How Can Physicians Enhance Their Leadership Skills Through Personality Assessment?

The Challenge: Self-awareness is vital to leadership. What systematic approach can leaders use to gain well-defined insights about themselves, their skillsets, and their personalities? Identifying and implementing a structured approach to self-awareness can be transformational personally and professionally.

Key Takeaways

The CPI 260© Assessment developed by The Myers Briggs Co. is a widely used and highly reputable instrument that not only assesses the various domains of personality, but also identifies the strengths and development needs in one’s leadership skillset. Using the CPI 260© Assessment, AAPL has collaborated with Myers-Briggs to provide targeted leadership insights to a multitude of physician leaders. In the context of physicians, the self-awareness and leadership insights this tool provides can elevate the quality of patient care, team dynamics, and leadership skills physicians possess.

For a physician leader, the CPI 260© Assessment it speaks directly to the question of “How am I perceived by those I interact with daily? My colleagues? My staff? The patients I am responsible for?” Access to such valuable information opens the door to improve in each of the areas directly related to leadership performance.

The assessment formulates personality and leadership-based data based on the physician’s answers to 260 multiple choice questions. After the assessment is completed, it produces two reports: the Client Feedback Report and the Coaching Report for Physician Leaders.

Client Feedback Report: The Client Feedback Report includes information about your approach to life, how you see yourself, and how you compare to others on characteristics that are important at work and in everyday living. The goal of the report is to provide as accurate a picture as possible, one that will help you to understand yourself and to achieve your own personal objectives.

It is composed of the following sections, each providing contributing data about how others may perceive you: Lifestyle Diagram, Levels of Satisfaction, Dealing with Others, Self-Management and Motivations and Thinking Style, and Personal Characteristics and Work-Related Measures.

Coaching Report for Physician Leaders: The Coaching Report for Physician Leaders will help you better understand your preferences, attitudes, and behaviors in key dimensions of management and leadership. It will help you capitalize on your strengths, target areas for further development, set goals, and plan action steps. It is intended for personal use and should not be considered a selection or placement tool.

It is composed of the following sections: Leadership Characteristics, Snapshot of Your Leadership Characteristics, and Next Steps. The “Leadership Characteristics” section addresses the following core performance areas: self-management, organizational capabilities, team building and teamwork, problem solving, and sustaining the vision.

Collectively, these two reports provide physicians with a powerful toolkit for optimizing their leadership strategies and devising a plan for professional development.

The Bottom Line: Learning how others see us has vast implications personally and professionally. For physician leaders, this can inform them about the perceptions of colleagues and team members, creating the opportunity to improve group dynamics. It can inform them about perceptions of patients, creating opportunities to enhance care and grow leverage to influence patient behavior. And, it can bring clarity about perceptions of stakeholders, creating opportunities to gain stakeholder buy-in.

To learn more about this customized version of the CPI 260© Assessment designed specifically for physician leaders, see our course by Sherrie Haynie, MEd, “The CPI 260© Introductory Course.” This course will help you better understand your CPI 260© Assessment results, navigate the reports effectively, and cultivate self-awareness. www.physicianleaders.org/assessment.

Find more information about our educational offerings at physicianleaders.org/education.