Leadership & Professional Development: A Letter to the Future Teaching Physician

Remain Humble. One of the most liberating phrases you will deploy as a teacher is “I don’t know.” Its utterance demonstrates the honesty and humility you hope to instill in learners. Be on the lookout for the many times your trainees will know more than you.

Recently my team evaluated a patient with blunted facial expression, bradykinesia, and a resting hand tremor. I disclosed to my team: “I don’t know the key maneuvers to distinguish the Parkinson plus syndromes from Parkinson disease.” The medical student had spent one year studying patients with neurodegenerative diseases (I learned this during the “small-talk before med-talk” phase). I invited him to demonstrate the neurologic exam, which he did admirably. That day I did not know the subject well, and we all learned because I freely admitted it.

Being a physician is the greatest job in the world. If you leverage your EQ (emotional quotient) as much as your IQ (intelligence quotient), your learners will conclude the same.