7 questions to jumpstart your academic success

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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills

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to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.

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When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find

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that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research

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program.

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Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.

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However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.

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For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians

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the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.

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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast.

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I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is an absolute pleasure to be talking with you

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today.

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I am here today to talk to you about the questions you should ask in developing your academic

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success strategy.

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Questions you should ask in developing your academic success strategy.

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And the reason I want to bring you this episode, again, goes back to my early career experience

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where I had no plan.

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I came on the scene and I said, I just want to do research.

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And when people asked, what exactly do you want to do?

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I had no plan.

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And they were like, well, how are you going to succeed?

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I had no plan.

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And how many manuscripts do you have?

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I was like, oh yeah, I have three or four.

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And I had no idea what that meant in terms of like what was acceptable at my career level.

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And they asked me about grant funding and I was like, well, I haven't been successful.

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I've applied for grants.

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And what, although I had a desire to succeed in research, as many of us do, what I didn't

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have was a strategic plan to accomplish that.

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And you might say that, well, you know, your early career faculty, you had no idea.

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Part of becoming a faculty member is developing that strategic plan in concert with a mentor.

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So I would argue that it would have been helpful for me to at least have some plan before I

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started.

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Because if I had a plan before I started, at the least, I would have something to start

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with.

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I could always maneuver and change into something else as I've had to do.

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And I believe many of us have had to do is to really, you know, move with the times and

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be flexible and be able to pivot as needed.

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But it would have been helpful to start out with a plan.

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And so I want to talk to you about what that plan could look like.

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Again, none of this is written in stone.

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And if you decide that you don't want to follow any particular plan, you can just do what

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you've already been doing and just go at it without a plan.

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Or maybe you already have a plan.

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And then you could see, well, to what extent does this plan compare with my plan?

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And how could I, how could I incorporate some pieces of this plan to make my own plan stronger?

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So at the end of the day, it will be helpful to you, whether you're starting with a plan,

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no plan, or you're somewhere in between.

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So, I'm talking very specifically about questions you should ask, right?

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I don't have the answers for you, not in today's episode.

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And you may have the answers or you may not.

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But by understanding what questions to ask, it helps you clarify who do you ask the questions

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of when you get the answer, what do you do with the answer?

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Because one of the things about questions is that questions are so powerful in stimulating

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thought in you, the questioner, but also in the person attempting to answer the question,

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because then they have to give it deep thought.

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They have to really think about, well, what is it about this that makes it this way?

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Right?

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And what it does is it gives you information.

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Without that information, you are not able to make an informed decision.

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But with the information, you're able to make an informed decision.

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And at the end of the day, you could say, well, I know these are all the steps and I

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don't want any of them.

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Or you could say, huh, these are the steps and I guess I'm going to follow them.

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But with information, you get to make an informed decision.

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So question number one, and this may be the hardest question that you will ever have to

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answer and it's hard because sometimes it feels like it's changing.

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But the first question is who am I and what do I value?

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Now your values are your values.

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And when you take time to think about them, you recognize that you've been gifted a certain

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set of values based on your upbringing, based on your family of origin, based on your environment

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in which you grew up.

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You've been gifted a set of values.

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Everybody has values.

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Everybody has a value system.

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But it's usually like air.

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It's like, oh, there's air or like fish, right?

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Where two fish are going along and they find an older fish who says, hey, how was the water?

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And the younger fish are like, what water?

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Right?

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So they're just inherent in our environment.

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They're part of our makeup.

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We don't even really think about them.

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When we think about them is when our value system gets crossed.

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And then all of a sudden we are left with the stark reality that there is a gap between

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what we value and what is before us.

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And then we have to be explicit or at least start to clarify what those values are.

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And so you can wait until something is jarring and kind of rubs up against your value system

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or you can clarify for yourself pretty early on what you value so that you can make decisions

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in light of your values.

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And so the first question you ask is of yourself, who are you and what do you value?

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And it's a hard question because it takes a lot of deep reflection and thought for you

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to really clarify for yourself what you value.

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Now there are a lot of values exercises that are out there if you just Google values exercise.

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And find out for yourself, do the work of clarifying for yourself what you value because

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it helps you recognize what environment you will thrive in and what environments you'll

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be challenged in.

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And it's really important that you clarify for yourself what these values are so that

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you can evaluate environments from the beginning.

