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What if being the expert slows you down?
Published about 12 hours ago • 2 min read
Episode 128
Hello Reader,
What I've Learned As an Experienced Beginner
This week's episode is a solo one, about learning as an experienced beginner. My career in medicine came with a syllabus: residency, fellowship, boards, and someone always telling me what to learn next. Four years into building Transforming Healthcare Coaching®, and eight months into learning AI and software development, there is no syllabus. I organized the episode around three things that have helped.
The first is that you can be capable and new at the same time. Over these years my own description has moved from side gig to solopreneur to entrepreneur to founder, a path I never expected. In the courses I took this year I sat beside engineers, computer scientists, and owners of million-dollar companies, and most of them were new to AI too. What healthcare professionals bring, synthesizing complex material, organizing teams, communicating with care, holds up in those rooms.
Part of what makes being new hard has a name: cognitive entrenchment. As we become experts, our mental models stabilize. We get faster and more accurate, and slower to flex when the setting changes. Credentials don't tell you how to work on a new team, which is why orientation matters, and why the questions new people ask are good for everyone. A beginner's mind is most useful to the person who already knows a great deal.
The second is that we underestimate the yes. Social science research has found that people overestimate how many strangers they will need to ask before someone agrees to help. Most people like being asked, and giving advice tends to leave the advisor more confident. When the goal is large and you can't yet see the gaps, the useful request is small and specific: "Can you walk me through a recent example?" My challenge on the episode was to ask someone for help with anything, carrying groceries or making an introduction, within the next 24 hours.
The third is that you don't need the whole map, only a next step you can learn from. I learned LinkedIn from one coach and video from another, and I still belong to group coaching programs, peer communities, and courses. Each one serves a different part of learning.
Experience alone is not a great teacher. Learning happens when you reflect on the experience and decide what you will think, feel, and do differently next time. In medical education we call this metacognition, and simulation debriefing is built on it. In a new leadership role, it can start with one learning goal for your meetings: notice what you see, check it with your team ("This is what I saw. Is that what you're seeing?"), and adjust. Ten minutes of reflection at the end of the week is enough.
Nobody becomes the go-to leader of a department overnight. It happens one small, reflected-on change at a time.
Here's my question for you this week: what is the one small thing you need to understand next, and who could you ask to help you learn it?
If you are a physician leader, the first cohort of our Leadership Learning Lab begins in October; write to hello@transforminghealthcarecoaching.com to be considered. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants new to leadership roles can join the waitlist at the same address, and you can tell us there what challenges you'd like the podcast to take on.
By Transforming Healthcare Coaching® Lillian Liang Emlet, MD MS CHSE CPC ELI-MP, Founder & CEO
Live well. Lead well. Grow Together. Weekly conversations to help you stay human in healthcare. We share practical ideas, podcast pearls, and curated reads that help you grow. Together, we can transform healthcare, one person at a time.®
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