A Culture of Coaching: Applications to Orthopaedic Practices

A Culture of Coaching:
Applications to Orthopaedic Practices

Drive meaningful impact at every level of your organization.

One of the most important (if least asked) questions physicians and surgeons have when considering joining a group is the nature of the culture. We intuitively know it when we experience it and more often than any other consideration, it nurtures us or drives us away. A healthy organizational culture can help you navigate challenging times and thrive during periods of growth. In this article, we explain how a positive organizational culture nurtured through the tenets of coaching can profoundly influence physician satisfaction and shape shared values, practices, and adaptability.

Definitions of Organizational Culture

Definitions of organizational culture and its impact range from how organizations “do things” to “the sum of rituals and values which integrate the members of the organization” (1). Our favorite among the author's definitions is that culture provides “not only a shared view of what is but also why is.” It’s important to remember that organizational culture is a living thing, evolving to assist organizations in weathering change and adapting to new environments.

How Organizations Are Impacted by Organizational Culture

Culture now outranks compensation and work-life balance in the calculus of employee satisfaction. More physicians and surgeons are employed now than ever in history (and even contracted physicians are integral to the organization and its culture). Coupled with the long lead time required to educate and train surgeons, maintaining professional satisfaction is more critical than ever to care for the population of the US. One of the most important components of an organization’s culture is whether its members feel respected. As highly skilled and valuable members, this is an obvious component of satisfaction for physicians and surgeons. Having a voice and being valued are critical components of respect. A coaching culture encourages these within the framework of honest communication and self-improvement (2). To build a strong culture, consider how coaching can support your organization’s goals around engagement, satisfaction, and patient reviews.

Organizational Benefits of a Coaching Culture

A coaching culture promotes reflection and honesty. Citing many recent global examples, Amy Edmondson and Tomas Chommorro-Premuzic elucidate how vulnerability and truth create stronger leaders. As they explain, fostering constructive criticism and dissent while creating safe spaces for acknowledging limitations benefits an organization much more than rigid dominance. Your organization's ability to survive changing market forces and the reality of uncertainty likely depends more on how your culture adapts than on the ability to predict the future (3). A coaching culture that encourages reflection, vulnerability, and honest feedback strengthens leadership and equips organizations to adapt more effectively to changing market forces and uncertainties.

What steps can you take right now to prepare for future changes?

How to Cultivate a Coaching Culture

Creating an adaptive coaching culture can help prepare your organization for the future. Taking an everyday approach, the authors advocate for small daily steps that start with building communication and coaching skills through feedback and support. Advocating a “start with yourself” approach begins with modeling coaching behaviors and then demonstrates these to key leaders to gain traction. Allowing this to percolate through the organization while remaining open to feedback and iteration positions your organization to sustain flexibility and benefit from the collective input from all of your talent (4).

Building a coaching culture within orthopedic organizations offers a sustainable path to fostering resilient leadership, enhancing satisfaction, and navigating the challenges of a constantly evolving healthcare landscape. As healthcare becomes more complex, investing in a coaching culture ensures that every team member’s voice shapes the organization’s adaptability and strength, laying a foundation for future success. SurgeonMasters is here to support your journey toward cultivating a thriving, adaptable, and supportive organizational culture.

Authors:

Carla Smith, MD, PhD, ACC, is an orthopedic trauma surgeon and ICF- certified physician coach, who has owned a private practice and served as Chair of the Department of Surgery at a large urban hospital. Carla also prioritizes humanitarian service– both domestic and abroad.

Jeffrey M. Smith, MD, FACS, PCC is a practicing Orthopaedic Traumatologist with over 25 years of experience in academic and private practice settings. He is an ICF-certified coach who works

with quality and performance-driven surgeons to help them achieve their goals while nurturing

their health and well-being and the relationships most important to them.

Olivia J Wolf, MBA, is an orthopaedic practice executive with 25 years of healthcare administration experience. She is also a physician advocate and leadership coach and is passionate about returning humanities to healthcare. Olivia is the host of the podcast, The Stuck(ish) Podcast, on Apple and Spotify.

Sources:

1. Watkins, Michael “What is organizational culture and why should we care” HBR  2013 May 15, 2013.
2. Sull and C. Sull, “10 Things Your Corporate Culture Needs to Get Right,” MIT Sloan Management Review, Sept. 16, 2021, https://sloanreview.mit.edu.
3. Edmondson, Amy, and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. “Today’s Leaders Need Vulnerability, Not Bravado.” Harvard Business Review, 19 Oct. 2020, hbr.org/2020/10/todays-leaders-need-vulnerability-not-bravado.
4. Frédéric Funck Center for Creative Leadership Jan 9, 2023, 15 Ways For Leaders To Cultivate A Strong Coaching Culture In The Workplace, ByExpert Panel®CommunityVoice.