DOCTORS MUST LEAD.
Physicians have the technical expertise
and the comprehensive tacit knowledge
required to create an excellent
healthcare future.
- PATTY FAHY MD
Founder of Fahy Consulting
Tap Into Your Team’s Genius
This guide is based on the neuroscience of leadership.
It’s a "how-to" on keeping brains out of the threat state so people can function at their very best.
The content in this guide is among the first things we present in our leadership seminars.
Use it! You just might transform your workplace.
Licensed to lead podcast
Join host Patty Fahy, MD as she shares the evidence for why physicians must lead healthcare and lead us out of the current healthcare system morass. This podcast is for you if you want expert physician leaders at the helm of U.S. healthcare systems and if you want practical advice and critical conversations about honing the leadership skills of physicians.
The Licensed to Lead Podcast offers new angles on the neuroscience of leadership, challenges a “burnout industry” that is profiting from physician burnout, and offers a no-holds-barred investigation into the business school mindset that puts profits over patients. Patty and her guests provide provocative and clear recommendations for changing the business of medicine so that it fulfills the professional obligations of medicine.
The physician identity is deeply rooted in doing the right thing for patients. It is time for the financial preoccupation that arises from a business school mindset to be subordinated to the professional obligations we have to patients. This will happen when healthcare is led by physicians who are highly respected for their clinical expertise as well as their leadership skills.
Patty Fahy, MD, host of the Licensed to Lead Podcast, is an experienced speaker who will introduce original ideas on the subject of physician leadership, healthcare culture, and the neuroscience of leadership.
Buckle up for some novel ideas that get audiences thinking, laughing and participating.
The aim is singular: a superb organizational culture that gets results for patients and for the business. The methods?
- Customized physician leadership development programs
- Customized leadership team consulting to improve communication among leaders and create effective, aligned, cascading communication
Evidence abounds! The ROI is clear. Leaders and organizations benefit when certified and skilled coaches work with executives, physicians and other healthcare professionals.
Improve results and relationships to refresh skills or take on a new role.
MY BFO (BIG FAT OPINION)
BFO from a recent LICENSED TO LEAD Newsletter:
Do you want to change your work culture? Is there dreadful toxicity with the best of the best jumping ship and the bad guys winning? I have a mantra that captures three areas to invest your efforts:
Who we choose, who we choose to lead, and who we choose to leave.
Who we choose: Physician leaders must own the selection process. Otherwise you might end up in an “arranged marriage” that was arranged by people who have different interests than you (e.g., incentives to fill positions quickly). If your colleagues are vetted and hired by non-physicians then I echo Jordan Peele: GET OUT!
Who we choose to lead: This is the most important of the three—leaders, especially the CEO, create the culture. Do your decision makers understand “table stakes” leadership criteria such as providing clarity, treating people respectfully, and holding people accountable? Or have they been sold a “Talent Selection” framework with 400 competencies and bad math to calculate interview outcomes to the 100th decimal point?
Who we choose to leave: Who belongs here? Being clear about values and expectations from the get-go and holding people accountable is a catalytic mechanism. It not only signals, but more importantly, it helps create the new culture.
If you want more of that kind of stuff:
Recently, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by the wonderful physician advocate and coach Sandy Scott who hosts the High Impact Physician podcast. When she turns the microphone on me I provide almost every nugget I have about physician leadership and organizational culture (and even a few “life hacks”). Listen here: High Impact Physician
Twice monthly I write an opinion piece for our newsletter related to current events or a recent podcast. I like to stir up discussion so please send feedback about my BFO, or even better— send me your BFO.
(Send an email or click the tab “Send Voicemail” to leave a voicemail message.)
Want to recieve my BFO straight to your inbox?
