Organizations are increasingly seeking leaders with clinical experience—especially physicians—to better align mission and margin. And physicians do aspire to leadership positions, say Senior Partner Amit Shah and coauthors. The top motivator? A desire to scale their patient impact on an enterprise level, according to a recent McKinsey survey and mirrored in interviews the authors conducted with physician CEOs. Few started their leadership journey for the CEO title itself but rather to transform healthcare. The research surfaced three themes: leadership should be developed as a discipline; building a sustainable pipeline requires skill development and mindset shifts; and successful leaders reinvent—unlearning, relearning, and applying clinical lessons with purpose.
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A series of six charts show the top motivators for physician leaders in the US to pursue leadership roles, with the percentage of respondents selecting each motivator as one of their top three. The six motivators, with "Broader impact on patient care" being the most popular at 51%, followed by "More influence on innovation and transformation in healthcare" at 42%, and "Personal and professional growth" at 41%. The other motivators, in descending order, are "Increased decision-making power and autonomy" at 26%, "Improved compensation and financial success" at 24%, and "Increased responsibility over budget" at 15%. The data is based on a survey of 296 physician leaders across the US, conducted from March 14 to May 16, 2025.
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Source: McKinsey Physician Leadership Survey, 296 physician leaders across US, Mar 14–May 16, 2025
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