For W. Neil Duggar, PhD, DABR, everything on his path to leadership in academic medicine started with fully understanding his own “why.”

That process of understanding your purpose, who you are, and how that dictates what success will look like, and whether you are making progress, is a central theme within today’s broader leadership discussion. 

Dr. Duggar currently serves as an Associate Professor and Director of Medical Physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. 

Learning to lead without formal authority is important in our field because, as Dr. Duggar puts it, “most of us don’t have authority or a title most of our careers, if we ever do get one, so learning to lead without authority becomes a very powerful combination of skills.” 

Embracing feedback and constructive criticism about yourself is vital to this discussion because, without this journey to self-awareness, it’s very easy for leaders to fall into the trap of “your own legend.” 

“You can start believing your opinion and feedback are most important, but the reality is that there will always be voices you need to listen to outside of your own,” he said. 

We thank Dr. Duggar for reaching out to us via the Faculty Factory inbox and requesting to be a guest on this show! If you have something to share within your corner of the academic medicine world as a guest, please send us a message: https://facultyfactory.org/contact-us/   

After you listen to Dr. Duggar’s interview, for more fantastic podcast episodes, please check out our show’s archives: https://facultyfactory.org/podcast-topics/