A study by the Dale Carnegie Foundation concluded that 15% of our success is dependent on our technical (i.e. clinical skills for physicians) and 85% is dependent on our interpersonal and self-management skills. This doesn’t mean that clinical training can be neglected but the best clinical skills and knowledge cannot be leveraged without appropriate interpersonal and self-management skills.
A harmonic and congruent interaction of these 3 skills lead to:
- Professional effectiveness
- Successful career
- Peace and harmony in personal life
Reality is, medical schools solely focus on the clinical skills of physicians. Even when physicians enter the highly demanding and rapidly changing health care career, medical organizations focus the continuing education on clinical skills leaving little time to devote on interpersonal and self-management skills.
The symptoms of less than optimal or many times underdeveloped self-management and interpersonal skills are manifold and include:
- increased dissatisfaction with career
- constant feeling of stress and overwhelm
- negligence of personal life, personal health and well-being
- increased risk for medical malpractice and medical errors
- increased staff turnover, conflicts with colleagues and loss of highly valuable personnel
- disruptive behavior
- loss of revenue opportunities
- increased expenses for marketing and patient referral programs
- lack of performance
The result is that many physicians leave medicine prematurely or feel extremely dissatisfied and frustrated in their job never truly maximizing their knowledge, their contribution to patients' lives and their own personal success.
The Balanced Physician program is aimed at eliminating above mentioned symptoms by investing in personal growth, increasing the awareness, building on strengths, developing highly-effective skills and by streamlining life for maximum performance.
