At Stanford (Calif.) Medicine, faculty don’t typically flock to voluntary training programs. But over the past five years, a professional coaching initiative has drawn hundreds of educators eager to build skills that traditional medical training leaves out.
“People vote with their feet and they are coming in droves to learn how to do this,” Sarah Williams, MD, clinical professor of emergency medicine, told Becker’s of Stanford’s CoachMe@Stanford initiative.
Dr. Williams serves as executive director of the program, which began as a small pilot during the COVID-19 pandemic to support medical students whose clinical rotations were disrupted at a time when many were navigating specialty decisions and early professional development. A select group of faculty in emergency medicine received crash-course training in basic coaching skills and were paired with students during those formative months.
Results from the pilot revealed early promise: students reported improved clinical skill acquisition, greater psychological safety in faculty relationships and stronger professional identity formation. Faculty, in turn, reported increased professional fulfillment. These outcomes helped lay the foundation for a broader effort to integrate coaching throughout medical education at Stanford.
The model has since grown into a structured, nine-course series designed to build core coaching competencies — from foundational concepts that distinguish coaching from advising or mentoring, to advanced workshops focused on feedback and conflict resolution. Faculty can choose whether to participate in a few sessions or complete the full series and become eligible to sit for board certification in coaching.
Nearly 500 faculty members have participated in the program, including about 420 from Stanford and at least 70 from other institutions. Some dip into a few early workshops, but increasingly, leaders are seeing participants come back to complete the full series.
“It was a win all around,” Dr. Williams said. “One of the things that’s really defined this initiative is our willingness and eagerness to take risks and try new things, and really collaborate and adapt this framework for people’s own specific circumstances so that they can make it fit into their needs.” She added, “It doesn’t feel oppressive. It’s very explorative and innovative, and so many people dove right in.”
Subsequent studies have reaffirmed early findings, showing consistent positive patterns in learner outcomes and faculty engagement. Anecdotally, leaders have also reported improvements in communication between medical students and faculty.
“It improves communication quite a bit,” said Rania Sanford, EdD, associate dean of faculty professional development at Stanford School of Medicine. “Once people start feeling heard, and they feel they have a voice, and they engage productively in their own problem solving rather than be told how to solve their problem, the communication quality elevates considerably.”
As coaching becomes more embedded in how physicians communicate, program leaders said they expect those skills to ultimately reach patients and enhance the overall care experience.
Bridging gaps in medical education
Part of coaching’s appeal is that it addresses a structural gap in medical training, leaders said. While physicians are rigorously prepared for clinical care, they are often thrust into leadership, educational or advisory roles with little formal preparation.
“Medical school teaches you how to be a great doctor,” Dr. Williams said. “It doesn’t teach you how to teach. It doesn’t teach you how to lead. It doesn’t teach you how to coach. And people are expected to do all those things when they finish medical school and residency. They’re put into positions of leadership. They’re put into educational leadership positions.”
As a result, many physicians are left to piece together their own professional development plan.
Coaching is especially valuable in medicine, where physicians are constantly facing new challenges and questions they don’t have immediate answers to, Dr. Williams said.
“This style lends itself very well to the rapid evolution and rapid change that we’re going through in modern medicine right now, in the context of AI and rapid expansion of different types of roles and the interdisciplinary nature of medicine that physicians may feel underprepared to deal with,” Dr. Williams said.
The broader vision, leaders said, is to democratize access to professional coaching by integrating what is typically an offering reserved for C-suite leaders into the daily work of educators and trainees.
A model for the future
As interest in coaching spreads, Stanford’s program has become a hub for collaboration. More than 35 organizations have sent faculty to participate or have partnered with Stanford to build their own specialized coaching curriculums.
Stanford leaders emphasize that coaching is not a panacea for all systemic challenges in medicine, but say its value shows up in many areas — improving faculty satisfaction, learner engagement and mitigating burnout, to name a few.
“It works on so many levels, but it really has never been available to everyone,” Dr. Williams said.
As more leaders integrate coaching into their training environments, Ms. Sanford said she believes it will gradually replace traditional mentorship models.
“Coaching is the new mentoring for the current generation of trainees, where information and knowledge is more accessible,” she said. “What people need in a very fast-paced life experience is space to think through things – whether academic or personal life – and coaching offers that.”
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