The Future of Coaching is a digital magazine that is devoted to defining the opportunities and challenges associated with the evolving field of professional coaching. There is perhaps no domain of contemporary society in which this field finds greater opportunity – and greater challenge – than the domain of healthcare. Whether we are addressing issues associated with the shifting nature of healthcare being provided in the United States or the healthcare issues to be found in great diversity throughout the world, the opportunity and challenge can be identified as economic in nature as a matter of human care and service, or both. It is a world in which polarities and nested problems prevail: do we devote resources to more extensive care or to fortifying the financial integrity of this institution (as it is being buffeted by new regulations and a shifting market landscape). Are we primarily in the business of treatment or in the business of prevention? Who should be at the table when we are making critical decisions about priorities and program focus? Those of us who provide professional coaching services to leaders in healthcare know full well that there are not easy answers and that it is precisely because there are no easy answers that our services are of great value.
There is perhaps no one in this turbulent world of healthcare who is swirling around more dramatically than the physician. Who else has to assign priorities more frequently on a daily basis than the leader of a healthcare team. Who is more likely to feel the pull between care and financial contingencies than the women and men wearing the stethoscope. It is to this person—the physician—that we are devoting two consecutive issues of The Future of Coaching. This is setting a precedence for this digital magazine. We have never deemed it appropriate or necessary to offer this sustained (two issue) attention to one specific coaching theme – until now.
And we have invited a very special colleague to guide us through the opportunities and challenges of coaching to physicians. She is Margaret Cary, MD. In the issue of The Future of Coaching we published earlier this year (Issue #14) and in the current issue (#15), Maggi Cary has engaged her experiences as a physician, as a health care leader, and as a coach-in-great-demand. She has engaged these extensive experiences in the identification of physicians and other members of the health care community who can write with insight about the role of coaching in the enhancement of health care practices. With our encouragement, Dr. Cary has also included in both issues some of her own writing. So, please enjoy and benefit from what we are offering in both of these issues. We turn now to Margaret Cary’s own summary of the articles we provide in this issue of The Future of Coaching.
Bill Bergquist
Bill Carrier
We are offering several different perspectives on the coaching of physicians in this issue and begin with an interview that I conducted with Stuart Levine, MD, President and Chief Medical Officer of MedStar Harbor Hospital and Senior Vice President, MedStar Health: Rick Auman, his coach, arranged for me to interview Stu. Wow! I’ve condensed 22 pages of meaty transcription into [#] pages of leadership lessons – how Stu began his medical career, being at the top of his clinician/diagnostician career, and then his supervisor recognizing his talents for a larger role. His story is full of insights you can use in coaching physicians in leadership roles – and those who are starting their management careers. Take a look at the Harvard Business Review’s “Why The Best Hospitals Are Managed by Doctors.” [https://hbr.org/2016/12/why-the-best-hospitals-are-managed-by-doctors]
From Extraordinary Diagnostician to Extraordinary Leader
Joy Goldman, one of the most effective coaches I know, and I co-authored a deeper dive into polarities/tensions/dilemmas, with six case studies about physicians as systems’ observers. Email either of us with your questions on this technique.
Physicians as Systemic Change Leaders
We give our undivided attention to our coaching clients our presence. My trip to Shanghai where I visited my friend, Zhuo, and her mother brought The Value of Presence home to me – presence and caring override language fluency.
The Value of Presence in Medicine
As Stu mentions in his interview, moving from clinician to executive requires learning new skills and seeing the world in a larger frame. The Essential Difference Between Management in Medicine and Managing in Business summarizes some of what I’ve learned through my transformation, and from the transformation of my clients.
The Essential Difference Between Management in Medicine and Managing in Business
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh runs a Master Class in Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons, an educational system that allows valid and reliable assessment of surgeons’ situation awareness, decision making, communication and teamwork, and leadership. I write about this in Learning Non-Technical Skills Might Save a Patient’s Life. Harvard runs a similar class, which I also took. It turns out that surgeons who are effective leaders have better outcomes – fewer deaths and complications. The next time you or a loved one has surgery, consider asking your surgeon whether s/he has been assessed.
Learning Non-Technical Skills Might Save a Patient’s Life
Next, I tell the story of my own Hard Case: What Happens When a Medical Mistake Has an Unthinkable Outcome. My patient and the lesson he taught me are as clear to me now as they were after our conversation, over three decades ago. I still choke up when I think of the gift my patient gave to me.
Hard Cases: What Happens When a Medical Mistake Has an Unthinkable Outcome
Finally, we conclude with a regular feature of The Future of Coaching: the Coaching Tool Box. My research into The Anatomy of a Good Doctor taught me that emotional intelligence – the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others – is critical to patient safety and healthcare quality, as well as for patients’, staff members’ and clinicians’ well-being. Here are 12 Steps to Emotionally Intelligent Healthcare.
The Coaching Tool Box: 12 Steps to Emotionally Intelligent Healthcare
As always, email us with your questions and suggestions. Thank you for the support you’re giving to our physicians and other clinicians.
Margaret Cary, MD, MBA, MPH, PCC
- ‘;,!