108. Avoid the 2 Hidden Connections Between Physician Leadership and Burnout

So before we go any further, I have to show you two blind spots for all physician leaders. If we don't open these up and show you the truth and how it can trap you into being a bad leader, naturally and automatically, everybody's going to suffer. So I call these physician leadership's dirty little secrets. And what these two are is a connection, a hidden connection, between physician leadership and physician burnout.

Number one, the most common path to being a physician leader. If you're a clinician and you take on a part-time leadership role, the most common path to that straddle leadership position is through physician burnout, and 70% of the time, that's how people decide to take the leadership position. Maybe that's you. Let's do a little diagnostic and then show you how to make sure that's not a dead end.

And number two, the most common reason for physician turnover, a doctor burns out and quits and leaves, is a crap leader. Let's make sure you're not that crap leader because people don't quit the company. They quit their boss. Ready? Let's go.

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Stop Physician Burnout podcast, a physician leadership podcast where you will learn the skills so that we can join together and lead the charge to physician well-being, skills to earn the respect of your colleagues on the frontline, skills to exercise true influence in the C-suite, and take back your job, your practice, your career, and your life. All of these tools have been proven effective in my 40,000-doctor physician coaching and training practice, and if I know one thing, I know you're super busy. So let's get started.

In my career as a physician wellness coach, trainer, and consultant, I've trained over 40,000 doctors in live settings to recognize and prevent burnout. Several thousand of those people have been in leadership development conferences where I was talking to a pure audience of physician leaders. And I ask, how many of you are part-time leaders? And most of the hands in the audience go up that they're part-time leaders. Then I ask, how many of you took this position because it gave you some relief from seeing more patients? Typically, between 50 and 75% of the hands in the audience will go up. It's been consistent the whole time I've been doing this work over the last 14 years, so burnout as a clinician is a tried and true path to a part-time physician leadership position.

Now, let me ask you this: Do you think that's a qualification to step into a leadership role? No, it's the worst possible way to pick up a leadership role accidentally, by not saying no. Actually, a lot of people say, "Pick me. Pick me. It means not seeing more patients. Please pick me." Right now, if that's your path to leadership, and you have any doubts about your leadership effectiveness — you're being disrespected in the C-suite, your colleagues think you've gone over to the dark side, you don't feel like you know what to do at the head of a meeting — you're a crap leader. And I would encourage you to acknowledge that and either get out of your leadership role, please, and let somebody who really wants to be there take that spot or go back to Episode 101 of this podcast, and watch the 10-minute episodes, one at a time.

Incorporate the tools that I teach you, the tools to be a four-tool physician leader. Incorporate those into your leadership style and keep your heart open that you could serve your people and create a healthier, happier workplace.

Number two, in my experience as a coach to burned-out physicians, 70% of doctors can recover inside. They don't have to leave their job. They can make some small changes, three to five new things that they turn into habits over the course of six to nine months, and they can recover successfully from their burnout. I've seen it happen thousands of times. However, there's a solid 30% who can't recover where they are. They have to trigger a job search.

And all of those 30% — constant for 14 years of my practice, hundreds of doctors — all of those 30% have one thing in common: a crap leader. Their immediate supervisor is either absent, incompetent, or a psychopath. Absent: there's a hole in the org chart in the organization that should have a physician leader that would be my boss, and there's nobody there. There's nobody who can say yes to my request, nobody who can have my back, right? Nobody who can say "thank you" to me now and then.

Incompetent: you got somebody who just fills a seat in a meeting, doesn't participate, doesn't represent you to the upper echelons of the organization, and certainly doesn't make anything change for the better. Psychopath boss: that narcissist who is out to make your life a living hell. Actually, we try to recognize them immediately and trigger a job search after the first coaching call if we're sure that's what's going on.

So bad leaders. I use the word "crap" because it's crap. Crap leaders burn out their direct reports. The saying that you may have heard — I said it in the introduction — people don't quit the company; they quit their boss. Don't let that be you. Once again, if your heart's not in being a leader, if you're aging out and it's time to retire, I would encourage you to give up this leadership role to somebody who actually wants it. If you'd like to increase your leadership skills, I encourage you to go back to Episode 101 and get started on becoming a four-tool leader with the episode lessons that I teach.

And if you'd like some personal help with this, my coaching discovery session link is in the show notes. That's where you can book a call with me so we can talk about your situation and get you the support you need to make that leap to being an effective leader.

The healthcare environment these days is a rapidly changing landscape, and none of it's for the better. The evolving workforce shortages of physicians and nurses, especially in America, the advent of AI and both the blessing and curse that that's going to be — we need top-notch leaders who want to be in leadership positions, who have skills that can give them influence in the C-suite, the respect of their direct reports, and help hardwire physician well-being into their lives, personally, their leadership style, and into the organization itself.

If you aren't ready to take on that challenge, I encourage you to either step down or retire. If you are ready to take on that challenge and anything that I say is intriguing to you, go back to Episode 101, and learn how to be a four-tool physician leader. And maybe think about doing a discovery session with me to talk about how you can speed up that journey and be the leader you've always wanted to be, making the changes that you've always wanted to see, sooner rather than later.

That's it for now. Till we get together in the next podcast, keep breathing and have a great rest of your day.