Professionalism and leadership in medical education: how do they differ and how are they related?

Abstract

It is widely accepted that both professionalism and leadership are important in medicine, and in recent years have been defined and mandated by the General Medical Council (GMC 2016, 2017, 2018). Yet the definitions of each are complex, vary between cultures and will almost certainly continue to be debated. Both are social constructs and there is undoubtedly a close association and significant overlap between the two. So how do we see the relationship between ‘professionalism’ and ‘leadership’? Are they identical twins, sharing DNA which makes it impossible to differentiate between them in anything but name? Or siblings who share some characteristics but remain, at their heart, individuals pursuing separate identities, personalities and demanding semantic interpretations which are distinctly different?