Leadership in radiology

Abstract

The futures of both individual radiology departments and the specialty of radiology as a whole hinge on the quality of leadership they enjoy. Despite the immense importance of leadership to the prosperity of every radiology organization, relatively little formal attention has been paid to the subject of leadership in radiology research, education, and practice (1). For example, most radiology residency programs devote thousands of hours of training to many facets of the diagnostic process, yet little or no time is explicitly devoted to the development of the next generation of leaders in diagnostic imaging. The dearth of leadership education in radiology is especially lamentable in view of the fact that over the past several decades social science research has shed considerable light on the subject of leadership (2). In this era of rapid and sweeping health care system change, radiology can continue to neglect such insights only at its own peril. The goal of this article is to explore some of the more important findings of research on leadership over the past 50 years and to extrapolate some of their potential applications in radiology. It should be noted that this discussion touches only lightly on the direction of leadership--that is, the goals that leaders within radiology are or should be pursuing--and focuses instead on the formal characteristics of effective leadership. In that respect, this discussion could be criticized as excessively formalistic, overemphasizing the style of leadership at the expense of substance. However, this approach comports with the focus of most recent research, which tends to define leadership as a pro-