The Worthy Physician

Leading From Within with Dr. Maha Mohamad, MD

• Dr. Sapna Shah-Haque MD

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Dr. Mohamad shares her journey as a physician leader, highlighting the delicate balance between micromanaging and providing autonomy. We discuss how building trust with team members creates the foundation for effective leadership while maintaining professional standards and clear expectations.

• Finding the balance between professionalism and friendliness in communication
• Leading within yourself by understanding your communication style and personality traits
• Listening to understand rather than listening to respond
• Creating inclusive problem-solving approaches that draw on team expertise
• Establishing clear boundaries while maintaining kindness and respect
• Embodying core values as the key to gaining team buy-in
• Recognizing that different situations may require different leadership approaches

Thanks for tuning in to another episode from the Worthy Physician.  If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who'd love it too. Don't forget to follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram for more updates and insights.


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Dr. Shah-Haque:

Welcome to another episode of the Worthy Physician. I'm your host, dr Sapna Shah-Hawk, reigniting your humanity and passion for medicine. With each episode, we bring you inspiring stories, actionable insight and expert advice. Get ready for another engaging conversation that could change the way you think and live as a physician. Your income is your greatest asset, protected with Pattern Life. The easy, stress-free way to find the right disability insurance, with unbiased comparisons and no jargon. Pattern helps you to choose the best policy for your needs. Secure your future today at Pattern Life. The link is in the show notes. Let's dive in.

Dr. Shah-Haque:

I sat down with Dr Mohamad for our second installation on the series of leadership and team. What I wish I would have known. You're a seasoned leader and physician, but there's always room to learn more. She has excellent points, an excellent frame for her reference and point of view. So let's dive in. What has been the most influential thing for you as a young female physician at a fellowship practicing in the United States? You were born and raised in Lebanon, did your medical school in Lebanon and now you're here in the Midwest. What has been, besides all those amazing things that you've done? What's been the most impactful lesson about the importance of leadership?

Dr. Mohamad:

I think it's like I strive to get to a point where there's this amount of professionalism yet there's an equal amount of friendliness that we should deliver the communication through. So I think the most challenge was trying to find that sweet balance between micromanaging versus providing autonomy. That is the biggest one in leadership.

Dr. Shah-Haque:

Yeah, I'd have to agree. But that's where the trust comes in right. That's where working alongside, building that relationship with your other team members whether they be PhD nurse practitioners, medical assistants, nurses, front desk building that trust, showing them the ropes and we'll get into that later, but that's where a lot of it comes is, and then you can allow that autonomy once you know that things are being done the way that they need to be let out, because so I'm not trying to backtrack on what I said earlier about, okay, let's not have like a dictatorship, but at the end of the day, it's my license, it's your license we're gonna say, hey, this is the way things need to be done and this is what I'm looking for. If you have any questions, let's talk, but I want things done this way and this is why and we're going to check in until I feel like there's a level of competency you understand the scope of your license, you understand what I expect of you, because at the end of the day, it's about the patient.

Dr. Mohamad:

Oh, 100%. I think, just like you mentioned having a clear policy or a clear structure so that your team member knows what they're expected to do. It's not about having them figure it out on their own. This is why you're one step ahead. This is why you are, let's say, the physician or the senior resident or the fellow, and you have a team of students working along with you. So the policy and the structure just puts a framework of what needs to be done. The policy and the structure just puts a framework of what needs to be done. But still, what I'm trying to emphasize on is medicine by itself is a very stressful career, as we all know, but having to reinforce these policies and structures can come in a way that is friendly, that is trustworthy, doesn't have to be oh, I'm the right one 24-7. Like welcoming questions, welcoming concerns all of that would be helpful. Building the team and also providing a better care for patients too.

Dr. Shah-Haque:

Right. So leading within yourself, it's knowing yourself, creating space to learn more about yourself, even taking a personality test to know your strengths, weaknesses, potential communication style. And it's a tool, it's not a diagnosis. And this is fluid because it can change in time depending on where a person is in life and circumstances. So, getting to know yourself and what that leadership structure, that communication structure, personality style is with you as an individual, and then how that is going to come across, and then understanding that there are different impacts in your life, like what you were saying, which is a beautiful example of traveling and encountering other places, cultures, ideas that will potentially change that mindset, make you unlearn things or even just replace, like accepting a whole new train of thought or reality. We talked a little bit of how to project that on to our team. Can you dive us? Can you take us through further detail?

Dr. Mohamad:

Absolutely, through further detail. Absolutely, I think, starting by approaching the topic, whatever that topic is, in a way where everybody can express their concern or their opinion or ideas, get to know and learn from, because we don't know everything right. We've went through medicine. It's no way that you know everything. You know how to navigate, how to learn further, how to look for information. But just imagine that example of medicine versus life.

