The Leadership Compass: Navigating the Way within the Academy
Purpose: The American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT) developed the Academic Leadership Academy (ALA) to help ensure the future of excellence in academic physical therapy by developing a plentiful pool of academic leaders. The purpose of this interactive session is to share the Leadership Compass created by the Leadership Development Oversight Committee (L-DOC) of the ALA intended to guide academics on a path to becoming exceptional leaders in the academy.
Methods and/or Description of Project: For the purposes of L-DOC’s work, leadership was defined as turning the shared vision of excellence in physical therapy education into a reality. All stakeholders including current and future chairs, faculty and students were viewed as having responsibility to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviors to lead as a positive force for inspiration, motivation and to infuse purpose and direction. L-DOC’s goal was to provide leadership training and resources for physical therapy administrators, faculty, and students at low or no cost that would be contemporary, visionary, open, and inclusive. Early in the process, L-DOC recognized a framework for organizing and categorizing leadership content would be a useful component to guide the provision of leadership resources, education and training.
Results/Outcomes: This framework, titled the Leadership Compass, presents 12 leadership topics across three spheres of influence - developing self, relating to others and influencing others. Learning outcomes for each topic and sphere were developed that are distinct, contemporary and comprehensive. Leadership development activities based on the Leadership Compass will include but may not be limited to annual leadership summits in conjunction with the Education Leadership Conference, a resource guide available on the ACAPT website for all members, accessible education programming via webinars and other avenues, and student leadership development programming at the National Student Conclave. L-DOC is currently validating the Leadership Compass. Participants in this session will contribute to this validation.
Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: There is currently a paucity of candidates for available leadership positions in academic physical therapy. Presenting leadership development opportunities in a manner that is contemporary, visionary, open and inclusive for all stakeholders in the academy will help to attract and prepare current and future leaders within academic physical therapy in order to achieve excellence.