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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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Thank you so much for tuning in.

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Today, I'm talking about growing your research skills with strategy.

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Yes, I'm talking about growing your research skills with strategy, and the emphasis today

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is on strategy.

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So when I started at the end of my fellowship to look for jobs, I said, I want to do research.

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And I was going about from institution to institution, and everywhere I went, people

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would say, oh, it is so hard for clinicians these days.

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Nobody can make it.

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The funding lines are so low.

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This is so hard.

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Why would anybody even bother?

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I remember the whole time I kept thinking, I was like, but this is what I want to do.

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This is what I want to do.

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And I went to a place where the scientists, the clinicians, were doing research.

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They were scientists.

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And I remember thinking, I was like, okay.

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And I looked around, there were so many people who were doing research and succeeding despite

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the low funding lines, despite how hard it is for clinicians.

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So they were succeeding.

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I remember thinking, if these people are succeeding, there must be strategy involved.

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There must be strategy.

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People don't succeed by accident, and this may be the whole take-home message of today's

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talk.

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Nobody succeeds by accident.

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People succeed intentionally and strategically.

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They use intentionality to develop strategy.

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Okay.

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So for whatever reason, I used to look around and see people who were successful, and I'd

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be like, he is so lucky.

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Well, I would think, oh, he's hardworking.

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But I have to tell you that luck and hard work are not enough because, hey, you've got

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plenty of it, and you still have a ways to go.

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I've got plenty of it, and I still have a ways to go.

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But what you want is strategy, because strategy allows you to leverage both luck and hard

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work to actually move forward, because some hard work just allows you to spin in circles.

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For many of us clinicians who don't have research training, that's what we're doing.

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We're working very hard.

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We have these big questions, but we just don't know how to stop spinning our wheels.

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Strategy helps you move forward.

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So I want to talk to you about seven strategic moves that you can make to build skill in

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research even as you're starting out as a clinician.

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Seven strategies to build skill.

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Number one.

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Number one strategy is to develop a strategic plan.

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Yes, number one strategy is strategy.

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But you got to have a plan, and it's not just a plan to say, oh, I have a manuscript to

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write, or yeah, there are three manuscripts I have to write.

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It's great, but is it written down?

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And is there a goal as far as what month of the year of your next few months that actually

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happens?

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You can be like, wait, what do you mean?

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I know I have three manuscripts to write by the end of the year.

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I don't need to write it down or create a plan.

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But here's the thing.

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I had a great talk with one of my clients recently, and I asked, what are all the goals

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you're trying to accomplish by the end of the year?

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And they listed out their goals for me.

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And I said, great, let's now look at your calendar and let's see how much time you actually

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have to fulfill these goals.

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And so we look at the calendar and it turns out, oh, there is one week gone for this conference.

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Okay, great.

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Oh, two weeks gone for consult service.

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Okay, oh, there's the other two weeks gone for consult service.

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And oh, of course, Christmas vacation.

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Let's take that out.

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Oh, Thanksgiving, though.

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And you know what?

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By the time we look at the schedule and look at the commitments and the actual time that's

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left, it was 27 days, not very many days.

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But here's the key.

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Now we were very clear about how much time they had available to be able to move work

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forward.

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That's strategic planning.

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It's not just saying in the next three months, this is what I want to accomplish.

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And saying, now let's take a hard look at our calendar and see where is that work going

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to happen?

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And being very realistic and saying, what's the reality?

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That I am going to finish this big grant while I'm on vacation.

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Now if you didn't do any work and you get to the deadline and your vacation comes two

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weeks before the deadline, you might be spending a lot of your vacation doing the grant.

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But that means that's not strategic planning.

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Strategic planning is to say, this vacation is coming up, therefore we are not going to

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let this vacation be swallowed up by the grant and we work up to the deadline.

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Strategic planning is not just defining what big goals you have, but also being very clear

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about where in your schedule these goals fit.

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Develop a strategic plan.

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Everybody who succeeds in research has a strategic plan.

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They may not call it a strategic plan.

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I've heard it called many different things.

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I've heard it called an individualized development plan.

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I've heard it called an IPDP.

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I don't even know what the P is.

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But there are just so many names.

