Career Takeaway Themes: Part 1 - Career Trajectory and Mentorship

I hope you enjoyed hearing from a variety of family physicians, their individual career paths, and pearls in the Careers in Family Medicine blog series. We have a few others that are still pending. I’ll publish those when they’re available. For this week, I wanted to recap some themes that I felt were common throughout the very diverse practices of family medicine highlighted these last 4 months. 

#1 The Career Squiggle. Credit to Dr. Jennifer Sullivan for the terminology - I listened to her speak recently at the Brave Enough (BE) Women Physician's Conference (if you get a chance to listen to her speak or go to BE - make sure you do!). The idea behind the squiggle is that we think we are going to have a straight line between where we begin our careers and our ultimate goals. And instead of being a straight trajectory, it really is more of a messy squiggle. And that squiggle doesn’t mean anything has gone wrong. It’s the journey.

Few, only 4 in fact, of the 15 family physicians that I highlighted over these past several weeks, have remained in their initial place of work post-residency. Three of those have had pivots in their various roles/leadership and navigated significant changes in the healthcare landscape, including organizational structures, payment models, retirements, mergers, sales, and acquisitions.

What led to the job pivots for the others? It was a host of things. The common motivators were: 1. An unplanned opportunity came that aligned with values/goals/passions, and they took a chance. 2. Practice set up to see patients in a way that didn’t feel good, mostly revolving around time pressures and patient volumes. 3. They didn’t feel valued. 4. They felt they were in a toxic environment. 5. The lived values of the organization were in opposition to their own. 6. It wasn’t fiscally viable.

Some of these family docs have cared for generations of families, and others contributed value to patients directly, in a number and variety of settings over time, and indirectly, through leadership, healthcare policy, and medical education. Still very valuable and needed.

Bottom line: Family physicians excel in flexibility, adaptability, and navigating uncertainty. We are the backbone of primary care. As a group, we are poised to weather the current VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). This is why we continue to have and need leaders involved in the national healthcare discussion. Embrace the squiggle – even if it’s squiggling in place.

Coaching Reflection: Take a minute and pause in light of the career squiggle. What changes for you if you accept sometimes the trajectory is a squiggle? What pressures can you release? What is open to you? What would you want the squiggle to look like? And even if your squiggle is in the same location, what do you want to believe about that? How could you find more joy in the journey that is the squiggle?

#2 Mentorship/Sponsorship

Hand in hand with successfully navigating their careers to a place of fulfillment, many of the physicians in the blog series emphasized the importance of mentors. Read these quotes I pulled from these past few weeks:

“Fortunately, I had mentors who reminded me why I was interested in medicine.”

“I was fortunate to have mentors, sponsors, and advisors who encouraged and challenged me.”

“I cannot overemphasize the importance of mentors. They have inspired me, helped me when I felt lost or doubted myself, and encouraged me to be courageous and believe in my

ability to stretch beyond my perfectionistic and fixed mindset.”

“They provided valuable advice and motivation” in exploring new models of care.

“ (It is) important to have a mentor while going through medical school, residency, and early career.  If you are struggling with something, your mentor has likely gone through the same struggle or knows someone who has. There were many times throughout my journey I had to deal with something, and having a mentor to talk through things was invaluable.”

“(I had) great mentors along the way who were encouraging and kept the workplace stimulating and rewarding.”

“(It is) my mentor - who I really credit for my success, advancement, and engagement in academics and healthcare policy, which is a passion of mine.”

“We need more diversity in leadership. Find a sponsor; don’t be shy about letting others know of your interests.  Get involved, share your passion, and help us achieve a better future for our colleagues and patients.”

Bottom line: Mentors and Sponsors play a role in helping individual physicians navigate this changing and challenging career. I love developing a personal board of directors, which can include several mentors who can speak to various aspects of life and career.

Coaching Reflection: Who are your mentors? Pause and take a minute. Do you need to reconnect with some? What’s stopping you? Do you need to add some? Who has a shared pathway, more experience, and that you look up to – from any part of your life – even your childhood doctor? What do you need to believe about them to reach out and ask? What narratives about yourself do you need to release? The worst they can say is they don’t have time, so you move to the next. This is too important to leave up to chance or someone to identify you as a mentee/sponsee.  

As per usual, when I start writing, I realized I couldn’t put all the takeaways in one blog. Stay tuned for part two of my summary next week, where I cover the advice given for Fulfillment and Joy.

Until then, have a joy-filled week!  Tonya

My Enjoy Life and Thrive in Your Career coaching course for individual physicians walks you through detailed steps of ditching unnecessary suffering, protecting and increasing your energy, and fostering your ideal future. I'm happy to chat with you about it.