CHAPTER 7
Mastering Organizational Politics

Why can’t I just practice medicine?” Robert, a highly credentialed anesthesiologist, asked me this exasperated rhetorical question in an impromptu coaching session over the phone. At that point, I had been working with him for almost three months on rebranding himself after he’d been asked by his former hospital’s chief of staff to resign. As the chief had put it, Robert didn’t “fit into the culture.”

For Robert, who had gained a reputation as a brilliant clinician, this had come as an ego-crushing shock. He’d always worked hard, graduated at the top of his class at medical school, and performed with excellence in the operating room. He didn’t know what had hit him.

The chief had explained that not fitting into the culture meant that Robert kept alienating people with his abrupt personality, curt communication style, and aloof attitude. What Robert viewed as being “laser-focused” on the well-being of his patients involved sparing the social niceties and doing his job to the highest standards. But others seemed to view him as an antagonistic, unpleasant colleague who was not a team player, much less a leader.