On a Culture of Physician Leadership Development

If you’ve read my book, All Physicians Lead, or attended one of my talks, you know I’m passionate about advancing the leadership capabilities of all physicians—not just those in titled organizational leader roles. A proven way to accomplish this goal is by creating a culture of physician leadership in healthcare. But of course, this is easier said than done. How do we create a culture of continuing physician leadership development?

Over a decade ago, I was tasked with answering this very question. As a senior army surgeon, I approached the two-star general in the Army Medical Corps. I asked if I could put together a comprehensive program for physician leadership development for the 4200+ doctors in the US Army.

After discussing the details a bit, he said yes. In preparation for this work, an impressive team of advisors and contributors came together to develop a template for physician leadership development and training in the Army Medical Corps.

We concluded that four distinct LOEs (lines of effort) needed development and implementation to create a culture of physician leadership. These LOEs, it turns out, are just as applicable in civilian healthcare as they were in the armed forces.

1. Develop Interest

Create early exposure to leadership theory and practice. The first step in building a culture of physician leadership is to pique physicians’ interest early in their careers in the idea that leadership is critical to good patient care.

Student doctors are famously busy people who tend to disregard anything that detracts from their acquiring of clinical skills and knowledge. It’s best to help physicians—from day one—learn to see leadership development as integral to the work they do for patients rather than a distraction from it.

Senior physicians can train young doctors in leadership skills in parallel with their teaching of clinical skills. In this way, young doctors can see leadership—i.e., influencing thought and behavior to achieve desired results—as an essential part of how they work with patients, families, teammates, and other professionals within the healthcare system.

Soon after new physicians hit the ground, we can get them involved in some aspect of the hospital business. There are dozens of committees that need people. Committee membership could be thought of as an elective experience for young physicians.

Through this participation, they would learn early on that running a healthcare system is complicated and that resources are limited – while developing empathy for their professional colleagues in other clinical and administrative roles. This could also help develop an early interest in leadership.

2. The Foundation

Provide leadership education. Leadership education would be most effective if it started in medical school and continued through residency and beyond via healthcare organizations and physician societies.

Ideally, there should be a core leadership curriculum that all young doctors learn—just as they learn a core clinical curriculum—regardless of which institution they attend. We needn’t reinvent the wheel for this. A great deal of excellent leadership theory already exists. It simply needs to be adapted for healthcare, adopted, and taught.

Once a core curriculum is established, education providers can customize their leadership training programs to reflect their institutions’ mission, vision, and specific needs.

3. Apprenticeship Refined

Coach and mentor physicians throughout their careers. Next, we should develop a system of mentors, coaches, and other leaders who can work with physicians throughout their careers to develop their leadership abilities.

Historically, medicine has always used an apprenticeship style of training. Why not use the same approach for developing leadership skills? In the military, leadership qualities are constantly being assessed and developed simultaneously with other skills. We can use “teachable moments” to do the same in healthcare.

4. Build the Bench

Identify, recruit, and train future senior leaders. Finally, we can develop systems for identifying physicians with top-level leadership potential and providing them with the experience and training they need to develop their skills.

Healthcare has an ongoing need for physicians to fill roles within our organizations. We must constantly look to identify potential leaders to be part of a succession pipeline—our “bench.” Toward this end, there should be people within our organizations specifically tasked with identifying potential “superstars” as early as possible, identifying gaps in experience or training, and providing them with the education they need to grow their leadership abilities.

Developing a culture of physician leadership requires a sustained, integrated, multi-pronged approach. The four LOEs above offer one such system to consider.