Leadership: Family Physicians Naturally!
Having just stepped down from being a Family Medicine Residency Program Director for the past 7 years I was recently asked what it was like taking on an educational leadership role. Here are some of my thoughts:
1. Not everyone gravitates to leadership roles but feeling strongly about wanting to do something will more than compensate for the aspects of the role that are uncomfortable and/or don’t come naturally. If it’s a passion don’t be afraid to put yourself into a leadership role—it can be amazing.
2. Before signing on the dotted line examine your motives. Being a leader, like being a physician is a “giving” role. People will trust and rely on you to carry out either role in a non-self-serving, energetic way. When personal need greatly exceeds an altruistic desire for service, therein can lie difficulties. With patients, it is the risk of boundary transgression; with leadership, the risk of losing sight of the organization’s needs. There is no question that both roles are gratifying but rewards should be the icing on the cake, not a vital need.
3. Taking on a leadership role is a lot like being a Family Physician—we were made to do this! The new Family Medicine Professional Profile1 articulates a number of inspirational skills and attributes of Family Physicians. We “work in teams…are collaborative and interdependent…are committed….work effectively with uncertainty…use holistic, integrative reasoning… and think creatively to resolve ever-changing, novel and emerging issues”. These family physician skills are directly transferrable to effective leadership.
4. Leadership is about bringing about change. Deliberately applying the concepts of change management is essential to moving a good thought from an idea to fruition. Again, our skills as family doctors are directly transferrable to this change management skill set—it is what we do with our patients all the time. Engaging patients in change, from lifestyle change to medication use, is change management. Outlining to a patient why change is beneficial so the idea and work of change make sense; hearing the patient’s concerns about the change and incorporating those concerns into the discussion and management; building on their existing strengths to empower the patient and then once they are ready to engage in change, making it as easy and practical as it can be; measuring outcomes and celebrating forward movement, exploring roadblocks and iteratively building in new strategies and then finally reinforcing as the change becomes a part of patient’s lives….that is change management. Being a leader involves being deliberate about these exact same steps when we involve people and organizations in change.
5. Learning to delegate, although difficult for many to do, is critical. True, well-intentioned delegation, where a task is passed on with both the responsibility AND the authority to impact the outcome, does many important things. It is a part of the above change management—the step of engaging and empowering people so that they feel a part of the change and are engaged with the work to make it happen. It is part of succession planning, something every leader should be thinking about for the good of the organization, so that people’s skills are being built to allow someone to take over the role, as should happen for new energy and ideas. Finally, it is almost always true that the sum greatly exceeds the parts—input from others enriches approaches and outcomes. Of course, there must some initial oversight and graduated handing over of responsibility, but with the idea of giving up that control as soon as is appropriate.
6. The future is bright. Over the past 7 years I have had the opportunity to work with amazing people--our residents, some in formal leadership roles in the program, some just taking on something they have a passion about; our new faculty, some of them residents from the program; our “seasoned” faculty; those in other programs and faculties, and at the CFPC—they are inspirational. The energy, creativity and desire for growth, innovation and improvement is palpable. There are so many interesting things to get involved in. Your skills as a Family Doctor set you up perfectly to do that.
Karen Schultz has just finished a rewarding 7 years as the Queen's University Family Medicine Residency Program Director and was honoured to receive the 2017 CFPC Jim Ruderman Academic Family Medicine Leadership Award.
Reference
1. College of Family Physicians of Canada. Family Medicine Professional Profile. Mississauga, ON: College of Family Physicians of Canada; 2018.