Articles
How to Avoid Hiring a Narcissist: A Toxic Hire Will Hurt Your Team and Your Leadership Credibility
Narcissists threaten organizational culture with traits such as entitlement, grandiosity, lack of empathy, and behavior that prioritizes self-interest rather than team or patient outcomes. The culture of a medical practice rests on the ability of people to bring their expertise, commitment, and talent to work. This article is addressed to physician leaders who must ensure…
The Executive Brain
A neuroscience lens, using the CARB model of social motivators, helps leaders understand how they can create an environment in which people are able to do their best thinking. When the VP’s new responsibilities were announced, they didn’t match up with the agreement the VP had made with the CEO. When asked about the discrepancy,…
The Business School Mindset Doesn’t Mind Physician Burnout
Even those of us with a meditation cushion and a gong app are likely to recoil when mindfulness practices are suggested as solutions for physician burnout. Sure, these practices are important. No, they do not address the causes of physician burnout. Certainly, a more genuine effort by organizational leaders would be to respond to the…
Unleash The Instigator Within (When Your Team or Your Organizational Culture Needs a Shake Up)
My first grade teacher at Little Flower Catholic Grade School told me I was an instigator. I carried the ominous word home and pried the meaning out of my grandmother. Her explanation—a leader or troublemaker—was a relief. I was worried it meant an imminent prison sentence or a fast track to hell. The reflex of…
Why Leaders Must Embrace Resistance
You have an innovative idea that will streamline the work, double the margin, improve quality and eliminate the headaches. You got sponsorship, budget approval, and a project team. Today you are taking the plan out to your organization in a series of meetings. WAIT. What’s that noise? What are you hearing from colleagues? From those…
Physicians Must Lead. Here’s Why
Some docs consistently say “no thanks” to formal leadership roles. They prefer not to run for a board position, become department chief, or step into an executive role because their passion and focus is patient care. This primary interest in the core work shows up in other professions, too. My brother, a mechanical engineer (I’d…
Hit A Plateau? Three Ways to Shift Gears and Get Moving
My coaching client, a senior director in healthcare, told me she was surprisingly preoccupied and disappointed after being passed over for a promotion. With her credentials, track record and high functioning team she thought she was poised for the VP role. Now her day-to-day work is less fulfilling and her enthusiasm for the organization has…
A Critique of HBR’s Article: “You Can’t Fix Culture”
The Harvard Business Review magazine was on my desk, still in plastic: YOU CAN’T FIX CULTURE JUST FOCUS ON YOUR BUSINESS AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW I’ve been noting the disingenuous headlines that HBR plasters on its covers and its articles for years. That contrarian titling, or bait-and-switch, is the stuff of blogs, publications and…
Tenacity and References: Two Things Needed to Hire the Right Person
“It’s in the EQ/social behavior area where our candidate evaluations repeatedly fall short. It’s almost as if we close our eyes and hope for the best—and then wonder why we didn’t get it.” (Email from an executive facing the prospect of selecting multiple departmental leaders.) You have a bus and you want to get the…
Criteria For Leader Selection: Don’t veer off course when you pick your next leader
In this article, find out how three easy-to-detect characteristics can serve as a simple screen when selecting leaders. Determine if your leadership candidate is eligible for more in-depth interviews by initially assessing whether they have a track record of demonstrating respect, providing clarity, and holding themselves and others accountable. Elaborate interview guides and competency scoring…
Testimonials
"I’ve had plenty of experiences with leadership training in the past, but Patty and Lynn were the first instructors that helped me connect emotionally to the material. Through their instruction, I learned how to communicate in a way that both utilizes my strengths and recognizes the differences in the ways we listen. I feel like I have a much better framework to solve disputes and to engage my staff."
Brooks Moore, MD
Assistant Medical Director Emergency Medicine
Grady Health System
"I very much appreciate the expertise that Fahy Consulting brought to our organization–Patty and Lynn build great relationships and go over the top to support physician leaders."
John C. McDonald, DO, FACOI
CHRISTUS Trinity Clinic Vice Chair, Board Chair
Academic Institute CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Health System
"I’ve had the pleasure of working with Patty Fahy over many years on a variety of mission-critical initiatives including executive team restructuring and coaching, and consulting with our Board of Directors on a variety of human resources and organizational development issues. She has extraordinary insight into human behavior and is able to make quick connections to help people navigate through complex situations. There has been a long-term ROI on the work she has done."
Nabil Chehade, MD, MSBS
Senior Vice President Population Health
The MetroHealth System
"Patty and Lynn brought strong facilitation and team building principles to our executive team strategic planning retreat. Their insights on team dynamics and their nuanced and thoughtful facilitation – laced with humor – were invaluable to the successful outcomes we achieved."