The Truth Behind Physician Leaders: Study Reveals Personality Traits Required for Success

A new survey finds physician leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry have  more forceful personalities, typical of what you would see in business leaders, while leadership in hospitals tend to be more structured, thoughtful, deliberative and cautious.

It's easy to assume physician leaders are all cut from the same cloth. After all, each likely needed the same dose of drive, determination and decision-making to be in the position they're in today — right?

Contradicting popular belief, a recent study conducted by Caliper indicates physician leaders in a pharmaceutical industry versus a hospital setting don't just vary according to location; they’re also diverse when it comes to their personality traits.

Drawing on insights from the study, the below explores just what makes physician leaders similar and different — and why this information is critical to the future success of their organizations.

Study overview: Why traits matter
Evidence has shown that personality is a strong indicator of the types of individuals who are successful and able to take on executive-level roles. Moreover, it can also give insights into how executives lead their organizations. Therefore, the most recent study analyzing hospital physician leaders versus pharmaceutical physician leaders aimed to accomplish two things:

  • Identify the particular personality traits of physicians that lead to behaviors that demonstrate success. The results would also provide a composite data set of leadership traits that are shared by successful physician leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. These personality traits can also link into competencies already developed by individual organizations regarding their unique leadership definitions.

  • Serve as a roadmap for recruiters in the pharmaceutical industry in identifying potential leaders and bringing on suitable candidates. Understanding physician leaders' unique personality traits could ultimately guide recruitment firms in the future as they assess candidates for roles. As a result, both recruiting firms and pharmaceutical companies can drastically improve physician leader selection, onboarding and retention processes.


For this analysis, a pool of participants — all physician leaders in either the pharma or hospital industry  — were pulled from various pharmaceutical and biotech firms as well as hospitals. They were then administered an in-depth personality profile, which measured 23 personal attributes that correlate with job-related behaviors.

The results: Physician leaders in pharma and biotech
So what makes a physician leader in the pharma and biotech industries thrive? By analyzing characteristics in four clusters — Leadership, Interpersonal, Problem-Solving/Decision-Making and Personal Organization/Time Management — we learned the following:

Leadership
These physician leaders display strengths in communicating their points of view in a direct way, and they are comfortable interacting in situations that call for a straightforward communications style. They also tend to feel comfortable reinforcing and defending their point of view when up against resistance.

Even though the results indicate that these leaders might not welcome conflict, they will most likely be willing to engage in difficult conversations as needed. Communicating the company direction, vision and goals will likely come easily to this group, as they tend to communicate in a way that is easily understood. As a result, this team of physician leaders could be effective in inspiring their teams.

In terms of urgency and risk-taking, the group consists of strong, decisive leaders that are action oriented and willing to challenge the status quo. However, because of this driving force, and lower level of cautiousness, there could be some potential for opportunities to really think through a situation before making a decision.

Interpersonal

This group of physician leaders displays a cordial dynamic. However, they are not likely to be focused on the social initiative in every situation. They tend to establish basic rapport and understand others' wants, needs and reactions. Because of the driving factors around urgency, these individuals are apt to be more results focused than relationship focused.

Problem-Solving/Decision-Making
The group of top physician leaders in the biotech and pharma industry displays an ability to see patterns in information, cause-and-effect relationships and problem-solving potential. As a result, they will likely be able to solve problems quickly, recognize key issues and understand how one problem affects the other. In addition, they displayed characteristics that would lend themselves to innovative thinking and a willingness to take risks.

Personal Organization/Time Management
The group indicated tendencies toward multi-tasking and the ability to juggle various projects. In fact, they might gravitate toward such an environment, being that this is something that this group tends to enjoy. In relation to the group’s urgency and risk-taking orientation, they will drive results and look to get things done. However, in doing so, they might have trouble staying focused on one item. They could be biased toward quick action rather than thoughtful deliberation.
In general, the group of participant physician leaders also scored above average in the areas of assertiveness, aggressiveness, ego-drive, risk-taking, urgency, abstract reasoning and idea orientation.

The results: Physician leaders in hospitals
On the other side of the spectrum, physician leaders in hospital settings exhibited the following characteristics when analyzed by the same four clusters:

Leadership
This group displays more moderate strengths in communicating their points of view in a direct way and interacting in situations that call for a straightforward communications style. Communicating the company direction, vision and goals is something these physician leaders can do, but they might not be as naturally motivated to do so on a regular basis.
In terms of urgency and risk-taking, the group consists of more cautious, detail-oriented individuals who will think through a situation, analyze all the options and take all the particulars into account before making a decision. This method of decision making is not surprising in a hospital environment.

