Beyond ADHD A Physicians Perspective Ep 19: Dr. Adam Harrison (Family Medicine, Lawyer, Bullying Coach)

Dr. Adam Harrison: Well to our colleagues, who've suffered burnout. Don't bottle it up and suffer in silence, share your feelings and worries with a partner relative place friend or trusted colleague. And I think that action alone can make us feel so much better. Just kind of offloading that before we even get any professional advice on it.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Hi, welcome to Beyond ADHD, A Physician's Perspective podcast. I am your host, Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh. I'm a family medicine doc, with ADHD, practicing in a rural setting in Texas. I am a mother to two very energetic toddlers who are three and four years of age.

 

And in the past year, I have undergone radical transformation after discovering  ADHD coaching, and life-coaching. For the past decade, my typical day consisted of having 300 charts backlog, a graveyard of unfinished projects, and a lack of time awareness. I didn't realize that I was not filling my own cup. I was running on fumes, the last year I figured out the secret; learn to stay in your lane. So now my mission is to help others develop systems that tap into their zone of genius. So they too can reclaim their personal lives back like I have.

Good morning. I am so excited. I have Dr. Adam Harrison today. He is a physician, a lawyer, and a leadership coach who, as a result of his own personal experiences, specializes in confidence and mindset coaching for physicians and other professionals who have been on the receiving end of workplace bullying. As the former medical director, he has also worked with medical leaders on developing kind leadership cultures based on the compassionate, servant and inclusive leadership model to replace.

Workplace bullying and replace toxic cultures. He strongly believes in doing work aligned with one's own core values. His are being honest, being, just having gratitude, leading with love and humor. Most importantly, though, he is married to an incredible female surgeon and is to father to two amazing girls who encouraged him to work towards achieving that work life balance.

And so today we are so honored to have him here all the way from the UK. And I would like to start, by asking him if he could please share any circumstances surrounding why he decided to help people with such as being a burnout coach or a bullying coach.

Dr. Adam Harrison: Thank you. Thank you so much Dr. Diana. And I thank you for that lovely introduction.

And thanks so much for having me a guest on your incredible show. I'm the honored one, honestly, I'm really privileged. Thank you so much. Anyway, back to your question, so, why did I decide to become a as a burnout and trauma coach? Well, I was bullied repeatedly myself as a surgical westerns and as a newly qualified family physician.

And I was also burnt out a couple of times when I was a surgical Western, and subsequently when I was arrested in family medicine as well. I've seen my wife, over the years of her training being bullied, as a maxillofacial surgery resident. And again, as a fellow. When we were in Australia for 18 months, fairly recently, I was tutoring female indigenous medical students in Darwin, between 2019 and 2020, and two of them separately came to me and told me they would be in bullied.

One of them was being bullied by a surgical resident and one by an attending in internal medicine. And then finally, I suppose the thing that really cemented it was. Yeah, during the pandemic, will we all observed what were already very high burnout rates. And, you know, a study that I looked at recently showed that over half of us physicians experience burnout as symptoms.

 And that was, that was pre pandemic that was in 2018. So that the amount of, of burnout just kind of rocketed, I think, during the pandemic. From already really high values and several medical friends of mine have contributed to the great resignation in the last 12 months, you know, they've left left medicine.

And so it's, it's that kind of thing that I want to have a positive impact on if I can.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Awesome. Yes. That's so amazing that you had already been working on this, you know, pre pandemic. I feel like pre pandemic, the term burnout was there, but it was not so obvious. And then COVID hits, and then all of a sudden, like the things that we had been doing or asked of us to do like 10 fold with like no compensation, like it just kind of expected of us.

And we don't realize that sometimes. The health care system can become a toxic environment. And while people sometimes mean well by kind of encouraging you and pushing you along, it's not always the right way that they do it. And so how do you think your burned out impacted you and like your family, your friends?

Like, how do you think you said you had gone through several periods in your life where you had burned out, how do you think it impacted you.

