November 2022

This month heralds a number of new developments. Those of you who read last month’s newsletter may have been dismayed at the announcement that I had decided to not market for further referrals through the academy. As you recall, I suggested that I would continue to help those already referred but would move more of my attention within the academy to writing. (It was always my intention to use the academy to communicate academic developments in the health leadership arena, but I hadn’t made the time to do this in my first 18 months of retirement).

So, the first new development is that I am now working on two book manuscripts: one will be a non fiction story of my journey as a human being; the other is specifically focused on the challenges of strategic leadership in publicly funded cancer care. I am currently paying more attention to the book of my own journey, as I am concerned that my memory will not hold the details of my 67 years of life if I don’t do this now!

The second new development is very exciting. I am happy to announce that after a few months of negotiation, I now am formally associated with the Tall Trees Leadership (TTL) organization. (https://www.talltreesleadership.com/) This association came about after re-connecting with Carol Gray a few years ago. She and her daughter Leah co-founded this organization; and have run the organization for more than 5 years. During this time, they have grown significantly and have an impressive client list. Why associate with them? This collaboration addresses at least three of the objectives I had in establishing an academy: it allows me to do group work with TTL, it provides a referral base for me to do more than physician leadership coaching, and it gives me an expanded base of data that allows me to produce peer reviewed manuscripts. It also provides me a home base where marketing and other organizational issues are covered.

The final new development should be considered as potential! It arose from me attending the Department of Oncology Annual Recognition Awards dinner last week, to which I had been invited for them to say goodbye to me on my retirement. As I shared my journey of retirement with members, it was clear that many wanted to make use of my consulting services now that some COVID alarms have stopped ringing. I am therefore going to have to consider opening up opportunities for them to access my coaching services. I will do this through the academy initially, but if numbers are excessive then I will refer cases through to TTL. We’ll see what happens!

November brings with it a clear transition into winter, and as I speak we are expecting snow tonight. Hope all of you have a great month; enjoy winter!

Peter Craighead