IPALA Leadership Academy

This program is designed to support and equip pediatric academic leaders, those who are long-standing in leadership positions but particularly those emergent, in leadership capabilities. This program to support leadership development is run over an 8 month period. The monthly webinars cover all key aspects of management and leadership, with the material available both synchronously but also asynchronously. There is a parallel leadership practical exercise and report, with a concurrent mentor program to support each participant. 

At the completion of this course the participants would be well trained in leadership skills, and awarded a Certificate of Leadership by IPALA.

Online Modules: March - October 2024 with final dates and times to be confirmed soon.

2 sessions per month: theory and reflections (approx. 1.5 hours each)

• Module 1: Introduction. Key attributes of leaders, the challenges they face, their personal leadership journey, strategies they have found useful to be successful. Introduction to Mentorship Program. Finally, a brief overview of the global child health scene will discussed.
• Module 2: Managing self and others. Self-knowledge and self-awareness, communication skills, listening and responding skills, receiving feedback, insights into personal emotional intelligence and its development, time management, balancing rest with work expectations and promotion of wellbeing at the individual level. Developing insights into individual and group behaviours and responses, managing teams, influencing culture, giving feedback, performance management of high and low performing people.
• Module 3: Medical Education. Understanding modern medical education principles, including self-directed learning, curriculum development, assessment principles, educational metrics. This will give a sound basis for education understanding.
• Module 4: Financial literacy – basic and extension: for business. Skills for managing personal finances, research funds, grants and private practice/departmental financial management. Developing a strategy and a subsequent business case, how to read a financial statement. This is particularly when negotiating with your Dean for resources, for work on Boards and Committees and for giving advice to governments.
• Module 5: Being an effective academic. Leveraging roles for success in academia. Understanding the pressures of clinical service, research and teaching, developing strategies to manage the pressures of high expectations and high outputs, yet support and develop staff and teams. Succession planning and legacy.
• Module 6: Managing gender inequality in medicine and academia. Analyses of systemic inequalities in gender representation in positions of leadership within paediatric medicine and research. How to promote representation of women in paediatric leadership.
• Module 7: Research and Academia. Understanding modern research methodologies within the context of a paediatric academic. Key broad directions in child health research. Translating clinical and public health problems into research projects, effective research grant writing, key principles for publication success, developing research collaborations. Research quality, translation, equity, advocacy and impact.
• Module 8: Conclusion and Debrief. Summary of the management and leadership program. What has worked, examples of personal change in the workplace as a result of this course, improvements.

Attending the academy is free for members of IPALA.