Five leadership tips for practicing physicians

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There are many current issues in the primary care market that primary care physicians (PCPs) know only too well. These include but are certainly not limited to regulatory and administrative burdens, a lack of funding and reimbursement, and more.

There is an inordinate demand on PCPs to run successful (i.e., profitable) practices that can employ qualified staff, maintain adequate supply inventories and simply cover the rent in ever-more-expensive buildings in accessible locations. But in the long run, a procedures-driven practice is going to be hard-pressed to compete with a patient-driven practice, especially in today’s market. As well-intentioned as p are, the challenges are likely leading the tenor and direction of their practices instead of the doctors leading them.

Doctors don’t necessarily think of themselves as leaders; they think of themselves as healers. But they are leaders, particularly those who run small to medium-sized private practices where they are in charge of practically everything. And because full accountability ultimately falls to them, it is worth considering how they can hone their innate leadership abilities to nurture all aspects of their practice. Here are five ways to foster the leader within.

Leadership skill No. 1: Active listening

There is no denying that appointment times are limited, almost have to be limited, to keep a PCP practice viable, which is all the more reason to make the very most of your time with your patients. You can do this with active listening, which is less about how long you listen to someone and far more about how well you listen to someone; in other words, the quality of your listening. When your patients feel truly heard and seen through meaningful engagement with you, they feel valued.

Leadership skill No. 2: Balancing priorities

Anyone in any leadership role is going to face this-or-that decisions –– either/or quandaries that force them to pick between approaches or give more weight to one thing than another. However, one of the keys to adept leadership is learning to balance both sides of an issue with tact and integrity.

Leadership skill No. 3: Championing your people

The chaos of an overstressed office and an overworked staff can cause people to want to leave, make job demands, snipe at one another or point fingers when inevitable mistakes are made. But as the leader of your work environment, you have the power to guide your team to rise above the fray of the day-to-day and routinely keep the big picture in view. Your people — the providers and office staff — matter more than anything else in your practice. You could not do your job if they did not do theirs with exceptional proficiency and dedication, and the way you elicit that dedication is to see the greatness inside every single one of them. By championing your people openly, you not only retain them, you create a devoted cadre of followers who respect your leadership.

Leadership skill No. 4: Building alliances

A prominent roadblock for PCPs is the lack of communication among health care providers. The best way around this obstacle is to go right through it, following a route of cooperation instead of confrontation, partnership instead of partisanship, collaboration instead of division.

Hold monthly meetings with your staff to discuss what is impeding progress and solicit their ideas for solutions. Get on the phone with insurance providers yourself to negotiate terms and conditions. Form a network with local physicians to share difficulties and ways to surmount them. The end goal is to unite as many concerned parties as you can, all rallying for the same benchmarks. As the commander in chief of your operation, you have the wherewithal and influence to establish shared values among your team and enact a shared vision for your practice.

Leadership skill No. 5: Lead from the front

There are times when those in charge should lead from the rear, allowing their staff to innovate and solve problems on their own and granting them the autonomy to do their jobs as they see fit. But leading from the front equates to leading by example. And when it comes to real impediments to your efficacy such as physician burnout, you must set the example and make clear that self-care translates directly to improved patient care.

You would not hesitate to advise your exhausted, overwhelmed mothers to take care of themselves so they can take better care of their children. The same thing applies to PCPs: How can you properly care for your patients if you are not well rested, focused and in good physical form? When you allow yourself time and space to attend to your mental health, your team feels permitted and encouraged to do the same.

These are just some of the ways doctors can try to return to their roots, get a break from all the noise diverting their purpose and remember why they became healers in the first place. The challenges facing PCPs comprise a complex issue with no easy answers, but there are things doctors can do right in their own offices as captains of their own ships with crews who long to follow an able leader.

Patients and the general population at large can alleviate some of the stress on PCPs by banding together in support of all the doctors they’d be utterly lost without, allowing them to prioritize their time and their tasks as they deem fit.

As for doctors themselves, they can explain to their patients the very real concerns that are driving those priorities and ask for their patience and understanding so that their practices can survive to serve them.

Michael L. Kaufman, Ph.D., M.S.W., is the author of “Doing Good & Doing Well: Inspiring Helping Professionals to Become Leaders in Their Organizations.”