Take Charge of Your Professional Network of Colleagues to Succeed in Academic Medicine

Instead of relying on a single, dyadic mentor for career advice, we suggest creating and intentionally cultivating a professional network of colleagues (PNC) to guide your academic career. There are four archetypes to help clinician educators succeed in academic medicine: a traditional mentor, a sponsor, a coach, and a connector.1 However, these roles are not discrete, and overlap occurs. For example, some mentors are great sponsors. In fact, a clinician educator's PNC is akin to a board of directors in the business world. A board of directors determines the direction and strategic plan of a company,2 while a PNC helps a clinician educator strategically navigate academia and provides career guidance.It can be challenging to create a PNC. To choose membership for your PNC, we propose taking an active and self-reflective role. Ask where you see yourself in the future and perform a personal value assessment.3 Then, brainstorm with your PNC on how to achieve your goals. Use the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education's Clinician Educator Milestones to develop valuable skills in academia,4 build your professional identity, and target areas for professional development. We present our strategy for using and maintaining a PNC below.