Dr. Adam Harrison: Yeah, well, actually, as, as you've already mentioned, you know, it's, it's only recently become a phenomenon that's in the forefront of our minds as physicians. And there's now a lot more kind of wellbeing offerings and things like that in our workplaces.

You know, some of it is tinkering around the edges for sure, but it, you know, it's only recently that it's come onto our radar, really. So. I think it's hard to say for sure is I, I don't think that I even knew that I was burnt out in 2005 and 2007, because, you know, as you said, it wasn't a recognized medical phenomenon, then the world health organization, didn't classify it as a medical condition until 2019.

So, you know, all I knew was that I was exhausted. I felt stressed. I was unmotivated and I had no empathy for or interest in some of my patients. And I don't think there's the can be any way really that a certain number of my patients didn't pick up on my disinterest in them, but thankfully they never made any complaints about me.

Cause that would have been. Made the burner even worse having to deal with that sort of stuff. I'm sure my family knew something was up. But I guess they just attributed it to me working long hours, studying for my postgraduate exams, being stressed out by all of that. And again, cause they, you know, they're lay people, they don't medics either.

They wouldn't have known about burnout. Particularly maybe they thought I could have been a bit depressed, but you know, I never saw that. Professional for, any mood issues. So it's really hard to say.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah, those are such good points that you make. You know, most of us don't realize we've been for burned out or walking around feeling that way.

We think it's part of the culture. Unfortunately, I remember when I first did my very first coaching thing that I got into, with Sunny Smith, she said, oh, this is to help prevent burnout. And I was like, I'm not burned out. And you know, I did the questionnaire and like complete denial. Like in my mind, I was not burned out.

I was just irritated and frustrated and stressed, and that was on normal. Right. And I didn't realize any other way. Cause it seems like we're always kind of chasing the next big goal or the next step in our career. And we don't realize that we should slow down enough or that we. Maybe being irritable that time is a sign of, I haven't slept enough or, I'm being overworked or, you know, I'm not eating.

Right. And so you bring such a great point that most of us wouldn't even tell you that we're burned out because we know that word, we will just tell you I'm tired or, you know, I'm irritable or moody, you know, Whatever. Right. So it's so good. Like you said that now, if anything out of this pandemic it's made us aware of how important mental health really is.

Dr. Adam Harrison: Yeah, no, I completely agree. You've raised a really, really good point there about the, the culture of medicine. Just normalizing those symptoms. It's like, Well, yeah, you're tired. You have a short fuse you're fed up. You don't want to do it anymore. Join the club, you know, join the, join the queue. We're we're all like it and that, and it's kind of like, if you work in medicine, you just have to put up with it. Just normalize it.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. And they make it seem like you're the one with the problem. Like, well, why are you too tired? You should take care of you, like wrap that up. Right. And then it's like, well, we're all too tired. We're nobody's just saying it because you're almost kind of bullying me. Right. Or you're almost telling me that there's something wrong with me.

And then instead of saying, well, you look tired. Get tested, make sure it's not a thyroid issue or something else. They, all of a sudden are like, you're just going to skip out on work and not helping others and make everybody else more tired. So it's

Dr. Adam Harrison: You go to your doctor's appointment.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Exactly. Right. So it's so funny about that.

So tell me, what do you think is the biggest challenge that can lead people? Like what I was just describing to burnout? Would it be this like people just normalizing. You know, this toxic environments normal, or what do you think are the biggest challenges that can lead people to the burnout?

Dr. Adam Harrison: Yeah, no, that's, that's a really good point.

I think that normalization of the toxic culture definitely, it's a work related phenomenon. We know that from the who definition. I think there were multiple work related challenges that contribute to becoming burnt out. Interesting recently did a group coaching session with some physicians and they were kind of talking about the things that made them feel like this.

And one of the biggest was actually lack of autonomy, a feeling of a lack of autonomy as a physician in a corporate and insurance led system. The fear of litigation, I think weighs heavily on physician's minds. For, from my perspective, workplace bullying is definitely a contributory factor, to burn out.

I think the, the biggest thing has been really the. Recently hasn't said, I think that the, the pandemic has magnified the problems that were already there and they were already really considerable, but it's just really, you know, as you say, shine, the light on them. So lots of things around the pandemic.