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For many of us, we talk about the issue of moral injury and medicine.

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It's because the values of the organization sometimes are clashing with your own personal

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values and you feel like you have to make a decision that does not respect your own

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values.

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And so not walking in line with your values can be injurious to you emotionally and mentally.

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And so the very first question, and I would venture to say, do not pass code, do not collect

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200.

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That's referencing monopoly, at least in its older format when I played when I was a child

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is not moving forward until you can clarify for yourself what you value because that drives

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the decisions you make.

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It drives the environments that you are in.

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It also drives what you should and shouldn't tolerate or what you're willing to tolerate

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or not tolerate.

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So question number one is to ask yourself, who am I and what do I value?

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Question number two is to ask the institution.

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Now when I say ask the institution, I'm asking, I'm saying ask people within the institution,

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right?

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Because an institution is not a person.

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It's a collection of people with its own value system.

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Ask yourself, what does this academic institution value?

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And that is a really important question.

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Now, remember I said the academic institution is really referring to people who are the

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custodians of the act of the values of this academic institution.

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And how can I get them to tell me what the institution values?

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Okay.

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So there are people that you can think about.

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Maybe you can talk to your division chief, maybe you can talk to your division director

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or your dean or your chair, depending on who you have access to.

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But one of the ways I find that's really easy to clarify really quickly what the institution

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values is to find their promotion and tenure documents.

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So if you find your institution and you just simply Google the institution, you can usually

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find a set of documents that explain what the institution is going to promote and what

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the institution is not going to promote.

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And it usually will separate, especially in academic medicine, into tracks, whether that's

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clinician educator track or that's basic science track or clinical research track.

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And sometimes it's a tenure track versus the non-tenure track.

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But in general, institutions clarify what is required for promotion.

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I will tell you, it's interesting.

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I did this exercise at our coaching meeting just earlier today and people were surprised.

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They were like, well, nobody's ever talked about this.

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No one said this is what is valued.

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How is it that no one's talking about these things?

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And it's a really important question.

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I don't know why people are not talking about it.

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This again, is part of the hidden curriculum.

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But one of the reasons you want to know, you want to find your promotion and tenure documents

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and you want to look it up, is to recognize that the institution has committed to paper

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what they value.

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Now there are things beyond the paper that they value that may not be made explicit,

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but at a minimum, if you know what they're explicitly saying they value, it gives you

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information.

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What do you use that information to do?

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Well, that information helps you.

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Let's say the institution says, we will only promote people along the clinician educator

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pathway if they have published 25 papers in the educational space.

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And you're like, oh, really?

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My promotion to associate professor is contingent on publication of 25 manuscript?

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Wow, I'm in clinic every day.

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How am I supposed to do this?

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It's a great question because then you get to go and ask your division director, or maybe

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it's your chair, and say, hey, here I am in this position that's, you know, I'm in clang

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every day, but I'm hearing that I need to have 25 manuscripts published by the time

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I go up for associate.

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I'm just making up the number, okay?

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It doesn't have to be 25.

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I don't know.

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Different institutions value different things or some institutions don't even say what the

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numbers are.

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But you recognize that it helps you have leverage to ask the questions of where will I find

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the resources to be able to do the things that allow me to advance within the institution.

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And then that's a question that people can help you answer.

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And it's a question that can help you in your negotiations to say, well, if this is important,

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I want space to be able to achieve this so that six years, seven, eight years down the

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line when I want to go up for promotion, I'm ready to meet this particular specification,

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right?

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So, you want to ask the institution, and again, that's proxy for people, but even better or

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easier, go find their promotion and tenure documents and clarify for yourself what is

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valued so that you can plan a success strategy around what you value and how it aligns with

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what the institution values.

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Okay.

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That leads me to question number three.

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Ask yourself, how does what I value align with what the institution values?

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So if you find out that there are two tracks, non-tenure and tenure track, and the non-tenure

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track also has a requirement for 10 publications or more in international reputation to be

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able to be promoted, ask yourself, well, if I'm coming here and I want to really be a

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full-time clinician and I want to really have time for my patients and I want to educate

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them, does this requirement for publications jive with what I'm thinking I'm coming here

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to do?

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And you want to ask that question so that you can answer the question.

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It may be that you say, well, I don't really want to do that, but 25 publications or 10,

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sure, I can make that happen.

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Or it may be that you say, no, I don't want to do that.

