HELLO AND WELCOME!
I ‘m Terri Malcolm!
I am a Certified Physician Executive and a Physician Development Coach. My mission is to strengthen Physician Leadership competencies and to promote physician success.
I believe physicians are natural leaders. Thus, I refer to my physician colleagues (individuals like you) as Physician Leaders. My years as a doctor have made me absolutely certain of the following: Physician Leaders are capable of accomplishing great things as both direct and indirect caregivers when their talents and strengths are cultivated. Take a moment to ponder, “How am I tapping into my strengths?” or “What could I accomplish if I raised my self-awareness?” It’s OK and natural not to have an immediate answer. I can relate to the uncertainty you might be experiencing, because I’ve been there. Coaching was the key to unlocking the door harboring my unique strengths and coaching helped me to thrive personally and professionally.
My story to becoming a Physician Leader dates back to my childhood. When six candles stood atop of my birthday cake, I knew that I wanted to be a doctor. Determined and committed to make the dream a reality, I set out on a perfectly prescribed path of schooling, training, and then honing my clinical skills. I attended the University of California, San Diego (Revelle College), where I received my B.S. in Biology. The next step of the plan was attending Tulane University, School of Medicine, where I received my medical doctorate. I then completed my residency training in Obstetrics & Gynecology (Phoenix Integrated Residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology), and after graduation, I immediately joined the attending ranks as a practicing physician in a busily employed practice. The master plan had come to fruition – I became a board-certified
Obstetrician and Gynecologist and a Fellow of the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Exceptional and compassionate care for every woman, every time was the standard in my clinical practice. I achieved my childhood dream and thought my doctor bag contained the tools needed for success. Hard work and perseverance were critical elements in becoming a physician and in serving the medical needs of patients. But was grit and a resolute attitude enough for me to discover my full potential as a Physician Leader?
And, in simple financial mathematics, larger patient panel sizes per physician drive higher revenue streams. The real value, in my opinion of operational performance at its best, is personal connections between doctors and patients increase, resulting in better patient outcomes because doctors are more deeply engaged in their work. Engaged physician leaders, coupled with high-quality care, leads to excellence at every corner of the organization. And excellence is worth its weight in gold!
I was hungry to be a part of the action and to be a voice of the Physician Leader in the boardroom, where the decision making occurs. I stepped into formal leadership roles (Physician Lead, Medical Director, Regional Medical Director, and Chief Medical Officer), each role involving progressively more responsibility and more demands on my ability to lead by influence. I was determined to be a sophisticated and eloquent decision maker – one who solved problems seamlessly and smoothly.
In the administrative arena, I found myself uncertain about how to be the healthcare leader that I dared to be. I was now challenged with projects and tasks that seemed Super-Sized, to say the least. And my clinical training and knowledge while salient, it alone, was not enough to carry the ball across the goal line.
I assumed the systems that served me well in the past in achieving my dream to become a doctor; an OBGYN; a high-producing physician with top-box patient-satisfaction scores, would serve me well as a Physician Executive.
While participating in a leadership course for Physicians, I learned about coaching to help one achieve his/her desired goal(s) and decided to hire an Executive Coach. Through coaching, I learned what values are most important to me, how my goals were aligning (or not!) with my values, and how my actions aligned to my intentions. Coaching was and still is a personalized, transformative process that increased my self-awareness, generated learnings about my leadership strengths, and helped me to accomplish meaningful goals that benefit people – Patients and their families, Caregivers and Physician Leaders.
Now, in my newest role as a Physician Development Coach, I am helping Physician Leaders realize their full potential and develop deeper human-to-human connections. Both elements are paramount to creating a human(e) experience for Physician Leaders and for their patients.
You are a wholly resourceful, skilled, and capable individual. Physician Development Coaching is designed to help you recognize and identify your capabilities and to learn to apply them to your life. Our time together is a place of psychological safety, free of judgment or criticism. I am your curious and inquisitive partner trained to help you move beyond passive acceptance of what others say or staying stuck in present circumstances. Coaching allows you to exercise your creativity in setting action steps for success. Are you ready?
Let ‘s do this together.
