Physician Leader: How Exam Room Experience Drives Leadership Excellence

Physicians are often asked to lead healthcare teams, departments, divisions, practices, and hospitals. Though many of them are experts in their fields, they are rarely prepared or educated in business management and leadership. Based on the authors’ interviews with many physician and non-physician executives and leaders, medical training contributes little to leadership skills. Many physicians leave medical training with a command-and-control leadership style that later has to be unlearned to succeed in a team-based healthcare environment.

This book will help physician leaders to shed derailers and authoritarian leadership tendencies picked up in years of medical training. It is intended for (1) physicians who are transitioning to healthcare leadership roles, (2) senior-level physician and non-physician leaders as a coaching model to develop their physician leader direct reports, and (3) administrative leaders who are partnering with physician leaders.

Both authors progressed from mid-level leadership roles to the C-suite, one as a physician leader and one as an administrative leader. As such, they have leveraged their operational excellence expertise to design the Iterative Leadership Model that includes the leader’s mindset, Leadership Strategies, and a coaching framework: GUIDES (Gather, Understand, Identify, Design, Execute, and Self-Reflect) that is based on the scientific method, PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act), A3 thinking, and the SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan) note format.

The authors masterfully integrate personal reflections, coaching examples, illustrative fictional vignettes, and GUIDES exercises to support leaders in the self-development and self-improvement of seven critical Leadership Attributes: strategic thinking, effective communication, coaching, team-building, change management, continuous learning, and problem-solving.