There’s currently an explosion of sorts in the world of physician coaching. This is occurring on two fronts:
- Seeing the value and personal benefit of coaching, countless physicians are seeking peer coaches on all manner of topics, from clinical efficiency to starting businesses.
- A small, but growing, number of physicians are becoming coaches. By my count there are ~50 physicians in the coaching certification program in which I’m enrolled (Sept 2020 cohort) alone!
This is in no small part thanks to the COVID pandemic which has impacted physicians in myriad ways. Though certainly blossoming in 2020, physician coaching has been establishing strong roots for years.
As more doctors take up the mantle of coaching, the question comes to mind about their qualifications to do so. In this post, I will detail the main reasons why I believe physicians make great professional coaches.
It’s All About the Benjamins (and Everyone Else)
First and foremost, coaching, like medicine, is all about people. In both worlds, clients and patients take center stage and we direct all of our focus on them. Physicians care deeply about their patients. It is the central tenet to practicing medicine—to serve and heal those around us.
At the same time, we have to remain as objective as possible since medicine is not a consumer service. Contrary to popular belief, we are not like Burger King—we cannot always let patients “have it their way.”
Caring for people involves tough love and hard truths. This can be a tough pill for patients and administrators alike to swallow. Coaches also have to remain objective and facilitate a safe space for mindset work without judgment.
All This Has Happened Before...
Doctors have some familiarity with and understand the science underlying coaching—even if remote from back in medical school. Background in these concepts goes a long way towards us trusting and subsequently applying coaching techniques. This is evident in the overlap between coaching and mental health. Coaching is infused with cognitive behavioral techniques, change principles, motivational interviewing, and positive psychology.
Furthermore, psychiatrists and primary care physicians (as well as other specialties) already use many coaching techniques (albeit less effectively because applied via a medical model) in their day to day to work.
High Q
Physicians are highly intelligent and more importantly have high emotional intelligence (though this can get eroded as we burnout). High emotional intelligence enables us to empathize, communicate easily, and build rapport with patients or clients.
Clinic visits and hospital rounding tend to be shorter than most coaching sessions meaning physicians develop proficiency using these skills expeditiously. Such a toolset helps physicians conduct rapid assessments to generate plans. These same skills enable physician coaches to engender trust to quickly grasp and dissect the underlying thoughts keeping clients from achieving the results they want.
The Devil Is in the Details
In order to uncover clients’ problematic thoughts and limiting beliefs, coaches often must wade through substantial exposition and story to hone in on the facts. They try to guide clients with poignant, personal, and sometimes probing questions. This mirrors the medical history taking process with which we are all so well versed.
In fact, physicians have to ask incredibly personal and probing questions (e.g. sexual and substance use histories) with regularity. And we do this without judgment or condescension because to do so would not only impair our ability to get at the truth, but also discourage patients from seeking or participating in their care. Okay, maybe we’d judge someone who uses their inhaler like this:
Patients don’t simply tell us a list of symptoms; they weave their ailments into a story of their experience of their illness. The opportunity to navigate through these stories adeptly with compassion is fundamentally what makes the practice of medicine a privilege and an art.
Taking Names, Solving Problems
To arrive at a diagnosis, physicians ask questions to which the responses (along with our exam and ancillary data) help build our differentials. We are at our core problem solvers. Our brains constantly process the new data to prune the differential forming in our minds. We have to pivot swiftly and frequently as new information becomes available.
Pattern recognition techniques often drive us down heuristic approaches (fast thinking) for quick decisions. But we are also able to switch to slow thinking (a la Daniel Kahneman’s framework) when needed, iterating along the way. Coaches similarly must apply their “differential” to clients’ problems using both fast and slow thinking. The corpus of knowledge through which differentials are funneled is obviously much larger for medicine than coaching.
Making it Whole
Both coaching and medicine impact all parts of life. It’s not just health for medicine and well-being for coaching. They both touch the physical, psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of our lives. Doctors are accustomed to exploring all of these realms since we view our patients as whole persons, and try to take care of them as such.
Finally, physicians are hard workers, teachers, and lifelong learners. We do not shy away from challenges and know when we have to roll up our sleeves. We love to teach—taking complex concepts and processes, breaking them down, translating them into lay-speak, and analogizing (did I mention we love making up words?) in order to convey information to our patients. We also love to be taught and are perpetual learners. We value education because it keeps us moving forward always. These principles serve doctors well in medicine and in coaching.
So those are my reasons why physicians make great coaches. What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts.
Next week’s post will take the contrarian stance—why do doctors make bad coaches. Admittedly, it’s a shorter post!
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