How To Enhance Interpersonal Dynamics with Administrators and Man­ag­ers

The Challenge: Medical professionals are tasked with continuously improving patient care. That said, we cannot discuss the initiative to improve patient care without first addressing the need to improve the way medical systems operate. What is the most effective way to optimize a medical system?

Communications expert and physician consultant Susan Fink Childs states that integrating emotionally intelligent communication into the culture of a medical system can cultivate feelings of trust and psychological safety between medical professionals, empowering team dynamics and elevating the quality of patient care.

Key Takeaways

Medical systems are systems of people. Therefore, the success of any medical system is most clearly defined by the quality of people within the system, and the interpersonal dynamics among those people.

Medical professionals, particularly physicians, play a pivotal leadership role in establishing norms for how team members and colleagues work together. Physicians who acknowledge the potential of this dynamic and act on it can become champions of change. The first step is to begin asking the right questions.

Regarding their relationships with managers and administrators, physicians can ask themselves:

• How am I interacting with managers/administrators on a daily basis?

• How do managers and administrators interact with one another?

• How does the quality of these interpersonal dynamics impact the care our patients receive?

• If we could improve the quality of these interpersonal dynamics, what aspects of patient care would improve? Patient wait time? Patient first impressions? The ability of staff to handle stressful situations?

• What behaviors and communication strategies must I adopt to make these improvements a reality?

• How can I motivate and inspire managers and administrators to get on board with this goal of improving professional relationships?

Building rapport between physicians and managers/administrators is essential for gaining positive influence within the medical system. These efforts promote an improved overall culture of the practice.

As you make decisions together, leverage the power of relationship management! Recognizing traits in each other leads to a clearer understanding with established standards and protocols that best serve your patients and staff.

The Bottom Line: Creating fortified relationships between physicians and managers not only brings about success in the practices and healthcare systems they reside in, more importantly, it brings massive value to the surrounding communities. Through authentic interaction and direct, yet open communication, physicians and managers could establish and model a thriving organizational culture that spills into the community. This is the power of optimized interpersonal dynamics.

If you want to learn more about interpersonal dynamics and emotional intelligence in the context of medicine, please see our course by Susan Fink Childs, “The Emotionally Intelligent Physician Leader.” This course provides an actionable framework for physician leaders to become lynchpins in the transformation of their medical organization through strengthening interpersonal relationships with peers, patients, and staff.

Find more information about our educational offerings at physicianleaders.org/education .