Small to Big and Big to Small: Adjusting Your Psychological Size to Maximize Impact as a Chief Resident

The transition from resident to chief resident can be difficult owing to new teaching roles and leadership positions as well as drastic responsibility changes. This role comes with high expectations based on past performance; however, the skill set needed to excel as a resident does not guarantee success as a chief resident. Chief residents are often underprepared for this transition; many have no training in leadership and management, meeting facilitation and presentation, or teaching theory and methodology. This gap in training is felt perhaps most acutely when new chief residents assume the new leadership role. New chiefs may struggle to adapt to their ever-changing environments as well as to the highly variable administrative responsibilities they suddenly face. One universal method of addressing these gaps is to adjust psychological size - the perceived status one person has relative to another. During this interactive workshop incoming chief residents will learn methods of altering their psychological size to allow them to work effectively with individuals who range from the hospital CEO to newly matriculating medical students. In this workshop, a particular emphasis is placed on how constructs including gender and race may impact psychological size and consequently, psychological safety. Through development of this particular skillset, chief residents can be instrumental in setting a culture of psychological safety.