Leadership and organizational skills in academic medicine

The complex and unique challenge of academic medicine requires that faculty possess both organizational and leadership skills. This article presents a framework of leadership and organizational skills in family medicine.

We conducted a focused review of the literature, of presentations at national primary care meetings, and of the curricula of several national faculty development fellowship programs to identify the current emphases, strategies, and outcomes regarding organizational and leadership development activities for academic physicians.

We identified three types of organizational and leadership development strategies and programs, including isolated faculty development workshops at national meetings, longitudinal faculty development fellowship programs, and organizational change efforts within an academic department or residency training program. Indicators that these efforts are successful have primarily been reported in the context of career satisfaction, retention in academic medicine, and attainment of administrative roles or higher academic rank among faculty who have participated.

Organizational and leadership development is occurring in the context of both individual and organizational initiatives. We propose a cycle-of-learning framework that provides one model for development of these essential skills.