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In this Issue:

* Note to Self:  Get Out of Your Head

* Daring Doctors Feature Article: Are You a Good Mentor?

  On a Personal Note

Here is what I REALLY look like.  Well, it's what I looked like, alongside my husband (not his real hair), on our way to a "Beatles Party."  I'm not going to tell you how old I am, nor what the average age of the guests were at the event . . 

. . . However, here's a hint:  Everybody danced to every song by the live band called the "Nowhere Men" (Yes, every song was a Beatles song).  AND the truly remarkable thing is that we also sang along to every song.  It was pure joy!  [And by the way, this was a smoke-f/ree, alcohol-f/ree and drug-f/ree event.]

But here is why I am sharing this with you: It was a timely reminder to me about Principle #12 in my upcoming book, "Becoming a Joyful Doctor," which is:  "Get out of your head!"  

This principle is definitely one I personally have to remind myself about most often:  If you want to create pros.perity, fin.ancial abundance, career fulfillment and joy, you must stop striving so hard to "figure it out" all the time.  

Do something physical that gets you "in the moment" such as dancing, skiing, yoga---anything where you move your arms AND legs in some kind of coordinated, rhythmic way (ok, do your best here).  

In order to move forward, you have to regularly let go of your attachment to the cognitive and analytical, and allowing divine inspiration to drive your life for a while.  

I'll share more principles from my book in future issues.

     ---Francine (groovy girl on the right in photo)

  Daring Doctors Feature Article

Are You a Good Mentor? Why it Matters for You and Your Protégé

by Francine R. Gaillour, MD, MBA, FACPE, Executive and Career Coach for Physicians

Are you someone's mentor?  It's a good bet you COULD and SHOULD be acting as mentor to a junior colleague, a new physician in your organization, or even a colleague you consider a peer but who is taking on a new role or experiencing a professional crisis that you may have gone through yourself at one time.

If you don't think you need to be someone's mentor, then I suggest either you're not paying attention, or worse, you are neglecting a key responsibility in your role as senior_____, elder_____, chief______, head or ______, go to _______, or respected colleague and partner.

Furthermore, if you aren't actively mentoring someone, you are missing a great opportunity to sharpen your own intellectual saw.  By actively sharing your wisdom and power (don't panic at this word), you get to till the soil of your experience, finding the truffles of wisdom you didn't know you had---or maybe forgot!  Being a mentor is as enriching for you as it is for your protégé.

Being a Mentor is Not a Game of Perfect, It's a Game of Being Accessible 

Being a mentor is more a game of being emotionally, mentally, and energetically available to the other person. Don't think that you have to be an "expert" or have all the answers.  Just knowing what questions your protégé should be asking can be a significant act of mentorship. Just being approachable is a quality that most protégés rate highly.

As you listen to your colleague who is need of advice or mentoring, the first role to take is that of objective listener and astute reflector.  

• What are you hearing that is important?  

• What rings true?  What rings false or inflated?  

• What are different ways to approach the issue that your protégé is missing?

If all you did as mentor was be a respectful listener, using your insight, intuition and critical thinking skills to help a protégé "reframe" a situation (i.e. look at it from another perspective that leads to a breakthrough in thinking for him or her), then you will have accomplished a lot.

Yes, You Have Power, Now Use it Wisely

By definition, if you are a mentor, you have positional power. You become a mentor because you are in a leadership position---either by virtue of having an assigned or elected positional role, such as Chief of Staff, Medical Director, or by virtue of having an influential role such as thought leader, or the de facto leader of your group practice.   

As such, you have the power to influence others, to open doors, to make introductions.  You also have the power to close doors, shut people out, create roadblocks, and thwart good intentions.  It is essential to adopt an attitude that that good mentorship is NOT a competition---your protégé against someone else's protégé.  If you are seeing it that way, then I suggest you do everyone a favor and NOT mentor anyone. 

Use your power of influence to help your protégé understand the broader picture of how the organization works, how small decisions impact larger ones (and vis versa), how to earn the respect of colleagues, patients, non-clinical executives, how to negotiate in formal and informal settings.  

Use your power of influence to expand your protégé's experience and learning, but stop short of molding your protégé to be your "mini-me"---a more junior version of yourself.  Respect their pace of development and their personal take on the politics and the organization.

Take On a Protégé Who is Different Than You; You'll Be the Wiser for It

If you want to be a good mentor, expand your boundaries of who you think would benefit from your mentorship. It's no secret that certain high-potential colleagues are not finding good mentors.  Women, ethnic minorities, and even physicians who are "older" but now in a new role, reporting to "younger" colleagues, have at one time or another experienced difficulty finding someone in power to serve as mentor to them.  

It is your job to find and reach out to those individuals who may be hesitant to ask for your mentoring. You might think this is going beyond the call of duty.  But if you are in a leadership role---appointed, elected, or de facto---it is your job to develop a full repertoire of human talent in your organization.  

People who don't naturally look, sound, walk, talk, like you, or naturally congregate with you, are not going to feel comfortable approaching you for mentorship. 

So how do you start a mentorship role with someone you feel a little ill at ease with? Here are two proven methods:

• Invite the person to discuss where they want to go in the future.

  • Example: "Ramon, you've done some nice work with the quality team. You obviously care a lot about the organization.  I'd like to hear what kinds of projects you'd like to be involved in; and I'd also be interested in hearing where you see yourself in the next 5 years; what your professional development plan is so far."

   

• Invite the person to a higher level executive meeting, and conduct a pre and post one-on-one debriefing.  

  • Example: "Sonya, I noticed that you've contributed some great ideas at the department meetings.  I'd like you to sit it on the monthly Strategy and Operations Meeting next week; it will be good for you learn more about the decision-making process.  And what I'd like to do is meet with you for about 30 minutes this week so we can talk about the agenda, and then after the S&O meeting we can sit down and we'll debrief."

The key here is to make a sincere first overture AND set up a follow up after the initial "meeting." By following through on both, you show you are accessible and dependable.  This will start to build the trust so necessary in a good mentor-protégé relationship. 

So, go out there now and be the best mentor you can be--believe me, your good works will return 10-fold back to you.

Francine R. Gaillour, MD, MBA, FACPE, is an Executive and Career Coach for Physicians.  Dr. Gaillour specializes in physicians who are venturing into new territory as leaders, entrepreneurs, and career adventurers. She can be reached at (206) 686-4205, francine@physicianleadership.com or use the Contact Form

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Executive coach, consultant and author Francine Gaillour, MD,  is the "Career Strategist for Doctors."  Dr. Gaillour delivers the strategies, tactics, and secrets that physicians never learned in medical school, residency or clinical practice for achieving professional fulfillment, career advantage, and life abundance.  To learn more about her upcoming book, The Joyful Doctor, and to sign up for more FREE articles like this, visit her site at www.PhysicianLeadership.com.