Strategic Thinking for Faculty
Your Career Shouldn't Feel Like a Series of Emergencies
Most physicians I coach are brilliant at responding to what's right in front of them. That's the training. A patient needs a decision now. A grant deadline is tomorrow. A colleague quits and someone has to absorb the clinical load. You handle it. You always handle it.
But here's the problem. Reacting well is not the same as thinking strategically. And over a ten- or fifteen-year academic career, the difference between the two determines whether you end up where you wanted to go or somewhere you drifted into.
What Strategic Thinking Actually Looks Like
Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management, argues in Playing to Win that strategy is fundamentally about choices. Where will you play, and how will you win? It sounds like business language, and it is. But it applies directly to an academic career.
Strategic thinking for faculty means asking: What am I building toward? Not this semester. Not this promotion cycle. Over the next five to ten years, what do I want to be known for? And what am I doing right now that actually moves me in that direction?
Most physicians have never been asked that question clearly. And when I ask it in a coaching session, the answer is often a long pause.
Why Reactive Mode Is the Default
There's no mystery here. Academic medicine is designed to keep you busy. Clinical schedules are full. Committee invitations pile up. Students need mentorship. Department chairs need someone to run that new initiative.
Every one of those things is reasonable on its own. But they add up to a career shaped by other people's priorities. You become the person who says yes to everything and wonders, three years later, why your own goals haven't moved.
The physicians who advance with intention aren't necessarily working harder. They're making different choices about where to spend their effort. They've learned to distinguish between what's urgent and what's important — a distinction Stephen Covey made famous decades ago, and one that academic medicine still largely ignores.
Three Ways to Start Thinking Strategically
Name your priority. Not five priorities. One. What is the single most important thing you're building right now? If you can't answer that in one sentence, you don't have a strategy. You have a to-do list.
Audit your commitments. Look at your calendar for the past month. How much of your time went toward your stated priority? If the answer is less than twenty percent, something needs to change. That change might mean stepping off a committee. It might mean having an uncomfortable conversation with your chair. But the math won't work any other way.
Block thinking time. This sounds almost comically simple, but it matters. Strategic thinking requires space, and space doesn't happen by accident in academic medicine. Put thirty minutes on your calendar once a week — protected, non-negotiable — to step back and think about direction. Not tasks. Direction. Where are you headed, and is this week moving you closer?
The Cost of Not Thinking Strategically
I've worked with faculty who are fifteen years into their careers and deeply accomplished by any external measure. Publications, grants, leadership roles. And yet, in our first conversation, they say some version of: "I'm not sure how I got here, and I don't know if this is where I want to be."
That's not a failure of effort. It's a failure of strategy. And it's preventable.
It's Never Too Late to Be Intentional
Wherever you are in your career, you can start making strategic choices today. It doesn't require a grand plan. It requires honesty about what you want and the discipline to say no to things that don't serve it.
If you're ready to get more intentional about where your career is heading, coaching can help you build that clarity. I'd welcome a conversation about what that could look like for you.
