Middle management and the clinician

It is my position that good clinicians are potentially the best managers for mental health programs. Nonetheless, clinicians who aspire to be managers must prepare themselves for the unsettling changes in self-image and ine one's interpersonal relationships. Also, one must assume a new place in an often chaotic maze that is supposed to be a rational hierarchy. Most important, clinical managers must seriously tackle a new set of theories and techniques to prepare themselves for middle and top level management responsibilities. The 1980s and 1990s are likely to offer great challenges and, one hopes, great rewards to those clinicians who are willing to dedicate their talents, skills, sensitivity, and courage to management.