Physicians who become CEOs tend to build on their clinical training rather than leave it behind, expanding their skillset for enterprise leadership, according to a July 14 article from McKinsey.
The article draws on interviews with 38 physician CEOs across health systems, insurers and life sciences companies.
Five things to know:
1. Physician CEOs reach the top job by developing four behaviors, according to McKinsey: amplifying, adapting, acquiring and architecting. They amplify the strengths that translate beyond the bedside, including composure under pressure and clinical diagnostic reasoning — the ability to filter out noise and focus on what matters most.
2. Physician CEOs also learn to adapt their clinical instincts for enterprise leadership, adjusting how they make decisions based on the situation. For example, they develop judgment about when to prioritize speed over certainty, recognizing that strong CEOs sometimes need to make critical decisions with incomplete information, even outside of an emergency.
3. More than 85% of the physician CEOs interviewed said it is important to acquire capabilities outside clinical training, such as governance, operations and finance. They also said physician CEOs do not need to become experts in these areas, but must understand them well enough to speak credibly.
4. Physician CEOs also “architect experiences to accelerate CEO readiness,” according to McKinsey. Rather than climb a traditional career ladder, many said they prioritized roles that would teach them the most, even if that meant a lateral move or a step down, in order to gain exposure to new systems or unfamiliar challenges. Some passed up more senior clinical roles for positions that would build their operational skills, and others pursued a master’s in business administration.
5. The “architect” step is one physician CEOs have described to Becker’s recently. Several said their path to the CEO role wasn’t linear. Matthew Hanley, MD, president and CEO of Gainesville-based Northeast Georgia Health System, said in June that his time in the private sector gave him business rigor and a national perspective that were difficult to build inside a nonprofit system.
Marlon Levy, MD, CEO of Richmond, Va.-based VCU Health, is an example of a physician CEO who pursued an MBA to develop business fluency in a previous role.
“If your goal is to be the CEO, I think you have to be prepared to have lots of twists and turns in your journey, and potentially be prepared to never get there,” Dr. Levy said in June. “Rather than set your destination on a specific seat, set your destination on continuing to grow, continuing to contribute, continuing to add value to an organization.”
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