(Part Five of our series titled “Agility Training for Cancer Registrars”)

Every business today is about relationships, including cancer registry.  The quality and impact of your work, and the success of your cancer registry, depends on your relationships.   As a Cancer Registrar you are facing new challenges in terms of reporting standards and data quality.  As professionals it is important that you shake things up to stay fresh and viable in the business by reinventing yourself and your relationships.  Cancer Registrars must figure out the next chapter in their lives, despite ever-changing requirements, economic struggles or organizational cutbacks.  Standing still is not an option because if you are not growing, you are becoming stagnant or even dying professionally.

So, you’re probably asking yourself why you need to reinvent your relationships.  As healthcare business changes, as the cancer registry operations change, so should you as a professional and now is the perfect time to get started.  It’s time to re-evaluate your life and work and to objectively assess where you are now and where you are headed.  And, since you’re starting over, dream big and bold! 

Use these eight questions to evaluate where your situation and to take action to ensure that your career and professional success keep pace with cancer healthcare.  In fact, use these questions with your staff or co-workers to align yourselves for even greater success.  

1. What fundamental activities or aspects about your work is important to you?  Why?
2. What is your mission in life and as a cancer registrar?  
3. What is your philosophy in life and as a cancer registrar?
4. To find your passion, think back to a time when you were operating “in the zone.”  What were you doing to get to that place in your life?
5. Look at the people in your circle of influence, are they helping or hindering you?  What, or whom, do you need to add to your circle of influence?
6. Look ahead three years, where would you like to be in your professional life?  What would your ideal cancer registry career look like?  Then, frame your responses in the form of professional goals.
7. Ask yourself, if you are sitting here in this same spot three years from now, what would have to happen for you to feel fulfilled and content with your work?
8. Look at the cancer registry masters who have accomplished what you are trying to achieve, what strategies did they use?  How can those strategies work for you?

If you honestly answer these questions you will have a good framework and idea of what your professional life should look like.  Take each response and form it into a step, activity or goal that you need to accomplish.  Always keep the end goal or picture in your mind and then work backwards to create an action list to get to your goal.  

Reinventing yourself is hard work and reinventing relationships will require patience, thought and planning.  However, if you choose not to do this you will likely be left behind or miss out on the success and professional recognition you deserve.  Always keep your eye on the end goal and “prize.”  Take responsibility for how your interactions at work impact others and the healthcare business.  Make a commitment to take your work to a higher level and one that is dedicated to serving the needs of your organization, your professional community, and the customers they serve.  Capitalize on the value that cancer registrars and the healthcare team brings to their work and find new or different ways to collaborate and serve the needs of others.  This kind of focus will ensure that your business relationships remain fresh and productive and that you, as a cancer registrar, achieve success.   

What are you doing to reinvent your business relationships?  Post a comment below to tell us what ONE thing you have done that has made a positive difference in your work and life.  

http://www.RegistryMindset.com.  Michele Webb is a nationally recognized, certified cancer registrar (CTR) who is committed to Cancer Registry leadership and professional growth.  She helps cancer registrars around the world as a motivational speaker, author, and educator.  You have permission to repost this article as long as you do not alter it in any way, give credit to the author and link back to her website.