Physician LEADS West Virginia
Program Overview
Physicians nationally are experiencing unprecedented disruption and change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, physicians are needed in leadership roles with the skills and experience to lead complex and ever-changing environments. Making the transition from accomplished physician to physician-leader takes more than critical clinical skills—it requires a fundamental shift in thinking. Physician leadership is not a position or title but a mindset. The Physician LEADS West Virginia program is an extraordinary opportunity to build your leadership abilities in the fast-paced healthcare landscape and develop a growth-oriented mindset with physicians from across the state of West Virginia.
Dear friends and colleagues,
The year 2023 proved to be a phenomenal inaugural year for Physician LEADS WV, our state-wide physician leadership development program, built in West Virginia, by West Virginians, for West Virginians. LEADS, our Leadership, Enhancement, Advancement and Development Series, started with the idea that the physicians should have the opportunity to lead, engage, advance, and develop, right here in our state, all over our state, across various practice models, and irrespective of medical specialty or system affiliation. It was designed to fulfil our needs to meet fellow physicians, build networks, and form relations with diverse leaders and stakeholders, in our pursuit to a better future in West Virginia. It was a response to the monumental shift in the practice of medicine that our physician community witnessed over so many years and led some of us to restrict themselves to the clinical aspect of medicine and others to wonder why things are the way they are and what we can do about them.
Many of us seek the knowledge, experience, and opportunities to be part of the healthcare formula, an active player rather than an outcome as we do have a lot more to offer beyond direct patient care and want to be valued for. While a few of us learned the hard way without structured guidance, leadership can be acquired as a set of skills that can be explored, learned, refined and expanded. This is why Physician LEADS West Virginia was born- to find the leader in you and nurture it to become the effective, influential physician leader that guides our West Virginia communities towards better healthcare.
Physician LEADS WV was developed with the multitude physician commitments in mind, thus limiting burden and maximizing value through camaraderie, education, and shared experiences. It evolves over a series of four weekends per year, each hosted at different WV location and include a variety of instruction styles as we proceed with a WV road trip and meet local leaders we may not get to know otherwise. It gradually grows with our emerging leaders along four tracks that introduce us to the basics of effective leadership and serve as a springboard for those who are about to or have already taken their first step along their leader paths or may be just curious to know and are looking for a jumpstart. Every weekend starts with exploring our inner selves and looks for the leader inside us to refine it and ‘upgrade’ it on a personal level. It then shows us how to reflect our skills upon those around us and how to work with others and influence them to follow our lead. Following that, it proceeds into looking at the environment we work in the complexities that constrain what we can do, and ends with exploring ways to identify and manage change around us and build agility as we handle challenges that come our way at various stages and in different forms.
These four tracks of leadership training run in parallel on every scheduled weekend and every track progresses from one level to another in a well-knit series that collectively form Physician LEADS WV and sets the stage for more advanced engagements as we grow as leaders. During that time, we will have opportunities to engage with a variety of keynote speakers, participate in several interactive group exercises, and participate in a variety of fireside chat discussions with thought leaders in our state and beyond.
None of this would have become a reality without the shared vision and collective efforts of a variety of champions and sponsors who saw the need and opportunity to develop our own leaders. Physician LEADS WV is proudly the first and only state-wide physician leadership development program and is open to all physicians and physicians in training who care for our communities.
I am excited to welcome our 2024 class and look forward to an engaging and worthwhile experience. The updated application forms are available online. I am thankful to all those of you who were part of the planning taskforce, and program development committee and to our staff and consultants without which none of this would have materialized. Please reach out to me if you have any questions, requests, or concerns.
Thank you.
Shafic Sraj, MD, MBA
Program Director
Physician LEADS West Virginia
Phone 304 925 0342
Sponsors
