Creating a Vision for Education Leadership

BACKGROUND Academic emergency physicians are driven to become master clinicians while honing their skills in mission areas such as education, research and administration. Many faculty members try to pursue the triple threat of education, service and research; however, excellence in all three areas is difficult to achieve. The first step to excelling in the education domain is to clearly define one’s goals and articulate a strategy to achieve them. To be successful, you must define your vision, mission and core values (VMCV). As the field of emergency medicine (EM) matures, its education leaders are increasingly recognizing the importance of defining personal and shared visions, core purpose (mission) and core values. In The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner explain “you must clarify your own vision of the future before you can expect to enlist others in a shared vision.”1, 2 The authors also summarize the benefits of leaders in organizations who are focused on the future, which includes achieving better performance outcomes both individually and as organizations. It comes as no surprise that most academic medical centers, medical schools and some emergency departments have developed shared visions and mission statements and have identified their core values. These statements highlight the core values of the institutions. Leadership experts such as Warren Bennis, Stephen Covey and Peter Senge emphasize the importance of developing your personal vision for life.3,4,5 This brief innovative report will provide tools and examples to articulate a vision statement for education leadership and the steps needed for implementation. The objective of this innovation is for the readers to develop their own vision, mission and core values, and to begin to consider how they will develop their strategy and platform for implementation. While these VMCV The Ohio State University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Columbus, Ohio Healthpartners Institute, Bloomington, Minnesota National Center for Patient Safety, Veterans Health Administration, Washington DC Emory School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Providence, Rhode Island University of Wisconsin, Department of Emergency Medicine, Madison, Wisconsin Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, Virginia * †