C.L. Holladay is associate vice president, Leadership Institute, Human Resources, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
K.J. Cavanaugh is senior analyst, Leadership Institute, Human Resources, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
Acad Med. 2023 Jan 1;98(1):36-42. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000004956. Epub 2022 Dec 22.
At a systemic level, organizations need to take intentional steps to build inclusion, equity, and diversity at all levels. In accordance with this need, organizations have been catalyzed by national conversations surrounding gender and racial/ethnic discrimination to generate sustainable change that addresses the disenfranchisement of women and racial/ethnic minorities. Although progress toward addressing the systemic issues that perpetuate these inequities has been made in recent years, research indicates that underrepresentation at the leadership level persists in academic medicine. Further, those in more senior roles are more likely to select, sponsor, and/or mentor individuals like themselves, thereby depriving minority populations of experiences directly correlated with career development and advancement. Hence, the authors posit a focus on the characteristics and competencies of a leader along with a structured selection process is an effective intervention to reduce bias and support inclusion by recalibrating the representation of leadership within academic medical centers. To this end, the authors developed a sequential 8-step leader selection process informed by their model of leadership characteristics and competencies. This process includes a policy update, selection of interview panels, training of panelists, screening the candidate pool, structured interview guides, final candidate slates, assessments of final candidates, and development of newly selected leaders. By following this process, the authors' organization has seen an increase in the representation of women and racial/ethnic minority leaders, an increase in employees' favorable perceptions specific to representation, and data indicative of developing and maintaining an internal diverse leadership candidate pipeline. Ultimately, inclusion makes stronger and more resilient organizations. By following a standardized process grounded in leadership characteristics and competencies, academic medical centers can see changes in their leadership that mirror the populations they lead and serve. Using such processes can lead to the kind of systemic change needed to create inclusive environments.
在系统层面上，组织需要采取有意识的步骤，在各个层面建立包容、公平和多样性。根据这一需求，围绕性别和种族/族裔歧视的全国性对话促使组织产生可持续的变革，以解决妇女和少数族裔被剥夺权利的问题。尽管近年来在解决导致这些不平等现象持续存在的系统性问题方面取得了进展，但研究表明，学术医学领域的领导层代表性仍然不足。此外，那些处于更高职位的人更有可能选择、赞助和/或指导与自己相似的人，从而使少数族裔群体失去与职业发展和晋升直接相关的经验。因此，作者认为，关注领导者的特征和能力以及结构化的选拔过程是一种有效的干预措施，可以通过重新调整学术医学中心领导层的代表性来减少偏见和支持包容。为此，作者根据他们的领导力特征和能力模型，开发了一个连续的 8 步领导者选拔流程。该流程包括更新政策、选择面试小组、培训小组成员、筛选候选人库、制定结构化面试指南、确定最终候选人名单、评估最终候选人以及培养新选拔的领导者。通过遵循这一流程，作者所在的组织看到了女性和少数族裔领导者代表人数的增加，员工对代表性的看法也有所改善，并且有数据表明正在培养和维护内部多样化的领导候选人库。最终，包容使组织更强大、更有弹性。通过遵循以领导力特征和能力为基础的标准化流程，学术医学中心可以看到他们的领导层发生了与他们所领导和服务的人群相匹配的变化。使用这样的流程可以带来创建包容环境所需的系统性变革。
