What Leadership and Management Skills Do NHS Doctors Need?
In the NHS, leadership is not reserved for consultants and clinical directors. The GMC expects every doctor to lead and manage within their role, and most person specifications test it. This guide explains which leadership and management skills NHS doctors need, the frameworks that describe them, and how junior and middle-grade doctors can build them in everyday work.
Quick answer
NHS doctors need to lead themselves, their team and improvements in care. Core skills include self-awareness, clear communication and handover, prioritising, delegating and escalating, handling conflict, leading change and using resources responsibly. The NHS Healthcare Leadership Model (nine dimensions) and the FMLM Leadership and Management Standards (four domains) describe these skills, and doctors build them through on-call work, audit, teaching and formal roles.
What you will learn in our free Leadership and Management for Doctors course
Leadership is on almost every NHS person specification. Learn to recognise the leadership you already show — and describe it in the language panels look for. Our free online Leadership and Management for Doctors course is written for NHS doctors and international medical graduates. You study at your own pace in 6 short modules, with worked examples, interactive exercises and a short quiz at the end. There is no sign-up, and your progress is saved so you can stop and come back.
The 6 modules
What leadership means for every doctor: Why leadership matters in the NHS, Leadership in the NHS may feel different, Leadership and management, What the GMC expects of every doctor, NHS leadership frameworks
Leading yourself: Leading yourself — self-awareness, Leadership styles — choose the right one, Compassionate leadership and civility, Wellbeing — sustaining yourself and your team
Leading teams and the on-call shift: How teams develop, Psychological safety, Briefing, handover and SBAR, Leading in an emergency, The on-call shift
Managing: time, people and resources: Managing your time, How the NHS is organised (England), Rotas, job plans and leave — the basics, Resources, money and business cases
Conflict, change and influence: Handling conflict, Difficult conversations with colleagues, Leading change, Influencing without authority
Your evidence: CV, portfolio and interview: Leadership examples you already have, Make it reflective, Common leadership interview questions, Your leadership portfolio — download it
By the end of the course you will be able to
Explain the difference between leadership and management, and the GMC's expectations of every doctor
Use the Healthcare Leadership Model and FMLM standards to describe your own leadership
Adapt your leadership style to the situation, and lead with compassion and civility
Build psychological safety, brief a team and lead an emergency using clear communication
Prioritise, delegate and escalate safely on a busy on-call shift
Explain how the NHS is organised and the basics of rotas, job plans and resources
Handle conflict, lead change and influence people you don't manage
Turn your experience into three STAR leadership examples for your CV and interview
Why it helps your NHS application
Practical skills for every shift: briefing a team, leading an emergency, prioritising, delegating and escalating
The NHS frameworks interviewers recognise: the Healthcare Leadership Model, FMLM standards and GMC guidance
Build three STAR leadership examples as you go, ready to download for your CV and interview
How to write it on your NHS application
In your CV and on NHS Jobs or Trac: list it under "Leadership and management" (or in the training and courses section of the form), for example:
Leadership and Management for Doctors, online CPD course, CareerPro UK. Certificate of completion, [month and year]; verifiable online, ID CP-XXXXXXXX.
In your supporting statement: show what you learned and how you use it. For example (adapt it so it is true for you):
"Through an online leadership and management course, I learned to recognise and describe the leadership I already show, such as coordinating the on-call team and organising our departmental teaching rota."
At interview: the course also prepares you for questions such as "Tell us about a time you showed leadership. What did you learn?"
Your certificate of completion
When you pass the quiz, you can download a certificate pack:
A verifiable PDF certificate of completion with your name, the course, your CPD time and a QR code that shortlisters and appraisers can scan
An appraisal-ready reflective note, pre-filled with the course learning outcomes
A ready-to-paste line for your NHS Jobs or Trac application and CV, and a one-click "Add to LinkedIn" button
Studying is free. The certificate pack is a one-off £5, and you pay only after you pass
Online course — not a formal leadership qualification.
