Our experience includes hundreds of personal interviews each year with physician executives, and our firm recorded more than 60 successful searches in 1996 for senior executives who are physicians. From this, we know that the transition is not for everyone. Physicians often remain in a single locale throughout their careers because they like the familiarity and continuity. But executives must be willing to go where the best opportunities exist, accepting the inconvenience as necessary to success. Thick skin is essential.
Compensation is more than money.
Although the average earning power of physicians and senior health care executives is not so different, the method of payment certainly is. Their annual earnings reflect how many patients they see efficiently in a year's time, not how many return to health. However, executive compensation is more long-term and related to success, although the results may not be known for months or years. New stresses come with the job. As executives, they will experience other kinds of stressful situations, often caused by leading lengthy decision-making processes to influence and persuade others.