Any career transition can be scary, but when you throw in a physical move, it can be even more daunting. So much so that it can deter leaders from making potentially career-defining decisions, according to Susan Goodson, who turned down many upward opportunities during her tenure at University of Chicago Medicine as relocation was a requirement.

“I was constrained by geography,” she recalled. “When you have kids, friends, a spouse with a demanding career, and aging parents – your whole support system right there, it’s really hard to think about giving that up.”

What’s just as difficult, however, is living with regret. Recently, Goodson – who now serves as SVP and Chief Digital Information Officer at Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital – spoke with This Week Health about her interesting career journey and offered advice on how she has learned to navigate difficult situations and trust her gut.

Timing is everything

Susan Goodson

One of those situations? Learning how to manage and prioritize your family while climbing the leadership ranks. It’s particularly challenging when both partners have demanding jobs, as was the case for Goodson and her husband. “We quickly realized that one of us needed to be more present at home because we wanted to put our fingerprints on our children,” she said.  I love my career and being a working mom, but my most important role is at home. 

Ultimately, she opted for a position that enabled her to remain “intellectually engaged and challenged” while still being “a steady presence” for their daughters.

Looking back, her role at Children’s Hospital Colorado expanded to include more responsibility, with project management, data warehousing and analytics, web development, and business applications falling under her purview. Her husband had an opportunity presented which led to the difficult decision to move to Chicago. Through connections, she found herself a leadership role in the IT department at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Similar to Children’s Colorado she slowly increased her responsibility, continued to deliver, and in time was moved into the Deputy CIO role. Goodson felt she – and her family – were ready to take the additional demands of this role.

As Chief of Staff to the CIO, she led several major initiatives, including ERP selection and implementation. During her tenure, she was exposed to the academic environment, which she believed helped broaden her perspective. “Being around that mindset was a great way for me to get my sea legs and build my leadership skills,” Goodson said.

After 12 years of continuing to hone her skills at UChicago Medicine, she made another change, accepting the role of VP and Associate CIO at Lurie Children’s Hospital. And although  it was initially a lateral move, it quickly became a stepping stone, as Goodson was promoted to SVP and Chief Digital Information Officer earlier this year.

Best practices

Of course, the path that proved successful for one individual won’t always be applicable to all, but there are strategies that can be adopted across the board. Below are some pieces of advice Goodson offered based on her own experience.

• Don’t jump right in. It’s natural to want to make one’s mark right off the bat; however, she urged colleagues to hold off when assuming a new role. “You need to give yourself a full calendar year to get through all of the business cycles so that you know how an organization operates,” she noted. “Seek first to understand and know why certain things are the way they are.” By doing so, leaders can get a better sense of when to push and pull.
• Change is a two-way street. It’s critical to remember that it’s not just the incoming CIO who is going through a transition, but rather, the entire team, according to Goodson. “I always try to put it into perspective that my team is dealing with a new leader, and they’re probably nervous.” And so, she makes it a point to listen carefully to their concerns, recognize the work they’re doing, and educate the team about her own core values. “You need to know how they function and what is important to them.”
• Don’t cut and paste. A common misstep for new leaders is to try to replicate the culture of a previous organization. “I had my team operating really well at [UChicago Medicine], but they were optimized for that organization,” which doesn’t always translate to a different setting. The key, she said, is to identify a few guiding principles that have worked in the past and implement them slowly, rather than trying to “jam them in.”
• Know when it’s time. Once a leader has reached that elusive comfort zone, it can be difficult to leave. So how does one know when it’s time to move on? For Goodson, one of the indicators is feeling too comfortable. After more than a decade at UChicago Medicine, she started to sense that “it was time for something different, because I felt like I was just not pushing myself hard enough. I wasn’t getting the same level of mental stimulation because it was just very familiar, and so I came [to Lurie],” she recalled.
• Consider lateral moves. When she did, it wasn’t technically a step up, as it was initially a deputy CIO role, but Goodson knew it was the right step and she was very excited to get back to the pediatrics environment. “I was really excited about it,” she recalled. And after taking enough time to get to know the team and the organization, she put her hat in the ring for the CDIO role – and landed it. “It was the right time.”

Staying the course

Years ago, however, it wouldn’t have been. But with two of her daughters now in college and one in high school, it has freed up some bandwidth to pursue a more time-intensive role.

Being a parent, however, has also affected her career in other ways, Goodson said, noting that “there are a lot of parallels between leadership and parenthood,” especially when it comes to empowering individuals to take ownership. “As my kids got older, I had to learn how to step back and let them figure things out,” she said. “I think that definitely bled into other parts of my life.”

It also helped her develop a greater sense of empathy. “As a young leader, I was perhaps less tolerant of people who had family commitments. Part of maturing as a leader is recognizing that and learning to be more flexible,” which in turn can help cultivate more effective teams.

Her final piece of advice is for individuals to make decisions based on what’s right for themselves and their families, and not based on expectations.

“Timing was really important to me because I had a strong desire to be present with my family,” she said. At the same time, it was critical to be able to continue to make her mark in healthcare. “I stayed in roles that kept me active in the industry, and when my family moved into a different stage, I was ready to hit the gas again.”

And not just at any organization, but one in which she feels “challenged and motivated,” said Goodson, urging colleagues to “make sure you’re making changes for the right reasons.”

Lastly, don’t be afraid to “take the leap. It’s easy to get comfortable at a place where you’ve been for a long time. But I think throwing yourself into a zone where you don’t know everything is how you grow and learn. When I reflect back, I know that’s when I’ve learned the most about myself and grown most as a leader.”