Experienced executives offer head-to-toe advice.

Ten years ago, when our firm was asked to recruit a CEO or executive vice president and we asked the search committee if they would consider a physician, the answer was generally, “Sure, we’ll consider a physician, but we really need someone with a lot of experience in strategy, finance and operations.” The unsaid ending of that sentence was, “We don’t think physicians have those skills.” Five years ago, when we posed the same question, we heard more often, “We want to look at physicians and nonphysicians.” Most recently we hear, “We’d like you to help us recruit a CEO; we want a physician but we’ll consider nonphysician talent, as well.” The growing demand for physicians to fill senior executive and key leadership roles marks a shift in how the industry views and values these leaders. Physicians who have a passion for leadership and are committed to bolstering their business management skills are sought after for competitive executive positions. Possessing both medical and business training is a powerful combination that can be successfully leveraged in the current health care environment. Many physician executives are already serving at the top of the industry. And, even industry-leading physician executives made the transition to leadership from a practicing physician role. They honed their natural leadership skills and abilities. They broadened their focus to become valued business strategists, team members and decision makers. Their experiences offer a wealth of knowledge to help physicians preparing to embark on the path to the executive suite. Cejka Executive Search has gathered observations and advice from seven top physician leaders who are leading organizations in a wide variety of sectors within the health care industry. Their backgrounds include integrated delivery systems, large physician groups, academic medical centers, managed care organizations, faith-based systems and for-profit. long-term hospital systems. Although each physician has followed a unique career path, our discussions revealed insights that speak to a number of attributes consistently present in the “anatomy” of a physician leader.