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But at the end of the day, it is a written list of goals that you want to accomplish.

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Now here's the thing.

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This is my personal strategy.

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When I'm writing my goals, I don't write goals that are not related to my research goals.

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I mean, I do actually, I take that back.

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I write goals that are related to my personal well-being.

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So for example, I have a certain number of exercise minutes that I want to accomplish

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on a weekly basis, a certain goal that I'm looking for in terms of health.

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And I have those goals.

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And so they are part of my strategic plan.

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But what I want to emphasize is you want to put on your strategic plan the things that

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have no accountability.

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So don't put the conference presentation because you know what?

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If you don't do the conference presentation, wow, you're going to get into trouble.

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In fact, to be honest, the kind of person you are, you're not going to be the person

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who's not going to do the conference presentation.

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You're going to pull the all-nighter to get it in.

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So you could put on your strategic plan, but it's one of those things that you're going

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to do.

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The deadline will force you or you'll be embarrassed.

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And you don't want that.

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And so you don't have to put that on your strategic plan.

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But what you should put on the strategic plan is the manuscript that has no deadline.

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And you know what?

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Five years from now, you still haven't written it.

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No one's asking you questions.

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Well, your mentor, your research mentor might be mad, but you know, for the most part, no

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one's bugging you about it.

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Those are the kinds of things you want to put on your strategic plan so that you develop

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a plan to actually do the things that nobody might ask you about.

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So number one strategy to succeeding as a researcher is developing a strategic plan

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that's written and that's in a place where you can see it regularly.

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All right.

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Number two is to develop the habit of planning your week weekly, every week without fail.

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Now you might be on vacation and you're like, I don't want to plan my vacation week.

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I would say consider that it may be that your plan for your vacation week on a weekly and

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a weekly plan is like, okay, day one, read a book, right?

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You always have a plan.

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Even when it's not explicit, what you want to do is make explicit your plan.

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Now that's just vacation because I was trying to explain the fact that you should do it

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all the time, but let's talk about your regular work week.

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You're in clinic on Tuesday, you're wrapping up clinic on Wednesday and all of a sudden

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you're fielding calls on Wednesday and you guys at the end of the week, you're like,

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wait a minute, oh, I didn't get any writing done because on Monday I started the project,

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but I was like, well, I'll do it Tuesday.

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And then everything got away with me.

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Now it's Friday.

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I haven't gotten any, made any progress.

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But when you plan your week, you look at Monday to Friday, because we're not including the

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weekends because you're getting healthy and you're not doing work over the weekends anymore.

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You look at Monday to Friday and you say, okay, well, let me clinic on Tuesday.

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How about instead of taking all day Monday to prep my notes and all day Wednesday to

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finish writing the notes, how about I take Monday in the morning before I start prepping

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my notes, how about I take an hour and a half for writing and in that hour and a half, this

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is what I'm going to accomplish.

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Wow.

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You've planned your Monday by the end of Monday, guess what's happening?

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You're going to do that plan because you're a good executor.

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You look back and say, Monday, I nailed it.

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Great.

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Then you're going to look forward and you're going to say Tuesday, I have clinic on Tuesday.

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I'm not going to be able to get much done, but clinic starts at 1030.

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I can take 30 minutes and finish that introduction that I started last week.

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I wrote an outline, how about I make the draft and in those 30 minutes before the clinic patients

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start knocking, you've gone ahead and you've finished that intro.

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You now made the most out of that window before your clinic because you plan to do it.

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Now Tuesday is like, not only did I finish my clinic, I also accomplished what I needed

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to do in my research and writing.

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Do you see how planning your week can help you move forward?

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It helps you move forward with intentionality.

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It's like money.

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If you don't tell it what to do, it just disappears and does its own thing and you're like, where

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did all the money go?

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That's exactly what happens with time.

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I don't even have to tell you, but when you tell time what it will do for you, then you

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are more likely to be able to get what you need out of that time window.

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Planning your week is a must.

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It is an important productivity hack.

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It's not only limited to clinician scientists.

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So many people have recognized the importance of planning the week, you should do it too.

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When I'm talking about planning, there are things on your calendar that are immovable.

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Put your work, put your writing on the calendar, put your writing meetings on the calendar.

