Aledo Consulting has over a decade of experience in coaching aspiring and established physician leaders as they confront the challenges of the current U.S. health care system. Every physician has room to improve his or her capacity for skillful leadership in these challenging times. The critical thinking skills that are important to physicians to be competent in understanding the large amount of information necessary for practicing medicine may be relied upon too much. It is now important for physicians to develop additional behavioral skills and traits in order to grow into a well-rounded leader. In this regard, emotional intelligence, empathy, attention to detail, and resilience are now the skills that physicians need to develop. These skills should not be learned as an abstract concept, they need to be cultivated like the soil. It is a daily and applied process and is the regular practice of new behaviors.