‘You can go from being a resident one day to being a consultant the next day. What extra skills have they taught you in those 24 hours? Probably not a lot.’
This was the insight shared by Professor Fiona Myint recently, urging the profession to incorporate surgical leadership skills at all levels.
Speaking at The Surgeon Show in London, she participated in a panel exploring how leadership demands are evolving with advancements in surgery.
And she argued that the surgical profession ‘will thrive so much more if we are at the helm’.
The exclusive Surgical Leaders Summit brought together leading surgeons from around the world to discuss innovation and its impact on the profession.
The event highlighted an urgent need for leadership to adapt amidst rapid innovation, drawing 656 C-suite surgeons from across the globe.
‘Leadership in Contemporary Surgical Practice’ examined what is required to lead surgical services at scale, balancing workforce, quality, innovation, performance, and accountability in an increasingly complex healthcare environment.
Chaired by Professor Domenico Veneziano, the panel included Professor Fiona Myint, clinical professor of surgical education at Royal Free Hospital, Peter Gogalniceanu from Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Trust, and Professor Nora Colton, director at ULC Global Business School.
From managing high-stakes teams to navigating structural change and setting the tone for excellence, the discussion focused on practical lessons in influence, resilience and strategic thinking.
Speaking with the event’s media partners, Future Medicine, Fiona Myint emphasised the importance of understanding what it is like to be a leader, especially in the context of innovation.
She said: ‘We don’t teach leadership, especially lower down the echelons, and we must incorporate it. I set up the Harvard surgical leadership course to teach consultation surgeons about leadership, because it isn’t discussed in training. I strongly believe we should do this at the trainee and medical student levels because, as you climb the surgical ladder, while you learn to operate and treat patients, when you are thrown into a junior leadership role, you’ve never been taught how to do it. You don’t know how to read spreadsheets, understand budgets, or lead a team, and these skills need to be taught earlier. As a profession, if we take on the leadership roles, then we’re leading our own profession. Our profession will thrive so much more if we are at the helm.’
Change is happening around leadership, she admitted, but not necessarily in a structured way, so this event also served as a call to action.
‘You can go from being a resident one day to being a consultant the next day. What extra skills have they taught you in those 24 hours? Probably not a lot,’ she added.
She listed emotional intelligence, situational awareness, and knowing who it is you’re leading and what you are leading for as core values. We need to be there, leading the team, leading the institution to give the best possible care to our patients, she said. Patient gets the right care from a happy team.
She praised the choice of keynote speaker, Rafael J Grossmann, the widely acclaimed general and trauma surgeon and pioneering digital health innovator, who, she said, ‘opened everybody’s eyes and enthused everybody from the start’.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Among the delegates was Ginny Bowbrick, consultant vascular surgeon and head of the Kent, Surrey & Sussex School of Surgery, who said: ‘A fabulous event bringing together our community to discuss advancing innovation in surgery across a wide spectrum, including, most importantly, workforce and training. We need to grasp the opportunities and challenges now, or we will be left behind in the global arena.’
