Resources

There are a number of pages of the site providing resources to support students and practioners of leadership.

Free Resources

There are a number of free tools, which are designed to support your own self-understanding, including:

• Improving Leaders Guides published by the NHS Leadership Centre
  For everyone involved in improving patient care and experience, these are a summary of current thinking, advice and tips for improvement. These guides provide practical help for anyone involved in a leadership role who is trying to improve service delivery.
  
• Budgeting for change (pdf format)
  This is a workbook designed to help nurses understand and manage budgets. The guide is divided into nine sections
  
• Leadership Style Survey - Questionnaire
  This questionnaire was developed by Don Clark and is a 30-question self-assessment to assess your leadership style. You will be measured on how much your leadership style is autocratic, democratic or participative.
  
• Team Development Tools
  Developed by Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Canada
  
• Tools for building & developing a team
  There are two critical elements to effective team building: a connection between all members of the team and a shared understanding between the leadership and each team member. These four tools can help you create a group identity and a sense of shared purpose:
  
• Leadership and Learning Guide: Teams Handbook
  Developed by Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Canada

To access these resources, click here.

Career Development

There is an area which will help your career development, whether you are preparing to apply for a job or for an interview, or whether you are seeking a career change

To access these resources, click here.

Leadership literature reviews

We receive many requests for literature reviews on leadership and the following three are the ones we tend to recommend:

• The Performance and Innovation Unit (part of the Cabinet Office) produced this literature review which is an excellent analysis of changes and trends in leadership thinking and the implications for public sector leadership.
• Warwick University's Systematic Review of the Leadership Development literature
  The field of leadership development has generated a growing body of literature. This study, which looked at about 3,500 items, mainly from the USA, Canada, Australasia and the UK, aimed to find and assess the most valuable contributions. Most of them date from the past eight to ten years, though the focus of the study was on 1997-2003. The research, commissioned from Warwick Institute of Governance and Public Management at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, was conducted by Jean Hartley and Barrie Hinksman.
• Henley Management College's literature review
  "A Literature Review: Evidence of the contribution leadership development for professional groups makes in driving their organisations forward" by Sadie Williams of Henley Management College, Greenlands, Henley-on-Thames. The aim of the review was to answer the question, what evidence is there of the contribution leadership development of professional groups makes in driving their organisations forward?

To read these, click here.

Other resources

• 10 High Impact Changes
  The NHS Modernisation Agency, through its work with thousands of NHS clinical teams, has identified ten high impact changes that organisations in health and social care can adopt to make significant, measurable improvements in the way they deliver care. The changes draw on the learning from our work and build on the successes already achieved. They are rooted in the day-to-day experience and achievements of thousands of frontline clinical teams right across the NHS. The high impact changes are evidence based. They have been field tested and evaluated in real life NHS settings and developed and adapted to have the best chance of success.
• A pilot study to assess the case for e-learning in the NHS by David Dawes and Ali Handscomb (published in NT Research Vol.7 No.6 2002)
  This is the largest published e-learning study with a sample of 400 learners studied over three months.
• “When you wish upon a star – the lack of impact of Chief Executives on their Trust’s star rating” by David Dawes published in the Health Service Journal in 2002
  This study aims to identify the contribution of the Chief Executive to the change in their Trusts’ performance rating from 2000/01 to 2001/02. It involved an analysis of the Trusts whose performance could be directly compared in the two years, and of the characteristics of the organisation’s Chief Executive.
• Nurses on Board - An analysis of nursing leadership in first and second wave PCTs by David Dawes and Karen Dobson. This was published in Primary Health Care in 2001.
  This audit was carried out by the National Nursing Leadership Project in order to better understand the development of nursing leadership in the first and second wave Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). This involved a postal questionnaire and follow-up telephone interview with nurse board and executive members from PCTs, supplemented with clarification interviews with other PCT staff such as nurse managers and co-opted nurse advisors. This ensured that every PCT has been contacted in a number of ways to validate the information.
• Primary Care Trusts - Two Years On by David Dawes. This was published in Primary Health Care in 2002.
  This article will take stock of the current situation regarding nurse leadership and PCTs as we head toward the fourth and perhaps final wave. It will revisit some of the findings in "Nurses on Board", which was the first comprehensive study of the role of Board and Executive nurses in the first two waves of PCTs (Dawes & Dobson, 2001) and will address the impact of PCT mergers, “Shifting the Balance” and the continued evolution of PCTs. It will then look at what the future may hold and the implications for nurses operating at strategic leadership positions within PCTs.
• Getting on against the odds - developing black and minority ethnic nurse leadership
  Leadership development remains high on the Government's agenda. Getting on Against the Odds is a practical learning resource produced by the us, aimed at managers and clinical professionals. It supports the development of nurses, midwives and health visitors from black and ethnic communities and features the triumphs, successes and struggles of black and ethnic nurses, midwives and health visitors. It offers solutions, options and a way forward.
• Budgeting for change
  This is a workbook designed to help nurses understand and manage budgets.

To access these resources, click here.