The Professional Mission Statement:
Defining Your Career Goals
John D Mahan, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Residency Program and Pediatric Nephrology
Fellowship Program Director
Assistant Dean for Faculty Development,
The Ohio State University
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Chinese Proverb
If we don’t change our direction,
we are likely to end up where we are headed!
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The Vision: Key to Defining
Your Professional Mission Statement
• Identify your personal goals and interests
• What do you value?
• What does the organization value?
• What can you share with mentor and colleagues?
• Define your Professional Mission Statement
•
Will help you address your Vision/Goals
• Set Priorities and Enact your Plan
• Revisit often / Post in office?
• Ensure productivity
• Minimize surprises / Maximize satisfaction!
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Vision vs. Mission
Vision
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Defines the optimal desired future
state - the mental picture - of what
you want to accomplish, what the
future should be
Provides guidance and inspiration
for your mission and efforts in the
next 1, 5, 10 years
Is written succinctly, in an
inspirational manner
Is useful for sharing with
supervisors, mentors and
colleagues
Mission
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Defines your purpose – what you want
to be and do in your profession
Answers 3 questions about you:
• WHAT you will do
• WHO it is for
• HOW you will do it
It is written succinctly in one sentence
It is something that you can share with
supervisors, mentors and colleagues
Can be used to assess the value of
any new activities (asked of you or in
your interest)
Objectives
(at the end of this presentation, the learner will be able to:)
• Describe the components of a successful professional
development strategy
• Develop a basic Professional Mission Statement (PMS) and plan
• Clarify your Current Project List to relation to your PMS
• Describe the 4/20 Habits for Academic Success
• Colleagues
• Environment
• Successful Style
• Citizenship
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Case of Richard
• MD now finishing 3rd year as an Assistant Professor on the Tenure Track
• Graduated from a top tier fellowship program with excellent research training
and intense desire to continue research career
• On service only 2 months a year - great reviews as teacher and clinician
• Took longer than expected to get research enterprise (people, resources, local
collaborators) up and going – has only one local collaborator
• Division Director expects him to focus on his research and publish, submit a
large national grant each year and present at national meetings
• His productivity has been less than desired but he feels that he is getting
momentum now – he spends 8-12 hours each weekend on his research
• The Division Director calls him in and explains that he may not qualify for
additional internal support due to lack of publications and grant proposals
• He needs to submit a NIH grant in the next 6 months – if he does not get a
competitive score, his research career will be in jeopardy!
• Should he continue to work this hard on his research? What is wrong here?
What should he do now? What could have been done earlier?
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Defining Your
Professional Mission Statement
• Draft Initial statement.
• Refine statement to
include why it is so
important.
• Re-draft statement to
include why it is so
important to you.
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Perspective on Developing a
Profession Mission Statement…
“Life’s greatest gift is the
opportunity to work hard at
work worth doing.”
Theodore Roosevelt
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Professional Mission Statement:
Undesirable Examples
• To be the best cardiologist I can be.
• To be the best faculty teacher of medical
students.
• To be outstanding in research, clinical care
and education.
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Professional Mission Statement:
Desirable Examples
• To become an expert in incorporating
patient/parent education in improving the care of
children with sickle cell disease
• To be a leader in the field of developing new anticancer compounds for the treatment of patients
with leukemia
• To be a national leader in developing evidence
based education in cardiology training
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Professional Mission Statement:
Desirable Examples
Vision
Professional Mission Statement
• Children with sickle cell
disease will have better clinical
outcomes as a result of better
patient/parent education
• To become an expert in
incorporating patient/parent
education in improving the
care of children with sickle
cell disease.
• Patients with leukemia will
benefit from new anti-cancer
drugs developed at Nationwide
Children’s Hospital
• To be a leader in the field of
developing new anti-cancer
compounds for the treatment
of patients with leukemia.
Reviewing Your
Professional Mission Statement
• Present your PMS to your
small group (4-6/group).
• Listen and suggest
improvements to your
peer’s PMS drafts.
• Discuss several PMS
drafts among entire group.
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Developing Your
Current Projects List
• List your current working
projects.
• Rate the degree of congruence
(High / Medium / Low) with
your PMS for each activity.
• Rate the perceived priority of
your supervisor for each
activity.
