Leadership skills: Need of an hour for medical faculty

This article addresses the critical gap in leadership training for medical educators, who are often promoted based on seniority and publications rather than on demonstration of leadership skills. Most of the senior positions in medical institutions are occupied by ‘accidental’ and not genuine leaders. It results in a negative impact on patient care, quality of medical education, and institutional effectiveness, as well as high staff turnover and decreased efficiency. The paper highlights the urgent need for medical educators to not only possess leadership skills themselves but also to impart them to the next generation of medical professionals, in line with new competency-based guidelines issued by the National Medical Commission. Most of the available courses on leadership do not have the desired impact. To bridge this gap the author under the National Academy of Medical Sciences designed and facilitated courses for senior medical educators based on their needs and address the reasons of failure of the leadership courses.