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Less of the advertorials please - let's hear more from people who aspire to lead in the NHS or who have actually led something themselves.

Good leaders will have a spread of the following ingredients: Intuition, integrity, optimism, application of intellect, deep understanding of the business they lead and the customers they serve, listening, ideas, ability to focus concurrently on today and five years hence, attention to the right details, good judgement, respect and kindness towards others, courage and luck. Courses and programmes can help, but they are no replacement for these things.

And yes, in the NHS we do need positive action to make leaders more representative of the people we serve and the staff to be led - more nurses, more women, and more people from ethnic minorities. Seeing someone you identify with doing a good job is the most likely reason to go down a particular career path, however rocky.