By Dr. James M. Dahle, WCI Founder
Coaching seems to be all the rage these days. While coaches used to be just for athletes, now people from all walks of life are using coaches to help them with many different parts of their lives. The basic proposal is pretty simple. A coach provides education, motivation, and insight gained from years of experience working with people in similar situations. Just like a coach can help an athlete to move differently or think differently and reach a higher level of success, a coach can help an executive or a physician to achieve their best.
What Is Physician Coaching?
Over the last few years, there are rapidly increasing numbers of physician coaches and physicians being coached. It has been fascinating to watch it evolve. Six or eight years ago, physician online entrepreneurs seemed to gravitate toward blogging. Then it was developing, running, and selling online courses. Now, those entrepreneurs seem to be gravitating toward coaching. I don't know the percentage of physicians that have hired a coach who subsequently became a coach, but it seems to be pretty high. The true believers would say they found something so beneficial in their lives that they now have a missionary zeal to share it with others.
Physician coaching, as a general rule, involves a physician coaching another physician through some aspect of their lives. Most commonly, it is an episode of burnout. However, it might also involve passage through a malpractice lawsuit, becoming a physician executive, running a practice, making the transition to retirement, or even starting a non-medical business. If a doc is coaching another doc, it's physician coaching. It usually involves changing mindset, learning new habits, and eliminating negative ways of thinking that are keeping the doctor from doing their best at whatever it is that they want to do.
What Types of Coaching Are Available?
This list continues to rapidly expand, but here are the areas where physician coaching is now occurring:
- Physician Burnout Coaching
- Physician Life Coaching
- Executive Coaching for Doctors
- Physician Leadership Coaching
- Medical Practice Business Coaching
- Business Coaching for Physician Entrepreneurs
- Career and Job Search Coaching
- Financial Coaching
- Coding and Efficiency Coaching
- Onboarding Coaching
- Transition to Retirement Coaching
What Are the Benefits of Physician Coaching? (Does a Coach Work?)
There is precious little data on this topic. Anecdotally, both physician coaches and their clients speak of amazing, life-changing breakthroughs that have solved their burnout, enabled them to reach academic milestones, and helped them to build amazing, profitable businesses. They frequently cite increased motivation, comfort, and confidence. Naturally, a coach doesn't do anything to you or for you. They can only help you do something for yourself. If you are ready to make some real changes, a coach can aid you in that transformation.
Some of the best data on the topic came out of a JAMA article in 2019 about the effects of physician life coaching on burnout. The article was titled, “Effect of a Professional Coaching Intervention on the Well-Being and Distress of Physicians: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial.“ They took 88 internists, family physicians, and pediatricians and put 44 of them randomly into the “coaching group” who received 3.5 hours of coaching over six months. They were allowed to get coaching on whatever they wanted. This is what they discussed:
At the end of that six months, the coaching group had the following benefits:
- Emotional exhaustion scores decreased by 19.5% (increased 9.8% in the control group)
- Burnout symptoms decreased by 17.1% (increased 4.9% in the control group)
- Overall quality of life increased by 20.3% (increased 1.5% in the control group)
- Resilience increased by 4.2% (increased by 2.0% in the control group)
Coaching did not seem to help:
- Depersonalization scores
- Proportion of physicians with high depersonalization
- Job satisfaction
- Measures of engagement and meaning at work
So yes, coaching works. This coaching group received only 3.5 hours of coaching over six months as part of this study. With additional coaching and a well-designed program, job satisfaction and meaning should also see improvement. However, the process is highly dependent on you wanting it to work. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it.
How Much Does a Coach Cost? Is It Worth the Money? How Much Should You Invest?
Unfortunately, the answer to these questions is all over the board. The coaching intervention in the study above cost about $1,400 per person for 3.5 hours of one-on-one coaching ($400 an hour), and that was several years ago. That is certainly on the low end of what you should expect to pay. There are numerous options in the four-figure range, but that is usually only for a limited time period of a few months. If you need ongoing help, it is going to cost more. I know some physicians who are paying as much as $60,000 a year for their life coach and some business coaching programs that charge $150,000 to as much as $1 million per year.
Most of them say it is worth it, but there is obviously a huge psychological incentive to not feel like you are wasting your money after such a significant purchase! A non-physician, non-executive coach can also be much cheaper—as little as $200-$1,000 per month—but most physicians want to be coached by someone who has been in their shoes.
You could keep the cost down by enrolling in group coaching programs, as well. Some coaching programs are “evergreen,” meaning you can start at any time. Others are episodic, meaning you can only enroll during their enrollment periods every quarter or even less often.
