[Leadership seminars: what are they good for?].

Professional training courses are a matter of course for any surgeon who wants to offer the best and most up-to-date treatment to patients. But after leaving the operating room surgeons will be confronted with issues that demand more than surgical skills. As a leader of a team the expectations and needs of the people under his care and of the managers above him need to be faced. Leadership seminars are an opportunity to become aware of these and to learn how to competently react to them. They can offer support on many levels: what type of leader am I? How do I appear to others? What do my employees/superiors expect from me? How can I manage my staff, not least in terms of reaching the goals of my department or the company? Which leadership tools are there and how can I use them? Good leadership seminars can be recognized by the balance of different aspects which they cover: they offer new expertise as well as opportunities for reflecting on one's personality and everyday work and introduce new approaches with an immediate opportunity for practicing them effectively. The key is that managers monitor their progress continuously and ideally continue to develop themselves further throughout their working life.