1 Why do physician leaders exist?
The SOMC Physician Leadership
Development Process and Results of a Needs-Assessment Survey 1
A Presentation for SOMC Leaders
Jerri Blackburn
Kendall L. Stewart
January 26, 2008

• Physicians are the foundations of our success.
• Physician leaders are the keys to
– Recruiting and retaining physicians,
– Increasing SOMC-physician alignment,
– Clarifying our expectations for physicians,
– Optimizing physician performance, and
– Dealing effectively with difficult physicians.
• Our foundation model has no chance of success without effective physician leaders showing the way.
• Physician only develop into effective leaders as they acquire the knowledge and skills critical to their success.
• Effective physician leaders possess natural talent for leadership, but talent and desire are insufficient by themselves.
• Arduous practice, painful failure, and life-long learning are the keys to mastery.
• Leadership is neither easy nor simple—except to clueless spectators on the sidelines.
• Leadership effectiveness begins with clear role expectations and a determination to produce and sustain organizational results.

• We conducted a simple needsassessment survey
• We used a Likert Scale with 5 being “strongly agree” and 1 being “strongly disagree.”
– “I have all of the KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS I need to be an effective physician leader.”
– “What physician leadership
KNOWLEDGE do you need?”
– “What physician leadership
SKILLS do you need?”
– “How do you prefer to acquire new physician leadership knowledge and skills?”

1,2,3
25
20
15
10
5
0
1 2 3
Physician Responses
4 5
1 5 is Strongly Agree
2 1 is Strongly Disagree
3 N =35

• How to build relationships (3)
• How to manage conflict (3)
• How to stay informed (2)
• How to deal with difficult people (2)
• How to master key health care business concepts (2)
• How to deal with disruptive physicians
• How to design and complete projects
• How to understand organizational concepts and implement them
• How the Executive Committee works
• How the Medical Staff works
• How to improve coding and collections
• How to supervise my physician colleagues more effectively
• How to develop better people skills
• How to have more patience
• How to understand SOMC’s structure and operations
• How to understand Medical Staff structure and operations
• How to develop and analyze the budget
• How to understand Medical Care Foundation operations
• How to better understand CMS funding and operations
• How to complete administrative duties more efficiently
• How to effectively recruit and retain physicians
• How to avoid legal risks as a physician leader
• How to understand the legal implications of physician-hospital relationships
• How to manage physicians better
• How to focus on the common ground to achieve our goals
• How to invite feedback
• How to build relationships
• How to deal with errors
• How to manage non compliance
• How to delegate
• How to communicate effectively
• How to improve office operations
• How to develop strategy
• How to be more organized
• How to build consensus
• How to understand and use organizational structure
• How to negotiate effectively

• Conflict management (10)
• Communication (6)
• Confrontation (4)
• I don’t know (4)
• Teamwork (3)
• Relationship management (2)
• Process improvement (2)
• Supervision
• Organizational
• Time management
• Legal
• Computer
• Patience
• Negotiation
• Facilitation
• Crisis management
• Problem solving

1
Formal Graduate Work
Being Coached During
Real Opportunities
Attending Local
Meetings
Attending National
Conferences
Self Study
0
1 Respondents chose multiple strategies.
5 10 15
Physician Responses
20 25

– Exceptional clinicians
– Passionate about organizational results
– Positive
– Enthusiastic
– Team players
– Even-tempered
– Supportive
– Hard-working and driven
– Eager to give others the credit
1 Physicians really, really don’t like criticism. We are used to being loved.
– Thick-skinned 1
– Patient and persistent
– Persuasive
– Forthright
– Trustworthy
– Persons of integrity
– Reliable
– Organized
– Effective communicators
– Eager to learn
– Eager to teach

• We expect physician leaders to
– Attend meetings faithfully
– Prepare for meetings
– Show up on time
– Participate fully in meetings without dominating them
– Pull their weight
– Be accountable
– Ask the right questions
– Model the SOMC Standards of Behavior and confront their colleagues appropriately who do not
• We expect physician leaders to
– Be positive
– Be forthright
– Suggest options instead of whining about problems 1
– Take personal responsibility instead of blaming others
– Take a considered position and stick to it in the meeting and outside the meeting
– Become expert in one or more critical leadership skills
– Embrace the SOMC Rules of
Engagement
1 Physicians often believe that leadership consists of identifying the problems and telling others what to do to fix them.

1
• Inquire about my interest in physician leadership when I first join the staff.
• If I have some interest, invite me to serve on a committee.
• Invite me to discuss my interest in leadership with other physician leaders.
• Invite me to attend A Complete Course for Medical Staff Leaders .
• Give me selected books and articles to read.
• Invite me to pursue a voluntary physician leadership position at SOMC such as a committee chair or a member of the Medical Staff Executive Committee.
• Invite me to a new physician leader orientation session.
• Provide me with an SOMC Physician
Leadership Manual.
• Create and update an annotated bibliography on physician leadership and make it available through our medical librarian.
• Remind me regularly that physician leaders exist to achieve and sustain exceptional organizational results.
• Invite me to attend local meetings on physician leadership.
• Invite me to attend national meetings in areas of my developing leadership expertise.
• Invite me to become a candidate for an available SOMC Medical Directorship.
• Clarify your expectations of me as a physician leader.
• Invite me to participate in the SOMC
Leadership Development Institute (LDI) if my clinical schedule permits.
• Give me feedback about my performance.
• Invite me to participate in a facilitated
360-degree feedback process.
• Encourage me to pursue formal graduate work on my own if that interests me.
1 This process is written from the physician’s perspective.

• Embrace discomfort.
1
• Identify, accept and express feelings—including your own.
• Begin reading regularly about evidence-based physician leadership.
• Attend local, regional and national meetings on physician leadership.
• Arrange for facilitated 360-degree feedback about your perceived effectiveness as a physician leader.
• When you face a leadership challenge, seek out an effective physician leader for individualized coaching.
• When you have worked through an issue or make a mistake, figure out what you could have done better.
• Document your own best-practice processes.
• Share your learning with your colleagues.
1 Bear in mind that we all show up every day wanting to do what we want to do, not wanting to do what we don’t want to do, wanting to be paid a lot more for it, and wanting to be told how wonderful we are—particularly when we are not.

1
• Stewart, Kendall L., “The Dark Side: Some Practical
Guidelines for New Physician Executives,” 2005 (If you would like to receive a copy of this draft White
Paper, please send me an email message.)
• Stewart, Kendall L., et. al., A Portable Mentor for
Organizational Leaders, SOMCPress, 2003 (If you have not already received your copy, please let me know.)
• Michael E. Porter, PhD, MBA; Elizabeth Olmsted
Teisberg, PhD, MEngr, MS, “How Physicians Can
Change the Future of Health Care,”
JAMA.
2007;297:1103-1111 (The book from which this is drawn is probably the health care book to read this year. If you would like to receive a summary, please send me an email message.)
• McKenna MK, Gartland MP, Pugno PA,
“Development of physician leadership competencies: perceptions of physician leaders, physician educators and medical students,” J Health Adm Educ. 2004
Summer;21(3):343-54.
1 Please visit www.KendallLStewartMD.com to download related White Papers and presentations.

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