Developing Physician Practice Leaders

I've been thinking a lot about physician practice leadership lately, in part because I've been working with some physician practices who want to make positive changes with regard to the leadership and management of their firms, but I've been interested in those issues for some time - especially the differences between leadership and management. While on occasion a leader and a manager are one and the same, to me the biggest difference between a leader and a manager has always been that "the leader holds the vision; the manager carries it out."

So what are the characteristics of a great leader? Here are some I've identified over time working with physician medical practices and my own experiences:

A great leader is:

• A visionary
• An excellent communicator (and a great listener)
• Inspiring; a motivator
• Respected and respectful of others
• Trustworthy; a person of integrity
• Decisive; assertive
• Fair; just and consistent in decision-making; open to new ideas
• A model of the behavior he/she wants to see (lives the vision)
• Generous; magnanimous (shares the fame and holds the blame)
• Creative
• Possessed of a sense of humor

So, what do you think makes a great physician practice leader?