Developing excellent leaders - the role of Executive Coaching for GP specialty trainees

Abstract

Given an increasingly complex healthcare environment, doctors need to rise to the challenges of leadership. Executive coaching offers innovative and workable means of realising excellence in leadership. Coaching creates an empowering, 'high challenge, high support' environment for significant growth. This study sought to determine general practice (GP) specialty trainee (ST3) knowledge of coaching, views on leadership training, and reflections on the experience of receiving coaching. All GP ST3s in one UK region completed a questionnaire about coaching and developing leadership abilities. Six received professional coaching sessions, followed by a semi-structured interview. Baseline knowledge of coaching was sparse. Trainees felt under-equipped for leadership, but were keen to develop themselves. The short intervention appeared to result in a shift in leadership mind-set in four key areas: courage, passion, impact, and vision. A new enthusiasm was apparent, as well as a willingness and desire to increase leadership responsibilities. This is the first UK study examining professional executive face-to-face coaching as an educational method for doctors. Coaching helps provide leadership 'language' and 'identity'. It appears to 'name' clients as 'leaders' and challenges 'imposter phenomenon'. Coaching provided bespoke, deep, experiential learning, with transferable benefits not otherwise available in the Specialty Training programme.

Developing a feedback-rich culture in academic medicine: the effect of coaching and 360-feedback on physician leadership

“…Our results echo the leadership gains found in previous physician leadership coaching studies, [ 3 , 5 , 11 , 12 ] including reports of internal shifts in leadership perception and new approaches to conceptualizing their work and professional role [ 13 ]. However, unique features of our study included partnering with physicians to develop a tailored leadership 360-feedback tool, and a shorter duration, five-session coaching intervention.…”

“…2 Foresight Collaborative, Provo, UT 84604, USA. 3 Management Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA. 4 Flying Squirrel Experiences, LLC, Boise, ID 83703, USA.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic's effect on the delivery system and the way we care for patients has only increased the need for physicians to lead. While many organizations and authors have called out the current gap in leadership training for physicians and the need to develop routine leadership learning opportunities for physicians, [2][3][4] there is not yet consensus on the most effective tools and a 'core' curriculum for such programs.…”

Online Well-Being Group Coaching Program for Women Physician Trainees

“…15,16 Evidence supporting physician coaching is growing, but predominantly describes individual coaching led by nonphysician or noncertified faculty coaches in small studies. 11,12,[17][18][19][20] Literature on outcomes of coaching for physician trainees is sparse, limited to small samples and single specialties, and primarily includes programs of short duration. 10,11,17,21,22 An online group coaching program, Better Together Physician Coaching (BT), was piloted in response to high physician trainee burnout.…”

“…Coaching, unlike therapy, does not diagnose or treat, and instead uses inquiry and metacognition (ie, thinking about one’s thinking) to guide self-progress . Evidence supporting physician coaching is growing, but predominantly describes individual coaching led by nonphysician or noncertified faculty coaches in small studies . Literature on outcomes of coaching for physician trainees is sparse, limited to small samples and single specialties, and primarily includes programs of short duration …”