Leadership skills are crucial for physicians, who represent one of the most important occupations in our society. Physicians must be leaders in their field to provide excellent patient care, manage a large team and coordinate between departments, and support their patient's overall health with information about prevention and maintenance. For these reasons, physicians must learn about leadership skills not just as part of their general education but also as part of their continuing medical education (CME).

How can a physician lead their field? One of the most important skills in coordinating and making decisions in a fast-paced environment. Physicians must constantly shift gears from one situation to another. The following are some of the ways through which physicians can learn essential leadership skills:

1. Managing Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is vital for physicians, who are constantly required to make split-second decisions that affect the health and...

Organizations need people in the right seats as they grow and transform quickly. Leadership development programs are designed to do just that. They are designed to take potential leaders and refine their skill-sets to help them become future leaders.

Because of the high cost of entry into leadership roles and because leadership skills cannot be taught in school, some companies have created programs that combine a structured curriculum with training to enhance employees' leadership competency.

What Are Leadership Development Programs?

A leadership program is designed to help future leaders improve their understanding of leadership, communication, and management skills. They can take place in the workplace or outside of it, but they're designed to be flexible and adaptable so companies with different needs can use them.

Leadership programs can be tailored to specific roles within an organization or for more general purposes, such as leadership skills for managers or leaders of...

Leadership with Dr. Koh 

Learning how to lead as a physician out of medical school can be difficult. Medical schools often fail to properly train their graduates in leadership. This leads to graduates with little to no confidence as a leader or an over-inflated sense of leadership ability that can lead to difficult team dynamics.

Dr. Koh dives into the intricacies of team management and leadership as a medical professional and how she struggled in her early career to foster a healthy work environment. Through the adoption of a growth mindset and pushing past her comfort zone, Dr. Koh was able to grow past her more abrasive tendencies as a physician to create a more well-rounded team environment. By doing this she created an atmosphere that enhanced teamwork and lead to a more satisfying work environment.

Sometimes, we can't always have a situation where both parties at the negotiation table win.  Sometimes, someone is going to have to give up and wait. Maybe, it's not permanent and maybe it is.  We've seen that with the pandemic, especially in the beginning.  Doctors and nurses were in a panic when there was a lack of safety gear to protect themselves from both potential and documented COVID patients during a time of uncertainty and fear.  There were a lot of angry healthcare workers, and many felt the leadership did not care.  There were many descriptive, heated social media posts and angry people protesting on TV and radio.

However, there were also healthcare organizations, hospitals and offices where the healthcare workers appeared calm, cool and collective.  They seemed to be doing fine even thought, they, too, were limited in supplies.  Some found ways to reuse masks, often filming themselves on how to clean the N95 masks at home to be...

In this episode of the The Becker's Healthcare Podcast, Dr. Elsie Koh, Chief Medical Officer at American Endovascular & Amputation Prevention and Founder of LEAD Physician and Kurt Scott, Founder & CEO at the Physician Leadership Career Network discuss traits of great physician leaders, how to break into leadership, and more.

Getting to the top 3 finalists

(Hint: It takes a lot of work)

By Kurt Scott & Elsie Koh, MD

My last article was from the organization’s perspective; Using the “Vision Statement” to help make your final evaluation and decision. This time let’s look at it from the candidate’s point of view.

Seriously, I’ve had candidates show up to the interview:

• missing their top front teeth
• wearing a toupee, sitting on their head like a hat (you could see under it)
• in shorts, flip flops and a Hawaiian shirt
• And my personal favorite, chest hair flowing out over their dress shirt like a dickie… yup

So forgive me if some of what I talk about seems like a no-brainer, but given my long history, I feel compelled to cover it all!

It starts with sincere interest

“Tire-kickers” are pretty easy to spot and even worse, those using your position to better their own current situation, be it a higher salary, more...