Clinical training and background is not the same as leadership. Where does a potential clinical leader turn to for help and advice? This small, handy volume, specifically written for such purpose, instills the much desired soft skills of leadership. It is not linked to any particular healthcare system. The focus on leadership as a means to influence healthcare culture, is rightly attracting new attention internationally. There is a lack of published advice aimed at clinical leadership and the time is ripe to channel and develop formal pathways to support this previously unrecognized need. There is a hunger for an understanding of what leadership involves and this book is a move to satiate the appetite with useful information presented in a highly readable style.

Readers will find the book's style a refreshing change from the usual heavy academic material. Accounts of hands-on experience that dispense pragmatic advice in a non-pedantic approach are strongly reflected in this book. It draws heavily on the concept that perceptions may not be shared, which may be the basis for fruitful work in terms of achieving mutual understanding, if not necessarily arriving at agreement. Clinical leadership is an evolving discipline and seldom do currently practicing individuals have an accredited qualification. Rather, they build up "on-the-job" experience. This work a compendium of real-life experience and educational fact attempts to bridge the gap and prepare healthcare professionals to hit the ground running when they take on leadership roles.

The book's narrative pace will make it a good "holiday" read even on board a long flight, although the subject matter is neither trivial nor trite.