Skip to main content
Log in

Exploring Leadership Competencies in Established and Aspiring Physician Leaders: An Interview-based Study

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of General Internal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background and Objectives

Academic health care institutions have become interested in understanding and supporting current leaders and preparing leaders for the future. We designed this exploratory study to better understand specific perceived leadership needs of physicians from the perspective of “aspiring” and “established” leaders within our institution.

Design

A qualitative, inductive, structured interview-based design was used to examine the study questions.

Participants

A purposeful sample of current and aspiring leaders was obtained, sampling across specialties and levels of leadership.

Interventions

All participants were interviewed by the same investigator (CT). Five open-ended questions were developed as prompts. Two of the investigators independently analyzed the transcripts, using an open coding method to identify themes within the narratives. Inter-observer comparisons were made and discrepancies were resolved through discussion.

Results

Four themes emerged from analyzing the responses to our questions. Aspiring and established leaders agreed that “knowledge”, “people skills” or emotional intelligence, and “vision” were all characteristics of effective leaders and critical to the success of aspiring leaders. Established leaders in our sample added a characteristic of “organizational orientation” that extended the description of “leaders” to include an understanding of the institution as well as dedication to its success (a trait we have called “organizational altruism”).

Conclusions

Our findings validate others’ regarding leadership competencies while extending these findings to the specific context of health care and physicians. Important implications for curricular design include: inclusion of emotional intelligence competencies and reducing formal didactics in favor of programs that are both interactive and problem-based.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kotter J. Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press; 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Kouzes JM, Posner BZ. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Minvielle E. Beyond quality management methods: meeting the challenges of health care reform. Int J Qual Health Care. 1997;9:189–92.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Weisbord MR. Why organization development hasn’t worked (so far) in medical centers. In: Organization Diagnosis: A Workbook of Theory and Practice. Health Care Manage Rev. 1976;1:17–28.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Stoller JK. Can physicians collaborate? A review of organizational development in healthcare. OD Pract. 2004;36(3)19–24.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Schwartz R, Pogge C. Physician leadership is essential to the survival of teaching hospitals. Am J Surg. 2000;179:462–8.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Lobas JG. Leadership in academic medicine: capabilities and conditions for organizational success. Am J Med. 2006;119:617–21.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Schwartz RW, Pogge C, Gillis SA, Holsinger JW. Programs for the development of physician leaders: a curricular process in its infancy. Acad Med. 2000;75(2)133–40.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Stoller JK, Berkowitz E, Bailin P. Physician management and leadership education at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation: program impact and experience over 14 years. J Med Pract Manage. 2007;22:237–42.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Scott HM, Tangalos EG, Blomberg RA, Bender CE. Survey of physician leadership and management education. Mayo Clin Proc. 1997;72:659–62.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Epstein AL. The state of physician leadership in medical groups: a study of leaders and leadership development among AMGA member organizations. Group Pract J. 2005;54:24–31.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Leslie LK, Miotto MB, Liu GC, et al. Training young pediatricians as leaders for the 21st century. Pediatrics. 2005;115:765–773.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Inui TS, Frankel RM. Evaluating the quality of qualitative research. J Gen Intern Med. 1991;6:485–6.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Strauss A, Corbin J. Basics of Qualitative Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications; 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Denzen NK, Lincoln YS, eds. Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Goleman D. What makes a leader? Harvard Bus Rev. 1998;76:93–102.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Goleman D, Boyatzis RE, McKee A. Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional intelligence. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA; 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Mayer JD, Salovey P. What is emotional intelligence? In: Salovey P, Slouyter D, eds. Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Educational Applications. New York: Basic Books; 1997:3–31.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Bossidy L, Charan R. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Crown: UK; 2002.

  20. Bailin PB, Bonecutter TA. Executive program in practice management: A new concept in management education. The NAHAM Management Journal. 1991 (winter):8–11

  21. Zemke R, Raines C, Filipczak B. Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters in Your Workplace. AMACOM: New York; 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Conbere JP, Gibson SK. Transforming perspectives on health care: outcomes of a management education program for physicians. J Acad Bus Adm. 2007;10:263–8.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Copeland LH, Stoller JK, Hewson M, Longworth DL. Making the continuing medical education lecture effective. Journal of Continuing Medical Education. 1998;18:227–34.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Craik FIM, Lockhart RS. Levels of processing: a framework for memory research. J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav. 1972;11:671–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to acknowledge all the CCF faculty who generously participated and provided thoughtful responses to our questions. In addition, we would like to thank Maggie Muszka who transcribed all the wonderful ideas into text for analysis and Sherri White who assisted in the manuscript preparation.

Conflict of Interest

None disclosed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christine A. Taylor PhD.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Taylor, C.A., Taylor, J.C. & Stoller, J.K. Exploring Leadership Competencies in Established and Aspiring Physician Leaders: An Interview-based Study. J GEN INTERN MED 23, 748–754 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-008-0565-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-008-0565-5

KEY WORDS

Navigation