In uncertain times, leaders must lean in to their own humanity

Courtesy of Vivek Murthy, MD

When Vivek Murthy, MD, was serving his second term as U.S. surgeon general during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he made it a priority to be home in time for dinner with his wife and two young children.

He wanted to ensure that he not only was cherishing this time with his family, but also that he was giving his team permission to do the same. It was an opportunity to lead by example.

Over the past few years, both during his time as surgeon general and after, Murthy has raised the alarm about the dangers of social isolation and loneliness, public health epidemics that were taking hold before the pandemic but reached an acute level because of it.

"I realized people look to you as a leader to see what you are doing. Are you just telling people to prioritize their well-being to be nice, but, really, you're working 100 hours a week and never seeing your family? And is there a subtle, quiet expectation for everyone else to do the same?" Murthy says. "I worked hard to build my work life around these [family] priorities. It was important for my team to see that, so that when they had a family situation, they felt more comfortable taking that time."

As the chief physician and health educator in the country from 2014 to 2017, in the Obama administration, and from 2021 to 2025, in the Biden administration, and in his most recent role, as founder and chair of The Together Project, an initiative to build social connection in the United States, Murthy has personal experience with the privileges and trials that come with leadership during tumultuous times.

Now, as the people who make up the academic medicine community face great uncertainty, including cuts to research funding, Murthy will share his perspective on what it means to lead through shifting landscapes during the opening plenary session at Learn Serve Lead 2025: The AAMC Annual Meeting on Sunday, Nov. 2, in San Antonio, Texas.

AAMCNews spoke with Murthy about the challenges facing leaders in academic medicine today and how to stay grounded in human connection in spite of them.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Your talk is about staying grounded in empathy, vulnerability, and resilience in uncertain times. Why do you think this message is so important for academic medicine at this time?

This is a time of extraordinary stress, chaos, and change, particularly in academic medicine for people working to deliver health care, teach students, and conduct research. They have witnessed a painful series of threats to universities, research funding, and scientific integrity in our federal health agencies.

There are also broader forces impacting health for the country and the world, including technology and artificial intelligence (AI), that are rapidly shaping how health care is designed and delivered. While there are tremendous benefits that can come from technology, it can also have a dehumanizing effect and push us further apart from each other if it is not designed and used appropriately. Even though technology connects us in certain ways, it too often makes authentic human connection more distant and contributes to our loneliness and isolation.

And so, I think there are a lot of forces pulling us apart and increasing anxiety and uncertainty in our lives. In moments like this, it is so important for us to be more deeply connected to each other and try to understand each other's experiences. This is where empathy comes in. During times of stress, too often we tend to pull back, but what we need to do is reach out to others, to share what we're going through, to listen and hear what they're going through, and to find a way to forge ahead together.

You've spoken and written a lot about the dangers of loneliness. Now that we are a few years past the acute level of the pandemic, how do you think our society is doing at reconnecting? What worries you, and is there anything that gives you hope in this area?

In some ways, we are much better off now in terms of our isolation than during the depths of the pandemic. I think we have a greater appreciation for seeing strangers in a coffee shop, seeing neighbors walking down the street, or being able to get together at a friend's birthday party in person. These are things that many of us weren't able to do in that first year of the pandemic, and we are less likely to take these simple moments of connection for granted.

With that said, I don't think we are fully back to where we were prior to the pandemic. I don't think we have grappled with what the invisible impacts of the pandemic were on all of us, especially on our mental and social health. I see the impact, particularly, with young people who experienced the isolation of COVID-19 at a sensitive period in terms of their social development. When I talk to students across the country, many of them say they still don't feel like they're as comfortable with social interaction as they were prior to the pandemic. Many college students tell me they noticed that coming out of the pandemic, their peers were far more glued to their devices than prior to COVID-19.

We were struggling with loneliness long before the pandemic, and while COVID-19 made it worse, it also gave us an opportunity to talk more openly about loneliness and isolation. People are more acutely aware of the loneliness in their life in ways they perhaps weren't pre-pandemic, but we have yet to figure out how to build the connections that will ultimately sustain all of us.

For those who are in leadership roles, there can be a lot of expectations. How does leading through tumultuous times take a toll on an individual?

As a leader, you're taking responsibility for other people. You're committing to support and guide them through good times and bad times. Being responsible for other people can be a joy, a privilege, and an honor. It can also be very stressful. Particularly when you are not sure how to navigate the rapidly changing environment we're in and especially when you yourself are struggling. But what makes stress much more harmful is when we have to manage it entirely on our own - when we can't speak openly about the challenges we face and when we don't feel like we have people with whom to face those challenges.

Unfortunately, that's how many leaders feel today. It was striking to me that leaders of nonprofit organizations in health care, CEOs of companies, and members of Congress were some of the loneliest people I met during my travels. In hushed tones, when no one else was around, they would tell me about how lonely it was to be a leader. We have this image - this stereotype - of a leader as somebody who should know all the answers and should be able to manage every situation on their own without showing an ounce of stress or doubt. And the truth is, that's just not reality. That's not how human beings are built. And when we try to hold ourselves to that standard, it causes even more stress and pain.

But when we can be real with the people we're working with about the fact that we don't always know all the answers, and that we need help sometimes, that doesn't make people think you're a weak leader. Instead, it helps people trust you more, because you're being authentic and real. This helps them relate to you and to feel invited to step up and work with you to meet the challenges your organization faces. This is good for individuals and good for organizations.

What is your message to the people who make up academic medicine - the researchers, the faculty, the medical students, the residents - about how to find the motivation to keep going through uncertain times?

To my colleagues in academic medicine: I want you to know that your mission and your work are more important than ever before. I know these have become immeasurably harder and there are many obstacles that stand in the way of you carrying out your mission. But it is no less essential and honorable. I say this because sometimes, when you feel that your work is being threatened or pushed to the side, it can often make you feel devalued and make your mission feel like it's less important. But the work of delivering clinical care, training the next generation of clinicians and scientists, and pursuing research and inquiry - this is the foundation on which medicine is built. This is the lineage of work that for generations has improved health and sustained societies. Your work truly matters.

To get through these challenging times, we will need each other. We will need to invest in our relationships with each other. That's what will sustain us. Stress and hardship are much easier to navigate when we have people we can lean on - and we all need people to lean on. Our relationships are also the foundation for our advocacy. When we are connected to one another, we are much more able to come together, to organize, and to make sure that our voices are heard by decision-makers who shape laws and policies at a local, state, or federal level.

It's also important for the public to know that there are people in academic medicine who are so deeply committed to strengthening humanity, whatever obstacles may come. We have a sacred cause: to care for those who are sick and to reduce suffering. In times of hardship and ease, this will always be our guiding light.