So our personal fears as humans. Worrying about getting ill from COVID, especially pre vaccine, you know, going into work and having all these, these patients who have COVID. So that, that obviously is kind of preying on your mind. Our patient's fears, ratings COVID so. Just your everyday patients are kind of coming through the door.

Not necessarily those who are on ICU, but those who are coming in very anxious and paranoid about it. The reduced workforce due to colleagues leaving their jobs, I've mentioned it before the great resignation, you know, for some people. The pandemic was just the final nail in the coffin. And it's like, that's it, I'm done with medicine now.

And obviously that puts pressure on, on the remaining doctors and then the sort of workload increases again, due to our colleagues leaving also due to how very, very unwell some of the patients were, you know, in the complex their illnesses have been. And the, the kind of, You know, the second victim staff and the, and the moral injury stuff, and kind of seeing so many patients kind of die and them not being able to say goodbye to their family and having to do things through, you know, iPdds and things like that.

I mean, it's just absolutely distressing and demoralizing. And then I think there's a. You know, our, our colleagues being ill as well from COVID, which is again, leading to gaps in the rotor. So I think the pandemic has basically conspired in a way to, you know, exacerbate, everything that was already there.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yeah. Like you make such a big, big point. Like, you know, when I decided I was going to become a physician, like I remember doing. The signing the oath, right? Like first do no harm. And then you wonder, like, does that apply to me? Like, do I do no harm to myself? Like, why do I have to walk into the line of fire, carrying a fork instead of like a protective gear, right.

Like, why am I going to the war with like a mask that's like cloth and. Like this doesn't make any sense, like what, we're just going to pray about it. Like, I remember being so mad and thinking, well, I mean, why can't they make masks? Like, I'm pretty sure that mass production, the cost of making that mass production versus replacing me and all my years of training, it doesn't make sense.

I am the limiting asset, not the damn mask. Like I was so mad. And then not like you just said, like, okay so fine. If somehow I'm supposed to sacrifice myself and I'm going to die because I've seen some colleagues dying of this. Why do I have to bring it to my family? I never knew I was going to put my family at risk in that sense.

I mean, I know that we drive and sometimes you can say, well, you're driving, you're putting them at risk every day. Cause you're driving. Right. But it's different. You hoping that, yeah, it's a choice. You're hoping that everybody on the road has a license and they know what they're doing. Right. And you're not hoping to walk into like a possible death sentence. Right. And then, and so it was like you said so many things that got you to question, like, who am I, why am I doing this? Why me? Like, I have what if I have predisposing conditions and I can't make it out alive. Or then seeing young, young physicians dying.

They're 30. Why did they die? They have nothing going on. Like, it was just such a place that all of a sudden you're like, well, wait a minute. Am I even sleeping? Because if I'm not even sleeping, like how am I going to have my immune system be up enough to even cover this? Like question your self-care and question everything about it.

And so, yes, I think it finally, like you said, boiled, brought it to like, What am I doing? What am I not doing? What needs to change? What does it have to change, and sometimes you don't realize that you do have a work environment that they mean well, but at the end of the day, they're like, well, we got to see them.

And I'm like, well, for who, like for you to get paid, or like, why do we have to see them at the same time, cost us to get creative. Right? Like you said, it was a double-edged sword because yes, you're using an iPad so that you're not in the room for such a long period of time so that you're not exposing yourself.

But like you said, who's comforting that patient, when a family cannot even come in or have a choice to come in, if they chose to put that risk on themselves in the last few hours of life of that person that they love, like, you know, coming into this world and leaving this world obviously are the most intimate moments in a person's life that some of us have the privilege of being right.

And then when you're not able to do that, like, oh my God, that's kind of. It stabs you, right. It pulls at you. And like you said, it adds further injury of like dehumanizing the whole process, right?

Dr. Adam Harrison: Yeah, yeah, no, I completely agree. Yeah, it's true.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: So what do you think are some of like the best resources that you think have helped you or your clients to like recognize how to decrease this bullying or how to prevent this burnout that, you know, it's finally being talked about.

