LEADING AMONG LEADERS - THE DEAN IN TODAYS MEDICAL-SCHOOL

The magnitude and pace of change in the health care environment demand that medical schools change. Leading in a time of great change is dif ficult, and it is ironic that just when stability in leadership is mos t needed, the average tenure of deans is dropping. Indeed, the path to leadership in academic medicine is strewn with inherent ironies, para doxes, and idiosyncrasies. For example, few people who become leaders in academic medicine aspire to, plan for, or seek training for leaders hip, yet leadership skills are essential to meet today's complex insti tutional demands. Also, most medical school deans were once medical st udents, and were selected and trained to be assertive, independent phy sicians, not to collaborate. For faculty, the medical school environme nt traditionally values individual autonomy and rewards individual ach ievement, not behavior that supports a larger community interest. Yet today's deans must be skilled at collaborative behavior, since they mu st have a vision for their schools and find ways to offer direction to the faculty and others to realize that vision. The author offers idea s about Leadership and its development, and stresses that good leaders must above all curtail their egos in order to do what is best for the ir institutions. What a dean does as an individual is not nearly as im portant as what a dean enables others to do. The author also provides a checklist of deans' characteristics and responsibilities to help dea ns-to-be understand the job and current deans to think about how to su cceed and thrive. He concludes by reiterating that the culture of indi vidual faculty success based on individual entrepreneurism is passe. T o operate in the new collaborative culture, today's successful dean mu st meld persuasion with educational statesmanship, always informed by a vision oi how the school can prosper and serve.