If you use a coach heavily, you may find they are your most expensive professional advisor. You may end up paying your coach more than your physician, attorney, accountant, financial advisor, and therapist combined. But for a short period of only a few months, the cost can be pretty reasonable compared to the value received. Consider a doctor so burned out that he or she is ready to quit tomorrow. If that coach can help them recover and design their ideal life and practice and help them to stay in the career another decade or two, what is that worth? Millions of dollars. So investing a few thousand to make millions can obviously be very worthwhile. The same principles can apply to business and other types of coaching. If your business grows 30% faster with a coach than without, what is that worth? Like most business investments, the return on investment cannot be known upfront.
Is a Coach Just an Expensive Therapist?
Some burned-out doctors also suffer from depression and anxiety. Many physicians prefer to engage with a coach rather than a therapist to avoid stigmas associated with mental health issues and to avoid licensing and credentialing issues that may come up from seeking mental health care. While coaching may help with these conditions, this is not really their role. Both coaches and therapists help you to correct maladaptive thought processes, but if you have serious mental health conditions, we recommend you seek out professionals who specialize in treating those in addition to or instead of a coach who also happens to be a physician.
Who Should Consider Physician Coaching?
Coaches and other advocates would say everyone should have a coach. Certainly those struggling with burnout are highly likely to benefit, which may be as much as 30%-50% of doctors. If you find yourself struggling with balancing home and work, achieving what you want in your career, starting a business, or building a practice, chances are good you can benefit from meeting with a coach. Many coaches even offer an introductory discovery session, where all you have to lose is your time.
What to Look for in a Physician Coach
If you're convinced that physician coaching is for you, it is time to take the next step and start looking for a coach. Here are some things to consider:
Focus
Coaches specialize. If you are struggling with burnout, you don't want someone who specializes in coaching you to build your online business. You want a burnout coach. That person has worked with dozens of other burned-out docs and maybe was even burned out themselves at one point. Match yourself to what you need. Ask them who most of their clients are and what issues they help them with. Beginning coaches naturally try to be all things to all people (I'll coach you on burnout, finances, and business of all kinds!), but after a while, most find their niche and no longer have to take any client they can get.
Experience
Gray hair is useful in financial advisors, and it is useful in coaches. Parents notoriously don't like taking advice from anyone whose diapers they changed and it's pretty hard for a 55-year-old doc to hire a 32-year-old doctor who is two years out of residency doing burnout coaching. But it's not just age, and besides, lots of people are wise beyond their years. It's more about experience coaching. The more years someone has been doing this and the more clients they have worked with, the better. Lots of coaches come and go as they try their hand at it. Try to find one with at least a couple of years of experience and at least 100 previous clients.
Certification
Just like in medicine and finance, there are lots of bodies out there training and certifying coaches. I like certifications. If nothing else, it tells you they're serious enough about their craft to have sought out at least something extra. Since there are no legal requirements for a coach (thus you see why many prefer to be financial coaches rather than registered investment advisors), the buyer must beware and do sufficient due diligence. Most programs last from 10 weeks to six months. Every coach will argue their program is the best, but there is no objective comparison available other than time spent getting the certification.
Fit
Coaching, perhaps more so even than a financial advisor, is about fit. It often helps if the coach shares a lot in common with you (gender, race, background), but empathy, compassion, and communication style also matter. There is not necessarily a right or wrong, but there may be a right or wrong for you.
Availability
If the coach has no availability, they're not going to do you much good. A program that only opens twice a year may not be open when you need to enroll in it. Make sure your coach will actually have time to coach you when you have available time. For many busy docs, that might mean the coach needs to work evenings and weekends, so be sure to ask.
Price
Finally, consider the price. If one coach costs twice as much as another, are they really twice as good? Or are they simply charging you “the doctor price?” Like with any other service, you get (to keep) what you DON'T pay for.
Where to Find the Right Physician Coach for You
Ready to hire a coach? Here at The White Coat Investor, we recognize the need to have trusted coaching resources. Burnout is something that affects a huge number of doctors today. Whether you are looking for private coaching, group coaching, online coaching courses or a mix (we recommend the Burnout Proof MD program), we have the option you need. Visit the WCI Physician Burnout Coaching Page to find the right solution for you. You can do this and WCI is providing the tools to help!
