Daring Doctors: For Physicians Expanding Their Career

I was amused to read the article in today’s Wall Street Journal, The Doctor is in Your Car, highlighting the new 24-hour radio channel, Doctor Radio, on Sirius. The channel features interviews with “real” physicians (not celebrity physicians or broadcasters) and takes calls from consumers who want information or advice.

Doctor Radio is a wonderful illustration of how physicians are learning to “expand” the way they “doctor.” As I’ve mentioned many times in my audio seminars and career development programs, physicians have a great opportunity to enlarge their circle of influence and to bring more skills and talents to work every day.

If you are a physician interested in learning how to get yourself out there in media, webcasts, blogs, podcasts, and information products, take a look at the Tele-workshop we’ll be offering in the Fall, “Make Your Medical Knowledge Sell Through Web Media and Information Products.”

Tags: blog, career, doctor, doctor radio, MD, physician, podcast, reach md, sirius

Here I am with some of the physicians and clinicians enrolled in the Healthcare Executive MBA (HCEMBA) program at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business.

I was there last week as an invited speaker to lead a workshop, “Career Strategies for Physicians and Healthcare Leaders.” What a great group of people!— and an excellent MBA program.

The purpose of the workshop was to help the clinicians think about how to position themselves effectively “after the MBA.”

A piece of advice I often give my clients—many of whom have an MBA—is that the MBA is not a magic ticket. Your career clarity and career traction come as a result of your willingness to implement a handful of actions that have very little to do with the MBA.

In this issue of Daring Doctors, I share a career exploration exercise with you that I led the HCEMBA students through.

Tags: career, change, doctors, fulfillment, MBA, MD, non-clinical careers, physician, transition

When my physician clients first come to me for coaching, they often view their career options in one of three ways:  1) they have no idea what their options are, or 2) they have too many ideas and can’t sort them according to what’s realistic or practical, or 3) — and this is the most common — they have a “kinda sort of” idea of where they want to go, but they are aiming too low!

An Exercise to Expand Your Thinking

While the universe of physician career possiblities is pretty broad, I am more interested in your PERSONAL universe of possibilities.  Here is an exercise that will help you map out the directions your career can take.  The exercise will only take about 20 minutes, but here are the rules:

1) Be open and expansive with each Direction

2) Do not SKIP over any of the Directions assuming that it doesn’t apply to you

3) Think BIG 

Instructions: For each of the 5 Career Directions below, write down 1-3 ideas that come to mind. Try not to analyze too much (analysis DOES cause paralysis) and certainly don’t talk yourself out of including an idea. The purpose of this exercise is to OPEN yourself up to possibilities that you have not considered and to get on the table those ideas that you have been too shy or hesitant to own up to!  After you create your list, show it to a buddy, mentor or coach, and have them challenge you think even bigger, more expansively!

——— 5 Directions Your Career Can Take ———-

 Up - Advancement in current organization

 Lateral - Change of scenery, expansion

 Deeper  - Core mastery, local Yoda

 Out  - Non-clinical, non-healthcare

 Sabbatical  - Take a break

The healthcare MBA students had a lot of fun walking through this last week.  It was revealing to them how many options they had and it was empowered them to THINK BIG.

Sometimes What Holds Us Back is Our Own Small Thinking

The purpose of this exercise is not just for tactics.  When we give ourselves permission to think big and expansively, we realize that our own bias is often what holds us back from pursing a direction.  The direction was here all along, and we become “ready” not when we get the MBA, but when we allow ourselves to think big.

Another goal of this exercise is to spot those ideas that brought out a “spark” in us. It is likely that the idea that caused a tingle in you one your heart-spirit wants to pursue.  No escaping now!

And finally, a third rationale for generating this list is is to introduce you to the fact that you can potentially propose an idea to your supervisor or within your organization.  Positions are created all the time based on someone’s wil and crazy notion about what they want to do.

If there is one piece of coaching advice I can give, it’s this:  Think bigger! Aim higher! There’s genius in boldness!

