LESSONS LEARNED FROM DECADES OF LEADING ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTERS COMMENT

This article comments on an innovative case study in Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, entitled "Transformation to Academic Leadership: The Role of Mentorship and Executive Coaching," by W. Kimryn Rathmell, Nancy J. Brown, and Richard R. Kilburg. The case study offers "a first-person account of the experience of being coached while independently leading a division of hematology and oncology at a highly ranked medical center" (p. 141), and it includes analysis from the coach and the leader's supervisor. The current commentary, by a member of the board of directors of the medical center, discusses lessons learned from the experience of leading a number of academic medical centers and highlights key points in the case study.