Leadership in dentistry: what does it really mean?

The recent release of the General Dental Council's framework of behaviours and outcomes for dental professional education discusses the concept of a safe practitioner on qualifying.¹ As with this document's predecessor, ‘Preparing for practice’, the importance of leadership in dentistry and across the whole dental team is recognized, with each registrant group having leadership highlighted as an increasingly important professional domain.

For example, in the case of dentists the following domains are suggested:

Behaviours

Learning outcomes

Googling the term ‘leadership’ results in a substantial number and diverse range of definitions. Ultimately, leadership tends to mean different things to different people, with concepts shaped by experience, peer groups, education, training and the working environment. Over the years, we have heard it defined as: ‘motivating individuals, achieving objectives, bringing people together, building progress, bettering the team’, and commonly, ‘encouraging others to share the leader's vision.’ None of these answers is necessarily wrong, and most are applicable to the clinical environment.