I’m curious to hear what you come up with after you go through this exercise.  Email me with your list and let me know what insights you gained.

In a previous article I introduced the topic of identifying your career direction by first looking at the “Determinants” - which are the forces that guide direction once you generate the possibilities.  Here is the link to that article

Tags: career, change, doctors, fulfillment, non-clinical careers, physician, transition

 

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A question that I am often asked by physicians who are a crossroads in their career is this:

“How can I make use of all my medical experience?”

Implicit in this question is the desire and expectation that your experience as a physician or a leader should advance stepwise toward higher levels. Higher levels of responsibility, titles, status, or prosperity. Or said in a different way, you want all of your experience to have “counted” - not be wasted.

Indeed that’s the scariest phrase I hear some physicians voice when they are nearing a crisis point in their career: “I would hate to think all my medical experience was a waste.”

To think that you’ve “wasted” your career or training because you can’t apply it all is certainly a frightening prospect to many physicians. Our time and energy is precious and we want to make the most of it.

If you’ve ever felt this way, I want to respectfully suggest to you that we “reframe” the original question. Rather than ask “How can I make use of all my medical experience?” let’s ask this question:

“How can I make use of all my PEAK experiences?”

Why Care about the Peak Experiences of Your Life

Before you get the impression that you medical experiences as a clinician, leader or innovator are not important, let me assure you, it is most definitely worthwhile to spend time critically evaluating what you’ve learned and accomplished in your role as physician, physician leader, or contributor.

However, it is just as important, and in fact for some of you, it will be more important, to identify those times in your life when you felt most engaged, in “flow” and alive. These may be professional moments, they may have been personal experiences.

Uncovering and articulating these Peak experiences is beneficial in three ways:

1) These are the kinds of experiences where your values were being honored; therefore it’s an opportunity to figure out what you actually value (not what you SAY you value)
2) Peak experiences often hold clues about our natural gifts and talents; this is especially helpful if you feeling fuzzy about what you can “do” besides medicine
3) You can look back and see whether the peak experience was of your own making or was it purely a happenstance; this helps us understand the steps required or condition to establish in order to create new peak experiences.

What Can You Learn From Peak Experiences?

I remember the first time I went through a Peak Experience Exercise (you’ll get to do that too with instructions below). During the process I retold and recorded 3-4 experiences/stories. One of my Peak Experiences was the year I was an appointed “ambassador spokesperson” for the health system I was working for at the time (as a clinician).

What made the experience “peak” for me was that I was getting out of the clinic mid day to visit employer groups and talk a about our healthcare delivery model.

Digging deeper, what I discovered about myself in period of “peak” were these important points:

1) I valued the flexibility of “breaking up the day” and getting out and about,
2) I was a good communicator and could think on my feet,
3) I had a knack for distilling complex health topics into more simple ways for people to understand and take action, and
4) The steps that it took to create this experience were mostly my own doing: I had initiated a self-described role of ambassador and proposed it .

Going through that Peak Experience exercise validated my values of autonomy, creative expression and connection. It also gave me some insights about how much I enjoy (in fact thrive on) being the “initiator” of new projects and programs. These were huge discoveries that propel me even to this day.

How to Conduct a Peak Experience Exercise on Your Own

When I work with my physician clients, we walk through the Peak Experience process together. But you walk yourself through a similar exercise. I suggest you find a buddy, and perhaps do it together and then mentor each other.

Here is what you do:

Set aside about 60 minutes to reflect on and write down the answers to these two questions:

1) Recall a time (or times) in your life when you felt most alive, joyful, in “flow”, and fully contributing from your core being. What were those times? What were you doing? What was it like? Who was there? (include as much detail as you can)

2) Next, For each of the Peak Experiences you identified, what values were you in touch with or honoring? What strengths did you employ or express? What discoveries were you making about yourself?

3) For each of the Peak Experiences you identified, ask yourself, how did this experience come about? Was it of my own making, primarily? Or was a “chance” occurrence? How much did I play a part in making the conditions to come together?

