ABSTRACT
Leadership coaching is a big commercial industry with a huge array of glossy books and training courses espousing impressive cliches and expensive marketing strategies. Complex leadership research also abounds in business and management literature and in formal accreditated university courses. However, there is very little contemporary research on effective medical leadership in complex health systems that can be applied to meet the future challenges of 21st-century medicine. Collaborative medical leadership is a form of shared 'ground up' rather than 'top down' leadership, and is flexible and adaptive to complex changing health systems. In collaborative medical leadership, every doctor can develop leadership skills, and transcend the individualist structure of medical workplaces, by cooperating effectively with colleagues to influence positive change in the profession and healthcare at the clinic, service and institution level. Collaborative medical leaders mobilise clinicians to tackle tough clinical systems issues with a unity of purpose.
