What Is Coaching?
I grew up playing team sports throughout high school and in college. The word “coach”’ conjures images of somebody with a whistle who yells a lot and tells his team exactly what to do. If you think the same, erase that image from your mind. Executive coaching is nothing like that.
Coaching is a professional, partner relationship in which the client decides the path and sets his or her own goals based on their values and priorities. The coach provides guidance and support, helping the client explore and develop new ideas and options to achieve increased fulfillment, satisfaction, and success so they can more fully reach their potential. Clients can focus on virtually any aspect of one’s life, whether professional or personal.
Because of my medical background, I often coach physicians, and my own experience gives me important insight into the mindset of healthcare professionals. Though I primarily coach physicians and executives, I can help almost anybody who desires it and who has the right motivation.
Why Coaching?
Most executive coaches focus on already high performers who want to achieve even more by fine tuning their approaches to various aspects of their professional lives. So do I. People in executive and leadership roles have already demonstrated that they possess the skills and ability to succeed. Coaching can improve upon their strengths and identify and shore up areas that need improvement, helping those who pursue coaching become even more successful leaders.
I also coach clients, primarily physicians, who are struggling for a variety of reasons. They may be dealing with burnout, or they may be overwhelmed and are seeking to rediscover the joy that attracted them to the field of medicine initially. Others may even be at risk of losing their jobs due to behavior or performance issues. I have an intensive coaching program that can help them salvage their careers and restore confidence in their ability to continue practicing medicine.
Coaching For
Career Burnout & Resilience
Experience more joy & meaning in work and incorporate strategies to manage stress
Leadership & Management
Become a more effective leader
Career Development
Identify priorities for your professional life and create a plan to advance your career
Emotional Intelligence
Learn how emotions impact you and develop skills to improve both personal and professional relationships
Work-Life Harmony
Find the balance that works for you in both your personal and professional lives, so you can enjoy both more fully
Setting & Achieving Goals
Discover your potential and achieve peak performance in any area of your life
Physician Coaching
Physicians are highly educated, intelligent, top performers, who are driven to succeed. They deal with life and death issues on a regular basis. It is stressful enough already. Add the pressures of productivity expectations, utilization reviews, regulatory requirements, patient satisfaction scores, malpractice risk, insurance hassles, call schedules, system inefficiencies, documentation burdens, educational debt, and the expectation not to make any mistakes, and it is no wonder that between half and two-thirds of doctors report feeling burnout.
The demands of medicine are significant, and the impact on relationships, home, and social life can be enormous and challenging. Being able to find the balance or harmony among the various important aspects of life is essential to finding happiness, satisfaction, and success. Being wildly successful at work but resenting it because it detracts from family or other activities is not acceptable for most.
Often, physicians find themselves in leadership roles, whether running a private practice, leading a small group, chairing a hospital committee, being a medical director or department chair, serving as chief medical officer, or even leading a large multi-specialty or national staffing group. While more doctors are obtaining formal training in MBA or similar programs, it is not uncommon to learn “on the job.”
Despite these challenges, medicine can be among the most rewarding pursuits one can experience. Harmony with other interests can be achieved, and one can find fulfillment and joy professionally, coupled with successful and meaningful relationships at home and elsewhere. Coaching isn’t a magic bullet that makes it automatically happen, but it can help clarify a vision for the life you want and assist in developing a plan to get there.
Executive Coaching
It can be lonely at the top! Many executives find it difficult to share their feelings, concerns, and challenges at work. They are under pressure to perform from above (even CEOs have boards or shareholders to whom they report), and they need to maintain boundaries with those they oversee. Sharing their ideas or potential plans for their business can have a profound impact before they are fully developed and vetted. Sometimes, these executives just need a thought partner—a safe, objective, non-judgmental person off whom to bounce ideas.
While it requires skills and proven performance to reach an executive position, some leaders benefit from additional motivation to achieve even greater success. Executives spend their days motivating others and holding them accountable. It can be difficult (or they just don’t have the bandwidth) to hold themselves accountable for their personal goals and aspirations. A coach can help with this.
Some might have risen to their position by being highly capable in certain aspects of their career but now find themselves overseeing a broader range of the workforce which requires new or increased expertise. Others might have feelings of imposter syndrome or cognitive dissonance they want to work through. We all can benefit from increasing our emotional intelligence. This can help executives better relate to those around them, improving understanding and communication. And it extends beyond their professional lives.
The stress and demands of leadership impact work and personal lives. Finding the appropriate balance of work, relationships, recreation, and other important parts of life will decrease conflict and increase satisfaction in all of them. There doesn’t need to be a problem or deficiency to benefit from coaching. A coach can help even high-achieving executives discover their full potentials and experience peak performance.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence involves emotional and social skills that impact how we express ourselves, develop and maintain relationships, cope with challenges, and navigate our personal and professional lives. It is different from cognitive intelligence (IQ), and it is not a measure of aptitude or personality.
IQ and personality tend not to change much over time. Emotional intelligence, however, can increase with training and effort. We can learn to identify our emotional triggers and develop strategies to manage them effectively.
We can better recognize and understand our own emotions and how they impact our interactions with others. We can improve the ways we perceive others and they perceive us.
Understanding and developing emotional intelligence will make us more successful professionally, improve our relationships, and strengthen team dynamics.
Coaching Programs
Limited
$1500
This is for people with a focused goal or objective that can be addressed in a short amount of time. This package includes 4 coaching sessions and assessments if needed. The timing and cadence of meetings will be adjusted according to needs, preference, and availability but typically occur over 2-3 months.
Standard
$2500
This is the most popular package and the one I recommend for most clients. You will have 7 coaching sessions, typically over 6 months. This package includes assessments and support. The cadence of the sessions is adjusted according to needs, preference, and availability.
Intensive
$10,000
A six-month program with 360-degree evaluation, emotional intelligence and self-assessments, and regular coaching sessions. This program is designed for physicians or other professionals dealing with behavioral or performance issues that may be putting their jobs at risk. We typically meet more frequently, especially at the beginning (approximately every one to two weeks) and spread sessions out as appropriate as we progress. This package includes up to 12 client sessions. If additional sessions are needed, they can be added for an additional fee. There will be follow-up after the program with the option to add on-going coaching if desired.
Emotional Intelligence
$1000
EQ-i 2.0 Assessment and three individual 45-minute coaching sessions
*Once you have completed a program, ongoing coaching is available for an hourly rate*
Looking For A Custom Coaching Plan?
If you want a custom plan, we can create an individualized program that works for you. These may include some initial assessments and at least a few coaching sessions, but individual circumstances and needs will always be considered.
How To Get Started:
It starts with a free inquiry call during which we discuss how it all works and answer any questions about the process. If you decide to proceed with coaching, we will set up a plan and schedule sessions at a pace that works for you. As part of the experience, we might use assessments or thinking exercises to focus our efforts.