MedEdPublish (Feb 2020)
Graceful Self-Promotion: The impact of a short faculty development session
Abstract
Self-promotion can be challenging for physicians who are looking to advance their careers. While they want to make their successes in the workplace known, they are afraid of coming off as aggressive and turning off the people that they are trying to impress with their accomplishments. This dilemma led to the coining of the term "graceful self-promotion" (GSP), a method of making one's accomplishments and abilities visible with tact and humility. The Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Florida undertook a faculty development session focusing on GSP skills. The session started with participants interacting with each other using Bingo cards which listed GSP strategies in order to facilitate discussion. This was followed by an interactive discussion on barriers to career advancement and strategies to practice GSP. Changes in physician knowledge regarding self-promotion techniques and attitudes towards its importance were assessed using statistical tests from responses to pre- and post-surveys. We measured a positive change in physician attitudes towards their ability to self-promote following the information session (p-value < 0.005). Perceptions about the importance of self-promotion activities improved as well (p-value < 0.005). Participants comments revealed greater understanding of need for networking, developing a spirit of generativity, and having a prepared Elevator Speech. In this era where pressure to generate clinical revenue allows for limited faculty development time even a short 1-hour session can create awareness about importance of GSP for academic advancement, strategies for participants to use, and awareness of barriers to GSP.
