Why Doctors Need A Coach

It was only after opening my own clinic when I started running my practice more like a business , that I realised the importance of coaching and mentoring.

I joined a Mastermind group and had regular calls and meetings with like-minded business owners and my business turned a corner.

Until then, I was losing money because I had just set up the clinic and the hospitals had stopped sending me patients, so everything that I earned (and more) was going out in costs and expenses every month.

It was difficult to see how I could do anything about it and the more desperate the situation got, the more paralysed I was to do anything.

It was a vicious circle

I don’t know what led me to join the Mastermind group, I certainly couldn’t afford it, but that is when I started to take control of my finances and my metrics.

It was no good just feeling sorry for myself. I had to look at my figures and work out where the problems were and how I could improve them.

I now realise the value in having someone have a look at your business and tell you what you should be focusing on

…and holding your feet to the fire to make sure that you do what you say you will do!

For some reason, the concept of coaching is not established in the field of business, and definitely not in medicine!

Yet, if you think about it, we could all benefit.

Obviously, it is in sports where it is an accepted and embedded part of the culture.

If you want to do well, you need a coach.

Even the best sportsperson in the world needs a coach to give an external eye and to push and make sure that they get up in the morning and be the best they can be

No matter how motivated you are – everyone needs a push

I saw this clip at one of the conferences I went to and to be honest, it made me a bit emotional, but it demonstrates why a coach is so important:

Private Practice can be a lonely business and no one really gives guidance on what we should be doing to make our business run effectively, which will ultimately result in a better service for our patients.

Certainly in Plastic Surgery, this is why there has been a growth in commercial clinics which are run effectively as a business

…but perhaps don’t have the underlying principles and values that a clinician might have.

This is why I believe it is important for us, as clinicians, to look at our Practices and think about what sort of service we are offering to our patients.

We need to look from the outside in, and that is what a coach can do.

…and that is what I do.

I love to help other Consultants, who have spent their lives working in the NHS perfecting their craft and giving the best clinical care to their patients – to optimise their Private Practice.

…because Private Practice is not like the NHS and you need to think a lot more about the service that you are giving to your patients, not just the clinical outcome.

If you would like to have a chat about how I see your practice and some tips on how to improve it, then schedule a call and we can work something out.