After you go through this exercise, share it with your spouse or friend. Ask them to pick out additional values or strengths that “emerge” as they listen to your stories of personal peaks.

I’m curious to hear what insights come up for you during the exercise. Email me with your discoveries.

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

On a Personal Note: Peak Does Not Mean Perfect

I have been taking a few extra days off from my business to be with my family during January. Wish I could I was skiing but sometimes “life maintenance” has a way of taking all your days. What I’m learning as the mother of two teenagers is how much my life is a “peak experience” right now, even though my husband and I find ourselves being stretched physically and mentally as we aim to keep up. Despite all the go-to-the-mall taxi service we provide, I am feeling joyful, alive, expressing my strengths, and still sometimes frazzled.

Hey, Peak does not mean perfect.

Tags: career, change, doctors, fulfillment, non-clinical careers, physician, transition

Here I am with my Platinum Program client, Marianne Uyeda, a soon-to-transition Psychiatrist from Walla Walla, Washington. We are in our Client Strategy meeting and on the table is a “show and tell” of sorts - Alpaca wool and yarn.

As part of the initial Client Strategy Meeting I ask clients to do a presentation on whatever topic they choose — this is a segment I call “Telling Your Stories, Finding Your Values.” The range of topics clients present on is pretty broad–from clinical topics to motivational speeches to tales of adventure. During her presentation, Marianne educated me about Alpacas, Alpaca wool and the weaving process. As an avocation she raises Alpacas on her rural property. This was a vivid demonstration of one of her “peak experiences” - times when you feel connected, engaged, energized, and in your full power. Separate from the Alpacas, Marianne is just starting to launch a very exciting consulting career that will incorporate not only her previous medical experience, but her collection of peak experience values as well. Stay tuned for more from this highly energized physician.

For more on the importance of connecting with your peak experiences read this issue’s Feature Article.

Tags: career change, daring doctors, fulfillment, physician

Last week the New York Times ran an article on professions that are “falling down” and noted that physicians are among this group (along with lawyers) who are experiencing a loss of professional luster.

“In the days when a successful career was built on a number of tacitly recognized pillars — outsize pay, long-term security, impressive schooling and authority over grave matters — doctors and lawyers were perched atop them all. Now, those pillars have started to wobble.”

Having coached many physicians in professional crises and forward into to new chapters of achievement, I am aware of the emotional upheaval so many physicians are experiencing.

Therefore I am always suspect about journalists or non-clinicians trivializing physicians’ response to changes in healthcare.

Every change in medicine is a force affecting a physician’s career and results in yet another factor that must be integrated in a career plan that feels less and less stable. Resistance to change is merely what’s happening on the surface. Underneath is uncertainty or lack of clarity about how to recoup the enormous personal investment they’ve made in medicine.

When I hear phrases like “working with physicians is like herding cats” or “doctors think they deserve more they’re entitled to” — well, I just cringe.

These phrases are convenient ways of glossing over the genuine heartbreak that many physicians are feeling over the loss of their dream: the dream they had many years ago when they were first called to medicine, the dream of of what it means to be a physician.

For a more in depth discussion about what REALLY makes doctors fulfilled, listen to an audio presentation contained in the Physician Career Management toolkit (FREE resource for my Daring Doctors subscribers). Learn more.

Tags: career, doctors falling down, fulfillment, new york times, physicians, success

My physician colleagues continue to wow and inspire me!

Over the past month I have been hosting a FREE one-hour teleseminar “Leverage Your Expertise With Healthcare Consulting”.  We are not only discussed what it takes to succeed in healthcare consulting but also hearing some intriguing and amazing personal stories from the attendees.

Who are these intriguing and amazing physicians?

