Daring Doctors: Leadership and Professional Development for Physicians

Here we go again, bad boy (and girl) doctors causing problems with colleagues AND putting patients at risk.  An article in the December 1, 2008, issue of the New York Times, Arrogant, Abusive and Disruptive–and a Doctor, reminds us once again about an issue that is NOT being addressed well within hospitals and health systems.

The article does a nice job sharing short vignettes about physicians who disrupt and some of the ramifications. However, I disagree with the assertion made by one physician about the possible root cause:

“the brutal training surgeons get, the long hours, being belittled and ‘pimped’ ” — a term for being bombarded with questions to the point of looking stupid. “That whole structure teaches a disruptive behavior.”

I don’t think so. As an Internist, who was also ‘pimped’ during residency, I never saw disruptive behavior emerge as a result.

There is no doubt that the culture of fear and the structure of conflict-avoidance can let disruptive behavior go unchecked for far too many years.  But the environment does NOT cause the problem, it only lets it fester.

The solution, however, is more important to focus on, and a physician offender who is early to mid-career must be given more than a hand slap.

Physicians who are seriously disruptive need one or more of the following: mental health therapy, anger management, and personal development  coaching.  Moreover, their health system much implement a behavior-reward/consequence system at work.

The physician needs to feel an urgency to improve their behavior.  With the risk of privileges being revoked, or compensation withheld, there is no urgency.

I am contacted regularly by health systems who are looking for help with their difficult doctors.  Even though I will coach some of the physicians, I will be the first to admit that some of these docs are NOT coachable until they have had a serious psychiatric evaluation, and possible anger management treatment.  Many of these physicians are “well and whole” — and they do very well with 6 to 12 months of executive coaching.

Tags: abusive and disruptive, anger managment, arrogant, difficult physicians, disruptive doctors, MD

Over the past three weeks, as we’ve gone through an historic election, a saying from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe kept coming to mind:

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. 

Sometimes the “next” step for you is not the incremental and cautious, but rather the BOLD and courageous.  Now, I didn’t say “risky.”  Not in the face of everyone losing their savings in 401K!  But there are times in our professional and personal life when stepping up is right on the money.

• Stepping up could be confronting a physician colleague who has been rude or unprofessional in how he/she treats nursing colleagues.

• Stepping up could be asking for the leadership role of a project that right now seems “too big” for you (but it isn’t really).

• Stepping up could be making a phone call to an organization where you’d like to give a keynote speech (even though it’s not completely finished).

• Stepping up could be speaking the truth in committee meeting (in a respectful manner of course), or writing an article that provokes much-needed dialogue.

If you were going to act with BOLDNESS right now, what would you do? 

Email me — I’d like to hear your thoughts!

I’ve heard some physicians wonder out loud if they’re career has been “wasted” - either because they were on a path that wasn’t a good fit, or they spent years focusing on accumulating and worrying, rather than on contributing and enjoying.  The question is one of personal value:  am I measuring up? And by whose metrics?

How do YOU measure the value of your physician career?  Dollars earned?  Lives saved? Honors attained?  Families grateful?

From my work with physicians, I’ve learned that we all want to feel our lives have mattered.  It’s temping—and often disastrous—to compare our lives to others in order to guage whether we’re on track.

“Loving Husband and Father, Top 25% in Annual Billings and Revenue” 

One of my clients was feeling conflicted because even though his RBRVs were at the top quartile and he easily out-produced his colleagues, he was feeling dissatisfied with his life.  He joked about the epitaph that would go on his gravestone:  “Loving Husband and Father, Top 25% in Annual Billings and Revenue.”

Whether you are in clinical practice, academics, or healthcare business, here is another vantage point from which to examine your career value:
Your Legacy as a healer.

Here is my definition of Legacy: the value you create as a healer, or said in a different way, your contribution to healing the world.

Let’s delve deeper and examine the Four Core Contributions that could be your legacy as a Healer.  Read through each of the Four Contributions below and see if there is ONE core contribution that you might already be making.  If you aren’t already on a path to leaving a Legacy as a Healer, I suggest that you choose one of the Core Contributions and begin to direct your energy there.

