Leadership Voices

“We will nurture and develop a new era of modern NHS leaders, able to lead systems and deliver better outcomes for patients, not just more activity.”  — Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP, NHS ConfedExpo 2025 

As part of FMLM's ongoing work to better engage in the devolved nations, FMLM CEO Professor Rich Withnall, joined colleagues at Velindre University NHS Trust to speak at its Medical Engagement Conference. Here, he reflects on the event. 

This article was originally published by Doctors.net.uk on 21 October 2024. To view their article, click here.

By Professor Rich Withnall, the CEO of the Faculty of Medical leadership and Management.

Coaching and mentoring are both confidential developmental processes between a Client and a qualified Coach or Mentor, which take place as a series of conversations. They may be short term relationships over a few months, or longer term over a period of years.

Imagine that there is a restaurant you walk past every day on the way back home from work. Something about it piques your interest – the weekend is coming up, and you have friends from out of town visiting. You wonder if the restaurant would be a good place to bring them, so you decide to have a quick chat with the host, who stands at the front. How would you want that host to behave?

As a Cardiology trainee, I sat my specialty certificate exam, the European Examination in Core Cardiology (EECC)[1], last year. I followed my usual study technique, memorising facts, guidelines and examples of mock questions and answers.

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed challenges for all healthcare workers: whether working with affected patients, grappling with new ways of working, or delivering new services – such as the mass roll out of the vaccination programme.

Nature or nurture - can leadership potential be developed? In my view it can certainly be enhanced, with a caveat I will explain.

Inclusivity should be at the core of everything a leader does. It is a pillar of compassionate leadership, of nurturing innovation, lifting team members and of maximising the power of collaboration amongst many other disparate elements of leadership.