Leveraging medical students' pre-matriculation and medical school experiences in leadership education and development

WHAT IS THE EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE?: Medical students enter training with diverse leadership experiences from clinical roles, advocacy, teaching, military service and organisational involvement. However, leadership education in medical schools often adopts a one-size-fits-all approach that reflects a deficit-based model, treating students as novices rather than building on their prior experience. As a result, leadership development is frequently disconnected from students' lived experiences and lacks structured opportunities for growth. WHAT ARE THE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS?: Drawing on interviews with 17 medical students, we propose an asset-based, developmentally tiered approach to leadership education. Key strategies include early leadership mapping through self-assessment, longitudinal mentorship and coaching and embedding leadership practice within the curriculum. These approaches support individualised development by aligning opportunities with students' prior experiences and current roles. WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO A WIDER GLOBAL AUDIENCE?: This approach is adaptable across diverse educational settings and resource levels. It recognises varied leadership pathways, supports personalised development and better prepares students to meet the collaborative and complex demands of healthcare systems. WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?: Future efforts should focus on implementing leadership mapping tools, integrating structured mentorship and feedback and evaluating outcomes to build an evidence base for asset-based leadership development in medical education.