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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE

Coaching in Medicine:

Part 2 - The Executive Coach

By Rodolfo “Rudy” Molina, MD, MACR, FACP, 2021 BCMS President
and Randi Brosterman Hutchens

In Part 1 of this two-part article, the role of a Physician Coach was ceive that several of the
outlined and clearly defined. In Part 2, we will discuss the role of an elements of Executive
Executive Coach. Both types of coaches I believe are of value to our Coaching overlap with
profession. I talked to Randi Brosterman Hutchens, an Executive Physician Coaching, I
Coach who has many years of experience coaching business leaders see Executive Coaching as having a different scope and emphasis than
and a Fellow in the Institute of Coaching affiliated with Harvard the domain of Physician Coaching.
Medical School. I gave her the same questions as the Physician Coach
in Part 1. The following are her answers: 2. What are the benefits of having a coach?
Physicians play multiple leadership roles in their professional and
1. What is a coach? personal lives. There are times when we don't recognize or think of
A coach is a teacher who works with a client (student) to help the the role we are in as a leadership role. In the absence of that knowledge,
client improve what he/she does. An Executive Coach focuses on the we may not be aware that certain leadership skills and behaviors could
attributes of leadership that can enable the client to grow and ulti- improve the outcomes of our work with others. Good planning and
mately improve the performance of the individual and ideally, the per- effective communication can inform the environment in which we
formance of the organization. work, motivate others to help us achieve specific objectives and result
As defined in Merriam-Webster, a coach (n.) teaches fundamentals in desired outcomes.
and directs team strategy, as in sports. Coaching (v.) means to instruct, I believe physicians who recognize their role(s) as leader(s) can ben-
direct, prompt or train intensively. In sports, for example, there are spe- efit from working with an Executive Coach. Benefits of working with
cific types of coaches, e.g., football coach, baseball coach, swimming an Executive Coach include, but are not limited to: enhanced presence,
coach. While they all have common elements, they are each fundamen- increased self-awareness, effective communication, strategic thinking,
tally different in their domain. Regardless, coaching is a deliberate process improved relationships, effective teamwork, influence of others (lead-
where one person helps another get stronger and better in what they do. ers, colleagues), better self-care and improved work/life balance.
A coach begins by assessing where the client (again, think student) Working with a coach provides a private, safe space to talk and work
is in his/her process, and quickly determines the level of understanding through challenges at work. A coach introduces new ideas and new
that the client has of the elements of leadership. Similar to a professor, ways of thinking. Coaches can encourage you to change behavior, hold
a coach needs to adapt the level of teaching based on the level of un- you accountable and travel the journey with you on the path to achiev-
derstanding of the student. Consider a 101-level college class vs. a 401- ing specific goals or objectives.
level college seminar. A freshman can take a 401-level seminar and have
a good experience, however, without the foundational work of the 101 3. How does one become a coach?
class, the freshman in the 401-level seminar will likely not get the full My path to becoming a coach may not be the recommended path.
benefit of the nuance of the 401 content. I leveraged my 26+ years of management consulting experience to be-
In medicine, there are different types of coaches too, each with over- come an Executive Coach. As a management consulting Principal
lapping areas of focus. An Executive Coach is a coach that focuses on (owner/partner/leader) at a major professional services firm, I had
leadership development. Executive Coaching in medicine is interesting two roles: 1) to work with clients to solve their business problems and
to me because while the physician is a leader in multiple domains, my 2) to develop the people at the firm from recruitment through part-
perception is that leadership skills are not taught consistently within nership. Each of these roles involved working with people on their
the field of medicine, and therefore not applied consistently. It appears professional, and at times personal, development. Management con-
to me that Physician Coaches focus on physician burnout. While I per- sulting follows an apprenticeship model, similar to the way in which

8 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • June 2021