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As leaders at their institutions and in the field of neurology, department chairs play a crucial role in carrying out the academic mission, directing clinical practice, supporting research, and shaping the education of future neurologists. Keeping these goals in focus while balancing limited time, space, and resources in combination with inevitable urgent and emergent situations present enormous challenges to all chairs. The magnitude of the role makes significant demands on the talented and dynamic leaders who become neurology department chairs.

Along with the varied demands on their time, neurology department chairs face a multitude of evolving pressures in their role. Chairs have different needs at different stages of their tenure. For the new chair just getting started, there are questions about establishing strong relationships in this leadership role, developing in the role, and setting a departmental direction. For a mid-tenure chair, retaining key people, developing distributed leadership and creating signature programs are common goals. For the late career chair, there are questions about next career steps and how to support leadership in transition.

With all of these considerations in mind, where can chairs turn for support? Current literature and information about this important leadership role is disparate and limited. Leadership within the AAN Academic Neurology Committee and the Department Chair Subcommittee turned their attention to these needs, with the development of a set of dynamic and varied resources to support chairs at every stage and with attention to a range of issues: the Lifecycle of the Department Chair Toolkit.

The Lifecycle of the Department Chair Toolkit seeks to meet the needs of chairs and other leaders with a mix of advice, experiences, reflection, and resources. Currently organized into six areas of focus, toolkit users can explore resources that meet all of their needs, including book recommendations, helpful resources from diverse academic institutions, and video discussions with AAN chairs about how they’ve dealt with challenging or common issues.

Bookmark this toolkit and return for updates – it will be updated frequently in response to the developing needs of neurology chairs – and feel free to share with your colleagues. Understanding the challenges and opportunities at each phase of the chair’s lifecycle is important for chairs (prospective and active), senior institutional leadership, and all neurologists in thinking about their roles, their growth, their goals, and the department as a whole.

The lifecycle of the average department chair can be roughly divided into 3 phases:
Phase 1: ~ first 5 years
Phase 2: ~ second 5 years
Phase 3: ~ 10+ years

Though focused on neurology, these principles are common for chair positions in other medical specialties, and many principles will apply to other leaders, such as division chiefs, medical directors, and program directors. There are common principles that apply to all stages of the lifecycle. Throughout a chair’s tenure, the focus on specific themes evolves and is summarized in Table 1.

If you have questions, comments, or resource suggestions, please reach out to Lauren Klaffke.