Ask a room of healthcare executives how they reached the C-suite and you will rarely hear the same story twice. Some started at the bedside. Others came from finance, HR, consulting, public health, analytics, information technology or practice administration. The common thread is not a single credential or a perfect sequence of titles. It is a deliberate approach to building skills, relationships and visibility over time.
For students, emerging professionals and mid-career leaders, that is good news. A nonlinear path is not a detour from healthcare leadership. In many cases, it is the preparation.
The field is growing, and it rewards range
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of medical and health services managers to grow 24% over the 2025 to 2035 decade, much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 62,300 openings each year. The median annual wage was $123,860 in 2025.
Leadership teams are also drawing from a wider range of backgrounds. Research in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine notes that only about 5% of hospital CEOs are physicians. At the same time, executive teams now routinely include chief nursing officers, chief medical officers, chief people officers and data and technology leaders, roles often filled by people whose early careers looked nothing like a traditional administrative track.
Start by naming your transferable skills
Many professionals underestimate how much of their current experience translates to leadership. The key is to describe your work in terms of the problems you solved and the outcomes you influenced.
- Clinical professionals: Patient flow, quality improvement, team coordination, crisis decision-making and credibility with frontline staff.
- Finance and revenue cycle: Margin analysis, payer strategy, capital planning and the ability to connect operations to financial results.
- HR and workforce: Retention strategy, labor relations, culture and talent development, all now board-level priorities.
- Analytics and IT: Data-driven decision-making, technology adoption and the AI fluency organizations increasingly need.
- Public health and community roles: Population health, community partnerships and the equity lens health systems are expected to bring.
Treat stretch assignments as your curriculum
The Center for Creative Leadership's long-running research on how executives develop gave rise to the 70-20-10 model: roughly 70% of leadership learning comes from challenging assignments, 20% from developmental relationships and 10% from coursework. CCL lists turnarounds, expanded scope, new initiatives and horizontal moves among the experiences with the greatest learning value.
In healthcare, that might mean leading a service line launch, joining a system integration team, chairing a quality committee, taking an interim role during a vacancy, or moving laterally into operations from a clinical or support function. These assignments are where leaders build judgment, and where senior executives see what you can do.
“A nonlinear path is not a detour from healthcare leadership. In many cases, it is the preparation.”
Build relationships that open doors
Mentors help you understand the landscape, sharpen your thinking and avoid avoidable mistakes. Sponsors go further: they use their own influence to advocate for you when opportunities arise. Research published in Harvard Business Review found that high-potential women received more mentoring than men but were promoted less, in part because, in the authors' words, only sponsorship involves advocacy for advancement. Most professionals need both kinds of relationships, and they need them at more than one level of the organization.
Make lateral moves on purpose
A lateral move can feel like standing still. Done intentionally, it is often the fastest way to fill a gap in your experience. Before making one, ask three questions:
- What capability will this role give me that I cannot build where I am?
- Who will I work alongside, and who will see my work?
- How will I describe this move in a future interview for a broader role?
Credential strategically
Formal education and credentials still matter, particularly at the senior level, but timing and fit matter more than collecting letters. An MHA, MBA, MPH or board certification in healthcare management can accelerate a transition when it fills a clear gap, such as financial management for a clinical leader or operational depth for an analyst. Pair any program with real responsibility so that what you learn is immediately applied.
A practical roadmap
- Clarify direction: Identify the type of leadership role you want in five years, even if the title may change.
- Audit your gaps: Compare your experience to the competencies those roles require.
- Seek one stretch assignment per year: Volunteer for projects that expand your scope or visibility.
- Build your network beyond your organization: Professional associations connect you with leaders who took paths you have not considered.
- Tell your story clearly: Practice explaining how each step built toward the next.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Medical and Health Services Managers
- Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 36(4):682 (2023)
- Center for Creative Leadership, The 70-20-10 Rule for Leadership Development
- Harvard Business Review, Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women (September 2010)