Dr. Adam Harrison: So I think, firstly with respect to, recognition, of burnout, honestly, and I think it's just about, for me now having a more acute awareness of the clinical features of burnout. And if I began to experience anything like that, again, I now think about whether it's being caused by stress, anxiety, depression, or burnout itself.

 And so obviously clinicians, although they have all this knowledge, they, you know, we do revert to kind of patient mode. So it's good to just kind of remind yourself there are resources you can look up, and you can, you know, you can go and see a health professional to get an objective. Opinion. You can also check yourselves with these questionnaires that I mentioned before.

We know the questionnaires, like the Maslach burnout inventory or the Mayo clinics, wellbeing index, which are both validated tools. So you can literally just say. Like you said you were in a denial, you did the question. I was like, oh my God, you know, almost a hundred percent of the day, the only test that you don't want to get a hundred percent on sort of thing. Yeah.

I was in denial , but yeah, it's, it's good things that people can do that. I think with regard to prevention again, it's back to recognition. I think for me, that's the first step. So having that insight or self-awareness to know that something just isn't right within yourself and then to acknowledge that and not be afraid to admit it.

I think that's the beginning of the journey to diagnosis, recovery and prevention for me. Recovery and prevention involves taking a step. I think looking at my work life and my non-work life reflecting and then taking back some control. So for example, I decided I didn't want to work full time back in 2008.

By which stage I was eight years post qualifying as a doc, I'd finally paid off my student debt by that stage. So I could afford to. Maybe what? Four days instead of five days a week. And then I, I personally went about acquiring other skills so that I didn't have to do purely clinical work and I could spend some of my working time being an educator and some of my time in leadership roles.

And obviously this isn't the right thing for every physician to do. There may be other things you want us to, you may want to carry on working. Full-time have a side hustle that kind of reenergizes some people or, start working part-time clinically and start doing some of the entrepreneurial as well.

But I think you've got to discover your passion or assignments in it puts it, find your one. And really forensically examine your personal values and beliefs, and then act in alignment with all of those things, because that's the only way you're going to achieve some sort of harmony in your life I think.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Yes. I think everything you just said, like resonates a hundred percent. It was not, you know, in this last year and a half, it's been a journey back to myself. Like, like you just said, asking myself, like, why am I doing this? What's the point of this? Why am I saying yes to things I don't want. And then resentful to doing that, or like, why had I said no to things that I've always wanted to do?

Just because I thought that's not what a physician does or that's not what a mom does or that's not what a wife does, right? Like we have all this should or should not like manuals like that somewhere. We learn them and we pick them up. Yet, they're not really allowing us to step into the who, why, where you know what we want to be doing. Right. And when we slowly ignore those pieces, they lead us really south and we get in trouble because other sudden we wake up and you're like, is this what my life is supposed to be? And then not until you start getting quiet and like ask yourself if time and money was not really. An issue here, what would I really be doing?

And then you can spend a few minutes and all of a sudden the answers come to you, but you, you might feel afraid because you been ignoring those kind of all along. Right. And the thing is being afraid is norm, like, it's not like you were like, Ooh, I can't wait to do that spinal tap. Like nobody was like, let me walk into something.

I don't know how to do, right. Like, well, maybe a few were, but I think most of us, are always feeling nauseated at the sign of doing something new, but it shouldn't keep us from discovering who we should be. And so you're so right of talking about setting things that are aligned with you, because then they really allow you to come and work.

You don't have to work because it feels fun, right? Because it lights you up and I'm so glad that you discovered, you know, how to do it your own way and how to then empower other physicians and other professionals to be able to also do it their own way. Like how validating is it for a physician who can say, Hey, I've gone through this, but it doesn't have to be this way.

And so I'm so curious for you to tell me a little bit more about how you, you do set up this work. You said you do work place, you help, set up better environments. How do you do that? Do you do it like a group organizations or do you teach a leader and then they go and implement, like, I I'm so drawn to all the work that you're doing.

