Mark Hertling - Growing Physician Leaders: Empowering Doctors to Improve Our Healthcare

Hospitals and clinics worldwide deserve to be led by top-notch ethical leadersand Mark Hertling knows a great deal about ethical leadership. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point with almost four decades of service in the US Army, Mark has taken his leadership education, experiences, and insights and provided healthcare professionals with a brilliant, easy-to-understand book on leadership in healthcare.

The leadership lessons and tips in Growing Physician Leaders, when applied by physicians, hospitals, and healthcare systems, will improve healthcare and patient care across America. Timing is everything, and this terrific read is just what current and future leaders in healthcare need to help them develop and lead themselves, their patients, their staffs, and their teams (in clinics, operating rooms, staff meetings, or any other part of the healthcare system).

Auspiciously for an author of a book on physician leadership, Mark began his military career as a patient. Shortly after graduating from West Point, as a young second lieutenant in Germany, Mark underwent emergency orthopedic surgery for a double compound fracture that almost cost him his leg. His surgeon was John Feagin, the namesake, benefactor, and inspiration for our leadership program for medical students and residents at Duke University. Mark and John both went on to distinguished military and medical careers where they were recognized as two of the most caring, competent, knowledgeable, selfless, and enthusiastic leaders our country has been honored to have. Now, over 40 years after their initial meeting as patient and surgeon, both are committed to teaching leadership skills for the complex challenges facing healthcareJohn Feagin through his commitment to the Feagin Leadership Program, and Mark through this book and his commitment to the challenging task of teaching leadership skills to physicians in the Florida Hospital system. Marks leadership course at Florida Hospital and this book are just what the doctor ordered.

In Growing Physician Leaders, Mark shares many of the leadership lessons he learned, taught, and practiced during his years in the US Army. Ethical leadership is the heart and soul of our nations military and it is in the DNA of every soldier, sailor, airman, Coast Guardsman, and marine. Our military is recognized worldwide for its ethical leadership and the military is one of the most, if not the most, trusted institutions in America. As such, it makes perfect sense to take the best leadership practices from the military and apply them in a healthcare context. Mark Hertling has done just that.

For some it may seem strange to have a non-healthcare professional writing and teaching about leadership in the healthcare fieldespecially a military leader such as Mark. However, as we have found in teaching leadership skills in the Feagin Leadership Program, there are many competencies that overlap between the military and medicine. In fact, the five core competencies in the research-derived Duke Healthcare Leadership Modelemotional intelligence, teamwork, selfless service, critical thinking, and integrityare competencies that are also taught and emphasized in the military, as Mark so clearly describes.

The timing and need for leadership development both in healthcare and academic medicine are clear. The gap in leadership development in medicine is well known and is only now starting to be intentionally addressed. Healthcare professionals need leadership skills to improve care for patients and patient populations, to improve access to healthcare for all demographics, and to reduce cost while addressing these requirements.

One of the many strengths of Growing Physician Leaders is that it has leadership lessons for the beginner, novice, intermediate, and experienced leader. The lessons run the spectrum from the one-on-one relationship level to the strategic and visionary levels of leadership. Additionally, Marks use of stories is a powerful and effective technique for readers to understand, feel, and better internalize the many competencies and traits that effective ethical leaders should practice.

Congratulations and kudos to Mark for sharing his lifelong leadership lessons with us in this wonderful book. We are confident you will benefit greatly on your own leadership development journey from the help of Growing Physician Leaders.

Joe Doty, PhD
Dean Taylor, MD
John Feagin, MD
Feagin Leadership Program
Duke University