Karen Souter, MB BS., PCC., MACM.

Karen guides academic faculty in developing leadership skills, advancing their careers, and creating alignment between their work and life.

Karen is an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and a practicing physician anesthesiologist with an international medical career spanning over 30 years. Her experience as a national leader in academic medicine and education informs her work as a coach. Karen’s areas of coaching expertise are in leadership, professional development, and career advancement. 

Karen’s coaching approach is centered on the partnership between coach and coachee; she creates a safe space for her clients to explore and find alignment between their core strengths and values and their goals.  Her coaching focuses on deep listening and using powerful questions to inspire curiosity, and to assist her clients in establishing a strong foundation from which to grow as leaders and achieve their professional goals.  

Karen’s coaching clients are physicians, and academicians at all levels whose goals are to establish themselves as leaders, develop and sustain their careers and make transitions. Examples of her clients’ successes include developing a personal leadership style, leading teams, negotiating, navigating difficult conversations, and using 360-degree evaluations. Karen uses a variety of established tools and techniques tailored to the needs and goals of her clients.  

Karen served for 12 years as the residency program director at a major academic medical center and was awarded the ACGME Parker J Palmer Courage to Teach” award in recognition of her leadership and innovation as a program director. She has a master’s degree in education & academic medicine (MACM) and throughout her career she has taken an active leadership role nationally in professional societies related to anesthesia and education. Her training and certification as a coach was a natural progression in the career of a medical educator founded on caring, creativity, mentoring, and giving back. 

Testimonials

“Dr. Souter is a patient and thoughtful coach who created a comfortable space for reflection and prioritization.  She provided helpful exercises and helped me to create action plans that led me to a better understanding of myself and an improved set of tools to deal with future challenges.  I am grateful for the progress we have made and excited to work with her in the future!” – Dr JD Mitchell, MD, Vice Chair for Education/Department of Anesthesiology, Pain Management, & Perioperative Medicine, Henry Ford Health System 

“My goals were to talk through leadership challenges and work through appropriate courses of action. I also wanted to develop better answers to interview questions and think about how I present myself overall when searching for a new job opportunity. Karen helped me talk through a lot of mental barriers I was having regarding my current professional situation. This was immensely beneficial to how I project my feelings in my work life and helped me detach emotion from what was perceived vs what was real. I think that Karen’s calm presence made it easy for me to come down off the high I get from leadership challenges, allowing me to be in a space to work through issues that is safe and open is extremely beneficial”. – Academic Physician 

“I wanted to lay things on the table, sort it out with a coach who provides a different perspective and feedback, so that I could find a concrete path towards my goal. Karen, you helped me think through different perspectives/ lenses and see blind spots as well as good steps; you helped me make a leap.!  You were empathic, understanding and encouraging. I appreciated when you said things (a suggestion or constructive critique etc.) for my sake (rather than institution’s sake), that helped a lot! It was my luck to have Karen as my coach, I think your coaching style is artful. I very much appreciate your calm, thoughtful, and inquisitive manner that encourages introspective thinking on my part and fostered a good dialogue”. – Academic Physician