Planting the seeds of leadership

The college of New Caledonia (CNC) in Prince George, British Columbia, believes in creating an environment where students can learn leadership skills from the beginning of their professional education. To that end, students, faculty members and administrators of CNC's health sciences and social services division worked together to engage in a campaign called "Expect a Leader." The intention of this campaign was to strengthen interdisciplinary awareness between programs and to introduce leadership qualities to future healthcare professionals. This article demonstrates how this initiative created change within six health science programs and across an entire division. The authors represent a cross-disciplinary team of health professionals: former CNC students, faculty members and the administrator. This team came together to discuss leadership strategies and activities that occurred within the educational setting and in the community during the Expect a Leader campaign. The authors anticipate that the campaign will foster students' involvement in interdisciplinary leadership activities within practice settings. Readers of this article will learn about the positive effects of promoting interdisciplinary leadership campaigns across healthcare disciplines, and will gain an understanding of reasons for nurturing leadership from the beginning of the students' education.