Seeing with Two Eyes: Indigenous Leadership and the LEADS Framework

Abstract

Current evidence suggests that building transformational leadership capacity is a precursor for the transformational changes required to deliver on the sacred obligations of the Government of Canada to First Nations. As health systems across Canada seek to make transformational challenges to achieve better health outcomes for Indigenous peoples, we would agree that leadership capacity is of paramount importance. This chapter is intended to complement other perspectives on health leadership provided in this book. It will: (1) identify why Indigenous health leadership differs from leadership in non-Indigenous health; (2) provide context to health leaders who excel in other areas of transformational change struggle in Indigenous health systems; and (3) highlight how three aspects of the LEADS framework (Lead self, Engage others, and Develop coalitions) provide a roadmap to critically assess and predict health leaders’ success to affect organizational change in Indigenous health.

Alika Lafontaine is an Indigenous physician of Cree, Anishnaabe, Metis and Pacific Islander descent; past President of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada; and an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine at the University of Alberta. He co-led the Indigenous Health Alliance in Canada (2013–2017). Caroline Lidstone-Jones is a member of the Batchewana First Nation and currently works as a senior consultant for Better Together Health Solutions. Prior to this she was Chief Quality Officer and Operating for Weeneebayko Area Health Authority. Karen Lawford, Ph.D., is an Aboriginal Midwife Namegosibiing (Trout Lake, Lac Seul First Nation, Treaty 3), a Registered Midwife (Ontario), and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Queen’s University.