Member Spotlight How Physicians Can Climb the Influence Ladder BY G O R D O N C H E N , M D
Healthcare in its simplest form is a doctor and a patient. When a doctor and a patient trust each other and work together to improve health, beautiful things happen—and doctors love their jobs. Helping people become healthy is a unique and rewarding experience. Yet healthcare is often complex. Doctors routinely spend more time writing notes, coding visits, and documenting informed consent rather than helping patients. Is it any wonder burnout among doctors is at an all-time high? But what if doctors focused more on outcomes and less on relative value units (RVUs)? What if doctors felt empowered to help Americans get healthier? What if doctors led healthcare more broadly and created a culture of physician leadership development that reached throughout the industry? Doctors can become the change they want to see in healthcare, but it all starts with influence. And currently, businesspeople lead healthcare. CEOs and administrators mastered the higher-level influencing skills needed to become industry leaders. Doctors, on the other hand, stopped at the lowest level of influence, which is the “Listen to me because I am a doctor; I went to medical school” type of influence. In his book, “5 Levels of Leadership,” John Maxwell calls this “Level 1, Positional Influence.” Like the name implies, the influence comes from a person’s title and credentials. But Maxwell identified five levels of influence. If doctors climb the influence ladder, they can become leaders throughout the industry and usher in a new era of healthcare in America.
LEVEL 1: POSITIONAL INFLUENCE It’s no wonder doctors are stuck at the lowest level of influence. In the medical world, IQ trumps EQ. People who embark on careers in medicine discover that developing their IQ muscles is the only way to tackle work that gets more intense as they go through their training. In medical school, residency, and beyond, students are pushed to compete and win. There is very little leadership or influence training. Most young doctors don’t have a reason to consider life beyond Positional Influence because they work in a system where they are rewarded for volume, transactions, and RVUs. They have no incentive to convince their patients to change their behavior, and they often deem patients “noncompliant” when they don’t fall into line with Positional Influence. For doctors to attain higher levels of influence, we must create a space where they give themselves permission to be open and curious about themselves—and to develop emotional intelligence (EQ) muscles that will change their lives and the lives of their patients.
16 l JOURNAL OF AMERICA’S PHYSICIAN GROUPS
Fall/Winter 2021
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Doctors can become the change they want to see in healthcare, but it all starts with influence.”
