The healthcare industry is in a state of flux at all levels. Staffing shortages continue, and while the number of students in the pipeline is improving, care organizations of all types are finding it difficult to develop a strong bench.

This increases the pressure on leaders at all levels within every type of healthcare institution to creatively lead, inspire, and balance resources with care and business management. Here are three ways leadership coaching can help.

Consistency

First, despite the bustle of the facility, healthcare leaders are often physically alone, isolated from other leaders. Conferences provide an excellent opportunity to mingle and learn but they are few and far between in any 12-month period.

Meetings get organizational leaders together but with limited time and focused agendas that leave little opportunity for collaborative problem-solving. Professional organizations can bridge the gap by bringing together more diverse, regional groups, yet the professional development is often isolated to that one session and rarely follows a common schedule like a formalized program.

Coaching programs make the link between formalized education programs and consistent meetings. This allows leaders to set individualized, time-bound goals that can be measured and improved upon.

Via coaching, meetings then become an opportunity to practice and apply lessons. Professional development sessions augment learning, and conferences become a great way to continue expanding their leadership opportunities.

Focus

Despite education, experience and a wide skill set, healthcare leaders are often pulled in so many directions they have neither the time nor the opportunity to focus specifically on their own development. Engaging a coach keeps leaders accountable to their goals while allowing them the room to make connections between their professional development and the work they do daily.

In a recent article, Janet C. Dombrowski, an executive coach at Medi Leadership, explains the challenge many healthcare leaders face: the belief they should be able to do this all by themselves. With a little more time, resources or less administrative work, they believe they can find a way to continue to grow their leadership skills on their own.

However, Dombrowski notes, "it’s nearly impossible to create the breakthroughs that are necessary for transformational change on your own." A coach can provide outside perspective that increases accountability and often pushes leaders further than they are able to push themselves.

Opportunity

Both the value and importance of executive coaching in the healthcare industry continue to increase. Because of that, opportunities for coaching have increased.

While any strong program will include a time commitment, personalized goals and consistent accountability, there are now a wide variety of ways leaders at all levels can participate. In other words, programs are not just for administrators any more.

Programs are available for practicing nurses and physicians. In addition to one-on-one coaching, more organizations are offering leadership cohorts, online programs and exchanges to help the wide variety of leaders more easily commit to their continued growth.

The bottom line is that business coaches are not just for corporate leaders. The healthcare industry and leaders within it will continue to be challenged to find ways to balance care with management priorities within a shifting landscape. A specialized coach or coaching program can help healthcare leaders and subsequently their institutions, adapt and stay focused through change.