Do You Need a Coach to Succeed?

by Wishwa N. Kapoor, MD, MPH

Success in a research career requires many elements, including training, learning the science, asking innovative questions, developing and honing writing skills, and obtaining funds in a difficult economic environment. I am always struck with how we in academic medicine attain our goals. We recruit smart and well-trained individuals, give them an office and some protected time, and expect that they will succeed. Success, however, is rarely guaranteed, and the road to a fruitful and independent scientific career is ever more challenging.

In a recent article by Atul Gawande in The New Yorker ("Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you?," October 3, 2011), the author described how he used coaching to improve his skills as a surgeon. After reading this article, I began to think whether coaching could be used to improve the success of research careers.

I think it is important at the outset to define terms such as mentoring, advising, and coaching. Traditionally, we use mentoring to mean working under the tutelage of a scientist who opens up his or her lab and provides resources, guidance, and the training needed by others to become scientists. We think of advising as providing opinions about specific questions, about areas of research and training, and about navigating in academia. Coaching is somewhat different, with Merriam-Webster's dictionary defining a coach as "one who instructs players in the fundamentals of a competitive sport and directs team strategy."

Although the terms mentoring, advising, and coaching overlap, I think that sports coaching models are more highly developed. In the sports model, professional players, such as tennis players, always have coaches. The tennis coaches themselves may not be the best players, but what they do well is work with their athletes in all phases of the game. They observe their athletes, define their problems, and work with them to improve every element, including the serve, the volley, the foot work, and the lob. In a doubles game, the coaches instruct their athletes with regard to roles, team strategies, and teamwork. They find mistakes, and they help develop specific playing strategies and an overall strategy to win. In sports, coaching is essential. Without it, failure is guaranteed.

Would coaching in academic medicine and research lead to higher chances of success? I would argue that academic careers should be viewed as sports careers. We are constantly competing with the best players around the country for scientific discoveries and proposing innovative studies so we can fund the research needed to advance science. Why should we not be coached in preparing, training, strategizing, and conducting science—similar to being coached in sports? Although mentoring and coaching are similar in some respects, they are not synonymous. The coach does not need to be your mentor. He or she may be someone who is outside the research lab and may not even be well versed in your area of research. The coach breaks down the sport into its components and works with you to excel in each component. The coach also puts all components together into a whole. The coach instructs you about working within the team and teaches you strategies for successful team management. The coach observes all aspects of how you play the game, points out your weak areas, and works with you to strengthen these areas. Coaching, as opposed to mentoring, is about practicing and paying attention to the details of your work, with the aim of improving each aspect of it as well as improving how you "play the game" in its entirety. It also seems to me that an effective coach may be needed on a long-term basis—i.e., as long as you are actively playing the "game."

I don't know of any coaching models used today in academic medicine, but it seems to me that it would be useful for us to start thinking about how we could learn from professional coaches and apply their principles to our research and other highly competitive academic endeavors.

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