Serendipitous Pathways and Elusive Definitions: Leadership in Continuing Professional Development

About this episode

The episode explores the evolving definitions and roles of leadership in Continuing Professional Development, highlighting the variability and contextual factors influencing CPD leadership.

Although the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) field has rapidly expanded in scope, breadth, and depth, there is a gap in how we understand CPD leadership and the role of the leader. Previous scholarship indicates that there is neither an agreed on set of competencies for CPD leadership roles nor a distinct pathway towards those roles. This study is aimed at answering the following question: How is leadership described or defined in CPD and what are the contextual issues that are and/or should be shaping its evolution? Seventeen interviews were conducted. There were multiple components identified that were important to CPD leadership, such as being visionary, or having strong collaboration skills with some components, such as adaptability and flexibility appearing more unique to the CPD context. The role of CPD leadership and the pathway to CPD leadership remain highly variable. Attaining a CPD leadership position predominantly involves some degree of "serendipity." While CPD leaders may fundamentally need basic and common leadership skills, an essential attribute of the CPD leader is to effectively respond to the context and the unique needs of the health system. We…

People in this episode

Host: Brian McGowan

Topics covered

• Continuing Professional Development
• leadership
• competencies
• health system
• serendipity
• collaboration

Keywords

• CPD leadership
• leadership roles
• competencies
• health system
• visionary
• adaptability
• flexibility

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