Ray Luther

Senior Lecturer and Executive Coach, Director of the MBA Leadership Academy

With a military, pharmaceutical, and business leadership background, Ray Luther brings a unique perspective to coaching physicians. The executive director of the Partnership for Coaching Excellence and Personal Leadership at the Kelley School of Business and a senior lecturer in management and entrepreneurship, Luther is a Certified Hudson Institute Coach and Kelley MBA alumnus. He spent more than a decade as a consumer products leader at Procter & Gamble after serving as an officer in the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division. Since returning to Kelley in 2009, Luther has worked with hundreds of MBA students to prepare them professionally as leaders.

“Oftentimes, people consider servant leadership as more of a philosophy, but when I consider how coaches work with adults to help them learn in a way that’s most effective for them, I see it as a practical expression of serving another person,” Luther said. “This doesn’t mean always making them comfortable or reassuring them about their current situation. We work through very challenging problems to help people become the leaders they can be, and coaching is a great way to do that. It goes beyond classroom instruction to support how they apply it in their daily lives.”

I like to help people become the leaders they can be, and coaching is a great way to do that. It goes beyond classroom instruction to support how they apply it in their daily lives.

In particular, Luther enjoys coaching physician MBAs. He’s worked within healthcare his entire career, from serving in the Army Medical Service Corps to pharmaceutical development at Procter & Gamble, serving as part of the team that brought heartburn medication Prilosec over the counter. Luther works with physicians to develop their leadership and their potential impact on the future of modern healthcare.

“Physicians have the ability to influence so much change, but it’s not always based on clinical power. Leading organizations introduces many other human factors into the mix: getting people to buy into your vision, keeping them motivated, executing on plans, and going through project management,” Luther says. “These call upon different skills than clinical-based leadership. The right mix is a physician who understands their clinical power but can also step back and consider how best to provide effective leadership in each situation.”

Physicians have the ability to influence so much change. Sometimes it’s helping physicians understand the art and science of influencing others and aligning them with your vision and goals."

The executive coaches in the Physician MBA Program are trained in the latest coaching methodologies and processes. However, Luther says it’s important for physicians to understand that coaching is not a passive exercise. Coaches do not bring an agenda to the table with a checklist of items that make you a better leader. Instead, coaches focus on what each individual physician needs to grow, improve, or shift as a leader.

“We’re going to explore your challenges, opportunities for growth, or where you’ve received feedback and want to improve. We expect physicians to do the work and bring self-awareness into these meetings so we can identify what’s meaningful to you,” Luther says. “For some, this introduces a deep career conversation because they feel stuck or want to accelerate their trajectory. Others may want to focus on challenges or opportunities within their teams, ways to lead change in their organizations, or simply how to increase their executive presence. Our topics are wide-ranging, but what’s most important is the physician’s priorities and their leadership development in that moment.”