Michael Jordan wasn’t just a gifted athlete—he was obsessed with getting better, compulsively seeking feedback from his coaches before and after every practice. He didn’t just tolerate feedback; he craved it, then worked at implementing it with the same intensity he brought to the court. Natural talent opened the door. Coachability made him a legend.
There’s a lesson there for us leaders. Healthcare organizations are full of brilliant clinicians and administrators who hit a ceiling not because they lack skill, but because they stop seeking out the input that could take them further. Mounting research highlights the often underestimated impact of coachability on job performance, with researchers often elevating it over technical expertise.
In the realm of pro sports, formal coachability assessments have long been baked into athlete selection, development programs, and contract decisions. It’s time healthcare leadership caught up.
Coachability defined, and why it matters in healthcare
Think back to the best leader you’ve ever worked with. Chances are, they weren’t the person who knew everything—they were someone constantly working to get better. In healthcare, where the stakes are literally life and death, that quality makes all the difference.
Coachability isn’t about passively accepting criticism. Rather, researchers define it as “the tendency to proactively seek, receive, and implement constructive feedback to enhance development and performance.” It’s an active pursuit of growth.
How critical is it, really? In a study of 20,000 new hires, Leadership IQ found the number one reason professionals failed within 18 months wasn’t lack of technical skill or experience. It was a lack of coachability. Other studies back this up, showing that coachable employees outperform their peers, adapt faster to change, and advance more quickly. Coachability is also one of the strongest predictors of whether someone will actually benefit from leadership coaching.
Organizations that prioritize coachability see tangible benefits: better leadership pipelines, stronger performance, and employees who can navigate complexity with agility. These aren’t just soft skills, but strategic advantages. The good news? Coachability can be taught and developed.
What makes someone coachable?
Researchers prioritized five core qualities of coachable individuals:
- Growth orientation: Drive to grow and learn, being goal-oriented and actively engaged in the coaching process
- Awareness: Self-awareness, other awareness, and emotional regulation
- Openness: Receptiveness to feedback and diverse perspectives
- Vulnerability: Willingness to acknowledge areas for improvement, transparency around current challenges, and a sense of humility
- External support: Support that is truly external to the person
Despite how critical these qualities are, most organizations aren’t systematically assessing or nurturing them. “Coachability is critical for building high-performing coaching cultures, accelerating employee development, and fostering leadership pipelines,” researchers note. “Organizations should integrate coachability into leadership program criteria.”
Building coachability into your organization
Below are practical ways to build a culture of coachability in your organization:
Integrate coachability into hiring. During interviews, ask candidates about times they sought feedback, acted on criticism, or changed their approach based on new information. Listen for evidence of growth orientation, not just accomplishment.
Make it part of your leadership development criteria. Research suggests organizations should integrate coachability into leadership program selection and evaluation. Don’t just assess who has the most experience—assess who has the greatest capacity to grow.
Model it from the top. Leaders who openly seek feedback, acknowledge their blind spots, and visibly work on development give permission for everyone else to do the same.
Create systems that support coachability. Ensure your organization provides the external support that coachable people need: mentorship, coaching resources, and protected time for reflection and development.
Offer targeted development resources. Help leaders and employees build self-awareness and understand what coachable behaviors look like.
At MEDI Leadership, we gauge coachability throughout our engagement process—during early conversations with decision-makers, in chemistry calls with potential clients, and especially during coaching kickoffs and ongoing sessions. Sometimes coachability emerges gradually as trust builds between coach and client. Other times, patterns surface through stakeholder feedback, revealing opportunities for leaders to decide whether they’re willing to make adjustments based on greater self-awareness. This ongoing assessment helps us optimize coaching investments and set clients up for success.
Interestingly, I’ve found that simply initiating conversations about coachability drives awareness and improvement. When leaders understand what coachability looks like and why it matters, they become more coachable.
The path forward
Healthcare is growing more complex by the day. In this environment, the leaders who succeed won’t be the ones with all the answers, but the ones who can learn, adapt, and grow faster than the problems around them.
That’s coachability. And it might be the most important leadership trait we’re not talking about enough. With the right interventions, you can enhance coachability to maximize the impact of your coaching and workforce investments.
Start the conversation about coachability in your organization. You might be surprised by how quickly awareness turns into momentum—and momentum into measurable change.