Here is what I am observing so far about those of you who are exploring healthcare consulting and looking to start
with the Healthcare Consulting Academy cohort:

—> You are comfortable with and in fact have been experimenting with more “RIGHT BRAIN” modalities as you envision your future work

—> You are frustrated with healthcare, HOWEVER, you are actively channeling that passion into a creative and productive service idea so you can be a force for change

—> You have experienced a “down period” or perhaps even a major upheaval in your life and you’ve come through the other end with your optimism INTACT

These are the qualities that make a good consultant/advisor!

======================================================

There is still one more Teleseminar coming up in January where we will discuss again what it takes to be successful in healthcare consulting, and whether you are ‘cut out’ for it:

“Leverage Your Expertise With Healthcare Consulting:
Secrets to Building a Successful Business that Delivers
Great Value to Your Clients, and Offers You a New Career
Path With Additional Income and a Flexible Lifestyle”

Date: Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Time: 5:00pm Pacific / 8:00 Eastern

Register for the FREE January Teleseminar

This is also a PREVIEW call of the Healthcare Consulting Academy Advanced Training Program for physicians, which starts in February.

Tags: career change, doctors, healthcare consultant, healthcare transformation, physician

Dear Physician Colleague,

Over 10 years ago I was a healthcare technology executive working full time for a top tier company. Even though I was successful, I was at a career crossroads. Should I stay with the company and represent their vision, or should I launch my own consulting and speaking firm and express my vision?

I had acquired special expertise that was in great demand, but my personal vision was to be a force for healthcare transformation on a broader stage and scale. I knew that staying with the company or limiting myself to working with one group would constrain my ability to build my vision. On the other hand, being part of a larger enterprise gave me a feeling of stability.

During that time I often called myself an “Advisor-on-the-Verge.”

I was on the verge of turning my expertise into a marketable service and making myself available to forward-thinking organizations, leaders and clinicians.  So, in 1998 I took the plunge, and went from being on “the verge” to establishing myself as a professional healhcare consultant, coach and speaker.

And what about the option of staying with the larger company?  That particular company was bought by a larger one within 6 months after I left and the entire executive team was gone 3 months later. So much for “stability!”

Are you in a similar “Advisor-on-the-Verge” point in your career?

Let’s see if any of these situations resonate with you:

• Have you achieved remarkable results in your role as a leader or liaison, and now being asked by other organizations to share your method or facilitate their teams?

• Are you currently delivering seminars or training programs “on the side” of your practice or leadership role because you find it energizing–and you’re getting rave reviews?
  

• Are you frequently asked to speak or deliver a keynote presentation because of your special ability to connect and inspire—and your audiences want more from you?
• Have you been the frequent confidant and sounding board for executives and physician peers—and you honor the trust they have in you, and enjoy the interaction?
  

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, congratulations! You’re an “advisor-on-the-verge.”

The next question, though, is this:

Are you cut out to be a professional independent consultant, speaker or educator?

Here is a quick check list to see if you have the personal attributes to succeed as a solo-entrepreneur:

• You are organized or can create a structure to keep yourself organized
• You value autonomy and flexibility
• You can assume a lot of responsibility for your success and can live with some uncertainty
• You enjoy diverse experiences and variety in your life
  
• You are willing to go beyond your comfort zone
  
• You enjoy being a “thought leader”
• You want to be recognized for a method, idea or process you have created

If you checked off “yes” to each of these, you are well on your way to success!

Many people think that succeeding as a healthcare consultant or speaker means you have to make a lot of “cold calls.” Not true! (I know you are relieved to hear that.)

What you need to succeed is what I will share with you in a special event teleconference coming up in December and January:

“Leverage Your Expertise With Healthcare Consulting: Secrets to Building a Successful Business that Delivers Great Value to Your Clients, and Offers You a New Career Path With Additional Income and a Flexible Lifestyle”

This F^REE 75-minute Teleconference is for physicians and other healthcare professionals who have specific expertise, clinical knowledge, wellness methods, facilitation skills, or management approach that would benefit other organizations or audiences, but you are unsure about about how to build your business and are unclear whether you are cut out for a healthcare consulting or speaking career.

