Growing as a leader

Abstract

This article is the last in this series on leadership, which brings together the key lessons from across the past few months. It reflects on previous leadership styles and theories, such as authentic, ethical, transformational and compassionate leadership. New styles such as collective leaders, disruptive and servant leaders are considered. While the paper emphasises the benefits of leadership in general, it recognised the challenges facing leaders, such as self-neglect, fear, intimidation and imposter syndrome, and it offers advice on how these challenges can be overcome. Many nurses and midwives have benefited from the guidance and support of healthcare assistants and support workers, and recognise the leadership qualities possessed by many. The importance of developing leaders has been a theme across all the previous articles and this final paper provides further guidance on how best the reader can grow as a leader, irrespective of role. The need for self-care and self-discovery is emphasised, as is the importance of formal leadership training and role modelling in developing future leaders.