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You have an hour and a half that you want to devote to your writing.

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It should be on your calendar.

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Nobody should be able to go in and schedule.

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When you go in and you plan the week on Friday for the next week, or you start on Monday

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and plan for the week, then when people are like, hey, I have this urgent meeting that

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I need to pull you in at, on you're like, oh, I'm looking at my schedule and there's

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no room.

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How about you all just email me the minutes and I can join you next week?

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Because your calendar is already full because you filled it with the priorities you want.

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Strategic move number two, develop the habit of a weekly planning meeting.

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Number three, number three is to write consistently.

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Now, if you are like me, you grew up in a binge writing mode.

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You know, you're like, oh, I have eight hours on Saturday.

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I'm going to write that paper on Saturday and you, you know, slug your way through Saturday

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and you maybe got 30 to 40 minutes of writing done because you know what?

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It took you the first two to three hours just to figure out where you were since you last

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picked up the paper three months ago.

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And then finally you started writing and it was like, wow, I've been here four hours.

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I'm done.

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But what happens when you are writing consistently is on Monday, you invest all that time trying

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to figure out where you were from three months ago.

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Tuesday, you remember what you did on Monday.

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And so you're able to move the work forward just by a little bit, not by much, but by

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a little bit.

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Wednesday, you're able to move it forward a little bit more.

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Thursday, even better.

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And by Friday, wow, you look back over the week and at a minimum, you've gotten at least

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two and a half hours of writing done and now you can take a break because you've been consistent

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in your writing.

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It's the story of the tortoise and the hare.

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The hare wins every time.

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I know you're going to say it's a fable, it's made up, but the reality is that consistent

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effort over time, it's kind of like compound interest, will always pay off compared to

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inconsistent, huge efforts sporadically.

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Because when you think about it, when was the last time you had eight hours to binge

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write?

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Those times don't come anymore.

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Yeah, they came.

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They were very often in college.

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If you were like me, you binge wrote some term papers and you still made an A. But for

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the most part, you don't have those eight hour blocks anymore because you've gotten

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really busy.

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But what you do have is 20 minutes here and 20 minutes there.

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What you do have is a 30 minute window here and a one hour window there.

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And if you're writing consistently, you're able to make the most out of these windows

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and you're able to really move work forward.

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So strategy number three, write consistently.

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Number four is to get accountability.

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Okay, okay.

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I want to pause here and say that your mentor, your research mentor, is a great source of

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accountability because they can sometimes scare the pechesis out of you if you don't

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get your work done.

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I thought I would use that term.

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It sounded cool when I started thinking about it.

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But anyway, let's just say that they might make you a little bit afraid if you show up

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and you haven't worked on that manuscript, but that's not the kind of accountability

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I'm talking about.

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I'm not talking about any kind of accountability that makes you afraid, strikes fear into you,

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or makes you feel small.

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And I'm not saying that research mentors are out to do that, but sometimes that hierarchical

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relationship can make it difficult for you not to feel judged every time you show up

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in their presence.

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What you want in your life is non-judgmental accountability.

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Here's how you get it.

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You stand up and you declare your intention, preferably to a witness.

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But even if you don't have a witness, you record yourself and be your own witness.

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You at the beginning of the week on Monday, say to your witness, even if it's you, say

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to your witness, these are the goals I have planned for this week.

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And just tell yourself three major goals related to your research, writing, and productivity

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that you want to accomplish.

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That's it.

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Just announce it.

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Now you've made a plan, right?

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And you've planned your week.

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So by the end of the week, hopefully you've been doing it, but maybe you haven't.

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Maybe on Monday you sat down to write, you got that page from the clinic saying, holy

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cow, your patient is here.

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You got to show up.

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Let's get this done.

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And then all of a sudden Monday is frittered away with the emergency person who showed

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up in the ER.

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Okay.

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So Monday you sat down and you're like, I'm getting this work done just before my clinic

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is over.

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And the patient shows up like hours early and they were like, I'm sorry, doc, you got

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to see this patient right now.

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Well, there's another amount of writing that went away.

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Okay.

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Fast forward to Friday, you go back to your witness and maybe it's just the video that

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you left for yourself.

