ABSTRACT
Balance is essential if anybody is going to survive and thrive as a medical manager and leader. Medical directors may choose to use other board members to form a peer group to support them in understanding what development need they have, or they may have a local cohort of medical directors who can help them. The relationships can be a source of great balance and support but they also need input of time and energy to maintain them. Certainly in the mental health sector there is insufficiently good management of administration. Many doctors and doctor–managers will find that their intellectual needs can at least be partly satisfied by properly structuring their time at work. For some people, simply seeing a great work of art or being in beautiful mountain scenery may satisfy deep aesthetic needs. Some people would link this with a sense of meaning in a separate 'spiritual' domain.
