Purpose: Academic health science centers are complex organizations that provide a broad spectrum of possible growth opportunities for faculty. This workshop will provide participants with an expanded view of career possibilities and allow them to identify concrete steps to advance their career. This highly interactive session will provide participants with an opportunity to engage in personal reflection, explore formal and informal leadership opportunities and participate in exercises and facilitated discussions that will prepare them to consider, identify and assume an educational leadership role.
Goals: Participants will explore opportunities to advance in their academic career beyond their current divisions and departments and create a personal professional development plan to advance towards an institutional leadership role.
Timeliness and Significance to the Field: Educational leaders have the opportunity to address current and emerging issues in education and health care by leading organizations, departments, programs, initiatives and groups that design, implement, and evaluate initiatives to prepare learners to address the needs of patients and of communities. In order to successfully assume a leadership role, educators must effectively document their skills and accomplishments, proactively plan, and say yes intentionally.
Workshop description including teaching methods and timeline for educational activities: Participants will review typical structures of academic health science centers (10 min), draw their own organization (10 min) and discuss unique challenges (10 min). The group will discuss the nature of formal and informal positions in medical education and strategies they have used to navigate potential career opportunities (20 min). After engaging in a self-assessment and visioning exercise (15 min), participants will work in pairs to discuss their goals (15 min), reflect on past accomplishments and consider gaps/learning needs (15 min). Ideas of how to address the gaps to effectively position themselves for new leadership opportunities will be shared (15 min). In small group discussions and facilitated large group information sharing, the audience will discuss how to practice graceful self-promotion (20 min) and to benefit through work with mentors and sponsors who can expand one's network (10 min). Participants will learn how to design an effective executive summary and cover letter to successfully market oneself and meet the needs of a new position in the organization (20 min). At the end of the workshop, each participant will do step back planning: starting with an ideal future position, they will delineate key first steps to take when they get home to investigate a new role/responsibility that will help them start on the pathway to this goal (20 min).
Presenter's qualifications/expertise in area: Facilitators have vast experience in education and in leadership in academic health science centers and professional organizations and will guide participants to consider different types of roles and the impact of these positions on the educational mission/program within and beyond one's institution.
Outcomes: As a part of a process to proactively plan one's career, participants will create individualized action steps to address gaps or learning needs to enhance competencies required for various leadership positions. Hands-on activities will allow participants to practice skills to communicate and demonstrate one's readiness to assume a new position and help them to start on the path to realizing their ideal position as an educational leader.
