A Ditch on Each Side of the Road (and How to Avoid Them)
Leadership often feels like driving a narrow road. You’re trying to keep the vehicle moving forward, but there’s a ditch on each side that can take you out if you drift too far.
Recently I had the chance to moderate an STFM GME Leadership Panel with three seasoned leaders in academic medicine — Dr. Dave Evans, Dr. Linda Montgomery, and Dr. James Schindler. Their words highlighted the real risks they have experienced or witnessed, and their mindset shifts it took for them to sustain the path.
Ditch 1: Tending to all the daily fires yourself
It’s tempting. You know how to do the work, and in fact, you’re probably pretty good at it. But when you spend your time jumping from fire to fire, you:
- Risk personal burnout
- Rob individuals of being developed
- Disempower your teams
Guardrail: Shift from thinking of yourself as the cruise-ship activities director to captain/mission facilitator. You don’t need to juggle every detail; you need to steer the ship.
Ditch 2: Ignoring daily fires altogether
The opposite extreme is spending all your time on vision and strategy while ignoring what’s happening on the ground.
- Teams can quickly feel abandoned and directionless.
- They stop looking to you as leader and may question your direction when you do step in.
Guardrail: Think Bambi’s father — up on the ridge, keeping perspective - doing the visionary work and moving things forward, but ready to step in when needed. And when needed comes down, and acts as more of a road grader: clearing the path (creating a fire lane) so your team can keep moving.
Staying out of the ditches takes practice
It’s not just mindset. It’s other skillsets and strategies as well:
- Be transparent and open to ideas (undo the natural lone-wolf tendency), which is helpful for the individuals plus opens up more creativity for you.
- Embrace holding others accountable — read Crucial Accountability, embrace the discomfort, give clear feedback and make clear asks.
- Protect time for strategic work in your calendar.
- Contain fires with “office hours” instead of letting them run your day.
- Use tools like the Eisenhower Matrix to separate “urgent” from “important.”
- Keep meetings efficient, intentional, and agenda-driven. Hard deadline for faculty agenda items - allows for the more recently charged topics to have cooled a bit before they take over the meeting.
And no one drives this road alone. Over time, leaders develop their sounding boards — the “Square Squad” of trusted confidants, near peers, and mentors (sometimes outside of medicine) who keep them balanced and growing.
The road worth traveling
Leadership longevity doesn’t come from stamina. It comes from avoiding the ditches, resisting the pull to do it all, or to disengage entirely. The leaders who last are the ones who balance, steer, and keep clearing the way forward for their teams.
Grateful to Dave, Linda, and James for sharing their wisdom in the STFM GME Leadership Panel Series. Their reflections are worth revisiting whenever the road feels especially narrow.
Reflection: 1. Which of these reminded you of what you're already doing well?
2. Which of these is a helpful idea to begin to practice? What's the next step?
Responses