3 Leadership Secrets Doctors Use (That You Can Too) By Dolly Waddell with Dr Chi-Chi Obuaya
What do doctors and top-level leaders have in common?
More than you might think. While clinics and boardrooms are worlds apart, the same skills that make a great doctor can also make you a highly efficient leader.
In the most recent episode of the extra-Ordinary Leaders podcast, I was joined by Dr Chi-Chi Obuaya. Chi-Chi is a consultant psychiatrist based in London and he specialises in adult mental health conditions.
In this blog, we’ll explore how these two worlds (medicine and leadership) collide and the three secrets today’s leaders can learn from doctors.
1. Connect and engage with people (interpersonal skills)
According to Gallup, only 23 per cent of employees are highly engaged in the workplace. Another study conducted by the Australian Institute of Management Education and Training found interpersonal skills to be the most important traits for effective leadership.
This indicates that every leader must – to some extent – be able to truly connect and build rapport with their team members. For Chi-Chi, a large chunk of his day-to-day work as a doctor involves connecting with patients and being a part of their journey, thus putting them at ease – which is something today’s leaders can learn from.
Chi-Chi: “As a doctor, I need to elicit information from my patients, and in order for that to happen, they need to trust me. So my biggest responsibility is actually building that rapport with them and putting them at ease. Essentially, I think: how do I get this person to trust me enough to get that information I need?
So, it's all about focusing on the individual and asking the vital questions: Why has this person turned up at this particular time? Why now? What's actually going on? And then a whole bunch of questions will come off the back of that, such as: how long has it been going on for? What's changed? Are things deteriorating or accelerating?”
From a leadership perspective, there are core questions you could ask yourself to effectively engage with team members and put them at ease, especially when there’s an issue that needs resolving.
Ask yourself:
What is the core issue here?
What information am I missing to make a better-informed decision?
What has changed/is not working well?
What feedback mechanisms can I put in place to assess the impact of my performance/decision? (Do the team members feel at ease? Are they engaged?)
2. Be more relaxed and give people the opportunity to speak
Many leaders are guilty of always having their “Go” buttons switched on, moving from one conversation to the next in seconds. Doctors are no different.
A study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine showed how soon doctors interrupt their patients during each appointment. The study discovered that doctors interrupted patients after a median of only 11 seconds.
While this is understandable, given the demands of leadership (and healthcare), Chi-Chi points out that taking the time to “relax” can yield better results.
Chi-Chi: “As a doctor, the reality is that I have a fixed amount of time, and so, there’s always a sort of mental clock going off in my head. So, I'm thinking, ‘ We need to get this conversation moving otherwise, we're not going to get very far.’ But sometimes, if you just let it go and allow people to speak, you’ll find that you actually elicit more information from them.
In a leadership position, if you're constantly itching to move on to the next item, you might just miss something which might have otherwise made a huge difference. For example, if you know about a particular challenge that a team member is having, you might be a bit more sympathetic about deadlines and understand why somebody might be struggling.
So, it’s important to give people that psychological safety within the workplace and create opportunities for them to speak.”
To a large extent, coaching and leadership are about listening – not just listening to the words that are being said but actually having an aerial view of the communication process. This involves noticing incongruencies between body language and words.
Listening can be a very functional, high-performing model for obtaining accurate information and more effectively finding the splinters in each situation, rather than just charging in to fix things, as many leaders are prone to do.
3. Bring a bit of your personality to work
One often unspoken aspect of leadership connection is that many people don't want to be personal at work. However, they might have performance issues, which might be a result of their mental health condition, stress, or burnout. In situations like this, it can be incredibly difficult for leaders to penetrate this shield of self-protection and engage with the team.
Chi-Chi shared a valuable piece of advice for any leader currently navigating this terrain.
Chi-Chi: “We have to respect the fact that everyone is different. In discussions with leaders about fostering a culture of vulnerability, I find that it's challenging because not every leader is comfortable discussing their own mental health challenges. The risk is that their attempts can come across as inauthentic or even boastful if not handled appropriately, which can be counterproductive and send the wrong message.
Ultimately, it's about understanding that while we bring our whole selves to work, we also maintain identities beyond our professional roles. Sometimes, sharing personal stories or aspects of your life can bridge gaps. During the Covid-19 lockdown, for instance, we all experienced a collective vulnerability that naturally brought people closer together.
That's why workplace initiatives that give people opportunities to let their guard down for a little while and express their personality are so important. I also think that as a leader, bringing a bit of your personality to your workplace can go a long way.”
This approach aligns with essential practices in medicine, where rapport-building is key for effective patient care.
Like a doctor taking time to understand the patient's perspective and history before diagnosing an illness, leaders who bring their personality create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, concerns, and even vulnerabilities. This openness fosters a deeper understanding of individual needs, motivations, and challenges, allowing leaders to better support their team's growth and development.
To get more insights like this, listen to my full conversation with Dr Chi-Chi on the extra-Ordinary Leaders podcast.
You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel or explore the free resources I have on my website for more insights on how to dial up the extra-Ordinary in your leadership.
