In baseball, gifted players are called a four tool player.

That's because there's only four main tools that you use to be good at baseball, from Little League to the World Series.

Throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball, run.

What I want you to know is, when you step out of the exam room and are leading your administrative team, there's only four skills that it takes to be a superior leader.

To step out of your clinical, top down leadership role into a new way of working with your teams that will help you be more effective, have more fun your teams be more engaged, and produce superior results.

Let me show you the four so you can be a four tool physician leader.

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Stop Physician Burnout podcast, a physician leadership podcast where you will learn the skills so that we can join together and lead the charge to physician well being skills to earn the respect of your colleagues in the front line, skills to exercise true influence in the C suite and take back your job, your practice, your career and your life.

All of these tools have been proven effective in my 40,000 doctor physician coaching and training practice.

And if I know one thing, I know you're super busy.

So let's get started.

Even though leadership is one of the most popular topics for any number of books in any given publishing year, I mean, how many leadership books do you have on your bookshelf right now?

Even though all those books come out every year, what I want to tell you is that when you migrate from being a clinical leader on your clinical care teams, giving orders and expecting your team to obey to your administrative role, chief of staff medical director, department chair, CMO when you step out of the exam room into that administrative role, you only need four skills to be one of the best leaders in your entire organization.

I guarantee it.

So let me teach you those four skills now so you can be a four tool leader just like the best baseball players are four tool players.

Remember, catch the ball, throw the ball, hit the ball, run.

These are the four skills of superior physician leadership.

The majority of physician leaders in straddle roles where you're both a clinician and a part time leader, practice none of these, you get four under your belt.

You're going to easy be the best leader in your organization.

Skill number one.

It's involved with a saying that you may have heard before.

80% of success is just what, just showing up.

What that means is the typical habit of a physician leader is to only show up with their people when somebody's in trouble, when somebody's messed up when there's a problem.

So anytime that you show up, your team sits back knowing they're in trouble as you walk through the door unannounced.

Don't let that happen to you and your people.

Get out of your office.

Get out of the exam room, and go round and shadow your people.

Outside of times of crisis, get out of the ivory tower.

If you have an office in a building next to your clinical setting, be the person that when they you show up, everybody says, well, what do I owe this pleasure to?

Dyke, what are you down here for?

Have them smile when they look at you rather than cower in the corner and wait for you to dress them down.

So show up.

That's number one.

Number two, when you show up in your administrative role, take your doctor hat off, put your hand on your head and say to your people, hey, I'm taking my doctor hat off.

As you mind taking that hat off, that's an energetic cue to you to stop giving orders.

So skill number one is get out of the office, get with your people outside of times of crisis.

Step number two is take your doctor hat off.

That's a cue for you to begin to practice the two remaining skills.

Number one, don't give orders.

Ask questions.

Specifically, ask questions that begin with what or how.

Because what you're looking to do is to tap into all of the skills and experience and training and expertise of everybody on your team to reach the best strategy to address the team's concerns.

You do that by asking questions, not lone rangering, figuring it out and telling everybody what to do and expecting them to obey.

It's a different skill set.

It's a servant leadership skill set.

You're here to serve the team.

And the last of the four skills is say thank you early and often.

And remember, thank you can be for skill or it can be for effort.

If you thank people for their effort, it's always received in a more positive fashion.

So thanks for your hard work, Cheryl, we really appreciate it.

And remember, too, it's most powerful when you are then very specific about what you're thanking her for.

Cheryl, thanks so much for dealing with that patient in the waiting room yesterday.

That was masterfully done.

We really appreciate it.

So let's go through the four tools again.

Baseball is throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball, run.

As a physician, administrative leader, it's show up, get out amongst your people outside of times of crisis, take your doctor hat off, stop giving orders, and ask questions that begin with what or how, and say thank you early and often.

Thanks for your hard work.

We really appreciate it.

And be specific.

Now, these may seem simple and they are just like throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball, run is simple, but you can win the World Series with the same four skills.

You can be the best leader in your organization with just these four skills.

Because as you observe other leaders in the organization, I think what you'll find is nobody's using all four, and you probably aren't using all four of them right now either.

So 1234 is all you have to master.

Applied consistently, you will see your teams respond, be more engaged, better performance, and everybody, you and everybody else on your team is going to have a lot more fun.

So I challenge you.

Be a four tool player.

Go for it.

Now, if you've been following the stop physician Burnout podcast for a few weeks now, you'll realize that what I've just done is reviewed episodes 101 to 105 because these four skills are one at a time in those episodes.

So I encourage you to go back and review them because they go into these skills in a bit more detail.

But just know all it takes is four skills to be the best leader in your organization.

I promise.

And these are the four that allow you to be a servant leader, helping the team address the team's issues in a way that engages and enrolls them in giving their best work.

Now this podcast is Tuesdays and Fridays, just ten minutes at a time.

I promise it won't be more than ten minutes where I share one or two skills that are proven in my 40,000 doctor coaching and training practice.

They'll work for you every time you use them.

Check it out.

Use these skills this week and watch the difference it makes for you and your teams.

Until we're together in the next podcast, you keep breathing and have a great rest of your day.