Leadership is a core competency for all healthcare professionals and healthcare is an increasingly complex environment within ongoing changes. Physicians, nurses, administrators and other members of the healthcare workforce face complex challenges and are called upon to lead at multiple levels. Healthcare professionals must be prepared for both the practice of caring for others, as well as the practice of leadership.

Few studies have empirically examined the impact of emotional and social competencies on outcomes related to leadership effectiveness in medicine, including employee engagement, organizational citizenship, quality of care, team function, burnout, effectiveness of competency education and training. Gaps remain in organizational and social psychology literature regarding the nature of leadership within this unique environment and how emotionally intelligent leadership leads to better outcomes on an individual, team or organizational basis.

Practitioners are expected to lead both formally and informally, yet many are not provided formal leadership training or organizational support. This body of work would contribute to a culture shift in healthcare, moving away from selecting leaders with technical skills and toward selecting leaders who have effective leadership skills and competencies. In the evidence-based world of medicine, it is important to have empirical data to support organizational change and leadership development, and it is important to explore the concepts related to emotionally intelligent leadership within this unique environment.

This Research Topic welcomes empirical and review papers examining emotional and social competencies on a wide variety of dependent variables, considering additional factors including burnout, empathy, interprofessional team interaction, leadership and followership, and other factors that influence effective leadership.

Article types accepted will be original article, brief research report, review, systematic review, mini-review, and perspective related to emotional intelligence and leadership within healthcare. Emphasis will be on empirical studies using multiple measures from multiple sources using multiple methods.

Topic editor Dr. Joann Farrell Quinn leads JFQ Consulting. All other topic editors declare no competing interests regarding the Research Topic subject.

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Frontiers in Psychology

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