Autonomy lessons: Tips and tricks for building self-determination through the lens of a first time principal investigator

Early career faculty face many challenges, including establishing a career direction, building skills, balancing work and personal life demands, finding mentors, and establishing collegial relationships within their departments. Early career funding has been shown to augment future success in academia; less is known about the impact of early career funding on the social, emotional, and professional identity aspects of work life. One theoretical perspective to examine this issue is self-determination theory, a broad psychological paradigm explaining motivation, well-being, and development. Self-determination theory is predicated on the idea that fulfillment of three basic needs leads to the achievement of integrated well-being. Optimizing autonomy (a sense of choice and control), competence (sense of mastery), and relatedness (a sense of belonging) accompanies greater motivation, productivity, and perceived success. The authors share how applying for and implementing an early career grant affected these three constructs. Early career funding manifested challenges and beneficial outcomes in relationship to each of the three psychological needs and led to important lessons that may be generally applicable to faculty across a wide range of disciplines. The authors offer broad principles as well as specific grant-related strategies for optimizing autonomy, competence, and relatedness while applying for and executing a grant. Practice points Self-determination theory may be used to understand the social, emotional, and professional development effects of career-altering projects such as attaining major grant funding. A medical educator can use the domains of self-determination theory–autonomy, competence, and relatedness–as levers to pull to enhance work well-being and realize potential. The pursuit of scholarly work in a personal field of interest can enhance autonomy. Optimal challenges are those that stretch the medical educator beyond their current stage of development and provide opportunities to develop and realize competence. The development and cultivation of a network of mentors, sponsors, and supportive colleagues can provide a strong sense of relatedness within the work.