ABIM Foundation’s Post

I just heard Uché Blackstock, MD speak at the ABIM Foundation meeting about her toxic experience as a black faculty member in a large medical institution. She found the experience so toxic that it affected her health and she decided to leave the institution and academic medicine. The "good" news is that this led her to found Advancing Health Equity, to writing "Legacy - A Black Physician Reckons with Racism and Medicine" and to helping medical professionals (and others) to understand and develop strategies for how to make the progress that we all still need. Her presentation today supported, I believe, the need for organizations like Coaching for Social Justice and our plan to help organizational coaches reflect on their coaching through a Social Justice / DEIJB lens. For example, how does organizational coaches think about their roles when coaching someone who is working within a systemically toxic organization? And, if our clients aren't yet aware of how toxic / inhospitable the organization is for them, how ready (and willing) are we, as coaches (particularly as white coaches), to consider the impact of the organization / system on our clients? As coaches, do we name this? Do we consider systemic interventions? Do we help our clients to explore the possibility of leaving? These are the sorts of questions and issues that can be explored and reflected on in the Coaching for Social Justice supervision groups that will be starting in September, led by Lily Seto, MA, CEC, PCC,ESIA Master Practitioner, PoYee Poon Dorrian 潘寶儀, DeBorah "Sunni" Smith, MS, JD, LLM, PCC, Francine Campone Ed.D., MCC, Jeanne-Elvire ADOTEVI BILIES and me. Dan Brown, MCC Kim D'Abreu, Olu Burrell, MSOD, PCC, Dr. Catherine Carr, MCEC, PCC, RCC, Gwen Darien, Dr. Terrence E. Maltbia, Jonathan Kirschner, Brian Underhill, Ph.D., PCC, Alexander Caillet, Bryan Pflaum, CB Bowman-Ottomanelli Courageous Leadership EXPERT