Around the world, health systems face the challenge of motivating an overwhelmed, demoralized, and underpaid workforce. So how do you motivate people to really want to work?

Organizations and programs require strong leadership—at all levels—to contend with emerging health problems, scale up the delivery of health services, modernize health service institutions, and respond to diminishing resources and changing political and economic circumstances. Strong leaders are needed to sustain past investments in health and their results, while building on them to respond to new challenges.

LMS understands there is no "one size fits all approach" to developing leadership capacity. Depending on the environment, context, and resources available, LMS works with clients to create the most suitable program.

Leadership Development Program (LDP)

The LDP develops the skills and competencies of managers to lead their teams to face challenges and achieve results. Working in the client organization and with local facilitators, the program has participants work in teams on specific performance challenges, often focusing on improving service delivery. Over time, they participate in a series of workshops and local meetings to practice their new skills, address challenges together, and incorporate this process into the ongoing work of their teams.

After an initial LDP facilitated by Management Sciences for Health staff in the Aswan governorate of Egypt, participants carried the program forward, replicating it throughout the governorate to more than 100 teams without any additional outside funding. During the program, one district increased its first-time family planning visits by 68% in one year.

Virtual Leadership Development Program (VLDP)

Rather than giving a few top-level managers off-site leadership training for a solid one to two weeks, the VLDP trains teams on-site and virtually over a span of 13–16 weeks (requiring approximately four hours per week of commitment). Team members work individually on the VLDP website with additional support from workbooks and CD-ROMs sent to all participants, and participate in on-site team meetings within their organizations. This process allows participants to continue in their jobs while participating in the program. Teams working to resolve actual workplace challenges identified by the participating teams form the basis of instruction. The program is designed to reach multiple organizations, and can enroll up to one hundred participants at a time. Since its inception, teams from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East have completed the program.

Leadership for Life

Recognizing that no single program has the perfect solution, LMS also maintains LeaderNet. This online resource provides opportunities for ongoing learning and support for managers who lead and facilitators of management and leadership programs. Members have the opportunities to connect, develop, and gain support through the LeaderNet website, email, print, fax, CD-ROM, and phone, as well as through face-to-face meetings.