Interpersonal
This group of physician leaders displays a cordial dynamic. Like physician leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, they are not likely to be focused on the social initiative in every situation. They will be able to establish rapport and understand others' needs.

Problem-Solving/Decision-Making
The group of top physician leaders in the hospital environment also displays an ability to identify patterns and problem-solving potential. Thus, they are likely to solve problems quickly, recognize key issues and understand how one problem affects the other.

Personal Organization/Time Management
These physician leaders indicated the potential to structure their own days while adhering to policies and procedures. Again, for physician leaders in the hospital environment, this is not unusual. They tend to be a cautious group, who will take all the details into account before making a decision. They will cautiously move toward a solution and tend to be less willing to take risks and jump to conclusions.

In general, the group of participant physician leaders scored above average in the areas of self-structure and external structure, responsibility and cautiousness.

Analysis: Physician leaders are more different than you think
The dynamic differences between physician leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries versus physician leaders practicing in hospitals prove not all physician leaders are the same.
The pharmaceutical environment lends itself toward more forceful personalities, typical of what you would see in business leaders, while leadership in hospitals tend to be more structured, thoughtful, deliberative and cautious. The practicing physician sample tends to fall on a more moderate level in terms of forceful communication and persuasion, while leaders in pharma are much more ego-driven, assertive and urgent.

This analysis also indicates individuals who attend medical school but enter the pharmaceutical or biotech field are drawn to the industry because they are motivated by the same factors that drive most industry leaders. Leaders in a more clinical setting often have leadership bestowed upon them due to a need. In other words, leaders in hospitals become clinicians first and for the most part, are great technicians that enjoy practicing medicine.

Last word on physician leaders
So what does this all mean? How is this information helpful? How can it be leveraged?

The goal in conducting this study was to have a better understanding of the traits that make physician leaders successful, and how those traits translate into leadership behaviors. By placing a study such as this one alongside a candidate's profile, pharmaceutical and biotech organizations (and recruiting firms) as well as hospitals can help build a better picture around how someone can fit into the mix of their organization. With further analysis into a comprehensive job description, recruiters and organizations alike can utilize this information to hire more people like their top physician leaders, ensuring teams are best suited to lead their organizations into the future.

Thomas E. Schoenfelder, PhD, is senior vice president of R&D at Caliper, an organization that has helped more than 28,000 companies around the world get clear about selecting the right people, developing the best talent and creating the organizational culture they need to succeed.


A new survey finds physician leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry have  more forceful personalities, typical of what you would see in business leaders, while leadership in hospitals tend to be more structured, thoughtful, deliberative and cautious.

It's easy to assume physician leaders are all cut from the same cloth. After all, each likely needed the same dose of drive, determination and decision-making to be in the position they're in today — right?

Contradicting popular belief, a recent study conducted by Caliper indicates physician leaders in a pharmaceutical industry versus a hospital setting don't just vary according to location; they’re also diverse when it comes to their personality traits.

Drawing on insights from the study, the below explores just what makes physician leaders similar and different — and why this information is critical to the future success of their organizations.

Study overview: Why traits matter

Evidence has shown that personality is a strong indicator of the types of individuals who are successful and able to take on executive-level roles. Moreover, it can also give insights into how executives lead their organizations. Therefore, the most recent study analyzing hospital physician leaders versus pharmaceutical physician leaders aimed to accomplish two things:

·         Identify the particular personality traits of physicians that lead to behaviors that demonstrate success. The results would also provide a composite data set of leadership traits that are shared by successful physician leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. These personality traits can also link into competencies already developed by individual organizations regarding their unique leadership definitions.

 

·         Serve as a roadmap for recruiters in the pharmaceutical industry in identifying potential leaders and bringing on suitable candidates. Understanding physician leaders' unique personality traits could ultimately guide recruitment firms in the future as they assess candidates for roles. As a result, both recruiting firms and pharmaceutical companies can drastically improve physician leader selection, onboarding and retention processes.

For this analysis, a pool of participants — all physician leaders in either the[ac1]  pharma or hospital industry   were pulled from various pharmaceutical and biotech firms as well as hospitals. They were then administered an in-depth personality profile, which measured 23 personal attributes that correlate with job-related behaviors.

 

The results: Physician leaders in pharma and biotech

So what makes a physician leader in the pharma and biotech industries thrive? By analyzing characteristics in four clusters — Leadership, Interpersonal, Problem-Solving/Decision-Making and Personal Organization/Time Management — we learned the following:

Leadership
These physician leaders display strengths in communicating their points of view in a direct way, and they are comfortable interacting in situations that call for a straightforward communications style. They also tend to feel comfortable reinforcing and defending their point of view when up against resistance.