Not Ready for a Coach but Looking for Other Resources
Coaching represents a commitment, not only financially and time-wise, but also in the form of a commitment to change your life. If you are not quite ready to make that, we would encourage you to seek out other resources until you are. These may include books, blogs, and online courses such as the following:
Books:
- Stop Physician Burnout
- The Burnout Fix
- Mayo Clinic Strategies to Reduce Burnout
- The DNA of Physician Leadership
Courses:
Financial Wellness and Burnout Prevention for Medical Professionals
Created by WCI, this course contains the material from our most popular “Fire Your Financial Advisor” course plus a new section on Physician Wellness and Burnout Prevention. The Physician Wellness presenters include Dr. Nisha Mehta, Dr. Fahd Ahmad, Dr. Dawn Baker, Dr. James Turner, Dr. Bonnie Koo, Dr. Jordan Grumet, and Dr. James Dahle. This material qualifies for up to 8 hours of CME/CE credit.
“So, I have you to thank for re-igniting that spark, which has led to getting our financial plan in order. And, I’ve even taken your advice on how to channel some of that financial energy after I’d done most of the big things: teach others. Last month, I began teaching a personal finance curriculum for my department’s residents! Hopefully, we can all take what you started to reach more and more physicians!”
The Ideal Physician Job Search Formula
Get a proven formula to find a much better job, now! Dr. Dike Drummond, of The Happy MD, will help you make a step-by-step action plan to find, interview, negotiate, and onboard yourself and your family into a new and much better practice.
“This new job is a much better match for my ideal job description and a dream I have had in the background for a long time. I will be doing work I enjoy, with people I trust and the six figure signing bonus is great. How do you put a price on sanity?”
One Minute Mindfulness Online Training for Physicians
Dr. Dike Drummond, of The Happy MD, will help you become the eye of the storm in your workday—calm, centered, focused, and present no matter what is going on around you—with a single breath-centering technique research-proven to be effective in practicing physicians.
“The program has given me back a sense of control in my life. It brought me back to being present with each of my patients. I feel like a healer again, not just someone who writes out prescriptions and makes referrals. I am still surprised that it doesn’t take any more time in my already packed work day; in fact it keeps giving me back time I would have normally wasted on worrying.”
We want you to be successful. You can do this and WCI is creating tools to help!
What do you think? Have you tried physician coaching? What was your experience like? Comment below!
“Over the last few years, there are rapidly increasing numbers of physician coaches and physicians being coached. It has been fascinating to watch it evolve. Six or eight years ago, physician online entrepreneurs seemed to gravitate toward blogging. Then it was developing, running, and selling online courses. Now, those entrepreneurs seem to be gravitating toward coaching. ”
Great observation Jim! As one might expect–follow the money! Since we know how hard it is to monetize a blog, entrepreneurs moved on to online courses. The ROI must be even greater for coaching, because, follow the money.
But entrepreneurs are the great minority of physicians. For the non-entrepreneurs (the consumers), there might be an inverse pyramid for numbers of people affected and number who are “helped.” That is, blogs reach the most people and help the “fewest,” where as course reach less and help a bit more, and coaching reach the fewest and help the “most.” All in the eye of the beholder and what kind of help you need.
Athletes and CEOs have had performance coaching for more than a decade. They moved on to teams of coaches or what? What is next for physician coaching? I guess follow the money.
Professional organizations may be another avenue through which to pursue coaching. The American Academy of Neurology, for example, offers year-long executive coaching programs to applicants who are selected.
Really?
WCI – I think you are getting out of your lane. This post makes me wonder when you will be selling vitamins and nutrition drinks.
Always appreciate feedback.
Why would we let someone else decide what lane we are in or how wide it should be?
Do you know any good vitamin and nutrition drink companies that would like to advertise here? We’ll throw those at the wall and see if they stick too. But coaching seems like a more useful product for our audience to be honest.
I hear essential oils are useful to alleviate the symptoms of burnout. 😉
Not just useful, VagabondMD, but essential.
Before physician coaching was “a thing”, back in 2015, I started employing a physician coach (Heather Fork/Doctor’s Crossing) who specializes in assisting doctors with career transitions. She was/is fabulous. Even after multiple career modifications, including unwinding leadership roles, scaling back to part time, and eventually jumping ship to the insurance side, I still consult with her regarding onboarding issues and plans for my Career 2.0.
I agree with most of what you have written here. Coaches act as cheerleaders, therapists, and motivators, but they cannot and do not do the work for you. I think that my relationship with my coach was unusually long because I had a lot of unpack and unwind, and my career transition had multiple phases. I think most people have a much more limited engagement, more like 6-12 months. Foe me, it was (pre-tax) money well spent.
Personally, a coding and efficiency coach is hit my point. Thanks for sharing this information. Does anyone suggest any resources for this? I worked as an MA before being a resident so I know one of the main factors affecting private clinics is coding and efficient workflow.
