Exploring and understanding academic leadership in family medicine

Objective To explore how family physicians understand the concept of academic leadership. Design Case study. Setting Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto in Ontario. Participants Thirty family physician academic leaders. Methods Focus groups and interviews were conducted with family physicians from a large multisite urban university who were identified by peers as academic leaders at various career stages. Transcripts from the focus groups and interviews were anonymized and themes were analyzed and negotiated among 3 researchers. Main findings Participants identified qualities of leadership among academic leaders that align with those identified in the current literature. Despite being identified by others as academic leaders, participants were reluctant to self-identify as such. Participants believed they had taken on early leadership roles by default rather than through planned career development. Conclusion This study affirms the need to define academic leadership explicitly, advance a culture that supports it, and nurture leaders at all levels with a variety of strategies.