Dr. Adam Harrison: Yeah. It's, generally targeted at physician leaders. The thing is, you know, the C-suite, you know, they kind of, they kind of have their own agenda. I don't, I don't necessarily understand the non medical executives. But I get, I get physicians and they, you know, they kind of see something within myself as a fellow physician that they can kind of tune into as well.

So, yeah, it's, it is unfortunate that a lot of. Physician leaders are not very good leaders. And the simple reason for that is we're just not taught any leadership skills at medical school, or anywhere else for that matter. you know, any graduate is not taught to any leadership skills on their course, generally, you know, be their geography graduate or French language graduate.

You know, it's a. It's a, it's a real shame. And then something that's really needed. I think moving, moving into the future to have lots of better, better leaders. But yeah, doctors are not, they're just kind of thrust into the role. And I always say the all doctors are leaders because people are always looking to a doctor, even, even an intern, you know, the, a junior nurse, when, when something's, when a patient's going off, they're going to be looking at.

Intern for a stare as the doctor, right? So we're all leaders to an extent, but you know, you want these leaders to exude kindness and compassion so that people who are looking at them and, modeling on them, you know, the junior doctors who are looking to them for an example, are going to model themselves on like that kind of kindness and Rob, rather than, you know, aggression and, you know, command and control leadership and, and that kind of stuff, you know, so yeah.

I tend to work with them, go through, you know, their values go through their, their leadership styles are, and, you know, can do it one-to-one or as part of workshops. And group sessions. And that's this, I suppose it's a kind of a top-down approach. The people who are on the receiving end of unkind or even toxic.

Who are the junior doctors really? If they'd been on, you know, kind of recipients of that kind of bad behavior, then I want to work with them on their confidence and their mindset and how to manage the stress and the fear of those sorts of interactions. So, you know, I suppose it's a sort of a two-pronged approach really within the.

So toxic workplace culture, you know, teaching the, and training the leaders to be just much more kind and calm and considerate, and just basic things that people don't think about. Just common courtesy and civility. This incivility in the workplace is that is another thing. Another thing there's a paper in the Harvard business review by poor Athen Pearson about the effects of incivility in the workplace.

So it's, it's all important. It tends to be my approach.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Thank you. That's so helpful. And so useful. You know, I feel like as you know, this is an ADHD podcast and this is obviously where I'm going to ask you this question, which of course I have my own opinion about it. You know, sometimes I feel like people with ADHD and sometimes physicians who have, are not even aware that they have ADHD because they don't even, like it's not talked about or they don't want to be labeled or whatever.

Right. And so. Most of us think, or now I've learned a lot more, but most of us when we're going through med school and going through residency, like they tell us that ADHD is something that people are just impulsive and people just can't focus long enough, but sometimes it feels like a misnomer with that because it's kind of like the spectrum.

You will focus on things that maybe you don't need to be focused on. And here we are like a three hour, like a history and physical. And you're like, what happened to all the other people, right? Because you don't prioritize. Not because we don't want to, but because we get so drawn into like that patient and we're so excited and we go down rabbit holes.

But then we don't complete all the tasks and we are labeled as lazy and we are labeled as, you know, not professional and not in showing up late and all kinds of things. And it's not. Because we're trying to put more work on you or do more things. It's just, we really are so intrigued and want to learn all kinds of things.

And so I feel like, and what is your thought on this? Would it be that people with ADHD sometimes might be at risk for bullying or might be at risk for feeling like they can burn themselves out because they're trying to do too many things in a way that maybe we're expected to do. And they're not giving themselves the opportunity to do it their own way.

Dr. Adam Harrison: Yeah. Okay. I'll yeah, I'll just sort of, address them separately, but a hundred percent. Yes. To both. So first little caveat. I'm not, I'm not an ADHD expert like yourself. I'm a family physician by training. But I've reviewed, The suggested diagnostic features of ADHD and adults from the national health service, a website in the UK.

