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The career path for many professionals is often into a leadership role, yet many professionals do not have the competencies or inclination to lead. This study explores physician leaders as a representative group of professionals. While there have been many efforts at understanding the characteristics of effective physician leaders, a greater understanding is needed on the nature of physician leadership. The largest healthcare organization for physician leaders in the United States was surveyed to gain a greater understanding of the nature of leadership. Partial Lease Squares (PLS) was used to analyze results from 677 online surveys to understand the causal relationship of role conflict and role endorsement to participation. The findings reveal the mediating influence that positivity exerts upon participation, and offers health care leaders an opportunity to increase understanding of the social identification process that leads a higher level of professional participation, which may increase effectiveness for physicians in leadership.