Why Professional Relationships Matter

All presidential addresses at professional meetings could be titled "Relationships Matter." It is through our relationships with others – mentors and peers – that we find our way successfully through our professional careers.

Relationships managed well bring success and happiness. Relationships managed poorly, usually by inattention or poor decision making, can bring failure and sadness, if not clinical depression. Unsupportive and imperious bosses and lazy or ill-informed subordinates are galling, but it is the failure of peer-to-peer relationships that brings the most angst.

Like any important relationship, professional peer relationships should not be taken for granted. A brief rule of thumb is that if you don’t feel that you are putting more into a relationship than you are receiving in return, you probably aren’t. Which means that your peers or partners are likely to believe that they are putting more into the relationship than they receive. So be generous with your time and energy, and be sensitive to the needs of others. When you receive an icy response from colleagues, it is probably because they feel you have taken something from them (patients, prestige, position). Listen to their desires and give back, if you can. A small investment can yield big rewards.

Dr. Hunter, chief of surgery at Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, is an ACS Fellow and president of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. This is a condensed version of the SSAT Presidential Address presented by Dr. Hunter on May 20, 2012, at the annual Digestive Disease Week.