Ask the expert: We've lost several physician leaders to retirement in the past few years. How can we restock the leadership pool?

Good physicians don't always make good leaders, so when you find one who is both, you'll want to carefully cultivate that physician leader. Follow these guidelines to restock your leadership ranks:

• Designate an heir-designate a president-elect of the medical staff to create a line of succession as well as provide on-the-job training.
• Identify who is responsible for succession planning-it may be the medical executive committee or a subcommittee created specifically for leadership planning.
• Adopt a systematic process-just like hiring new staff members, institute steps to fill leadership roles.