What is Surgical Coaching?

The Definition Matters

Surgical coaching is not mentoring. It is not supervision. And it is not someone telling you how to do your job.

It is a structured partnership with a trained peer who helps you see your own performance clearly, set specific goals, and build a plan to reach them. Your coach does not hand down advice from above. They sit beside you, ask the right questions, and hold you accountable for the changes you want to make.

Through surgical coaching, surgeons improve their technical performance, build stronger communication and leadership skills, and develop self-awareness to sustain high performance over the course of a career.

How Coaching Differs from Teaching and Mentoring

A teacher transfers knowledge. A mentor shares career wisdom. Both are valuable, and both involve a hierarchy: someone who knows more guiding someone who knows less.

Coaching works differently. A coach is a co-learner, and an expert in their field, but they are not there to tell you what they know. They are there to help you understand what you already know, identify the gaps between where you are and where you want to be, and build a deliberate path forward. The insight comes from you. The structure and accountability come from the coaching relationship.

This distinction also makes coaching skills valuable for surgical educators. As Dr. Cara King explains in the video below, coaching her fellows allows her to understand how they think, which makes her more effective when she teaches in the OR.

How Coaching Improves Performance

A surgical coach helps you think differently about your actions and outcomes. That sounds simple, but it is the foundation of lasting improvement. Most surgeons know what they want to change. The challenge is seeing the patterns clearly, building a realistic plan, and following through when the demands of daily practice make it easy to default to old habits.

Coaching provides the structure for that process. You set goals with your coach, develop action plans, implement changes, and then reflect together on what happened. Over time, this cycle becomes second nature, giving you a framework for continuous improvement that extends well beyond the coaching relationship itself.

In the video below, Dr. Caprice Greenberg, breast surgeon and Founder of the Academy, shares her own coaching story and how working with a coach helped her improve her re-excision rate.

Performance and Quality Improvement CME Designation

Surgical coaching through the Academy has earned a Performance and Quality Improvement CME designation from the American College of Surgeons. This is not standard continuing education credit. PQI CME specifically recognizes activities that drive measurable improvement in clinical performance and patient outcomes.

For surgeons, this means your coaching engagement:

• Fulfills CME requirements with an activity recognized for its impact on real-world practice
• Counts toward ABS Continuous Certification requirements
• Is eligible for CME fund reimbursement at many institutions
• Demonstrates a commitment to quality improvement backed by a rigorous accreditation standard

Who Makes a Great Surgical Coach?

The best surgical coaches tend to share a few qualities. They have a broad base of surgical knowledge and are respected by their peers. They communicate well and listen even better. They are adaptable, empathetic, and self-aware enough to set aside their own expertise and focus entirely on what the surgeon in front of them needs.

But perhaps the most important quality is this: great coaches are genuinely curious about how other surgeons think and work. They are energized by the process of helping a colleague see something they could not see on their own. If that sounds like you, the Academy offers a training program to develop and certify your coaching skills.

Coachee Orientation

Surgeons at every career stage benefit from coaching. Early-career surgeons use it to accelerate their development and build confidence. Mid-career surgeons use it to refine specific techniques, strengthen leadership skills, or work through a professional challenge. Experienced surgeons use it to stay current with evolving practices, adopt new technologies, and sustain the level of performance they have built over decades.

The common thread is not where you are in your career. It is a willingness to be honest about where you want to go and an openness to working with someone who can help you get there.

Funding for the original development of this project was provided by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and Department of Surgery from the Wisconsin Partnership Program.