From Physician Leader to Executive: Why Soft Skills Define Your Next Step
A recent survey revealed that 58% of physician leaders aspire to become CEOs.
And yet, most report receiving little to no leadership development support to help physician leaders who are stuck in the middle get there.
Health systems are investing more in leadership development than ever, often through operational and financial training programs that teach how hospitals run. These programs are important.
But what’s missing from many is the human side of leadership: how to influence, listen, and connect across all levels of the organization.
These “soft” skills are not soft at all. They are the difference between being heard and being effective.
The Gap Between Knowledge and Influence
In my coaching work, I often meet physician leaders who are brilliant clinicians but under-supported leaders. They understand systems, metrics, and operations. What they often struggle with are the subtler skills that move work forward: emotional intelligence, presence, and adaptive communication.
Two physician leaders come to mind. Both were chiefs of their clinical services. Both were well respected for their expertise. Yet concerns had surfaced about their interactions with others—one with residents, the other with nursing teams. Their frustrations showed not through words alone, but in tone, posture, and expression.
In coaching, we worked on:
- Active listening: hearing without judgment or rebuttal.
- Presence: how they showed up in pressure moments.
- Dialogue instead of defense: learning to negotiate toward mutual understanding.
- Patience in influence: realizing that credibility builds through relationship, not authority.
Over time, their confidence shifted from certainty in being right to skill in being effective.
Where Aspiring Executives Often Get Stuck
Another client—a medical director—wanted tactical help. She knew what she wanted from her team meetings but wasn’t sure how to structure them for engagement and accountability.
Together, we practiced facilitation techniques and influence frameworks that turned her meetings from reporting sessions into collaborative discussions.
We also worked on how to bring her voice into larger strategic conversations, those moments in rooms full of chiefs and administrators where presence matters as much as insight.
She learned that how she showed up—her clarity, composure, and curiosity—was as influential as what she said.
Why Coaching Bridges the Leadership Gap
Leadership programs teach physicians how systems work.
Coaching helps them learn how people work.
The move from middle to executive leadership isn’t a promotion, it’s a transformation. It requires self-awareness, composure under pressure, and the ability to build trust across boundaries. These are learnable, repeatable habits that make influence possible at any level.
That’s why I’ve long argued that leadership development for physicians must include personalized coaching. It’s where insight becomes practice.
Next Step: Lead Up, Down, and Across from the Middle
If you’re a physician leader looking to grow into executive leadership, the most valuable skills you can build today are the ones that help you influence tomorrow.
My free guide, Leading Up, Down, and Across from the Middle: Grow Where You Are, Then Grow Beyond, explores these exact areas:
- How to strengthen your presence under pressure
- Communicate with influence every day
- Build the relationships that move work forward
- Gain trust and credibility across all levels
Download the guide here and start building the soft skills that define strong, future-ready physician leaders.
Allison McCarthy brings you the best of her 30-year career, leading physicians, practice administrators, and physician relations/recruitment directors. Actively listening and then asking powerful questions, Allison partners with clients to support critical skills such as presence, influence, collaboration, delegation, and others to advance as leaders. She provides the support and space needed for honesty and transparency that encourages self-awareness and that leads to strategies for change. Read more