Why every NHS doctor is expected to lead
The GMC's guidance Leadership and management for all doctors came into effect in March 2012 and was updated in December 2024. As the title says, it applies to all doctors, not only those with management roles, although what it means in practice depends on your role. It covers areas such as teaching and training, using resources, raising and acting on concerns, contributing to service improvement and employment issues such as references.
Good Medical Practice (2024) reinforces this. It asks every doctor to help create a respectful, supportive culture by role modelling, to make sure colleagues they oversee have appropriate supervision, and to give clear instructions when delegating. Doctors in formal leadership roles have additional duties, such as actively creating an environment where people can raise errors and concerns safely.
Leadership and team working is also one of the nine domains of the GMC's Generic Professional Capabilities framework, which every postgraduate curriculum must include. In short, leadership is part of being a doctor in the UK, at every grade.
Leadership and management: what is the difference?
The two words are often used together, but they describe different things.
Leadership is about direction and people: deciding what matters, explaining why, and engaging others to make it happen.
Management is about organisation and resources: planning, allocating people and time, and making sure things run reliably.
Doctors use both constantly, often in the same hour. A medical registrar on a busy night decides which sick patients need review first and keeps the team calm (leadership), then allocates jobs between the FY1 and SHO and keeps track of what is outstanding (management). A team with good management but weak leadership runs smoothly but rarely improves. A team with inspiring leadership but weak management has good ideas that never happen.
The Healthcare Leadership Model: nine dimensions
The Healthcare Leadership Model, from the NHS Leadership Academy, is designed for clinical and non-clinical leaders and for people preparing for their first leadership role. Because it is used across professions, nurses and managers will recognise its language too. It has nine dimensions:
Inspiring shared purpose: valuing a service ethos and putting patients first.
Leading with care: understanding the needs of your team and supporting them.
Evaluating information: using data and evidence to make decisions.
Connecting our service: understanding how services link across teams and organisations.
Sharing the vision: communicating a clear picture of where the team is going.
Engaging the team: involving people and valuing their contributions.
Holding to account: setting clear expectations and following them through.
Developing capability: helping others, and yourself, to grow.
Influencing for results: persuading others and building support for change.
Everyday clinical work maps onto these dimensions more often than doctors realise. Checking on a colleague after a difficult death is leading with care. Reviewing audit data before proposing a change is evaluating information. Agreeing a joint plan with the surgical team for a shared patient is connecting our service. Persuading a ward manager to trial a new handover sheet is influencing for results.
The FMLM Leadership and Management Standards
The Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM) publishes the Leadership and Management Standards for Medical Professionals, now in their third edition (2021). They are written for medical and dental professionals across all specialties and career stages, and are organised into four domains:
Self: self-awareness, integrity, managing your own time, wellbeing and development.
Team player and team leader: working well in teams and, increasingly, leading them.
Organisational responsibility: contributing to how your department and organisation are run and improved.
System leadership: working across the wider health and care system.
A helpful way to read the FMLM standards is as a path that widens over a career. A foundation or junior clinical fellow doctor is mainly developing the first two domains. A registrar, specialty doctor or specialist doctor is expected to show more of the third, such as leading a service improvement or helping to manage a rota. Consultants and senior leaders work increasingly at organisational and system level. FMLM also provides a self-assessment form for the standards, which can help you plan your development.
The core skills junior and middle-grade doctors need
Translated into daily practice, these are the skills panels and supervisors look for:
Self-awareness and self-management. Knowing how you react under pressure, managing your time and recognising when you need help.
Communication and handover. Giving a clear team brief at the start of a shift, using a structured tool such as SBAR to escalate, and handing over so responsibility is unambiguous.
Prioritising, delegating and escalating. On call, deciding what must happen first, matching tasks to colleagues' competence with clear instructions, and calling seniors early.
