The leadership expectations statement: A simple tool for enhancing leadership in healthcare organizations

Healthcare organizations are reliant on cadres of managers to oversee operations, ensuring the delivery of excellent patient care and accomplishment of institutional missions. These managers obviously must be well versed in the principles of management, but they also must be proficient in leadership. As leadership can take many different forms, healthcare organizations must take care in their associated leadership development efforts to ensure that they have a firm grasp on the precise leadership qualities needed within their given organizations. Achieving this knowledge can be greatly facilitated by developing leadership expectations statements. This article profiles leadership expectations statements, presents a recent statement developed by Willis Knighton Health, and outlines the steps required for assembling and using them in any healthcare institution.