Leadership potential of physicians in a public teaching hospital in the city of São Paulo

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the leadership potential of physicians in a public hospital in the city of São Paulo. METHODS: A descriptive pilot study, in which 40 assistant physicians and medical residents were randomly selected to receive an electronic invitation of the company Caliper Estratégias Humanas do Brasil . To those who accepted it, a link was sent to fill out a personality evaluation focused on the work, comprising 112 alternatives related to 21 domains of 4 performance areas. According to the Caliper Profile Questionnaire, the ipsative measures expressed as a percentage are distributed on a Likert scale, and three categories are established based on behavioral tendencies at work: need for improvement, moderate and high potential. RESULTS: A total of 47.5% of physicians invited accepeted taking part in the study. Regarding to leadership, the need for improvement was over 30% among the evaluated physicians. In the interpersonal relationship analysis, only 18.4% of assistant physicians and 37% of medical residents required improvement. The percentage of physicians who needed improvement in problem-solving and decision-making was similar among the assistant and resident physicians (12.6% versus 14%). In the evaluation of personal organization and time management, we obtained similar percentages in assistant physicians and residents who needed improvement (14% in both groups). High potential leadership was observed in these domains (18.4% and 20% for assistant physicians and residents, respectively). CONCLUSION: The physicians assessed presented high leadership potential in 25% of the cases, requiring improvement in the performance domains, such as interpersonal relationship, problem solving, decision-making, personal organization and time management.