Six Principles for Developing Leadership Training Ecosystems in Health Care

Abstract

Leadership education in medicine is evolving to better meet the challenges of health care complexity, interprofessional practice, and threats from viruses and budget cuts alike. In this commentary, the authors build upon the findings of a scoping review by Matsas and colleagues, published in the same issue, and ask us to imagine what a learning ecosystem around leadership might look like. They subsequently engage in their own synthesis of leadership development literature and propose 6 key principles for medical educators and health care leaders to consider when designing leadership development within their educational ecosystems: (1) apply a conceptual framework; (2) scaffold development-oriented approaches; (3) accommodate individual levels of adult development; (4) integrate diversity of perspective; (5) interweave theory, practice, and reflection; and (6) recognize the broad range of leadership conceptualization.