What's leadership got to do with it?

In December 2007, the Health Foundation commissioned ORCNi Ltd to undertake an in-depth evaluation of the Health Foundation’s leadership programmes, including an exploration of the links between leadership and quality improvement (QI).

The three core enquiry questions for the study were:

1. What are the links between QI and leadership behaviour?
2. Do different types of QI require different leadership behaviours?
3. What are the lessons for leadership development generally and for the Health Foundation specifically?

This report presents a detailed account of the two-year study and the conclusions that emerged. It contains insights into how leadership development can support QI in the NHS. In addition, our findings contribute to what is known about the links between leadership and improvement in the NHS, and provide new ways of understanding the nature of this improvement work.