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The improving global health (IGH) programme is a leadership development programme that aims to develop leadership skills and behaviours alongside quality improvement methodology in National Health Service (NHS) employees in a global health setting. Through collaboration, experiential learning and mentorship, the programme aims to produce both vertical and horizontal leadership development in its participants. This paper aims to describe the programme and its impact, in terms of leadership development, in a sample of participants.

Open coding and thematic analysis of leadership development summaries (LDS) completed by 39 returned IGH participants were conducted. LDS are written on completion of the overseas placement; participants reflect on their personal leadership development against the nine dimensions of the NHS Healthcare Leadership Model (2013).

These IGH programme participants have reported a change in the way they think, behave and see the world. A development in sense of self and experience in developing team members are the two most commonly reported themes. Adaptability, communication, overcoming boundaries, collaborative working, “big picture” thinking and strategic thinking were also identified.

The study is limited by the relatively low number of completed LDS. More work is needed to understand the long-term effect of this type of leadership development on the NHS. Other leadership development programmes should consider focussing on vertical and horizontal leadership development.

This more granular understanding of the leadership skills and behaviours developed and how it is the programme’s design that creates it, has not previously been described.

The field of global leadership has flourished and advanced in the preceding decade. However, in contrast to the term global leadership, which enjoys conceptual clarity enabling accumulative progress, the construct of global leadership effectiveness is comparatively undertheorized, with instances of definitional ambiguity and disjointed methodological operationalizations across studies. The purpose of this chapter is, thus, to provide a systematic review of the global leadership effectiveness literature. In doing so, our contributions are fourfold. First, we offer an inclusive, comprehensive definition of global leadership effectiveness. Second, we map its construct domain. Third, we review research findings at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Finally, we integrate extant insights and offer suggestions for future research, organized within the typology of the content domain along the identified dimensions of global leadership effectiveness. Together, our goal is to build a foundation for future research examining the roles of leadership and the global context as antecedents of global leadership effectiveness.