4 Questions Physician Leaders Should Strive to Answer

Recently, we’ve discussed the lack of flow in many physician’s daily work life and how that lack of flow, over time, leads to a disengaged and dangerously burnt out team of physicians. We’ve also outlined 5 important mistakes for physician leaders to avoid when putting in place an engagement plan. In addition to avoiding mistakes, every physician leader striving to form an effective, engaged, and highly functioning team, must be asking the following four questions. 

1. Can increasing physician engagement be a top strategic priority? 

This requires a commitment of time and money. If a leader is merely paying lip service to this effort, there is little chance of success. Additionally, the bulk of daily communication to enhance engagement will fall on the person in the manager role. Is leadership willing to train the managers to communicate effectively? Some managers may need ongoing coaching, internal or external, to do so. Will the organization budget time and money for that? 

2. What’s the current level of burnout among your team?

You can’t know what your team needs if you don’t know where they are. You must start with each individual member of your team, as well as an understanding of how the team functions together. A group meeting or an anonymous survey are both good places to start when beginning to assess this from a leader’s point of view. This will begin to build trust and should also solicit ideas from team members. Physicians who are burnt out (or dangerously close to burn out) are likely to have ideas about what they need most. 

3. What can an effective engagement program do for our organization? 

Creating and building an effective engagement program requires that both you and the leadership above you (your boss and your boss’s boss and your boss’s boss’s boss...et cetera) are fully on board. How can you “sell” the idea of an engagement program to them to have fully organizational investment in the idea? (Hint: Remember the business case we discussed in the previous post!)

4. What is needed to create flow for physicians? 

This is a slow and individual investigative process. It must be done one physician at a time. Engagement cannot be enhanced as a monolithic “them”. It is a task that must come from leadership directly, not outsourced or delegated elsewhere. Physicians must learn to trust you and your leadership before allowing themselves to invest fully in their work environment. Building that trust takes time, as well as excellent communication. And building that trust will allow you to understand the unique difficulties associated with each physician’s individual work flow. Knowing that information will give you a running list of things necessary for your organization’s individual engagement program. 

If you’re ready to maximize your leadership potential and provide opportunities for your team to thrive in the workplace, I invite you to participate in my 5-Day Challenge: Coach Yourself! Becoming a leader is not an overnight process, but a slow and steady commitment to create and fortify a culture of learning and growth in the workplace -- starting with you.