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I'm just here to see patients.

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I don't want to worry about publications.

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And it could be that you make that decision and you decide, I don't want to go up for

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promotion.

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It's not what I care about.

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And that's okay.

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The key is that you have information that allows you to make decisions intentionally.

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What you don't want is where many people find themselves is where they're like, oh, here

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I've been here for eight years.

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I am now ready to be promoted because my peers around the country are getting promoted and

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what do I need to do?

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And then they pull up this list of requirements.

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It's like, oh, 10 publications.

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And you're like, I've published nothing because I didn't have space to, and then you didn't

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intentionally make the decision to not be able to be promotable because you didn't have

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information.

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And so clarify for yourself to what extent do my values align with the values of my institution

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and can we bring them together to create a career that is meaningful to me?

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And that is one of the things you think about in crafting your success strategy is how do

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I layer my values over what the institution values to create a niche for myself where

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I can succeed and feel as if I'm also moving forward the things that matter to me.

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Okay.

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Number four is to ask others, how have you succeeded here?

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Now it's one thing to say, oh yeah, great.

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Of course I can make 25 publications while also seeing patients five full days a week.

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It's another thing to go find the people who've been promoted and say, hey, how did you succeed

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here?

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How did you do this thing?

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How did you make the requirement even though you're so clinically busy?

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And it's so powerful to have these conversations because people will tell you what it costs.

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And that is one of the keys to being strategic about your success.

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It's one thing to say, I want to succeed in this way.

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It's another thing to be ready to pay the price for what it takes to succeed in that

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way.

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Now, when I talk about paying the price, you know well, because if you're a physician,

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you went through medical school, you knew what it would cost you to get into medical

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school and you went and you paid that price.

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You shadowed a physician, you did a little bit of research, you made sure you had your

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extracurriculars well, all together.

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You went and did bio 101 and chemistry and you did all the things that you needed to

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do.

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You paid the price so you could get into medical school.

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When it came to getting a residency, you paid the price.

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You did research in your specific area.

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You know what it takes to succeed when it comes to going through the training process.

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It doesn't stop when you become a faculty member.

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You got to know what the end goal is.

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And then you go back, you ask people, what did it cost you to get here?

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It's what you did when you were training or when you were trying to get into training.

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You ask the people who've been successful and you say, how did you do it?

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And they tell you and you're like, okay.

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And you ask enough people, you have a pattern of what success looks like.

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And then you can craft your own plan based on that.

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Or you can say, no, thank you very much.

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I'm not doing this thing where for my 20s, I'm going to be doing 10 years of training.

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No thank you.

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You can make that decision.

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But you want to have the information to make that decision.

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You don't want to be blindsided by it or come to the end of a period of time and realize

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that you don't have the resources you need or that you didn't pay the price that would

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allow you to get to the place that you wanted to get to.

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So ask other people, how have you succeeded?

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So you recognize what price they paid.

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And that brings us to question number five.

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Ask yourself, am I willing to pay this price?

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Am I willing?

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Now I, for whatever reason, had this erroneous idea that I was going to become an attending

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and life would be easier because medical school is hard and residency was hard and fellowship

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was hard too.

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And so there was this thought that I'm going to become a faculty member and it gets easier.

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And I'm not sure where I got that thought from, but it didn't get easier.

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It was super hard.

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And maybe part of the hardness or part of why it was so hard was that I didn't have

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clear expectations about what it would look like.

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And sometimes part of this is setting our expectations to say, okay, I thought that

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there wouldn't be another price to pay, but it seems as if there is.

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And I've talked to enough people now who said, this is where I am and this is the price I

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paid to get here.

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This is where I am and this is the price I paid to get here.

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And then you ask yourself, am I willing to pay the price or do I want life easier?

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And here's a challenge in medicine, there's no easy path.

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Sometimes I hear people saying, well, I'm just doing research because that's the easier

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path or I'll just be a clinician.

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That's the easier path.

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And in reality, no path is easy.

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All of them are pretty challenging actually.

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And the question is, what do you love enough that you're willing to pay the price for it?

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And you ask yourself that question so you can answer it and you can face the price head

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on the same way you face the price head on as you were trying to get into medical school,

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the same way you face the price head on as you're trying to get into residency and fellowship

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if you went.

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But you want to know what it costs and then you want to ask yourself, am I willing to

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pay the price?