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And you say, oh, let me see what I said I would accomplish on Monday.

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And your video of you says, hey, I'm going to accomplish these three items.

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And you look at yourself and you're like, wow, none of these items are accomplished.

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And that's it.

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No judgment, just observation, just observation.

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The reason you want to do that is because it allows you the opportunity to reflect and

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to ask yourself what could be different next time.

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I had a plan, didn't execute on the plan.

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What could I do differently?

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Or maybe it was a great story.

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Maybe you did execute on the plan.

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What did you do?

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Congratulations.

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And then you ask yourself, well, what helps me succeed?

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How did I succeed?

295
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And then you go and do that again.

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Wow.

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Accountability, non-judgmental, just observation.

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Now, you can get this from yourself.

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If you record a video of yourself and what you're going to accomplish at the beginning

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of the week, you can get it from you writing it down and then reviewing.

301
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So the key is it has to be a review, right?

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You can't just say, hey, I'm going to do it.

303
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And then at the end of the week, you're like, okay, I don't remember what I said I was going

304
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to do.

305
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:51,720
You actually have to schedule time to do the review so you can reflect on your goals and

306
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what you could do differently next time.

307
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So get accountability for your research and writing goals.

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It doesn't have to come from your primary research mentor.

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And to be honest, it probably shouldn't come from your primary research mentor because

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there's that hierarchy that sometimes makes you feel judged.

311
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You're thinking you're doing well.

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And then they're like, when's that paper I talked to you about three months ago?

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And then you're feeling judged.

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This accountability needs to be non-judgmental.

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Okay?

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Okay.

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Number five is to lean in to your peer mentoring network.

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Now this goes with the accountability.

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And actually, honestly, I get my accountability from my peer mentors because they will remind

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me that, isn't this the same paper you said you were writing the introduction on three

321
00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:34,120
weeks ago?

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They have great memories compared to your memory, but it's also non-judgmental because,

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hey, your peers.

324
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:41,560
And this is the great thing about your peers.

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They could be your peers in age, but they're at a different level from you.

326
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Maybe they're already associate professor and you're starting out as an instructor or

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as an assistant professor.

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They're still your friends.

329
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They're still your colleagues.

330
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You can get feedback from them because they've already done some things.

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They've gone ahead a little bit.

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But there isn't that hierarchical structure that sometimes exists between the big mentor

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00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:05,080
and the early career faculty member.

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00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:06,080
So lean in.

335
00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:11,120
You have so many peers who are so accomplished in different areas.

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00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:16,240
Maybe you're the master of grant writing, but you're no good when it comes to thinking

337
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:19,080
strategically about when you go out for promotion.

338
00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:22,000
But someone else went ahead and got promoted two years early.

339
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:23,000
Guess what?

340
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,520
You can be a peer mentor to them as far as grant writing is concerned.

341
00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:31,400
And they're a peer mentor to you as far as strategically advancing within the academy.

342
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Win-win for both of you.

343
00:18:33,260 --> 00:18:36,160
So what you want to do is look around you.

344
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Who are your peers?

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00:18:37,360 --> 00:18:38,840
Sometimes people will see your near peers.

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00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:43,640
I just call them your peers and say, well, what did they have that I don't have yet?

347
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:48,680
And how can they help me advance in a way that's non-judgmental, friendly, and really

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00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:50,200
helps me grow?

349
00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:55,840
So strategy number five is to lean into your peer mentoring network.

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00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:57,240
All right.

351
00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:00,400
Strategy number six is to take risks.

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00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:01,400
Okay?

353
00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:05,180
Nothing good ever came from not taking a shot.

354
00:19:05,180 --> 00:19:09,200
Every shot you don't take is a shot that you definitely miss.

355
00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:14,080
You can look at the grant and you can say, oh, wow, this is for someone who is really

356
00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:15,080
accomplished.

357
00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:21,000
Or you can look at the job posting and you can say, maybe three years from now when I

358
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:23,040
am more senior.

359
00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:27,520
Or you can just say, you know what, I probably don't qualify for that, but let's take a shot

360
00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:28,520
anyway.

361
00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:30,160
Here's the thing.

362
00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:32,400
You never lose when you take a shot on goal.

