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The purpose of this book is to provide an overview of leadership and
management to those of you who are new to the health care field or
to those lifelong learners who wish to refresh their understanding
and skills.
Leadership and management is a large and complex field of
enquiry with many conflicting views. We have made no attempt to
provide you with a comprehensive account (that would be a very large
book indeed); instead we have chosen to focus on those applied areas
of knowledge that we know will be helpful to you, as they have been
for us and the teams with whom we have worked.
The 3-dimensional approach to leadership and management
offers you a framework with which to structure your thinking and
reflections. Unfortunately, we are unable to present any elegant
solutions that you can go away and apply with predictable outcomes.
Rather, we hope that you will use the contents of this book to
stimulate your own thinking; combine what you read with your own
personal experiences, and in time develop your own theory of
leadership and management.
Each chapter has a range of features designed to help you. As some
of the terms that we use will be new or used in unfamiliar ways, there
is a Keywords section in the margins, where you will be able to read a
more detailed definition of words used. To help clarify the key points,
each chapter begins with some clear goals – Learning outcomes –
and ends with Rapid recap questions to review your understanding.
You will be encouraged to think about new ideas and to test your
understanding in Over to you and Reflective activities.
This gives you the chance to weave new ideas into your previous
understanding and consider applying them in your practice.
Many of these activities could also provide the basis for a study day
or supervisory session with other team members. Indeed, we would
actively encourage you to discuss some of the ideas raised with others
as this will help your own thinking to develop more rapidly. For this
reason, we have also written the chapters in such a way that you will
be able to dip in and out and revisit some of the ideas as you change in
your role and professional development. |
