Coaches are a Physician’s Best Friend
By: Dr. Jennifer Fagel
~ 3 MIN READ
Imagine a world where high-performance athletes showed up to do their job without a coach. After years of training and the utmost dedication to his craft, would Michael Jordan ever show up courtside without Phil Jackson? Or Tom Brady without Bill Belichick?
The answer is a definite “no.” Coaching has been used for decades in athletics - an area where a small change in performance can mean the difference between a historic victory or a devastating defeat.
Thomas Leonard, a financial planner, is attributed as the founder of coaching as a profession in the 1980s. His work expanded coaching from a benefit that only athletes enjoyed to one available to all high-performance professions.
Executive coaches are now the standard for C-suite personnel at top business organizations. People who handle millions of dollars in transactions and business decisions report that coaching helps them take their careers, and their skills, to the next level.
Coaches serve the dual role of pushing their clients to perform their very best and identify factors in their success or failure - and ensuring that they get sufficient rest and self-care, to enable them to recover and maintain the good mental and physical health needed to be top performers.
So why do we as physicians - practitioners who are responsible for literal life and death - go it alone? Why don’t healthcare workers have coaches?
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused all of us in medicine to face unparalleled challenges. But the truth is, physicians were at high risk for burnout even before the pandemic hit. This topic of growing concern was being widely discussed in U.S. healthcare teaching and regulatory circles, and no one seemed to have an answer.
Physician coaches can help. A 2019 randomized controlled trial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed significant reduction in emotional exhaustion and symptoms of burnout in physicians who received professional coaching.
By using powerful methods of questioning and inquiry, physician coaches not only propel clients towards their goals, but also hold space for deep personal development. As any growth expert knows, periods of both exertion and rest are required to maximize growth, and to just plain feel good.
Coaches draw from principles of positive psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy. They often emphasize the basic premise that our thoughts create the results in our life. By learning how to reframe and challenge common mental roadblocks, clients feel empowered to engage in self-care and invigorated to lean into their strengths and move forward.
Physician coaches now offer their expertise in a variety of specialties such as finances, business development, relationships & sex, wellness and so much more.
One of my favorite coaching exercises to do with clients is to envision their future. To dream. To think of the possibilities. Many of us stop performing this “daydreaming” in childhood, but it is actually the key factor in profoundly transforming the course of our lives and careers.
In my own visualization for the future, I see every single physician working alongside a physician coach one day. I see a world where physicians receive the same kind of support as professional athletes, and don’t ever have to be alone as they perform the challenging and necessary work of treating patients.
I see a world where physicians have the help of coaches to heal ourselves, while we also heal others.
The world we live in is changing rapidly. This is a time of unprecedented challenges - and unprecedented opportunities. I hope my physician colleagues will consider what they need for their self-care and their success during this difficult time. Physician coaching is here to help.
Dr. Jennifer Fagel is an Internist and Physician Coach Founder of Life Reclaimed, LLC. Find her at www.lifereclaimed.co and on Instagram @lifereclaimedco. Use code HHP10 for 10% off your first coaching session or package.