363
00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:33,400
You never lose.

364
00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:39,040
You may miss the shot, but what you've done is you've invested in skill building.

365
00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:43,920
For example, there was a role that called for leadership that I applied for.

366
00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:48,720
And at the time that I applied for it, I wasn't even sure that I actually was qualified for

367
00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:51,280
the role, but I felt like it was something I needed to do.

368
00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:53,680
So I went ahead and I applied.

369
00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:57,460
And the process of applying what I needed to do in writing my personal statement was

370
00:19:57,460 --> 00:20:03,400
to clarify for myself what my expertise was and what my motivations were for coming to

371
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:04,960
that leadership role.

372
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:05,960
And it was beautiful.

373
00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:06,960
I wrote it all out.

374
00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:10,240
I read it and I was like, oh, this is so good.

375
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:11,240
Guess what?

376
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:15,960
I didn't get the role, but I had the opportunity to practice clarifying for myself what was

377
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:17,720
important to me.

378
00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,680
Another role like that is going to come up because opportunities will always come.

379
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:22,680
And guess what?

380
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:29,120
I will be ready to now use this document that I've already put together and make it better

381
00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:31,720
and stronger for the next application.

382
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:33,840
So you never lose.

383
00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:38,800
Let's say we're writing a grant and you submit the grant and you don't get it.

384
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,320
Well, you've put together all this information.

385
00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:42,960
You spent a lot of work.

386
00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:47,280
Now when you turn around and resubmit it to the same organization or maybe to a different

387
00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:51,880
organization, you already have all the building blocks and therefore you're able to take those

388
00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:55,640
building blocks and make them work for you.

389
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,120
Taking risks allows you to build.

390
00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:00,560
It allows you to build skill.

391
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:02,240
It allows you to build confidence.

392
00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:04,560
It allows you to grow your networks.

393
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:05,560
Take risks.

394
00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:08,440
And people will say, oh my gosh, it's got to be a calculated risk.

395
00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:09,800
Just take risks anyway.

396
00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:13,960
Start getting used to being a person who just does things that you're not even qualified

397
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:14,960
to do.

398
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:16,000
Someone's like, I had a grant.

399
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,360
I was writing recently and someone's like, well, you know, the kind of people who get

400
00:21:19,360 --> 00:21:21,840
these grants are really big shots.

401
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:27,320
I don't have to be a big shot to apply for this grant because applying for it helps me

402
00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:31,600
get closer to my goal of being a big shot, right?

403
00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:34,960
Whatever big shot means, but take risks.

404
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:35,960
Okay.

405
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:42,400
Number seven, which kind of sounds counterintuitive to number six is to conserve your energy.

406
00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:47,940
One of the greatest coaches of all time, her name is Judith.

407
00:21:47,940 --> 00:21:51,240
She was my executive coach for five years.

408
00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:56,760
And that's one thing she would always say to me, conserve energy, conserve energy, conserve

409
00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:58,360
energy.

410
00:21:58,360 --> 00:22:00,440
And it is so important.

411
00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:01,840
What does that mean?

412
00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:06,720
It means ask yourself, hmm, is this worth the investment of my time?

413
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:10,520
Now what kinds of things should you think about when you're trying to conserve energy?

414
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:16,560
Well, let's just say, for example, there is an announcement that from now on all clinicians

415
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:21,840
are going to have to answer their in-basket messages within 30 minutes.

416
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:23,260
Okay.

417
00:22:23,260 --> 00:22:26,520
Conserving energy is saying, hmm, is this feasible for me?

418
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,000
Hmm, no, it's not.

419
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:33,360
Let's see what I can do to make it happen without breaking my whole life.

420
00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:35,080
That's conserving energy.

421
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:40,500
Not conserving energy is to be the one who's going to rouse the entire population of clinicians

422
00:22:40,500 --> 00:22:46,040
across all the health system to say, this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

423
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:47,360
Let's protest.

424
00:22:47,360 --> 00:22:51,320
Let's make sure the administration knows exactly how crazy this is.

425
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,360
I'm going to be the one to go around the institution and take up petitions.

