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The AOA | USC APEX Leadership Certificate Program melds the power of face-to-face education with the convenience of distance-learning formats to tackle the essential leadership development skills required of surgeons today.

Registration for the 2023 AOA | USC APEX Leadership Certificate Program is now closed

2023 In-person Session Dates:

• Session One: February 3–4, 2023 – USC Campus in Los Angeles, CA
• Session Two: June 17, 2023 – Salt Lake City, UT at the 2023 AOA
Annual Leadership Meetings
• Session Three: October 27-28, 2023 – Rosemont, IL

APEX Learning Objectives

Develop a Strategic Mindset
  • Explore the relationship between strategy, market structure, and the impact of frontline activities on strategic goals.
  • Unlock and apply the mystery of the strategy formation process.
Agility for the Health Care Industry
  • Strengthen your grasp on policy, competitors, and trends in the health care industry.
Map the Organizational Culture
  • Learn how culture is reflected in ongoing interactions.
  • Determine how the various facets of culture function as six important levers for impacting organizational performance and effectiveness.
Personal Leadership
  • Explore effective leadership styles and when to assume each role in different situations.
  • Delve into the role of accountability and its relationship with personal development.
  • Examine executive leadership: integrity, vision, innovation, and interpersonal relations.
Effectively Negotiating/Power of Persuasion
  • Uncover communication methods to achieve win-win outcomes.
  • Master emotional intelligence, perfect the art of persuasion, and triage difficult situations.
  • Recognize how various power and influence dynamics serve and hinder leaders.
Strategic Analysis for Competitive Advantage
  • Learn how to make strategic choices in an analytical and integrative manner.
  • Address the challenge of sustainability, maximize the long-term value of the organization.
  • Meet the challenge of changing technologies and increasing competition.
Leadership for High Performing Teams
  • Understand the keys to effective people management.
  • Identify different management styles and when to use them.
  • Attain the skills necessary for building teams, facilitating, and leading groups.

Cohort Model for Learning

  • Participants will benefit from a year-long shared learning experience.
  • Intimate peer networking, and collegiality in a small setting.
  • Builds strong, life-long tight-knit bonds.

10 Months of Learning: What the cohort year Looks like

Recordings of the online sessions will be available to the cohort members throughout the cohort year. The 10 month cohort schedule includes:

  • January – Online Orientation
  • February – Two day in-person session in Rosemont, Illinois
  • March – Online Course
  • April – Online Course
  • May – Online Course
  • June – One day in-person session at AOA Annual Leadership Meetings
  • July – Online Course
  • August – Online Course
  • September – Online Course
  • October – Two day in-person session at USC campus in Los Angeles, California

Personal Performance Path

  • The Personal Performance Path (PPP) is a roadmap for how the learning objectives from the APEX Leadership Program can be translated into specific performance outcomes, and for how those outcomes then translate into increased organizational impact. Creation of the PPP is collaborative, requiring each APEX participant to work with an “invested stakeholder” who is directly affected by their participation in and completion of the program. A well-crafted PPP provides APEX participants with a written overview of how the content from each session in the program can be directly applied within their personal ‘moments that matter’ or, said differently, within the specific, critical situations where the knowledge, skills, and abilities from the program will produce the greatest impact. Throughout the duration of the APEX program, participants will continuously update and revise their PPPs for each program session, allowing them to strategically approach which learning objectives are most crucial within their personal environments and by the end of the APEX program, their cumulative PPPs will serve as an action plan for how and where to implement new leadership skills and abilities.

Faculty

The AOA is honored to partner with the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, Executive Education (USC MSBEE) to provide esteemed faculty for the APEX Leadership Program. To learn more about the cohort instructors, please click here.

Our AOA Ambassadors

  • Three recognized orthopaedic leaders will serve as Ambassadors for the cohort year, partnering with our expert USC faculty to enrich the course experience.
  • These Ambassadors represent the concerns and priorities of orthopaedic surgeons who encounter everyday leadership challenges within health care.
  • AOA Ambassadors contribute to the development of the course, contribute to course development, participate alongside learners, and serve as educators, to link executive management concepts to the work done by physician leaders.
  • At the conclusion of each year, current AOA Ambassadors will select three stand-out APEX Alumni graduates to serve in this prestigious role as Ambassadors for the following year.

Graduate with AOA Alumni Status: Alumni Benefits

  • Cohort graduates will emerge into an esteemed and highly coveted group of APEX alumni.
  • Leadership Self-Assessment for Personal Development and Leading Teams.
  • Diagnose your personal leadership style.
  • Develop and expand your personal skills and amplify your success in leading others.

Who Should Attend

Orthopaedic leaders who wish to achieve prime leadership status in the orthopaedic community and in their workplace will find value in this experience. Have you considered an MBA or aspired to enhance your leadership position, but time constraints were a barrier? AOA’s signature blend of leadership development, with direct relevance to orthopaedics and issues confronting medicine, allows individuals at any stage of their career to expand their knowledge and leadership skills.