I'm John Enriquez. I'm the Program Director for the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and St. Luke's Mid-America Heart Institute. And I'm Jeanette Wheeler. I'm the Program Coordinator. In this special focus video of the Training Program Director course, we'll be discussing how Program Directors and Coordinators work together. Since the module is about Directors and Coordinators working together, John and I will be narrating this together. Looking at the learning objectives, after completing this module, Program Directors or the Learners will be able to one, build strong working relationships with the Program Coordinator and other key stakeholders. Two, practice effective communication between the Program Director and the Coordinator and others. Three, utilize strong organizational skills to enhance your fellowship program. One of the most important skills of being an effective Program Director is building strong working relationships, especially with the Program Coordinator or PC. The foundation of this working relationship is built upon getting to know each other and building trust and respect for each other's viewpoints and contributions. It sounds simple, but Program Directors and Coordinators can easily get caught up in trying to complete the many tasks required for their program, but building a strong working relationship as a base is essential. Getting to know each other can also help you complement each other's strengths and weaknesses and then allow you to work together towards common higher goals. Catherine Bailey and colleagues described in a Met Analysis in 2015 that there are different levels of engagement in the workplace and this takes place in healthcare too. In other words, one person may be there just to pick up a paycheck, another may be there to do whatever their boss tells them, and other groups of people may be trying to contribute to a greater good. When we work together like this to contribute to higher goals or a greater good, satisfaction tends to be higher and performance outcomes tend to be better. The pinnacle of building a strong working relationship between the PD and the PC is looking to engage others beyond that partnership to help achieve higher goals that you've defined. In a fellowship training program, this may include building your leadership team with an Associate Program Director, a Chief Fellow, Rotation Directors and Medical Directors, the Program Evaluation Committee, and or other faculty or institutional leaders. This concept of force multiplication can dramatically increase the ability for your team to be effective and achieve your goals. And also thinking beyond this support structure within your institution, don't forget that there are also resources and sources of support beyond your institution like the ACC CV training section and directors and coordinators across the country who are also willing to collaborate either through one of the online Google groups or if you contact them directly. The second very important skill for PDs and PCs to practice for essential collaboration is effective communication skills. We mentioned previously how the foundation for this starts with developing the working relationship and acknowledging each other's viewpoints and perspectives. There will be plenty of times when we won't agree on the best solution to a problem, but we always have to remember to respect each other and listen to each other. So the next component in effective communication is actively listening. For example, when John comes over to talk to me, I stop what I'm doing and I make direct eye contact and often repeat back what he has said just to make sure I've understood him correctly. She does. She's good at it. As Jeanette said, listening and speaking are important, but the third component of effective communication is nonverbal communication like gestures, posture, facial expression. These things can be just as important, if not more important than the actual words that are spoken. As Albert Morabian from UCLA reported previously, body language actually counts for the majority or 55% of the message that we communicate to others. Other things like tone accounts for 38% and the words that are spoken may account for only 7% of the message that we convey to others. This is exceedingly important as we try to navigate today's landscape where we're communicating primarily by text or email or phone. This leaves greater opportunities for miscommunication or ambiguity in our messages. The last element that we'll discuss for successful collaboration between program directors and coordinators is the utilization of strong organizational skills. There can be an unending number of tasks, events, and paperwork to complete in the leadership of a training program. The only way to stay on top of all this is by utilizing strong organizational skills. We've divided what we believe are the most important organizational skills into four main components or categories. Number one, running effective meetings. Two, having accountability for tasks. Three, planning ahead. And four, managing the workload. Number one, to run effective meetings that stay on task and run on time, it's beneficial to create agendas, take minutes, and assign action items. We do this for all of our meetings including for the PEC, the CCC, selection committee, and other times for other working meetings. Beyond assigning action items, as John mentioned, it's helpful to have accountability for tasks by setting expectations and defining timelines for completion of those tasks. We also highly recommend planning ahead with reoccurring event calendars. We have an annual calendar template that we use for all of our reoccurring fellowship-related events. It's not set in stone, so we try to improve it each year for better workflow and timing. And lastly, we have to think about how to manage this large workload. There are so many potential tasks to accomplish that we have to identify what are the highest priorities and focus our finite amount of time and resources on those priorities. Knowing when to delegate is also essential. Again, if the PD and PC can effectively engage others and build a robust leadership team, you'll be more likely to be successful and achieve your goals. Sometimes though, you have to know when to say no to some activities or opportunities if you or your team just aren't able to accommodate the additional workload at that time. So in summary, keys for program directors to most effectively work together with coordinators involves number one, building strong working relationships with the coordinator and other stakeholders. Two, practicing effective communication. This includes acknowledging other viewpoints, actively listening, and using effective non-verbal communication. Three, utilize strong organizational skills to run effective meetings, hold others accountable and yourself accountable using setting expectations and timelines, planning ahead, and continually improving your calendar. And lastly, managing the workload, setting your priorities, delegating appropriately, and knowing when to say no. We thank you for your time and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Program Directors

Coordinators

working relationship

communication

organizational skills