This is also a PREVIEW call of the Healthcare Consulting Academy, a new physician career training program from the Physician Coaching Institute starting in February, 2008, for those of you who are ready to move forward after the Orientation to launch or grow your consulting, training or speaking business.

This F.REE 75-minute teleconference is scheduled on these dates:

Date: Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Time: Noon Pacific / 3:00 Eastern

Date: Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Time: 5:00pm Pacific / 8:00 Eastern

NOTE: This Teleconference is F.REE but registration is required to attend.

. . . Get more details and Enroll

Tags: blog for doctors, business coaching, coach, coach training, coaching, doctors, executive coaching, healthcare consultant, marketing, nurses, Podcasts

I counsel a lot of physicians in my role as Executive Coach. Many of my physician clients are in the midst of career change, career crisis, career upheaval, and sometimes career adventure when they first come to see me.

Sometimes it’s very clear after our initial Strategy Meeting (which takes almost 3 days) that the career direction they need to go is to leave medicine entirely.

Here is an important point: I NEVER make that call myself. The typical scenario is that my physician client has made the decision–de facto–in every fiber of their being. What I often help them with in these early stages (the Discovery Phase of our Platinum Coaching Program) are the following:

1. Validation that leaving medicine is the right decision for who they are, where they are, and what they see ahead
2. Courage to move through the process
3. Specific communication strategies to break the news to important people in their lives (and by the way, the spouse almost always knows the decision to leave medicine is the “right one” and they are supportive every step of the way)
4. A “Celebration Ritual” to celebrate who they are what they have accomplished as a physician
5. The Strategic Blueprint for how we will organize the Career Exploration ahead after closing the door on this chapter of their life

Recently one of my clients made a break from clinical practice. It was very clear from our initial meeting that he was ready to go–NOW. It brought tears to my eyes 2 months later when he communicated how much his mind and heart were “opening up” to the world of possibility for himself, and how much he was discovering about who he is– his true self, not the guy in the white coat.

Leaving medicine is not the answer for most physicians who are unfulfilled professionally, and I never assume that career change or transition is the solution for my clients. But for many it is, and this early stage is a special one, often heart-wrenching, but always light-filled at the end of that short tunnel.

Tags: career change, doctors, entrepeneurship, leave medicine, MD MBA, physician non-clinical careers

Here is my Assistant, Kelly Johnson, who not only handles a huge number of administrative tasks for me, but is also an important “voice” of my company and brand. She is my right hand partner, even though I’m on the West Coast and Kelly is the Rocky Mountain area.

There is a book that is all the rage called “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferris. The premise of the book is that you can outsource or delegate much of your work and focus only on the essentials, thus reducing your actual working hours to the bare minimum.

If your product, like Ferris’s, is nutritional products that you sell online, a 4-hour work week might be feasible. For a busy physician, getting to a 40-hour work week would probably be a triumph.

The book does have some great ideas, though, for physicians who have launched professional services businesses, such as healthcare consulting, coaching, advising or speaking. One of his ideas I implemented myself several years ago, and is one I routinely recommend to my clients and participants in the Physician Coaching Institute: Hire a Great “Virtual Assistant”!

I’m getting better at “outsourcing” to Kelly, and while I don’t anticipate having a 4-hour work week any time soon, I do plan on spending more time on my strengths: coaching, writing and creating.

-Thanks Kelly! You’re a gem!

—-Francine

Tags: 4-hour work week, career change, career counselor for doctors, consultant, doctors, MD MBA, physician speaker, virtual assistant

 

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I am preparing for a workshop I’ll deliver after the first of the year for a group of Healthcare-MBA program at the University of California-Irvine. One of the comments that has already come up from the group is this:

“I just finished my MBA, but I’m lost about what to do next.”

Whether or not an MBA is part of your portfolio, it’s helpful to start drafting your map to the future by asking yourself three questions–I call them the three determinants of professional fulfillment.

Determinant #1: Which Do You Need More, Stability or Adventure?