Four Core Contributions That Could be Your Legacy

1) Your Reputation

Could it be so simple that just having a stellar reputation for ethical behavior, kindness and fair-handedness is enough of a legacy?   Absolutely!

Just look around you and see that how our culture and society is saturated with unsavory characters, speech and images.  As a physician, you are still placed “on a pedestal” by many people - not so much to admire, but to MODEL moral and ethical standards of behavior.

Recently I spoke on the topic of personal leadership to a large medical association, and afterwards one of the older physicians came up to me and asked:  “Do you think physicians care anymore about virtue and ethics?  Do they see that as important?”

Patients and colleagues definitely notice and get quite upset when a physician “acts out” or exhibits poor bedside manner. Your core contribution as a healer can be enormous if would you uphold a standard of behavior that reinforces civility and respect.  Will this be your Legacy?

2)  Your Trailblazing

Have you been the “first” to pioneer a new procedure or method?  You don’t have to be the inventor or creator (although that counts as a Trailblazer’s Core Contribution), but it does take a trailblazing physician to lead groups into new waters, such as the incorporation of integrative medicine or the adoption of electronic medical records.

It could be your trailblazing contribution to heal the world will manifest by tackling a community health project that no one else wants to address.

As a leader, your core contribution as a Trailblazer could be the first implementation of a Code of Conduct for your hospital, or the first system-wide implementation of clinical guidelines.

Breaking new ground, whether with technology or with a method, also entails quashing taboos that hold people back, and requires a steady, deliberate and untiring effort.   A Trailblazing core contributor leaves a new system for better health and wellbeing.  Will this be Your Legacy?

3) Your Body of Work

If you have written multiple articles or books, as a researcher or pundit, or you’ve collected artifacts that fill a gap in historical understanding—your work over the years will be a resource for generations to come.  Your body of work might be the dozens of surgical cases you’ve done in your subspecialty, with each one adding knowledge to the field and improving care for hundreds across the world.

But your core contribution doesn’t have to be clinical, scientific or purely academic.  Consider a body of work that is personal to your family.

For the past several years I have been conducting extensive research on my mother’s genealogy (we’ve traced her ancestors to Spain as far back as 1300’s).  While I’ve enjoyed the research, I had been dragging my feet documenting everything I’ve uncovered, thinking, “I’m too busy.”  But recently I’ve come to realize that my own core contribution will be the written account of what I’ve learned.  My body of research in the form of a book and website will be a gift to the dozens of extended family members I have in New Mexico, plus a source of information and answers for generations to come.  Will a body of work be your legacy?

4) Your Wise Guidance

Reflect for a moment on your years of medical training or practice and those times when you were at a crossroads.  Who was it that gave you a timely word of encouragement, or an insightful piece of advice, or a firm talking to — guidance that served as a major course correction in your life?

Wise guidance delivered to someone with potential can have long-reaching effects. Are you someone who routinely inspires your patients to stop smoking or start eating well?  Are you an attending physician who makes it a point to identify the unique strength of residents and fellows to help them develop their career?  Are you a parent who can look beyond your own ambitions for your kids, and instead helped them develop their natural gifts and find their own way?

To dish out “advice” is as easy as eating popcorn, but to serve as wise counsel takes learning, practice and discipline.   If you’ve had a few people tell you how much your input or teaching impacted their life, then your core contribution is already manifesting.   Will this be your Legacy?

~~~~~~~

Now, don’t be a hyper-achieving doctor and think you have to contribute in all four dimensions.  That will probably cause you to feel inadequate and defeats the purpose of this exploration.   We can’t all hit a grand slam, but all of us can succeed with ONE core contribution.  And that’s all it takes to heal the world.

Will you email me and tell me what your Core Contribution is and what you think your Legacy will look like?  I would love to include your comments in a follow-up Daring Doctors Newsletter.  Francine@physicianleadership.com

Tags: career, doctors, leadership, legacy, MD, physicians

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