Even though the results indicate that these leaders might not welcome conflict, they will most likely be willing to engage in difficult conversations as needed. Communicating the company direction, vision and goals will likely come easily to this group, as they tend to communicate in a way that is easily understood. As a result, this team of physician leaders could be effective in inspiring their teams.

In terms of urgency and risk-taking, the group consists of strong, decisive leaders that are action oriented and willing to challenge the status quo. However, because of this driving force, and lower level of cautiousness, there could be some potential for opportunities to really think through a situation before making a decision.

Interpersonal
This group of physician leaders displays a cordial dynamic. However, they are not likely to be focused on the social initiative in every situation. They tend to establish basic rapport and understand others' wants, needs and reactions. Because of the driving factors around urgency, these individuals are apt to be more results focused than relationship focused.

Problem-Solving/Decision-Making
The group of top physician leaders in the biotech and pharma industry displays an ability to see patterns in information, cause-and-effect relationships and problem-solving potential. As a result, they will likely be able to solve problems quickly, recognize key issues and understand how one problem affects the other. In addition, they displayed characteristics that would lend themselves to innovative thinking and a willingness to take risks.

Personal Organization/Time Management
The group indicated tendencies toward multi-tasking and the ability to juggle various projects. In fact, they might gravitate toward such an environment, being that this is something that this group tends to enjoy. In relation to the group’s urgency and risk-taking orientation, they will drive results and look to get things done. However, in doing so, they might have trouble staying focused on one item. They could be biased toward quick action rather than thoughtful deliberation.

In general, the group of participant physician leaders also scored above average in the areas of assertiveness, aggressiveness, ego-drive, risk-taking, urgency, abstract reasoning and idea orientation.

The results: Physician leaders in hospitals
On the other side of the spectrum, physician leaders in hospital settings exhibited the following characteristics when analyzed by the same four clusters:

Leadership
This group displays more moderate strengths in communicating their points of view in a direct way and interacting in situations that call for a straightforward communications style.
Communicating the company direction, vision and goals is something these physician leaders can do, but they might not be as naturally motivated to do so on a regular basis.

In terms of urgency and risk-taking, the group consists of more cautious, detail-oriented individuals who will think through a situation, analyze all the options and take all the particulars into account before making a decision. This method of decision making is not surprising in a hospital environment.

Interpersonal
This group of physician leaders displays a cordial dynamic. Like physician leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, they are not likely to be focused on the social initiative in every situation. They will be able to establish rapport and understand others' needs.

Problem-Solving/Decision-Making
The group of top physician leaders in the hospital environment also displays an ability to identify patterns and problem-solving potential. Thus, they are likely to solve problems quickly, recognize key issues and understand how one problem affects the other.

Personal Organization/Time Management
These physician leaders indicated the potential to structure their own days while adhering to policies and procedures. Again, for physician leaders in the hospital environment, this is not unusual. They tend to be a cautious group, who will take all the details into account before making a decision. They will cautiously move toward a solution and tend to be less willing to take risks and jump to conclusions.

In general, the group of participant physician leaders scored above average in the areas of self-structure and external structure, responsibility and cautiousness.

Analysis: Physician leaders are more different than you think
The dynamic differences between physician leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries versus physician leaders practicing in hospitals prove not all physician leaders are the same.

The pharmaceutical environment lends itself toward more forceful personalities, typical of what you would see in business leaders, while leadership in hospitals tend to be more structured, thoughtful, deliberative and cautious. The practicing physician sample tends to fall on a more moderate level in terms of forceful communication and persuasion, while leaders in pharma are much more ego-driven, assertive and urgent.

This analysis also indicates individuals who attend medical school but enter the pharmaceutical or biotech field are drawn to the industry because they are motivated by the same factors that drive most industry leaders. Leaders in a more clinical setting often have leadership bestowed upon them due to a need. In other words, leaders in hospitals become clinicians first and for the most part, are great technicians that enjoy practicing medicine.

Last word on physician leaders
So what does this all mean? How is this information helpful? How can it be leveraged?

The goal in conducting this study was to have a better understanding of the traits that make physician leaders successful, and how those traits translate into leadership behaviors. By placing a study such as this one alongside a candidate's profile, pharmaceutical and biotech organizations (and recruiting firms) as well as hospitals can help build a better picture around how someone can fit into the mix of their organization. With further analysis into a comprehensive job description, recruiters and organizations alike can utilize this information to hire more people like their top physician leaders, ensuring teams are best suited to lead their organizations into the future.

Thomas E. Schoenfelder, PhD, is senior vice president of R&D at Caliper, an organization that has helped more than 28,000 companies around the world get clear about selecting the right people, developing the best talent and creating the organizational culture they need to succeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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