“If you need a coach, maybe you aren’t the guy for this job!”
Imagine those words I received from my then CEO after I was asked to serve as interim chair of my department 12 years ago. I had been the residency director for about 1/3 of my faculty and really wanted help to reframe existing relationships as or and friend “Uncle Rob” to a more appropriate chair relationship. To my good fortune, I had a previous successful relationship with a specific coach who I had hired as Vice-Chair for development of a high potential early in his leadership roles. Also, I happened to remember from the CEO onboarding, that she was a football fan and had played D2 women’s Volleyball. I countered with “Tom Brady is a pretty good football player, right? So, I guess he shouldn’t need a coach?” I didn’t even get to ask her about her Volleyball coach when she acquiesced. Feeling emboldened, I told her I wanted a specific coach who already knew the culture and many of the players. My first 6 month experience with an executive coach, also named Rob, was amazing and ultimately allowed me to realize, I didn’t want to be a chair of a single department, but explore roles as the chief medical officer of a system. I didn’t want to create any ethical or employment issues for Rob so I clarified for whom he worked and asked would I compromise him if I disclosed
I remain in touch with my first coach, we actually have collaborated and co-presented to a large group of CMOs to help them get over preconceived punitive notions and stigma. He has been actually instrumental in encouraging my coaching journey as I contemplated retiring as CMO.
I share this story to show how despite our challenges in the field of medicine,,, we have progressed over the past decade to frame shift from coaching for the broken or poorly behaving doc, to coaching for the whole, capable and creative doc. Perfectionism is still a barrier for many of our colleagues so readily recognizing and accepting a coach may not always be met with a thank you but rather, am I getting fired? Stigma against a competent and good doc needing any help seems to be reduced somewhat, but realize normalizing coaching and even embracing coaching is likely organization specific. So have a good defense as a backup if your leader isn’t so inclined.
Literature is now available post- pandemic showing definite improvement on provider burnout with use of coaches. Shanafelt et Al 2024.