You may be in the mental frame of mind to expand your career right now, but it’s possible your family or professional situation will dictate that you reduce the scope of your career expansion, and possibly the pace of your progress. If so, look at what might be a “Phase I.”

One physician client had an idea he wanted to pursue: develop consulting and speaking on the side of his specialty practice. His Phase I, however, was to get his practice in better shape, including more call coverage, so he could actually carve out time to develop his new career adventure. It would not have been practical–in fact it would have stressed his family life–for him to leave his practice in disaray.

Another client had already set up a financial stability plan before deciding to “retire” early and launch full time into his dream of developing a nonprofit global-health foundation.

Don’t be discouraged if there is multi-phased approach to building out your future. One client was disappointed after deciding that Phase I for him was staying put in his practice. However, he was very productive nonetheless, and he used that year to write a book!

Determinant #2: What Does Your Leverage Portfolio Look Like?

The second determinant of your map to the future is the state of your “Leverage Portfolio.” The “leverage portfolio” is a term I coined to describe your collection of solid achievements, noteworthy projects, results, unique experiences that will vault you into the next chapter.

Developing a solid Leverage Portfolio is especially important for physicians who have spend most of their time in clinical practice or a single management role and have done little else. And sad to say, getting an MBA as your sole accomplishment, is not leverage enough.

Take inventory right now and list your accomplishments, results, projects, authored articles, speeches, chapters written, committees led. If you aren’t filling up a page or two, part of your map to the future will include time spent developing your portfolio.

Determinant #3: What is the Story That Wants to Be Told?

This third determinant may be a challenge for some of you, and yet take only 5 seconds for others. I generally don’t ask my new clients “what’s the dream you harbor?” What I want to uncover, rather, is “what are the stories in your life that have been leading up to the BIG STORY?”

The BIG STORY is where you are destined to go, what you are meant to create, or the truths you are meant to voice.

I find that physicians are often in denial–sometimes in the dark–of the big story that wants to be told in their life. Eliciting personal stories of meaning generally starts putting the puzzle pieces in place.

One way to uncover your Big Story is to recall and record those times in your life when you were at your peak, or most engaged. What was happening? What about the event or situation was meaningful for you? What feedback did you get about your contribution or value?

Those are the beginning threads of the story line.

The three determinants are not the complete formula for future success. But going through this process is a methodical way to start creating order from confusion, uncertainty and doubt.

Email me and tell me where you starting point is with these determinants. I’m always curious to hear from my Daring Doctors subscribers.

Francine R. Gaillour, MD, MBA, FACPE, is an Executive and Career Coach for Physicians. Dr. Gaillour specializes in helping 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

Tags: career change, career transition, daring doctors, MD MBA, physician

Here I am with my Platinum Program client, Dr. Krishna Satya, an ER doc by training, and now blossoming creative writer. We were enjoying the last of Seattle sunshine before his move to San Francisco in early fall. Krishna is a delight for many reasons, one of which is his creative soul. He and I had fun discussing the significance of expressing your “true self” even in small details of how we dress. Although you can’t tell in this photo, he was sporting new eyeglasses—very edgy.

I frequently observe (and sometimes encourage) my clients start wearing something new to mark the beginning of their professional transformation.

One client envisioned during a “future visioning” session we conducted that his “future self” was wearing a specific style of penny loafers — and so he went out and bought them! Another client bought a new business pant-suit on the occasion of our first client strategy meeting (even though I said business casual), because she intuitively felt it was the appropriate attire for the journey ahead (and she looked fabulous!) When I made my own transition over 14 years ago to healthcare technology, I changed my dress in a seemingly frivolous way: I let my fingernails grow and painted them! (True confession: I chewed my nails all my life up until the time I made my transition).

Don’t underestimate the power of making even a minor “symbolic” change in your dress or appearance. I’m curious, what would be your “symbolic” change if gave yourself the freedom to express more of your true self? Email me!

To thine own self be true

—–Francine

Tags: career change, career transition, daring doctors, medical writer