Learning to pivot: developing talent and a championship team.

Developing the future leaders of biomedical science is fundamentally the most important role that we play in academic medicine. Similar to the path to elite championship athletics, the path begins early: engaging young minds to find excitement in science, enlightening medical students on the importance of curiosity, challenging faculty to achieve milestones and mature as leaders. Coaching strategies are critical and are different at each developmental stage. It may seem that it is becoming harder to entice young talent to pursue a career in biomedical research, or that the perpetually leaky pipeline is corroding to the point of hemorrhage. This perspective will explore the factors contributing to this loss, with flow further compromised by low input volume and high demand, and survey the coaching strategies that inspire the drive to pursue biomedical inquiry and the range of skills that must be developed to enable our workforce to thrive.