A Team Approach to Professional Development and Accountability

Excellent front-line caregivers are often promoted to supervisory positions because of their abilities, knowledge, and superior communication and critical thinking skills. However, they often lack knowledge of the 5 essential leadership domains. These newly appointed supervisors and managers are eager to learn these new competencies, but their organization is frequently not able to provide this education. Management and leadership skills are often learned on the job. Professional development is left up to the individual. It becomes crucial for upper-management professionals, as stewards of their organization, to ensure that those in first-line and middle management are given the opportunity to develop their skills and advance their careers. In this article, I describe my journey of organizing and developing a self-directed imaging leadership team and the success and professional growth that can be achieved if one remains committed to the goal. This journey paralleled Bruce Tuckman's description of team development. As such, this article is formatted to highlight each of these stages.