And I can, I can see how some of the symptoms could very much lend themselves to people with ADHD becoming burnt out more readily than those without ADHD. So for example, this whole list, I'm not going to go through them all, but, You know, including, for example, some of these features are carelessness, lack of attention to detail, continually starting new tasks before finishing old ones, poor organizational skills, inability to focus or prioritize continually losing or misplacing things forgetfulness.

And I think all of those things, as you say, could be perceived by. Other people as, you know, laziness or, you know, just kind of carelessness or whatever, or disinterest or something like that. I think bringing it back to physicians. When you add to this, the perfectionist and people, pleasing traits that you see in the vast majority of us, the difficulties we have in saying no to requests by patients, colleagues, the administration, and the subsequent guilt we feel.

If we do say no, you've got a perfect burnout storm brewing in physicians with ADHD. And in terms of being bullied, we were talking before, you started recording about whether people with ADHD, whether it's classed as a disability in the states, and you said that it is, and I mentioned a study that was done in the UK and about 2018, I think it was a survey that was done essentially.

Workplace bullying. And then people with protected characteristics. So gender ethnicity, disability, sexuality, religion, you know, various things, whether these different categories of people. We're at a higher risk of workplace bullying. And interestingly of all of those, you know, at-risk groups, those with disability were reported the highest rates of workplace bullying.

So certainly someone who is neurodivergent. Would be, would be within that group. So they will be more likely to report high rates of workplace bullying. I think because of, some of the, you know, the symptomatology within ADHD. If, if you've got someone who's particularly unpleasant in your team or wider, working environment, Who thinks your, I said lazy or they think you're a bit peculiar or something like that.

You know, they have the kind of preconceptions basing, basing it on your behavioral traits, then that could definitely lend itself to being. So, yeah, it's very, very sad. But yeah, I think

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: But I think it's so good that you're talking about this because you're bringing awareness, right? Because once you bring awareness, you can't unsee what you now have seen.

And then you can take steps towards getting help, either going to a therapist, going to a physician, going to a site, you know, to a coach. And in more specifically, you know, then you decide if you go to an ADHD coach or if you go to a trauma coach, or if you go to a bullying coach like yourself, like then you start to find the resources to heal, whatever it is that you're going through.

And realize that you don't have to normalize what has happened to you, right? And that every day could be a different way towards becoming who you need to become and showing up and practicing medicine in your own way. If you decide to continue that. Or you decide to do a different entrepreneurship or together you have now tools to help you, because it's not just as easy as well.

Let me remove them from that environment as is, as in you put them in another environment and everything's gone because while things might lessen. They're not going to completely be a hundred percent better until you have done the work in your own self. Right? And so it's so important that you, you bring all this up because sometimes ignoring things like this, unfortunately, you can see how that can lead to depression and hopelessness and shame and all of a sudden, it could even lead to suicide. I mean, you, you know, that some professionals such as lawyers and, physicians, you know, are up there dentists too, like up there with the risk of suicide, you know? We don't talk about this things because somehow we've been told all throughout, we'll just suck it up.

Like it would be okay, you're the one who's weak. You shouldn't be weak. You shouldn't be asking for help, but like, we also have seen how amazing it is to take care of a patient in a team approach. Everybody's working in their zone of genius. Like why can't we do that same approach to ourselves to take care of us?

Like we are worthy to have that team approach. We are worthy to have, you know, a physician who cares, who knows what you're on a therapist, a coach. Why not. You also just like you treat your patients, treat yourself with the same, like resources and why not us? Like we have no, like, excuse, like we literally have experts at our fingertips just because you're a physician like.

Are able to get into more spaces and then you can use and leverage that to help your patients and your community at large. Right. So I am so curious how your next three years look for you. What are you up for? Like, what are your goals? How are you going to continue to make an impact for us?

Dr. Adam Harrison: I absolutely love this question. Dr. Diana, so thank you so much for asking you you're a wonderful podcast host, what prep actually preparing for this podcast and having the questions in advance really forced me to think about this. So thank you for that because it's kind of focused me on that a little bit. So. I'd like to in the next three years I'd like to set up and run a retreat for physicians.

