Leadership Search and Recruitment

The process by which medical schools and teaching hospitals search for and recruit new leaders—deans, CEOs, department chairs, center directors, and other major administrative positions—traditionally has followed an "academic search" model.

But commentators have asserted that "the current system is in major disarray" and that "most search committees are ill equipped or unwilling to undertake the labor intensive process required to truly search" for new leaders.

Working with member medical schools and teaching hospitals, the AAMC is developing a suite of resources and tools to help institutions improve the process by which they search for and select institutional leaders.

Leadership Recruitment Blog

This blog is for anyone involved in the process of searching and selecting leaders for academic medicine. Explore innovations. Share ideas. Help improve the ways that medical schools and teaching hospital search for and select institutional leaders.

E-Learning Seminar

What You Don't Know: The Science of Unconscious Bias and What To Do About it in the Search and Recruitment Process

Participate in an e-learning seminar that explores the evidence-based research supporting the theory of unconscious bias, the impact of bias in the search and recruitment process, and actions that individuals and search committees can take to decrease the effects of bias at their institution.

Presentations

Leadership and Talent Management: A Roundtable Discussion

Watch videos of the nation's top thought leaders discussing innovations in leadership recruitment and talent management at the AAMC 2009 Annual Meeting.

Publications

Finding Top Talent: How to Search for Leaders in Academic Medicine

Integrative leadership teams are key to the future of every academic medical center. "Finding Top Talent" presents innovative ideas and promising practices to help medical schools and teaching hospitals recruit the best leaders for the future. The premise is that process is the key to every successful search. The book offers best practices on an array of process phases and aspects, from necessary preparations before a search begins to welcoming the new leader into the workplace environment at the conclusion.

Leadership Recruiting Practices in Academic Medicine: How Medical Schools and Teaching Hospitals Search for New Department Chairs and Center Directors

Effective leadership teams are crucial to the success of our organizations, yet little is known about the search and recruitment process for these leaders beyond anecdote and conventional wisdom. This new report details the results of two surveys on leadership search and recruitment practices. Highlights include the findings that the typical leadership search takes a full year, that the use of search firms for medical school leadership positions is uncommon, and that teaching hospital CEOs have become more involved in the recruitment of clinical department chairs over the last decade.

The Successful Medical School Department Chair: A Guide to Good Institutional Practice

Seven Fresh Ideas to Help Searches for Academic Leaders Succeed—Faculty Vitae, Winter 2007

The Search Process in Academic Medicine: Perspectives of Executive Search Consultants (PDF)