A networker, a listener, warm, thoughtful, a finisher, a booster rocket for enthusiasm, a builder, professional, partner, risk taker... what is it?

Want some more clues; they bridge the gap between practice and theory, modest, what they don't know they find out and what they do know, they share. 

Add listener; properly like WarrenBennis's, 'deep listening' to the hopes, dreams, aspirations and needs of others.  They give a voice to those who have no voice but have so much worth saying.

Got it?  I can add; good judgement, self-control, social skills and politeness.  Still in the dark?  I'm talking about a Leader. 

I've found a really neat book; Betsy Myers 'Take the Lead'; if you were thinking about holiday reading, slip it into your bag or track down a Kindle.  Myers takes us from her kids school (teachers as leaders) to the White House.  Why some Secretaries of State attract a cult following and others are ignored.

In my experience almost everything that is written and said about 'leadership' deserves to be ignored.  Academic books about leadership miss a credibility; they assume the boss is the leader, however, there is much in Myers book that has resonance for the NHS. 

From what I've seen the boss is seldom a leader.  If they are it's a bit of luck.  Or, as Chris Ham points out; they're product of stability.  You are more likely to find a leader on the factory floor than in the boardroom.  In the NHS the real leaders are on the wards, in the practices and out on the road.  With exceptions the so-called leaders in the NHS find themselves in a position that owes as much to history as to talent.  Grey, middle aged blokes surrounding themselves with other grey, middle aged blokes.

The absence of black, senior managers or those from minority ethnic backgrounds, bears witness.  Are no BME managers leaders?  Are middle aged white blokes the only leaders or are they just the fag-end of an all-white legacy, hanging on to power?

Women in senior roles are much more visible than they used to be.  Strikingly, almost every one of them I've met could be spoken of in the terms I write about in the opening paragraphs.

Some say the NHS is in managed decline.  Let's think about that in the context of leadership.