Who've experienced workplace bullying by the end of the three years that, that you mentioned within that time as well, maybe within two years, but two to three years. So now I'd like to have published a book on, you know, kind of my way of how I suggest people manage mindset, problems, and confidence, problems that have arisen out of workplace.

Within 18 months, I'd like to set up and hosted a conference on mindset, confidence, workplace bullying. And they're looking a bit bit closer by the end of quarter three of this year, I'd like to have completed my ICF accreditation. That's just kind of hanging over me. So it was one of those things that you just kind of defer, you know, it's important, but it's like, oh, something else has come up, you know, and deprioritize it by the end of June.

So by the end of quarter two, I'd like to have started my own podcast and have at least one group coaching program up and running. Certainly one for victims of workplace bullying and one for those interested in kind leadership. So yeah. Yeah. Within the next three months, podcasts and group programs are my aim fingers crossed.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: That's amazing. Now give us the insight. What are you going to do for fun? And the next three years?

Dr. Adam Harrison: So funny, my wife works very, very hard, but we, we do like our holidays and I suppose that's our main, our main family time, because you know what it's like the working week just goes by so fast, doesn't it?

And there's all sorts of stuff. And even the evenings, you know, the kids go home from school and we have a five and an eight year old daughter. And, you know, our eight year old is slight, right? Come on. You know, you've got homework to do. You've got to have your food, you got to have a shower. You've got piano practice.

And she started playing the guitar recently as well. It's like, well, you know, you wanted to play it. So you've got to do it. And you know, these evenings with all these things to do over in a flash, are they, so the week times. You know, the best kind of quality family time. So, so lots of holidays, I think. Well, as many as we can get in.

Yeah. Especially with the world opening up a bit more. That would be great. Yeah.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: What are your, like, places that you want to visit? Are you wanting to like visit any specific part of Europe or maybe come to the states?

Dr. Adam Harrison: Yeah, we love the states. My wife, and I've been to the states many, many times, would definitely like to come up to this. I've got in the last year or 18 months, I've, you know, accumulated so many good friends in the states like yourself and you know, it'd be, it'd be so great to come and have some. Well, it's not a reunion, is it? Cause like we've not met in person before, you know what I mean? Like I have a gathering of people, so, yeah, definitely, the states and back to New Zealand to see our friends there. So, yeah, they're probably the main.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: You know, I'm pretty sure you can tell all of us, Hey, we're going to have this like trauma conference and you see Lynn's and you want to come be a speaker and you know, we'll be like business expense. Let's go, you know, we're going to be like, well, a little bit. Fun and a little bit of play and a little bit of learning, like perfect, right?

Tiny bit of work. So I'm pretty sure if you also decided to come do a conference. And Vegas or somewhere, you'll get all physicians to come out to. So you, you would just give dreaming and you you'll make it happen. We'll show up.

Tell me where can our listeners get in touch with you so they can learn more. The amazing and great work that you're doing. Maybe they want to work with you and maybe they just gonna to tell you how amazing this was and you know, where can they get in touch with you? I know you're a social butterfly. Tell us all the things.

Dr. Adam Harrison: Yeah. Social media, butterfly. Thank you. That's good. So my, my website is, fairly, fairly new. It's still a work in progress, but it's, it's out there. That's just, www.DrAdamharrison.com. So Dr. Adam Harrison, all this one word and I can be contacted through the contact form on the website.

The website has web pages on how I can help individual physicians or their organizations through. My coaching, training workshops, workplace bullying, and kind leadership development work. So yeah, that's, that's the main thing. Everything is pretty much through my what is it? In your course at your HQ. That's my, that's my HQ now.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And I understand you have a YouTube channel and Instagram and you have all kinds of stuff.

Dr. Adam Harrison: Yeah. I have all the, all the shiny objects. I think my, my LinkedIn and YouTube are my favorites. Hopefully you can put links to those in. But, but Instagram and Twitter are just like, yeah, I'm struggling with them.

Maybe I'll get some traction one day who knows, but they're, they're a bit of an enigma to me, but anyway,

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Well find him on LinkedIn. And if you want to work with him, please do reach out. And if you're considering my course is actually. One of my amazing, expert guests in there. So please join my course and have access to him or work with him directly.

