Did you listen to my Journey of Self-Discovery and Finding Happiness & Fulfillment in Your Career podcast on MSLead podcast? I dumped my heart out on all the techniques and strategies I use to follow my passions and find fulfillment. These self-discovery techniques can also supercharge your growth in Medical Affairs.

If you:

🔹Feel unclear on your strategy or goals
🔹Have communication barriers
🔹Struggle to establish and maintain relationships with KOL or internal stakeholders
🔹Experience productivity slumps
🔹Have areas you want to improve

Keep reading, you will learn self-discovery techniques to fuel your success in Medical Affairs.

What is Self-Discovery and How is it Related to Fueling Medical Affairs Success?

Self-discovery is the process of gaining knowledge or understanding of your abilities, character, strengths, and weaknesses. With self-awareness comes growth. With growth comes bigger impact. I think you see where I am going with this. Impact = success.

The rest of this article will guide you through self-discovery techniques to fuel your success in Medical Affairs. Pick one that resonates with you and try it out for a month. Then share what happened with me 🙂.

Give the podcast a listen for how I use these techniques in my everyday life.

Journaling for Success in Medical Affairs

Journaling is a powerful way to gain a better understanding of areas that you need to improve or are struggling with, such as building relationships with KOLs, productivity slumps, or aligning daily tasks with long-term goals. From there you can start to build action plans to improve.

Pick a focus area and then do some free-form writing on this topic. A great way to start is to write anything and everything that comes into your head.

If the idea of journaling makes you cringe, be open and start small. Commit to journaling on your focus area for 3 minutes per day. If you don’t like to write by hand, type it on your computer. If you don’t like to write, record short audio clips. I have a friend who just chats with ChatGPT and that’s his journal.

The point is to become more aware of where you are and where you want to be through reflection. Don’t worry about the format. Do whatever works for you. Even thinking about it counts.

Medical Affairs Self-Discovery Prompts

If the free-form journaling idea doesn’t resonate with you, try journaling prompts. Having a prompt is a great way to get you started and stay focused. Here are some suggestions. The sky is the limit here. Reach out to me for more ideas. I have a list of self-reflection questions a mile long.

🔹What goals did I advance today, and how?
🔹What recent project brought me the most fulfillment and why?
🔹How did I effectively communicate with stakeholders today?
🔹What new knowledge or skills did I acquire this week that can improve our initiatives? 🔹How will I take action on this?
🔹What motivated me today?
🔹What challenges did I overcome, and what did I learn about my approach?

Do you use a journal prompt to fuel your success? Please share it with me!

Effective Goal Setting to Demonstrate Impact

Goal setting is a self-discovery technique that involves identifying, articulating, and planning specific objectives that align with your aspirations. It’s a process that helps you gain clarity on what you want to achieve, what motivates you, and the steps to achieve your goal. Many folks in Medical Affairs tell me that they, “… have no idea what [they] are doing!” Structured and manageable goal setting is essential for demonstrating impact!

Set Big and Small Goals

Define what you and your team want to achieve over the year (your yearly goal) and then break this down into quarterly and monthly milestones. Then break these down into smaller, manageable steps/tasks. I know you folks like examples, so here you go 🙂:

Big Yearly Goal:

Implement a medical education program to enhance the knowledge of HCPs in your therapeutic area and address educational gaps.

Quarterly Milestones:

Q1: Conduct a needs assessment and define the scope of the program.
Q2: Develop educational materials and secure expert speakers.
Q3: Launch the medical education program and conduct initial sessions.
Q4: Evaluate the program’s impact.

Monthly Milestones and Weekly Steps/Tasks:

Q1: Conduct Needs Assessment and Define Scope

January Monthly Milestone:

Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment.

Weekly Steps/Tasks:

🔹 Week 1: Review MSL insights to identify knowledge level and gaps.
🔹Week 2: Discuss educational need with key internal stakeholders.
🔹Week 3: Review existing educational resources.
🔹Week 4: Analyze internal data to identify key educational gaps and needs.

You can find another example of how to break down MSL engagement goals here.

Goal setting doesn’t stop at setting and executing goals. Here are more techniques to keep your self-discovery at the top of your game.

Track Your Progress

We get lost in the day-to-day and it can feel like progress is not being made. Get in the habit of tracking your progress. This is a huge help on your self-discovery journey and figuring out what is and is not working on your goal setting/execution. Download a weekly progress tracker here.

Daily Review & Reflection

Review your goals daily (more tips here) and reflect on your progress (download a progress tracker here and check out this MSL Monthly Impact Report), whether it’s a successful collaboration with a cross-functional team or a well-executed ad board. This practice enhances your productivity by keeping your goals top of mind.

Managing Energy Levels

Managing your energy levels in Medical Affairs is completely underrated. These are tough jobs. If you are drained or burned out, you will not be at your best (tips for scheduling & prioritizing fun here). Unfortunately, MSLs reach out to me frequently about being burned out. Keeping your energy high is critical to being successful and happy!

Tracking Energy Levels

Keep track of your energy levels, especially during high-stress periods like preparing for a major congress or a product launch. Reflect on what activities drain or boost your energy to maintain peak productivity, ensuring that you can consistently contribute to your needle-moving activities. Here are some journaling prompts for you:

🔹What gave me energy? Why?
🔹What drained me of energy? Why?

Conclusions: Self-Discovery Techniques to Fuel Your Success in Medical Affairs

By incorporating self-discovery techniques like the ones outlined above, you can overcome common struggles and frustrations and continually refine and improve your Medical Affairs work. The most impactful people are those who always looking for ways to continuously improve.

What do you think of the concept of using self-discovery to fuel your success in Medical Affairs? Comment down below or share with me on LinkedIn.