How to Know If Coaching Is Working
You Are Three Months In. Now What?
You have been showing up to sessions and spending real money on this. At some point the question lands: is coaching working for this physician, or am I just having expensive conversations?
Fair question. Coaching does not come with lab values or imaging. But there are concrete coaching progress signs that show the investment is paying off. Here is what to look for.
Your Reactions Are Changing
Situations that used to trigger an automatic response -- frustration in a faculty meeting, defensiveness in a performance review -- start to produce a pause instead.
You notice the reaction before you act on it. Viktor Frankl described that gap well: "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our freedom." If you are catching yourself mid-pattern, coaching is working.
Other People Are Noticing
You have not announced to your department that you are being coached. But your assistant mentions that meetings feel different. A colleague says you seem less reactive.
Research published in Consulting Psychology Journal has shown that behavioral change from executive coaching is often perceived by colleagues before the person being coached recognizes it themselves. When the people around you respond differently to you, that is not coincidence.
You Are Making Decisions Faster
Academic medicine is full of decisions that sit in limbo. Should I say yes to this committee? Should I renegotiate my protected time?
One clear sign that coaching is producing results is that these decisions stop piling up. Not because you are being reckless, but because you have a clearer framework for what matters. Your priorities are sharper, so the filter works faster.
A Subtle Coaching Progress Sign: Your Questions Have Changed
Early in coaching, most physicians ask external questions. How do I get promoted? How do I handle this difficult chair?
When coaching is working, the questions turn inward. Why does this keep happening? What am I avoiding? What would I do if I were not afraid of the political fallout?
That shift from tactical to reflective is one of the most reliable coaching progress signs I see.
You Are Uncomfortable in a Productive Way
This one surprises people. Progress in coaching does not always feel good. Sometimes it feels like standing at the free-throw line with the game on the line -- exposed, uncomfortable, but exactly where you need to be.
If coaching only feels comfortable, you are probably not being challenged enough. But if the discomfort is generating insight and action rather than anxiety and avoidance, that is the right kind of hard.
The Bottom Line
Coaching is working when your behavior changes, not just your thinking. When decisions come easier because your values are clearer. When you start asking yourself the hard questions before your coach does.
You do not need a scorecard. You need honesty about whether you are showing up differently in the situations that matter.
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