Traditional & Alternative Medicine

Health Care professionals are eff ective problem-solvers in a specifc area of technology; leadership calls for a very diff erent way of thinking and learning. Leadership development is a combination of experiential learning and programmed learning, including the conceptual frameworks of leadership, practice to integrate and apply the meta-cognitive skills of leadership, such as self-discovery of leadership identity and a movement towards mindfulness. Integral to this learning is the support of other leaders who provide a mixture of coaching and mentoring to sustain the new leader’s growth. Leadership education takes place beyond university in a context that broadens the career opportunities for health care professionals. In the USA leadership development education has a business focus, while in Canada it values sustainability and an holistic thinking, particularly in medical and applied sciences. Oft en professionals regard leadership training as a soft skill with less value in their technical fi eld of practice and this presents a challenge for leaders in organizations or professional associations, who need to identify the preferred educational strategies to develop leadership or to risk using leaders without the essential technical expertise for strategic planning and decision-making. Employer surveys show an expectation that health care graduates have equivalent skills in technical expertise, business knowledge, and leadership. Learning leadership includes leadership practices to describe and quantify the leadership of individuals and to characterize the leadership of the specifi c group; secondly, a workshop on leadership education based on transformational learning and thirdly, formation of a community of leaders who advocate and further leadership development.