Developing leaders in the real world.

Leatt and Porter present an excellent and timely review of the current leadership challenge in the field of healthcare administration. Their case is assembled through a review of relevant management literature and an adept summarization of current thinking and contemporary needs in the leadership zone of healthcare organizations. This commentator views the authors' thesis through the filters of a 30-year career as a healthcare administration practitioner and educator, the last 20 of which have been as a chief executive officer and concurrent professorial appointee at four universities in the United States. A leadership development paradigm at the UAB Health System is used to demonstrate an application of the lead authors' proposed, career-long development process encompassing graduate, postgraduate, mid-career and senior-executive levels.