I am a good doctor but I feel that I am a great administrator. At the level of CMO, I believe it is important to inspire my team and allow them to lead others to achieve our joint vision. While, people are following my lead, I want to do more to develop my staff so they can independently take on complex problems and solve them using the skills they have gained. It is important for me to grow the skills of my team so that I have more time to focus on the big picture and be proactive on creative ideas my organization is working towards. I need to pull myself out of the “weeds” and think more globally both for the organization as well as what is happening in medicine and payment reform in general. By allowing my team to take on the day to day projects I can shift my focus outward and think about the bigger picture.
The Challenge
My challenge is that I am a very direct communicator which can make others very uncomfortable. I was getting feedback that in meetings while the words I communicated were accurate, my delivery did not ‘land’ as professionally as I wanted and the message wasn’t received because of the delivery. My direct communication style was coming across as opinionated instead of passionate. While I was motivated to refine my professional presence by smoothing out some of my rough edges, I didn’t want to “smooth“ them so much that I lost what I value about me!
My goal was to be authentically direct and engaging while maintaining my professionalism.
I wanted to improve my communication and self-management so that my passion and experience were received as I intended. This is an area in which Deborah was very helpful as she understand this need of mine and helped me challenge it into more productive messaging.
The Process
The coaching process was very rewarding—the most insightful parts were the 360 interviews as well as the 1.5 day on-site to outline my leadership plan and vision. Learning to listen more and ask different questions of my staff resulted in better discussions while also helping my team member develop their thought processes and analytical skills.
The Result
When I started working with Deborah I had an idea of my style but now I find that I am more focused on the results I want to see in the relationships around me and have a plan to accomplish them. An added benefit of my coaching experience with Deborah is that I have been able to transfer what I learned into use with my staff and direct reports. This way, the knowledge and skills I have learned have benefited more than just me!