Medical leadership in changing times

Medical leadership is becoming an increasingly popular buzz word. However, its importance, skills inherent in it and training for such a role are often not clear. In this paper, some of these factors are described. Medical leadership, like other leadership roles, must have passion, courage, vision and an ability to scan the horizon for health care policies, which may affect health services directly or indirectly. Medical leaders often have the skills to look at the problems in a longitudinal manner and have a broader perspective in understanding dynamics of policy. One of the key tasks for any leader is development of strategy and communicating such strategy to others, especially stakeholders. Medical leadership must also work with some stakeholders in a much more proactive way rather than a reactive one. In this paper, some theories of leadership are highlighted and medical leadership is placed in that context. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.