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Reviewing Your
Current Projects List
• Do you have more “High”s or
more “Medium”s and “Low”s?
• Review and update each year.
• Create and Execute a Plan to
replace 1-2 “Low”s or
“Medium”s each year.
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Completing Your
Successful Faculty Worksheet
• Complete worksheet based
on your current habits
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Perspective on
Developing a Successful Career…
“Life isn’t about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw
Irish playwright
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Reviewing Your
Successful Faculty Worksheet
• Do you have more “M”s,
or more “S”s and “N”s ???...
• Review Each Year
• Create and Execute a Plan
to Improve in 1-2 Areas
Each Year
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Colleagues
• Associate and collaborate with distinguished
colleagues in your field
• Develop a colleague network which includes
senior colleagues, peers, administrators, staff
• Collaborate with colleagues on writing, teaching,
research and administration
• Regularly obtain guidance and feedback from
senior colleagues
• Maintain regular contact with colleagues both
inside and outside institution
• Borrow and offer resources
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Environment
• Gravitate toward local peers who are
academically productive
• Work toward establishing a supportive work
climate (colleagues and resources)
• Strive to establish >10% protected time for
academic pursuits
• Strive to establish institutional support for pursuit
of topics you deeply value
• Strive to ensure your Chair appreciates and
values your work
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Successful Personal Style
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Ensure you are productive in your first 5 years
Work in small bursts (on vs. off service)
Pursue several projects simultaneously
Pursue topics of personal interest, consistent
with your values and mission
• Work with some degree of perceived autonomy
• Take risks
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Citizenship
• National - Regularly attend national meetings
• Regional – Become active in regional and
national programs
• Local – Become active on medical school and
hospital committees, working groups, and
curriculum committees
• Network with other good citizens to drive your
agenda (or their agenda)
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Final Point:
Document Your Accomplishments!
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Statement of philosophy on teaching
Teaching/Learner evaluations
Representative syllabi/course materials
Every new committee, work group, assignment
Every journal or granting agency for whom you
review
• Every publication, abstract, invited presentation
• Every grant you have pending or awarded
Update
CV
Every
Month
!
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Aligning Your Mission
• Reflect on Your PMS and Align
• What motivates your professional mission
statement? Why do you want to do what you want to
do? - is this part of a belief, experience, value, etc.?
• What is your institutional mission statement? And
that of your Department, Division, Center, etc?
Usually it is general and allows diversity.
• How does your mission statement and underlying
values align with that of your institution?
• When you are busy or stressed can you recognize
this alignment?
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Homework
• Develop and Refine your PMS
• Seek input from your Mentor/Supervisor
• Re-Visit your PMS with Mentor/Supervisor
• Junior faculty: Quarterly
• Senior Faculty: Every 6-12 months
• Share concerns with your Mentor/Supervisor
• Use your Current Projects List as a Guidepost
• Move toward “High”s and away from “Low”s
• Revisit your Successful Faculty List at least yearly
• Intentionally increase your assets
• Share with your Mentor/Supervisor
• Live your plan !
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“Plans are only good intentions
unless they immediately
degenerate into hard work.”
Peter Drucker
“Plans are nothing;
planning is everything.”
Dwight Eisenhower
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References
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Simpson DE, Fincher RM. Making a case for the teaching scholar.
Acad Med. 1999 Dec;74(12):1296-9.
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Umiker W. Developing a mission statement for self and family.
Health Care Superv. 1998 Dec;17(2):39-44.
•
McCurdy FA. Marcdante K. Setting a personal career direction.
J Cardiovasc Manag. 2003 Mar-Apr;14(2):18-21.
•
Rojas-Guyler L, Murnan J, Cottrell RR. Networking for career-long success: a powerful
strategy for health education professionals.
Health Promot Pract. 2007 Jul;8(3):229-33.
Thanks!!!
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Deborah Simpson, Ph.D. Professor, Family and Community Medicine, Associate Dean
for Educational Support and Evaluation Medical College of Wisconsin
• Lewis R. First, M.D. Professor and Chair, Pediatrics, University of Vermont School of
Medicine
• Ed Zalneraitis, MD. Pediatric Program Director, Professor and Associate Dean,
University of Connecticut
• Willaim E. Smoyer, Vice President and Director, Clinical and Translational Research,
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The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital