Article
The Must-Have Skill of Physician Leadership
Author(s):
No amount of book learning will substitute adequately for real life experience, so aspiring physician entrepreneurs should position themselves in whatever leadership capacity they can.
Okay —
it's time to talk physician leadership since we're up to Rule # 7 of Bill Murphy Jr.'s The Intelligent Entrepreneur. This Rule is Learn to Lead.
The course that had the greatest impact on me during my Masters in Public Health program was Health Care Leadership. As we were debating and learning about the skills that good leaders exhibit, it struck me that we physicians had very little training in what it took to be effective as the person in command of the show.
Shortly thereafter, in my role as Medical Director of our local hospital, I campaigned successfully to set up a physician leadership training program for our hospital medical staff, local IPA and academic medical center leaders. In many ways, this training helped provide significant breakthroughs in some of the stubborn impasses in which the diverse constituents of our medical community were engaged.
I have never forgotten the lessons.
