Lesson Overview

As a leader in academic medicine, you built your career by having the right answers — but leading others well requires a fundamentally different skill: helping people think, learn, and solve problems on their own. In a field where evidence changes, protocols evolve, and no one can anticipate every clinical or educational challenge, the ability to coach is what builds the adaptive capacity your team actually needs.

Research backs this up — professional coaching significantly reduces burnout and improves resilience among physicians, positioning it as one of the most scalable tools we have for protecting workforce health. The challenge is that most leaders believe they’re better at coaching than they actually are; in one study, nearly a quarter of executives rated themselves above average while colleagues ranked them in the bottom third.

This month, you’ll practice the shift from telling to coaching in at least three real leadership moments — listening without jumping to answers, asking questions that open up thinking rather than close it down, and modeling that curiosity and reflection are expected here. Then bring what you noticed — including where the pull to advise was hardest to resist — to your peer group over a shared meal.