Another great article! I strongly agree with point of the focus of the coach. Most Physician Coaches are M.D.s and can be effective when it comes to navigating the pressures of medical administrative issues or licensning requirements. However, there are a few of us psychologists that have experience in assisting physicians with the deeper, more personal issues that health care providers face. Finding a coach that is experienced within the focus of your struggles is essential. It’s nice to see that the medical community embraces coaching.
The average cost of medical school is $330,000 for a private school. Compared to a physician salary and the possible improvement in performance the value of a good coach makes the cost well, well worth it. The return on investment for a good coach can be huge.
There is a free physician coaching network run by a physician. Physicians coach other physicians for free on a number of topics (burnout, working during COVID times etc)
https://physiciancoachsupport.com/
If cost is an issue, this would be the place to start.
Not sure “free” is quite the right description for what is going on there. Free intro sessions maybe. It’s hard to say for sure what is going on there, but when the coaches have 40+ hours a week available to schedule with them, I’m pretty sure they don’t do all their coaching work for free. How much is really free?
Free in regards to physicians volunteering their time to help physicians. The structure is similar to the Physician Support Line.
Yes, but how long is it free? Say I go there and sign up for a coach. How many hours does that coach coach me for free? Going through the links it seems I get an hour “coaching session” (or perhaps pitch) for free, then they try to upgrade me to their paid program. I could be wrong, but there are an awful lot of nice websites linked there for “free coaches.” I’ve spent a lot of time working on line and I have a pretty good sense of what free looks like and what “for-profit” looks like. I could be wrong, but I’m a little skeptical. I’m definitely skeptical that the coaching need out there can be met with a free model. Please surprise me.
Physician Support Line feels different to me. There are no email addresses/links to websites with glossy pics of coaches on it. What is the business model behind physician coach support and those who coach there?
From what I know, you can sign up as many times as you want. I don’t think it is with the same coach but whoever is available. The coaches can not solicit those they are coaching. If they do so, they are kicked out of the Physician Coach Support group. However, if the client ask for the information, they can provide their information. If the client wants to work with a particular coach, they can look up their bio and reach out to them. The person who runs the program graduated from the same coaching school I went to and seems genuine in regards to helping others. She was inspired by the Physician Support Line and wanted to do the same with coaching. I am not the owner so I don’t know her business model. All I know is that she ask for donations to continue to volunteer program.
Maybe it’s more selfless than it appears, although I suspect there are a lot of leads that come from it even with the no solicitation rule. Thanks for sharing.
Time will tell how it turns out. I hope that it will be known for the help that it provides others. You are welcome.
WCI: I founded Physician Coach Support as a peer to peer resource for physicians. We are all physicians but being certified life coaches gives you a different skill set than listening as a friend, spouse or mentor. Psychiatrists have an incredible role to play in long term support in their specialty and through their free support line as well.
This does not in any way replace any long-term coaching as you won’t get long term transformation with one session, just like you won’t lose 30 pounds and get a six pack by going to the gym once. This is not about that.
This is about talking to a peer and we have a skill set that can help reframe the situation or explore other ways to help you think about the same situation that is causing you distress. Sometimes you need someone to talk to that is not your spouse, or a therapist and you are not sure who to talk to but you want to talk to someone who is a physician and can understand the things we have gone through. It is another option of someone who can give you a perspective and help you again, just with a skill set we have learned.
Volunteers sign agreements that they won’t poach for clients and if I am aware of it, they no longer volunteer. Will it happen? Maybe, can I control it despite intentions of what this is about and what they agree to and sign to not do. But there are rules and if violated, they will be removed as volunteers.
COVID really affected many including myself and I want to pay it forward with the skill set I have. This is not a funnel, I am not asking for clients and again if volunteers do that, they are removed.
We all can bring value and help to others. I congratulate you in your success and hope you continue to help many as you have.
I want it to be a resource and that is all. We ask for emails because that is how you get a zoom link, by email. I don’t spam or send you a newsletter or start to sell you an upgrade after your appointment. Our upgraded package is the one where you come for your appointment and we listen and help others with the skill set we have. If I was a psychiatrist, I would volunteer at Physician Support line. But I am not.
During COVID I used the physician support line and even to this day, that thought of someone helping me for “free” without agenda still gives me hope in humanity and makes me believe I too can contribute with the skills I have.
Could it have been done as phone line? Yes, but I decided to do it the same way we all mostly coach which is zoom, because that is how most coaching is done. The good news you can just turn off video and keep audio.
