The Leadership Role of Psychiatrists in the NHS

Abstract

This article explores leadership in the context of psychiatry in the NHS. It identifies considerable policy challenges facing psychiatry such as recent attempts to upgrade mental health services and bring them up to par with other services. It suggests it will become increasingly necessary for the profession to respond to such challengers by engaging with leadership at various levels.
The article suggests there may be merit in exploring one particular approach to leadership, namely transformational leadership, given its emphasis on dealing with change. Psychiatrists may find the behaviours associated with this approach of particular relevance. However, it suggests that there may need to adopt a particular variant of transformational leadership that acknowledges both the achievement of objectives and showing genuine concern for followers. The latter is important given the on going problem of clinical engagement in the NHS. The article concludes with the developmental implications in adopting this leadership approach.