Coaching doctors: some things to think about…

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Susan Kersley

Coaching doctors:

Whether you are a doctor who coaches others or a doctor benefitting from having coaching yourself, you could consider what might be:

  • Benefits  for doctors from being coached
  • Benefits for  doctors learning coaching skills to deal with their patients.
  • Benefits for patients when their doctor has coaching skills.

Doctors being coached: in relation to coaching doctors,

  • what are their strengths
  • what are their weaknesses?
  • what opportunities does coaching give them?
  • how does it threaten them?

In relation to the doctor being the coach who is coaching doctors:

  • what strengths are needed in the coach?
  • What weaknesses should the coach not have or avoid?
  • what opportunities does coaching doctors provide for the coach?
  • what threats might the coach experience while coaching doctors?

The four  most common issues brought to a coach by doctors who seek coaching:

  • lack of work life balance and a desire to correct this
  • not managing time effectively and a wish to have more time to do things away from medical work
  • lack of self-care because of poor time management
  • lack of confidence and/or low self-esteem and a wish to be more confident to be more assertive in dealing with colleagues.

The coaching process: from the perspective of the coach and from the perspective of the doctor/client:

  • Where does it take place?
  • Mode of coaching (eg face to face/telephone…/ one to one groups
  • How does the coach conduct the coaching session?
  • What skills does the coach need?
  • What about the coaches values and self belief about their coaching?
  • The self-confidence of the coach?
  • The reasons the coach wants to coach doctors?

All of the above are areas looking for answers. Let me know your thoughts on any of them. Perhaps sometime I’ll also try to let you have my perspective on some or all of the questions posed.

 

Feeling confused? Just ake things one step at a time and then it will all make sense!

 

 

 

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More to Life than Medicine?

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Susan Kersley

When you are so busy it’s easy to believe that nothing else matters. There is so much to do, just keeping up with the routine work seems to take every hour in the day.

It’s very important, however to remember that there is more to life than Medicine. There is a world out there with exciting things going on too.

What can you do to engage with life beyond Medicine? Follow these tips and discover there is more to life than Medicine.

Connect with your creativity

You have to use a lot of logic and factual information when working as a doctor. Although there is the on-going  discussion about left versus right brain thinking, you use mainly your left brain to decide what to do for a patient.

Creative activity uses your right brain, your creative side. Let go of logic and notice what happens when you paint, draw, dance, play an instrument, take photos, sculpt or work with clay.

Travel

Open up new horizons by going  to other parts of the planet. Maybe you’ve always wanted to visit the Amazon rainforest or Antarctica.  So make the decision to find out what options there are and go there. See how other communities live their lives, notice how others enjoy themselves and learn about different ways of being in the world.

Start a new hobby or re-open your interest in an old one

When you get home after a busy day at the hospital get stuck into something completely different rather than  flopping down in front of the TV.  Whatever it might be you can find others who share your interest, whether it’s playing darts, chess or bowls or collecting model train sets or knitting. You’ll find specialist magazines and meetings of people with similar hobbies all over the country.

Be more sociable

If your social life is either non-existent or is only with other doctors, get out there and meet others who share one of your other interests or hobbies. Forget about medical matters for a few hours each week and find others who can encourage and motivate you to get involved in other activities. You’ll make new non-medical  friends too.

Learn new skills

Is there a skill you regret never having learnt during your younger years? Maybe you always wanted to learn another language or be able to type quickly so find out about local classes and sign up for whatever class fulfills that gap in your knowledge or skills.

Coaching enables you to take that leap!

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Which way now?

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Susan Kersley

Life is full of decision-making and there are many times in a doctor’s life when you have to stop and ask yourself: ‘Which direction shall I take now?’  This may be in relation to your career path or to issues in your personal life.

It may seem difficult to make that necessary decision because you are so engulfed in the ‘what will people think of me if I do this rather than that?’ mindset.  There may be well- meaning senior colleagues who talk as if they know what sort of life is best for you and as they describe how they see your future you inwardly cringe and wonder how they could possibly believe that they know what you really want.

No-one can foretell what the future will bring for you: however when you find yourself saying or thinking along the lines of:  ‘if I had my time over again I would definitely have made a different choice,’ then you have a strong clue about what you could or even should be doing with your life now.  So think back to a time when you took a leap into the unknown or decided to do something a bit scary and recall what it was that gave you the push to do it. Maybe you took a deep breath and jumped or maybe you wanted to prove someone’s judgement about you as wrong, whatever it took you took that apprehension and just did it.

Do you remember how great you felt afterwards and how pleased you were with yourself for being courageous enough to take that first step? Once you’ve taken the first step the rest will be much easier!

You can do it! If you want someone to give you that, metaphorical push try some Coaching 

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