Either way find the resources you need, because you're definitely worth the investment. Our brain is the most powerful asset that we have. And how much money did we put down to become a physician and how much money do we put down to buy our cars and buyer houses? Like there's nothing. Money that you can invest in you becoming who you want to and showing up for yourself, showing up for your family.

Right. And of course, for your patients. And so one last question, anything else you would like to share that maybe I forgot to ask? Or if people finally like woke up, they were asleep this whole time and they just now said, okay, what do I need to take away? What is one last thing that you would like to leave us with?

Dr. Adam Harrison: Okay. Okay. I think, well, can I have, can I be cheeky and have two things? Well, thank you. Thank you. So I think from , a burnout on bullying perspective, my, my kind of take home message is, I have, I have a mantra that I use for my victims of workplace bullying clients, which is you're not alone. It's not your fault.

And you have no reason to feel ashamed. And I think this is equally applicable to our colleagues. Who've suffered. As well, essentially don't bottle it up and suffer in silence, share your feelings and worries with a partner relative close friend or trusted colleague. And I think that action alone can make us feel so much better.

Just kind of offloading that before we even get any professional advice on it. So that, that would be my kind of, um, professional take home message and, um, yeah, and just. Finally, just going back to the contact details thing. I just it'd be, it'd be great. If people could follow me, keep an eye on my website for the release of my podcasts and group coaching programs in the next two to three months.

 I think I'm particularly excited about my podcast show, which will be all about inspiring women leading. And, I've literally heard in the last few days that Dr. Una has very kindly agreed to be my first guest, so yeah, yeah. Really, really chuffed. But, yeah, I just want to say thank you so, so much for having me as a guest on your brilliant show.

I've loved it, and I'm really grateful. Genuinely.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Thank you again. You know, being the source of inspiration and speaking up when nobody was, you know, like you'd start a pandemic. So you're definitely a pioneer doing this and, and doing it at the right time and continuing to do it and showing up. Right. So that's so important.

So. Guys listen up. Like even if you think that whatever your message is, is not important, know that there's somebody out there that's going to be so glad that you decided to share, and it's not gonna be as embarrassing as using ink or as shameful as it is. If anything, you choosing to be brave to speak up and to empower everybody else to do the same.

As someone who understands that time is your most valuable asset, I am so honored that you have shared your time with me. Please click the subscribe. And join my Facebook Group: Beyond ADHD A Physician's Perspective so that you never miss an opportunity to create time at will. Do share this podcast with your friends. So they too can learn to live life and stay in their own lane.

 

 

About Dr. Adam Harrison:

I'm a physician, lawyer and leadership coach who, as a result of my personal experiences, specialises in confidence and mindset coaching for physicians and other professionals who have been on the receiving end of workplace bullying.

As a former medical director, I also work with medical leaders on developing kind leadership cultures based on the compassionate, servant and inclusive leadership model paradigms.

The underpinning philosophy to both my workplace bullying and replacing toxic cultures with kind leadership work, is mental and physical wellbeing, so I do a lot of work in that arena too.

I strongly believe in doing work aligned with my core values (honesty, justice, gratitude, love and humour) and I believe that shines through in my work.

I am a fan of social media, hanging out on LinkedIn (as 'Dr Adam Harrison'), Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (I have my own channel for which I create content) and Clubhouse, where I have co-founded a club.

I am also a budding podcaster (by mid-2022 hopefully) and future author of a book on how those who have experienced workplace bullying can change their mindset and restore and reinforce their confidence so they can stop dreading and start enjoying and thriving at work.

Most importantly though, I am husband to an incredible female surgeon and father to two amazing girls who changed my career trajectory to help me better work towards achieving that often elusive work-life balance.

Email: dr.adam@coachingmentoringdoctors.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dradamharrison
Facebook: @coachingmentoringdoctors
Instagram: @dradamharrison
YouTube: Dr Adam, Physician-Coach
Clubhouse: @dradamharrison | High-Performing Physician
Twitter: @FutureExecCoach