Transformational leadership in medical practice: capturing and influencing principles-driven work.

The importance of leadership in medicine is well recognized. Transformational leadership is a well-defined model that provides an empirically supported approach to foster organizational and personal change. It has been applied in health care settings with favorable outcomes. Transformational leadership is intended to help subordinates and followers transcend usual expectations of their own capabilities to reach higher levels of performance and personal meaning. The application of transformational leadership is appropriate to physicians in many roles, including to those who are supervisors in medical education or practice as team members in outpatient settings. Illustrations exemplify these points.