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Leadership is the biggest problem in the NHS today. Not the lack of it, or the quality of it, or the wrong people in the wrong place (excuses ad nauseum) just that Leadership is considered to be relevant in any way. See Mid Staffs!

Leadership is a myth and has more in common with a religious cult than anything else. Irwin Turbit (HKSG) reckons that 97.8% of all literature on the subject has no evidence!

Truth is when you "can" do the primary customer facing work of your organisation, clinical or otherwise, then you do it and you are motivated like the people around you, by your collective talent in action. Leadership development is designed as therapy for people who "cannot".

Somehow being a slightly more smashing person will make up for an inherent lack of talent to do the primary work of the organisation! So Leadership, it turns out, is just a word shovelled in to the title of things to get these idiots to pay for it.

A good test of whether you're talking Leadership(t) is to replace the word with another one and see if the commentary still makes sense. My favourite is replacement is Hairdressing!

Come on HSJ the wagon is on fire ... jump off and create something better!