Mentorship: the heart and soul of health care leadership

The key to the development of leaders for the health care professions is mentoring. Both leaders and mentors need to develop their own self-knowledge, strategic visions for their own careers, engage in risk-taking, express creativity through all aspects of their lives, feel inspired and inspire others. Communication is central to a positive mentoring relationship and a successful role in a health care leadership position. Thus, when neophyte health care lead- ers have the opportunity to be mentored, the development of good communication skills will benefit them in their future leadership positions. An important gift health care leaders can give to their professions is to serve as mentors for those who will lead health care organizations and institutions into the next decades. In this article, the authors will discuss the mentoring role integral to assuming leadership roles and present a number of models for mentoring programs in the health care professions.