Again. At the end of day, we can all help others in the ways we are all meant to do so, whichever is our path to do so. It does not look the same for all and what is one person’s definition of success and value is different than for someone else.
Continue your amazing mission, help and resources for some many that have been helped by what you believe in. I wish you continued success.
So the idea is a “one time coaching/therapy call” for free without obligation or sales pitch. Thanks for the clarification.
Not exactly the same thing I’m talking about in this post which generally takes a lot longer than one call. i.e. it’s an ongoing coaching relationship. As far as I know, nobody is doing that for free.
Correct. We are not there to establish or to override the long-term coaching. There is HUGE benefit from that and I have paid tens of thousands of dollars for coaching. Coaching works. Therapy works. Both work separately or together.
No one is taking away benefits of paid coaching.
It is about peer support with another skill set. We are certified life coaches so it is a different perspective because we have that skill, so we can use those skills when someone is coming with something they want to talk about that is bothering them or they want to get a perspective on that they have not figured out on their own or with their best friend/ spouse.
All life coaches get coached all the time, because we are human and our brains do tricky things and we need a perspective from another coach to help us. All the time.
So sometimes you just need support just like when you call your best friend because you are frustrated and don’t know what to do and you need to vent.
Well, what your best friend or what a coach tells you is very different.
They both have a benefit. Connection with others has been studied to be the biggest predictor of longevity and being listened to and feel empathy from a friend is extremely helpful. Everyone needs close friends to confide to and call.
A physician who has life coaching skills gives you a different perspective starting with awareness that you probably didn’t have in your thoughts or beliefs. Our brains are so automatic we don’t realize we are doing repeated patterns of thoughts or beliefs and we don’t realize why we are doing things and coaches can help with that. A friend will likely let you vent and will agree with you and give you empathy or a big hug, but they may not help you understand why are you are feeling that or taking the actions you are. So you feel better and move on but you may not realize the patters of thought (likely unconscious) that got you there. There is a big difference in finding awareness of they “why” you are feeling a certain way or thinking something.
If you want to make real and long-term changes, yes sign up with a coach that can give you long term tools, plans, strategies to achieve your long-term goal (chart efficiency, weight loss, burnout, elevating your business skills). That needs long term support.
This is about helping other physicians, and giving hope and support when you need it in short term. Hope is the antidote to despair and in many times suicide. If you have no hope, your solution to your problem can be suicide. I don’t want physicians to feel there is no hope or no one cares or wants to help or no one can understand the stressors.
Again, thank you for starting and discussing coaching and bringing great information as your article, podcast above and whatever you plan to do in January.
There are plenty of spaces/ places to help. I think at the end of the day we want to help and contribute and that should unite people not feel we are taking things away from others or there is not enough. There is plenty of physicians that need support whether burned out or not. What resonates with each and however they want to find help is up to each person. We all have something to contribute in our unique style, flavor, method or spectrum of impact.
At the end of day, we all have to be happy with our choices and many get caught up with the fact that if we “achieve” this success or these number of followers happiness will be there. Whether it’s more money, different job, different boss. Reaching an achievement or changing the circumstance will not bring happiness. Happiness is within.
Excellent reply, Diana! Bravo!
WCI– nobody “should” do anything for FREE — you are an investor, you know that time is the most valuable and finite resource we have, I suppose… Physicians coaches that are volunteering to give the gift of time and guidance to peers are doing so from their abundance of their heart. If you “should ” people into volunteering , it takes the magic away. Think this coaching as a parallel to a fitness trainer — yes some may offer free /intro sessions — but if you receive a service long term, you know you have to pay for it, right? you don’t expect the fitness trainer to do that for free? What is interesting to me that you have a long list of what “qualities” a physician coach “should ” have — lots of experience, lots of previous clients, certifications, availability, and certain price … well you know you can’t have fast, quality and cheap ( or free) …
If someone would have lots of experience and clients, expect a decent price and limited availability. If you want “free” intro sessions and lower price, maybe look into an emerging coach….
I’m not sure why you’re directing this comment at me. It feels like you might have misunderstood something I said if you think I believe that coaches should work voluntarily. I think the conversation you are responding to can be summed up like this:
One commenter: You can get free coaching at this site
Me: I’m skeptical that there is really free coaching, sounds like lead generation for for-profit coaches.
Founder of said site: Volunteers do one hour of therapy/coaching for people for free and we forbid them from soliciting business.
Everyone: Real long-term coaching isn’t free.
Hope that helps.
Welcome to the coaching space, Jim! It is important work.
Looking forward to seeing what the WCI team puts together.
Cheers,
Jimmy