Jack and I created A Whole New Doctor as an experiment with the strong hypothesis that providing coaches to medical students would make a difference in their lives (like providing coping skills and reducing pressures that lead to depression or learning how to engage in team leadership and mindset shifts). I moved from coaching physicians to including medical students because I believe the effects of skills in reflection, polarity thinking, and creating common experiences will not only make their medical education more effective (and more bearable) but will also multiply as the students move through their medical careers.

This issue and the next issue of The Future of Coaching are all about that experiment and experience:  what happens when you introduce coaching to physicians and to the field of medicine. Atul Gawande wrote an excellent piece advocating coaching in The New Yorker. Harvey Finkelstein, COO of Shopify, wrote a guest piece in Forbes, “My Dirty Little Secret: I Have an Executive Coach.” Eric Schmidt wrote “Best Advice I Ever Got: Hire a Coach” in Fortune. Bill Gates spoke on “Everyone Needs a Coach.”

The Republic of Medicine has been slow in joining other industries to implement coaching. Our culture tends toward Blame and Shame, as in pimping, mentioned above. During my residency there were three rules:

1. Keep your mouth shut,
2. Don’t make excuses, and
3. Never, NEVER argue with an attending.

More recently, here’s a paragraph from an email from a Surgical resident with “Greetings med students” in the subject line.

Rounds: if any attending is talking, shut up. Don’t contradict them or a senior resident. Offer info outside of the room to the resident and speak to the attending only if directly addressed. Our program is more casual than others in terms of hierarchy, but it’s still there. When in doubt, keep your mouth shut.