Leading into the Future: Growing Palliative Care Capacity

Palliative care pioneers have historically developed services outside of institutional healthcare. Now, to grow palliative care capacity inside institutional healthcare and meet the needs of ALL patients and families, skillful leaders are needed in every setting. This chapter presents a taste of the extensive leadership skills you need to acquire to expeditiously grow palliative care capacity. “Leadership development is self-development.” First, we must start by getting to know ourselves: our personal preferences and styles, leadership habits, emotional intelligence, how we navigate conflict, and how to stay resilient. This self-awareness forms the basis for making leadership behaviors a choice and showing up as the most authentic leader you can be. With knowledge about “self,” rising leaders move to develop their skills to enhance the people and teams in their Circle of Influence, including: their communication, facilitation, feedback, and presentation skills; how to optimize their use of the Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders and the Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, how teams function; and coaching and mentorship skills. Leaders also learn strategies to advance their palliative care initiatives, including the principles of change management, how to develop effective relationships and expand their influence, the process of strategic planning, and how to be an effective advocate. This chapter presents the authors’ collective experience of leadership education developed through the European Palliative Care Academy (EUPCA), the International Palliative Care Leadership Development Initiative (LDI), and the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s International Leadership Develop Program-Asia Pacific (LDP-AP). The authors challenge you to choose to be an empowered leader, build and advance your teams, and do the projects and initiatives that the world is hungry for.