'Facing unprecedented challenges, healthcare leaders need practical and insightful guidance. This book delivers a vital and timely intervention, weaving together systems thinking, psychological insights, and real-world examples to illuminate the multifaceted nature of contemporary leadership. A must-read for navigating the complexities of today's organisational environment. Congratulations to the contributors for this excellent work - it will be a very helpful source for teachers, students, practitioners and leaders now and into the future. This book delivers a vital and timely intervention, weaving together systems thinking, psychological insights, and real-world examples to illuminate the multifaceted nature of contemporary leadership.'Professor John Connolly, Vice Dean and Professor of Public Policy, Glasgow School for Business & Society, Glasgow Caledonian University'Dr Amra Rao has assembled an excellent group of scholars who have explored a number of complex issues of leadership and organisational dynamics of relevance to psychologists. You learn a great deal from this book, and I thoroughly recommend it. It brings a much-needed lens to leadership, bridging theory and practice in ways that are both insightful and applicable. A valuable resource for those navigating leadership in complex systems.'Professor Mark Stein, Emeritus Professor of Leadership and Management, University of Leicester'Amra Rao's book 'Rethinking Leadership for Clinical and Health Psychologists' is an outstanding and much needed resource. It highlights such issues like leading clinical change, the political skills needed in everyday leadership, the importance and role of business skills in strengthening psychological leadership, wellbeing as leadership and many more skills to be an effective leader in the fields of applied psychological practice. The contributors to this volume are first rate, and the contributions are innovative. A must buy for psychologists working across a range of contexts. An outstanding and much-needed resource highlighting skills to be an effective leader in the fields of applied psychological practice. A must buy for psychologists working across a range of contexts.'Professor Sir Cary Cooper, CBE, 50th Anniversary Professor of Organizational Psychology & Health, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester'We need to bring a more psychological approach to leadership in a complex, uncertain and rapidly evolving world. Rethinking Leadership shows us how. It provides a distinctive and timely addition to the leadership literature, bringing together psychological insights into a comprehensive volume to guide how we understand and practise leadership, whatever our role.'Dr Adrian Whittington, National Clinical Lead for Psychological Professions, NHS England.'This book, ‘Rethinking leadership’, offers a multi-dimensional approach drawing on a wealth of material from different schools of thought to capture the complexity and nuance of modern organisational life and how leadership can be thought about and practiced within it. Rather than offering easy or quick-fix answers, this book takes seriously the tensions, costs and risks inherent in the leadership task, but persistently engages with thinking that re-orients leadership towards relationship, inclusion, care and flexibility. With case studies throughout, focusing on the realities of leadership in the current NHS, there are contemporary accounts of leaders and what they have done in the situations they faced, including situations of relational conflict and rupture, managing organisational change, facing ethical dilemmas and moral distress, using political and business perspectives to navigate difficulty. Whatever your own history in both leadership and psychology you will find a perspective and insight that will resonate with you.A critical, essential text that draws together diverse, rich contributions into a proposal for generative leadership - this book offers both companionship and hope to those seeking leadership roles and those working to co-enact leadership with integrity and equity for the good of the health systems in which they seek to make a difference. There is a space here for creative thinking, and an invitation to all readers to make sense of complex systems and at the same time consider what is essentially psychological in leadership, as well as to find their own place and use within the leadership domain.'Dr Robyn Vesey, Consultant Clinical Paychologist, Programme Director Henley Advanced Personal Leadership Programme'As a Health Psychologist, I welcome this book on leadership in practice, which includes insights from a broad, diverse range of experts working in applied practice. It opens up questions around context and systems, what impactful practice looks like, and the role of self and identity in leadership. It covers a range of topics of fundamental importance, including understanding what leadership is, how leaders can foster change and collaboration, navigating complex organisational change whilst fostering resilience, addressing identity and power dynamics, and leadership in an era of uncertainty, and is enhanced by case studies of practice. This book is particularly to be lauded for including a section on cultivating an organisational culture that prioritises wellbeing and describing wellbeing as essential. I would recommend the book as required reading for practitioner psychologists across the career span, whether they work in the NHS or private firms, as a guide for what they have to offer to leadership and how they can maximise their leadership skills.'Dr Emily Arden-Close, Professor of Health Psychology, Principal Academic in Psychology, Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University'If you are a psychologist who has a leadership position (or are considering going to down this road) this book will make you rethink how you view leadership. The different authors take us on a journey of exploration across the many areas that psychologists must navigate in the ever-changing landscape of leadership. Across the chapters they invite us to consider the impact of context, complexity, and human connection on how we lead. The book draws together key evidence and experience to provide a valuable guide to being a psychology leader in these fast-changing times where leaders must be dynamic, adaptive, and socially responsible. A thoughtful and insightful read.'Dr Heather Buchanan, Associate Professor in Health Psychology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Nottingham
