FHC #222: From burnout to leadership: how physicians can flourish
About this episode
Drs. Robert Pearl and Jonathan Fisher discuss how positive psychology can help physicians overcome burnout and improve leadership in healthcare.
In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare , Drs. Robert Pearl and Jonathan Fisher explore what medicine can learn from positive psychology, elite sports teams and the daily pressures facing clinicians, leaders and patients. The conversation begins with Fisher’s recent trip to Ireland, where he spoke at a conference on positive psychology, organizational well-being and leadership. Fisher explains that positive psychology is not simply about optimism or self-help. At its best, the field asks a more useful question: What can we learn from people, teams and organizations that are already flourishing? That shift applies greatly in healthcare. Fisher argues that physician burnout cannot be solved by treating it only as an individual failure or by focusing only on what’s broken. Pearl connects that idea to leadership. In business and medicine, he says, leaders often try to motivate people through fear, urgency and the “burning platform.” But both he and Fisher question whether threat-based leadership can produce the creativity, teamwork and judgment healthcare needs. Fisher points to research showing that when people feel threatened, their attention narrows. When they feel…
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