Public health leadership in India: Reflections from my journey

• Main Author: Anand Krishnan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2018-01-01
• Series: Indian Journal of Public Health
• Subjects: Collaboration; communication; competency; leadership; Public health; vision
• Online Access: http://www.ijph.in/article.asp?issn=0019-557X;year=2018;volume=62;issue=3;spage=171;epage=174;aulast=Krishnan

Public Health discipline has evolved and currently focuses on addressing social determinants of health and working multi-sectorally to promote health. Public Health Leadershipis the practice of mobilizing people, organizations, and communities to effectively tackle tough public health challenges. Leadership is a core competency of public health.Leaders are people with Vision, Influence, Values and Passion to achieve personal and organizational mission.Leadership is not a personal trait but is learnable skill. Leadership is a journey where one goes from being a member of a single team to lead health sector in working with other sectors. A leader moves from carrying out assigned tasks at the beginning of journey to providing a vision to motivate others to achieve their life goals. A true leader grooms leaders to establish a legacy of leadership. Ten lessons from my life would be: Believe in yourself; Seize the opportunities; present a vision of future; get out of comfort zone; expand capacity rather than define limits; strengthen communication and people to people skills; build a team; consider everyone as a potential collaborator; focus on deliverables and on relationships. We should start Public Health leadership course and develop core modules for teaching of leadership to post graduates in all medical schools.