Despite brilliant careers as clinicians, most doctors in the U.S. have no leadership training, reports the Harvard Business Review. Additionally, they rise through the ranks uniformly, often lacking the ability to effectively coordinate teams, coach and receive feedback, communicate and display emotional intelligence, the HBR explains. Not surprisingly, there’s a tremendous need for integrating clinical experience with leadership mastery in healthcare. It’s a common reason why many physician leaders seek out leadership coaching. A unique perspective to patient care and organization outcomes T ..read more

Ensuring lasting leadership transformation Even the best healthcare leaders feel stuck sometimes, when all their past successes, knowledge and experience aren’t enough to bring about the results they seek. Maybe that’s where you are today: a new role, new organizational structure, new problem or market conditions demand that you and your teams operate differently. Figuring out next steps, driving consensus and swaying people to take those steps with you can feel like “mission impossible.”  Failure often follows when leaders try to drive change — whether that’s change in processes, goals ..read more

Sooner or later, you’ll be tasked with driving significant and rapid change in your organization. Perhaps that’s precisely where you find yourself today. It’s a common predicament, though one that tends to drive much anxiety and unintended fallout for leaders.  Earlier this year, a regional CEO of a national health system sought my help with a turnaround challenge — a rapid financial turnaround, to be specific. He’d been grappling with how he and his team should lead in the context of pressure for a financial boost. As part of our process, I developed a set of reflective questions to guid ..read more

In our work coaching leaders in healthcare, we’ve found many are neck-deep in critical transitions: taking on a new role, moving to a new organization, spearheading a turnaround or leading in an interim capacity. Whatever the case, leaders in transition have a crucial window to shape perceptions, drive behavioral changes, and build rapport and reputation quickly. There isn’t much room for error, nor time to waste before new dynamics and perceptions take root. It’s one of the main reasons why many healthcare leaders seek out executive coaching to give themselves (and their teams) the best chanc ..read more

We’ve all known “natural-born” leaders who seem to ooze charisma and good business sense. Often they succeed for a while… until they don’t. At some point, the skills, approaches and relationships that got them where they are stop working or delivering desired results. Despite their past successes and stellar reputation, even “natural-born” leaders hit a wall and stop progressing without intentional, guided development. While leadership development is critical in any industry, risk factors are particularly high in the healthcare arena, where clinical outcomes, mortality, patient experience and ..read more

As a healthcare leader, you’ll encounter plenty of situations that require you to build or repair trust quickly. That’s particularly true if you’re new to a role or organization, if you need to address a (real or perceived) faux pas, or if you seek to introduce changes that are likely to encounter resistance.  In my work as an executive coach to healthcare leaders, I have to move from “nice to meet you” to “trusted thought partner” very rapidly. In some cases, I’m hired by executives to work with their teams, meaning my coachee may not have sought out a coaching relationship on their own ..read more

Three years since the pandemic forced so many healthcare and business functions to go remote, virtual leadership has emerged as a crucial competency for high-performing organizations. Just as important, the speed, ease, and efficiencies we’ve gained from working virtually is now a basic expectation for many workers — an expectation we need to meet well if we’re going to attract and retain top talent. In the 20+ years since our inception, MEDI Leadership has never had a central office. Rather, our team of nearly 40 is spread out throughout the country, interacting virtually for most of our time ..read more

One yardstick of effective leadership is the ability to see beyond current or imminent circumstances to create conditions for sustained success and long-term revenue. In healthcare, that’s increasingly hard to do, given the massive pressure, ambiguity, and speed of change in our industry. And yet, that big-picture thinking is critical to your impact as a leader — not to mention your reputation and career trajectory. Seven out of 10 times, failure stems from flawed strategy decisions, note researchers. On the flip side, a 10-year study by the Harvard Business School showed that organizations w ..read more

Baseball is often called a game of failure. Even the world’s best hitters only get a hit about three out of 10 times, striking out, flying out or getting walked the rest of the time. While failure is a common occurrence in baseball, it’s also an important part of the game. The same applies to leadership: Failure is an inevitable part of your experience as a leader. It’s also a critical aspect of your organizational performance.  How you respond to failure is what matters! Only those who approach failure and challenges with a growth mindset come back stronger. For growth-oriented teams, fa ..read more

As a firm of executive coaches working exclusively with healthcare leaders, we’ve come to realize the competencies required to lead well in our industry are changing. Rapidly. Take team dynamics, for instance. While it has always been true that healthcare is the product of the integration of multiple disciplines, there is increasing recognition that effective management of the intersection of those disciplines is critical for high performance and true transformation.  Like the rest of healthcare, team practices have evolved significantly in recent years. Part of that evolution is the emer ..read more