Surgeon Coaching: Why and How

The members and leadership of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) continue to expand awareness of the impact of burnout on the delivery of care and on the health care professionals that are critical to delivering that care. Surgeon coaching, when appropriately defined, shows considerable promise as a method to create positive change in our team environment and practice, our organizational culture, and our own wellness.

The surgeon coaching concepts shared are a mix of expert opinions, literature review, and personal experiences of the author. The literature review includes extensive experience in behavioral health, adult learning theory, and the evolution of best practices as they pertain to coaching techniques and skills. Early experiences in physician coaching highlight the challenges and successes when these concepts are applied to high performance professionals in our current health care environment.

Physician and surgeon coaching is more akin to executive coaching and self-directed learning for highly trained individuals and teams rather than a method of remediation or coercion into someone else's agenda. A methodology for performance improvement to those who have already achieved so much in their careers was shared as a structure for those struggling to organize the process, avoid blind spots, and leverage a growth/reward process rather than the traditional destructive/punitive process that includes shaming, guilting, and other negative techniques. Surgeon coaches and coaching skills are expected to be significant ingredients of performance improvement in team-based care, organizational culture, and physician wellness.

Coaching, the activity of bringing forth knowledge, wisdom, and insight through: asking open-ended questions, listening deeply, keenly observing, dedication to self-awareness, and commitment to learning can be particularly helpful in burnout management and surgeon wellness, and in surgical technique, team management, career advancement, and any leadership skill. What if your ability to improve at anything is unique to you? What if your ability to grow is most effective and efficient with a coach who can better understand your uniqueness and guide you in a sequence of deliberate practice and learning? What if the answer to reaching your goals or working through your challenges is coaching? If you and your coach are paying attention to longevity and sustainability, then you must pay attention to all areas of performance improvement, including mental, emotional, and physical practices.

High-performance surgeons engage in coaching to maintain or amplify that passion for performance improvement in anything and everything. It does not matter whether you are seeking coaching for juggling the many priorities in your life and practice; dealing with difficult outcomes, litigation, or personal stress; refining a technique or skill; addressing burnout; climbing to the next level of your career; training for or sustaining the marathon of a surgical career; implementing incremental steps or changes; or practicing wellness in your own way. Any way you look at it, coaching and coaching skills can be a positive influence and an avenue to even greater success for surgeons in their life and career.