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And if I am, what will I do to pay it?

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And if I'm not, what else do I want to do?

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Okay.

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Number six is to ask others, what would you do differently?

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So for those who succeeded, they've succeeded, but there are things that they wish they did

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differently.

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But you also want to ask others who didn't succeed, who may have left, and it doesn't

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mean that leaving means they're not successful.

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Just people who chose something different to ask them, what prompted your choice?

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Why did you make a different move?

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And so in asking the first group, you're saying, well, what did you wish you had done differently?

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And there's a lot of learning that comes from that because even though you're looking ahead

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and you're saying, okay, I want to pay the price, what you want to do is you want to

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pay the exact price, you don't want to pay more.

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Now, if you want to leave a tip, that's up to you.

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But what you don't want to do is pay a crazy price.

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And at the end of the day, you're like, this was not worth the price I paid.

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And so people who've gone ahead of you who've paid a price can say, you know what, I did

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pay this price, but here's how I would have done it differently.

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And I wouldn't have had to pay as much of a price as I did.

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Or you talk to people who left and succeeded in a different way, who say, well, this was

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the place I came to where I decided the price was now too great for me to pay.

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And again, all of this allows you to be informed in your decision making so that you can develop

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your own academic success strategy.

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And by knowing what people would do differently or what people or choices people made, it

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allows you to craft a plan that is coherent and cohesive with who you are and where you

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want to be, how you want to live within the academic environment if you so choose to stay.

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And the final question to ask is of yourself.

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How will I successfully navigate this environment?

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Because now you have information.

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Now you're clear about what you value.

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You're clear about what the institution values.

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You've had an opportunity to ask others, like, how does this work for you?

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Or how did this work for you?

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You have an opportunity to ask yourself, how did my values align with the institutional

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values?

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You've asked others who succeeded at the institution.

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You've asked yourself, am I willing to pay the price?

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You decided to pay the price.

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You figured out from others who've done it differently how you're going to tweak the

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way the price is paid.

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And now ask yourself, how will I successfully navigate this environment?

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And that forms the basis of your crafting a successful strategy.

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Because now you're informed.

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You're not clueless.

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You're not wondering.

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You're not dependent on only one person to tell you because you've done the work.

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And I may hear people saying, well, I don't have time to do all of this.

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I want to just challenge and push back a little bit and say, you don't have time to not do

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it.

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You don't have time to not figure out what will help you succeed.

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There are too many people who are burned out in medicine, too many people who hate their

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careers but continue to trudge on anyway, too many people who are disenchanted and disconnected

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because they just went with the flow.

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And I think I've said it here before, an untended garden is chaos.

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That does not look beautiful.

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And the people who have beautiful gardens, whether they did it intentionally or they

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didn't, they created an environment where the garden could be beautiful.

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And so if you're going to have a career that you appreciate, that you love, where you're

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not burned out and angry all the time or bitter or wishing that you chose a different career,

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then it's time to step up and collect resources that allow you to create what you want, what

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aligns with who you are, what aligns with your values.

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So I want to invite you today to think about which one of these questions can you answer

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this week?

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Because there's always something taking up your time.

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You're busy.

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You're so busy.

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But instead of trying to answer all seven questions this week, what about you just ask

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yourself one question or ask somebody one question and see how that impacts your ability

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to start successfully strategizing your career.

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And I'll summarize what those questions are again.

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Number one, you ask yourself, who am I and what do I value?

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Number two, you ask, what does the academic institution value?

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And you'll typically get that through promotion documents.

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Number three, you ask yourself, how does what I value align with what the institution values?

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Number four, you ask others, how have you succeeded at this institution?

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Number five, you ask yourself, am I willing to pay the price?

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Number six, you ask others, well, what would you do differently?

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Or you ask people who've already left, what made you make this decision?

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And then finally, you look at all that information and you say, well, how am I going to use all

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this information to successfully navigate this environment?

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So pick one question today, one question this week, ask it and see what answers you get

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and think about how that helps you to begin to already intentionally, strategically craft

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your success strategy.

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All right.

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It's been a pleasure talking with you today.

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Thank you so much for tuning in.

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I look forward to talking with you again next time on the Clinician Researcher Podcast.

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Thank you for listening.

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Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic

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clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they

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have a mentor.

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If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.

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Someone else needs to hear it.

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So take a minute right now and share it.

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As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation

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of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.