Leading in an emergency. Taking a clear role, allocating tasks, using closed-loop communication and leading a short debrief afterwards.
Psychological safety and compassionate leadership. Making it easy for nurses, juniors and others to speak up, and responding well when they do.
Handling conflict and difficult conversations. For example, resolving a referral disagreement with another specialty, or giving honest feedback to a colleague.
Leading change. Using audit and quality improvement to identify a problem, engage the team and make a change stick.
Using resources responsibly. Thinking about tests, beds and staff time as shared resources, and understanding the basics of rotas, job plans and how services are funded.
Understanding the NHS. Knowing how your trust is structured and who to approach to change something. NHS structures in England are changing, so check current arrangements in your organisation.
Many international medical graduates trained in more hierarchical systems. NHS teams are deliberately flatter: a nurse or pharmacist who questions a decision is doing their job, and juniors are expected to speak up about safety. Adapting to this is itself a leadership skill.
How to develop leadership skills as a junior or middle-grade doctor
You do not need a management title to start. Practical ways to build and evidence leadership include:
Treat on-call shifts as leadership practice. Give a brief, delegate clearly, escalate early and reflect afterwards on what went well.
Lead an audit or quality improvement project from topic to re-audit, including presenting it and agreeing actions with the team.
Organise something: a teaching programme, a rota, an induction session or a departmental meeting.
Take on a representative role, such as junior doctors' or locally employed doctors' representative, or a seat on a trust forum.
Supervise and support students and newer colleagues, especially those new to the NHS.
Use free self-assessment and learning. The NHS Leadership Academy offers a free online Healthcare Leadership Model self-assessment tool (registration needed) and the free, fully online Edward Jenner programme for people at the start of their leadership journey. The FMLM self-assessment form maps your skills against its four domains.
Collect feedback. Multi-source feedback for appraisal, comments from supervisors and reflections on incidents all show how you lead.
Consider formal roles later, such as a chief registrar post or a leadership fellowship, as you become more senior.
Our free Leadership and Management for Doctors course covers these skills in more depth, from leadership styles and team development to on-call prioritisation, conflict, leading change and how the NHS is organised. It is an online course, not a formal leadership qualification.
Once you have the experience, the next step is describing it well. Our guide on how to show leadership on an NHS application explains how to turn these examples into strong answers, and our supporting statement guide shows where they fit.
Start the free course
Leadership and Management for Doctors is split into short modules covering leading yourself, leading teams and on-call shifts, managing time and resources, conflict and change, and turning your experience into three STAR leadership examples you can download. It is free to study, includes a quiz, and offers an optional verifiable certificate and a reflective note for your appraisal. Start Leadership and Management for Doctors.
If you would like your NHS application reviewed and rewritten (£35), email cvreviewexperts@gmail.com.
Frequently asked questions
Do junior doctors really need leadership skills?
Yes. The GMC's guidance on leadership and management applies to all doctors, and Good Medical Practice expects every doctor to role model good behaviour, supervise appropriately and delegate clearly. Junior doctors lead every time they run an on-call shift, hand over or supervise a student.
What are the nine dimensions of the Healthcare Leadership Model?
They are inspiring shared purpose, leading with care, evaluating information, connecting our service, sharing the vision, engaging the team, holding to account, developing capability and influencing for results. The model comes from the NHS Leadership Academy.
What are the four domains of the FMLM Leadership and Management Standards?
The third edition (2021) uses four domains: self; team player and team leader; organisational responsibility; and system leadership. They describe how leadership widens from managing yourself to working across the health and care system.
What is the difference between leadership and management for doctors?
Leadership is about setting direction and engaging people, while management is about planning and organising people, time and resources. Most clinical roles need both, often at the same time.
Do I need a leadership qualification to apply for NHS jobs?
No. For junior and middle-grade posts, real examples of leading on call, in audit, in teaching or in organising a team matter more than a qualification. Formal programmes become more useful as you move towards senior roles.
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