with this. Let me try to fix that. I realize that I can put a lot of hours on the back end to fix something. And to me, that's caring about people or a process or a program. And so that's that's that's something that I'm personally working on. And I think some of the tips that you shared around listening and small talk and conversation will help me build that warmer side. Thank you. Yeah, I think I think sometimes being PR for yourself and just making sure I know I do the same thing. Sandra, I I dive into things behind the scenes and I'll put together I do weird spreadsheets that I'm trying to help my clinic with. So, you know, I share some of the thoughts with Talia before she and and then like sometimes I won't share it with anybody, you know, but like which is so silly. I'll do all this work. But like I needed to know because I was trying to problem solve, like I was trying to understand why things in the clinic were looking like this or that. And then I've learned enough at this point in my career where I know I need to share it to a few people. And then then it's super helpful because then they'll say, oh, my God, we need to bring that to the bigger group or they'll be like, yeah, yeah, that's interesting. And then, you know, so they help they help me know, like, what do I broadcast and what do I, you know, like, yeah, it was a helpful exercise for me. But I do think we tend to be so good at just like turning and burning on our own, bringing others into it. And so we can sometimes solve problems and not necessarily let people know we solve the problem. Yeah. Yeah. One thing that I think I've found helpful in terms of working with people as in helping them express themselves has been using an S-bar method for especially introverted communicators. In the sense that sometimes for people who tend to kind of churn more and process more and end up with kind of a long, long email, helping someone distill out to S-bar is something that helps people. Yeah, I think that's so beautiful. And I, you know, this is I love this conversation because this is kind of our intent with the community. Right. Is to hopefully build some support when we can feel a bit isolated or other for all sorts of reasons, including our own preferences. Right. More often than not, I sort of do it to myself and help problem solve and think about it. You know, I love that thought about problem solving for others. And sometimes that's not what people need. Sometimes they just need to vent. They don't actually want us to solve it. Right. And we're really put often in leadership positions to sort of be tempted into that or just that simplicity. Not so simple or easy, but should be simple of kind of externalizing it. And my husband and I joke because we're the same Myers-Briggs type, which gets interesting in our house about who's going to do what. But because we're aware of that, you know, we'll have these conversations that are both like, oh, did neither neither of us actually said that out loud. Like there is a trip this weekend. Right. Are we, you know, did that actually make it out of my head when we both do so much internal processing? And my practice partner, when I started at my my newer job about a year ago, our partnership really worked because we had the same shared values. And but otherwise had lots of differences in our Myers-Briggs profile. She's very extroverted and very organized. Jay, which was really great for me, actually, we made a good balance and a good partnership. But it took several months and lots of specific talking and messaging together about, you know, this extroverted processing that she needed to do that. And I was like, I need you to know that when we do that together, I literally need to like go sleep for two hours. Like that's the most exhausting thing we could do. Like and I and she you know, she'd be like, are you OK? Are you because I just be like, oh, my God. And it was super important. And I really valued her. But it was like all my energy. Right. And luckily, she is the kind of person that even if she can't quite understand my experience, she does really get it. So she would be like, OK. And so but we you know, we made our assumptions that we would you know, we have all these shared values, same great ideas. We're like on board with each other. The same. We really had to explicitly talk about like time limits or times or places to do that. Right. If I do that before I was trying to see five consults like I have no brain left, I have no energy left. Right. So just trying to call out, you know, those shared preferences or how can I help or can I tell you about this thing I was doing or bring it to the meeting? Right. There's there's so much richness that can happen there that I think we can help each other do, too. So. Well, what else, Leslie? I'm so excited. Well, we can let everybody go and enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Thank you all for joining us in the middle of the day. This is, you know, communities have changed to this last week before the meeting. And so we continue to experiment with what works and what doesn't work. So we realize we took a risk with the middle of the day session. So we appreciate all of you participating because we know how hard it probably was for you to break away. So thank you. And we look forward to seeing you all at the meeting or through fizz form. Thanks. See you soon.

online community

introverted leaders

project management

mentoring

coaching

challenges faced

leveraging strengths

networking

professional development

resources

self-awareness

emotional intelligence

open discussion

supportive community