Abstract
Effectiveness is the product of your career choices and the result of the global health organization where you work. Yet, it is also measured in the number of people you help and the number of lives you help to save. The purpose of this chapter is to help global health professionals break with business as usual and become more effective in what they do so they can make a bigger impact. We believe one person can make a difference and must do all he or she can to do so.
If you are ready to make the best of your global health career, this chapter will provide you with tools to make effective career decisions in global health and acquire knowledge to recognize and overcome ineffective practices and career roadblocks. You will learn practical ways to deliver an effective performance that contributes to your employer and even how to lead organizational changes that remove your limitations and your organization’s ability to thrive. You will also learn how to affect the change you want to make in global health, and the world.
The authors, at different stages of their careers, describe the unique dynamics each career stage represents and which roadblocks to effective performance are most common. They recognize that many of the roadblocks (both external and self-imposed) are signals that it is time for a career change. Career roadblocks that usually present themselves include the Paralysis problem, Experience vs. Education, Fairy Tales, Sticky Feet, and Ego Traps. When one of these roadblocks presents itself, you must choose to change and keep moving forward so you can impact the world.
We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals—worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries—but only if we break with business as usual. (From the Address to St. Paul’s Cathedral Event on the Millennium Development Goals, by Secretary General Kofi Annan, 2005 United Nations. Reprinted with Permission of the United Nations.) United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan G8 summit 2005.
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Beracochea, E., Pied, A. (2015). What Can Global Health Professionals Do to Improve Effectiveness. In: Beracochea, E. (eds) Improving Aid Effectiveness in Global Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2721-0_26
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