New ways of understanding and accomplishing leadership in academic medicine

Understanding leadership as being about a person in charge is not wrong, but it is no longer adequate. The challenges and problems confronting medicine today are so complex and unpredictable that it is practically impossible for one person to accomplish the work of leadership alone. More leadership requires more shared work, but as hospitals and medical centers begin to break down departmental barriers, people have to learn to work with individuals and groups who may have different work ethics, dissimilar styles of solving problems, or even contrasting values. Successful academic medical centers will make use of a broader repertoire of leadership strategies--besides developing leaders, they will develop leadership as a property of the system, as an organizational capacity. While leader development involves enhancing human (individual) capital, the emphasis in leadership development is on social capital and building more productive relationships that enhance networking, collaboration, and resource exchange. Leadership is created in and emerges from the relational space that connects people--accordingly, leadership development involves building high-quality connections between people. To make leadership happen more effectively, academic medical centers will have to identify and study the ingredients that catalyze and enhance human connectivity, augment social capital and activate leadership. Leadership is a uniquely human activity--studying it and how it works is core to the learning organization.