Dr. Mohamad:

If you don't know that portion of medicine, you definitely don't know life and how to navigate things. So I would start with knowing that I myself am teachable. I need to learn from others, listen to what they have and listen to understand rather than listen to respond. So there's a totally different mindset there, where you would give them the time, give them the space, give them the opportunity to voice what they have to say and then come to a point where you know we reach a mutual decision and then take it from there. And definitely this is not talking about like standard practice of medicine. That's something that is set in stone. We have to follow guidelines, we have to follow the rules. But I'm talking about, like other real life examples, when you're navigating how to apply this medicine or how to apply this process or procedure or how to approach a patient, or if I were in your place, I would have done so, but again, all roads lead to Rome, so there's no one correct way, unless you know it's related to a guideline or a standard of practice.

Dr. Shah-Haque:

For example, if the office is short, a person right. Okay, how are we going to navigate this? Yeah, I don't know, because the person that normally figures these things out let's say the office manager is out today. So what do y'all think? Five-minute huddle let's problem solve. This Person that knows the front desk might have a way to. This is a way we're going to handle the overflow or some of the calls, because we're, by the way, we're down to people in the back as well. So this is how we can handle the front, this is how I can send the things to the back, but nurses and medical assistants are helping with coming up with real-time solutions to the problem at that time that the pain point is happening. Because if I said this is the way we're going to do it, I have an idea of all the things that happen. But who's the one that is the front, like the front runner or the first contact point in the office? They're going to know that workflow a lot better.

Dr. Mohamad:

And just generally having this idea of having a shared goal. It's not about me, it's not about you or her or him. It's about eventually getting to the end of the day. Everything went smoothly, the workflow was really easy, we got our patients taken care of, the day went by in a very smooth manner, so I think that's what matters at the end of the day. It's not about who did what and who came up with an idea or it's a shared goal towards the end of the day.

Dr. Shah-Haque:

As a leader, how would you recommend having or helping co-workers, employees, everybody that works in the office or the hospital, to buy into or to understand and accept the common goal or the mission of health care? Yes, we're in health care to help people. But also, how do we get that buy-in? Because nowadays people are showing up to work and saying I'm just here for the paycheck.

Dr. Mohamad:

that buy-in because nowadays people are like showing up to work and saying I'm just here for the paycheck. I think it's honestly embodying the core values and applying them yourself as a leader would be the way to go. We have to eventually we have to lead by example. Right, can't be just like preaching and saying we need to do so. And unless you genuinely express that and embody that character that you want to instill in others and have others listen to you and really value what you're saying, you have to be really convinced of that character that you're trying to reflect. I think it starts with you and that's why leadership starts within ourselves before really the others.

Dr. Shah-Haque:

I love that, I love that. But come on, dr Mohamed, can't I just beat it into somebody, like with verbally, and just put the fear of God in them? Do you think that tactic really works? And I'm being playing a little bit of the devil's advocate here- Absolutely.

Dr. Mohamad:

Again, like different people think in a very different way, and that's why there's that combo between friendliness yet professionalism. You have to have boundaries. You can't just let go of all of the boundaries and all of the structure that we have to follow in medicine and generally in life, and that's why the expectation would be that the person in front of you would be following those boundaries as well. And if it was not clear to them, there's no harm in just expressing your boundaries and saying this is where I feel, let's say, violated, this is where I feel like I was not heard. Just express yourself. And that's why working on communicating our feelings would be the best way to go.

Dr. Mohamad:

They need to learn because, again, medicine is a very stressful field. Sometimes you would be thinking about something a critical patient and then your reaction could come out as unpleasant and the other team member might perceive it as being harsh or unfriendly. But that's why we have to be clear about that and I think on a daily basis, once you are in contact with that team member, they will get to know you better. Once you are in contact with that team member, they will get to know you better and that's why those mishaps would be situational, rather than this is your personality or that's the way you treat people, because, yeah, no, I agree with you. We're not in utopia and things can't be ideal all the time.

Dr. Shah-Haque:

Yeah, I find that's actually more the exception than the rule. Telling people to do something just because they said so doesn't even work with my kids. It's not even gonna not even gonna fly with adults. So just some closing remarks. I think that Dr Muhammad really pointed out to maintain professionalism and you can be friendly. It's not unprofessional to smile and it's not unprofessional to be kind. In fact, I would encourage it. I would also encourage boundaries. It's all about the patience, camaraderie and trying to make this world a little bit of a better place than what we found it. Thanks for tuning in to another episode from the Worthy Physician Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who'd love it too. Don't forget to follow us on YouTube, linkedin, instagram for more updates and insights. Until next time, keep inspiring, learning, growing and living your best life.