Leadership and growth
Leading from wherever you sit
Twenty years in GME administration taught me that leadership shows up long before a title does.
Early in my GME career, I thought of leadership as something that came with a title. My job was to make sure things got done. It took years to see how often those were the same thing.
Reliability comes first
In a program office, people learn quickly who they can count on. The administrator who follows through, knows the requirements, and flags a problem before it grows becomes the person others turn to. That trust is influence, and it's the foundation for everything else.
Build things other people can use
Some of the most useful leadership I've practiced came from building systems: a process, a tracker, a template, an onboarding plan. A good system keeps working when you're out of the office. It lets the next person start from something instead of nothing.
That idea sits at the heart of a session I'm co-presenting with Amy Rosa and Beth Smith at the ACGME Annual Educational Conference in February 2027. We're looking at how to redesign onboarding for GME administrators so new colleagues are prepared for the role instead of figuring it out alone.
A good system keeps working when you're out of the office. That's leadership too.
Invest in your own expertise
This summer I passed the C-TAGME certification exam. After about 20 years in the field, you might wonder why I'd take on an exam at all. Credentials signal expertise to people who don't see our work every day. Preparing for one also sharpened how I think about my own practice.
Credentials aren't the only path. Writing is another. Presenting is another. So is mentoring the person who started last month.
Share what you know
I wrote From Administrators to Leaders because so many of us grow into leadership without a map. I founded FULGME for a similar reason. Much of our field's knowledge lives in people's heads and inboxes, where it helps no one else.
Wherever you sit
You don't need a title to lead in GME. You need judgment, follow-through, and the willingness to speak up when something isn't working. Start where you are. Build one thing that makes the work easier for someone else. Then tell people about it.