426
00:22:55,360 --> 00:23:04,400
You make sure that that is not conserving energy because it takes a lot of energy and

427
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:08,720
effort to try to bring an institution to change its mind.

428
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:13,560
And all the while you're doing that, expending significant energy, maybe not making a lot

429
00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:21,000
of traction in your own goals is that, well, you're not really moving forward.

430
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,320
You're exhausting yourself and your own personal goals are left unfulfilled.

431
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:28,000
Now, I am all about crusading.

432
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:33,960
I believe in crusading, but you got to choose your crusading battles very, very strategically.

433
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:38,960
If you're an early career faculty who just started and you don't really have any political

434
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:44,200
capital in the organization, maybe the best use of your time is not going and canvassing

435
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,400
for votes to support your petition.

436
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:52,160
Maybe the best use of your time is investing in your own career development because that's

437
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:58,600
where your energy is going to be able to carry the most weight or to really give you the

438
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:00,660
most investment.

439
00:24:00,660 --> 00:24:05,920
Maybe by the time you finally get promoted and you're now a full professor with tenure,

440
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,080
then you can go be the one canvassing votes about the campus.

441
00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:13,080
And by then you're probably really savvy, you know enough people, then instead of canvassing

442
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:17,000
votes, you're making those phone calls, those key phone calls that make the right people

443
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,200
move forward to make the right things move.

444
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:24,320
Because by the time you get there, you're politically savvy about your organization.

445
00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:27,920
So the key principle here, it is strategic.

446
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:33,480
I've seen people use it over and over again, and now it's my strategy too, is a principle

447
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:35,520
of conservation of energy.

448
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:38,880
I will tell you that this podcast is my strategy.

449
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:44,440
There are so many people in the academy, especially who are early career, who don't have the opportunity

450
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,720
to really be able to invest in themselves or to be able to grow in the way they want

451
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:49,720
to.

452
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:55,920
I want to help all of them, but I can't because I also need to focus on my own career development.

453
00:24:55,920 --> 00:25:01,080
And so if I take 20 minutes and I record this podcast episode, it's one way that I can help

454
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:07,300
the next generation without necessarily giving up my time to do it over and over and over

455
00:25:07,300 --> 00:25:10,480
again for different groups of people who keep coming to me.

456
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:12,040
It's conserving energy.

457
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:16,120
And so when somebody comes and says, Dr. Lemona, I want to meet with you next week.

458
00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:17,880
And then my other colleague wants to meet with you.

459
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:19,480
There are always people who want to meet with me.

460
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,600
There are more people who want to meet with me than I have slots on my schedule to meet

461
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:23,600
with them.

462
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:25,520
But I can say, oh, is your question about mentoring?

463
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:29,040
Why don't you listen to this podcast episode I did about mentoring?

464
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,200
That is a principle of conservation of energy in action.

465
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:33,200
All right.

466
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:38,440
I talked about seven things, seven strategies to grow your research skills.

467
00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:40,960
Number one, you ought to have a strategic plan.

468
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:44,120
Number two, make sure to develop the habit of a weekly planning meeting.

469
00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:45,800
Number three, write consistently.

470
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:46,800
Number four, get accountability.

471
00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:49,800
Number five, lean into your peer mentoring network.

472
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:50,920
Number six, take risks.

473
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,560
And number seven, conserve energy.

474
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:59,520
I invite you today to think about your career and ask yourself in what areas do you need

475
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:03,280
to apply strategy so that you can succeed?

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00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:08,180
And then I want you to go ahead and take just one of these strategies and implement them

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this week.

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And then I want to hear all about it.

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Please reach out to me.

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You can find me on LinkedIn.

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I will respond to your direct message within a week or earlier, depending on how often

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I'm on LinkedIn.

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But I'd love to hear from you.

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Let me know how you are using these strategies to enhance your career.

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All right.

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It's been a pleasure to talk 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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00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:43,040
Thank you for listening.

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00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:48,400
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic

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00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:54,120
clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they

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00:26:54,120 --> 00:26:55,200
have a mentor.

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00:26:55,200 --> 00:27:01,160
If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.

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00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:03,040
Someone else needs to hear it.

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00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:07,080
So take a minute right now and share it.

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00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:12,560
As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation

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00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:18,520
of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.