Step into Leadership with Confidence,
Clarity, and Purpose
Now introducing the Creative Health Care Management Leadership Academy— a new leadership development offering designed to help current and aspiring healthcare leaders build the knowledge and skills needed to navigate the real-world responsibilities of leadership. Through focused, application-based courses, participants strengthen their ability to lead teams, make informed decisions, manage departmental resources, and connect organizational priorities with everyday practice.
The Leadership Academy offers a series of targeted courses, each built for a specific group of leaders— equipping them with the mindset, skills, and practical strategies needed to lead effectively from day one and continue growing with intention.
Because great leaders aren’t just promoted— they are developed.
Choose the Leadership Academy Experience That Works for You
Whether you are seeking professional development for yourself or building a learning experience for leaders across your organization, the Leadership Academy offers two flexible ways to participate.
Attend a Scheduled Virtual Course:
Individuals and teams can register for one or more upcoming Leadership Academy courses. Each course is offered on a prescheduled basis and focuses on practical knowledge and skills that healthcare leaders can apply within their roles.
Customize the Academy for Your Organization:
Healthcare organizations can partner with CHCM to customize the Leadership Academy around their leaders, priorities, and professional development needs. Select an individual course, combine topics from multiple courses, or work with our team to create a more tailored organizational experience.
Explore Leadership Academy Courses
RISE to Leadership: Emerging Leaders
Course Overview
Rising into leadership can be both exhilarating and challenging. “RISE to Leadership” is a virtual course designed to help healthcare professionals explore whether leadership is the right path for them and prepare for the responsibilities that come with it. Participants will examine foundational leadership and management concepts while developing practical skills related to communication, decision-making, influence, staffing, finance, performance management, and organizational change.
Through self-reflection, leadership assessment, and real-world application, participants will gain a clearer understanding of their individual leadership styles and build the knowledge needed to rise to new opportunities with confidence.
Topics Include
- Leadership versus management
- Leadership styles, including an individual leadership assessment
- Decision-making
- Introduction to staffing and finance
- Conflict management and ethical considerations
- Healthy work environments
- And More!
Practical learning. Relevant tools. Stronger, more confident healthcare leaders.
Building Bridges: Leadership Principles for Department Managers
Course Overview
Healthcare leaders serve as essential connectors between the professionals providing patient care and those responsible for organizational operations. “Building Bridges” gives new and aspiring department managers the foundational knowledge and practical skills needed to lead those connections with confidence.
Participants examine what it means to lead within a complex healthcare environment while strengthening their relationships with themselves, their colleagues, their teams, and the patients and families their departments serve.
Topics Include
- The role of the healthcare leader as a connector
- The Interprofessional Relational Model™
- Understanding yourself as a leader
- Leadership styles
- Communication and decision-making
- Meaningful feedback
- SMART goal setting
Each component is designed to be practical, relevant, and immediately applicable— helping leaders succeed in real time, not just in theory.
Charting the Course: Navigating Nurse Staffing with Confidence
Course Overview
Nurse staffing can feel like navigating constantly changing waters, particularly for new nurse managers balancing patient needs, staff well-being, regulatory requirements, and organizational expectations.
“Charting the Course” provides the foundational knowledge and practical strategies nurse leaders need to make informed staffing decisions in both calm and turbulent conditions. Participants explore the professional, regulatory, and organizational factors that shape staffing while developing practical skills related to recruitment, onboarding, scheduling, and common workforce challenges.
Topics Include
- Regulatory and professional guidance for nurse staffing
- Organizational and department-level staffing considerations
- Recruiting, interviewing, and selecting team members
- Orientation and onboarding
- Protecting personal well-being while supporting staff
- And More!
Build the knowledge, confidence, and practical skills needed to navigate the everyday realities of healthcare leadership.
Every Number Tells a Story: Budgeting for Nurse Managers
Course Overview
Budgeting can feel intimidating, even for experienced nurse leaders who confidently manage complex patient care challenges every day. “Every Number Tells a Story” makes budgeting more approachable by helping participants view financial information as a story they can learn to read, interpret, and explain.
Nurse managers are often closest to the people, resources, and daily operations that shape financial outcomes. This course helps participants connect financial data with the realities of nursing leadership and understand how budgeting decisions affect staff, patients, departmental operations, and the broader healthcare organization.
Topics Include
- Reading and understanding a department budget
- Budget variances
- The financial impact of census and staffing
- Communicating more confidently about budgets
- Using financial information to support informed decisions
- And More!
Develop stronger leaders through flexible learning experiences grounded in real healthcare challenges.
Choose the Leadership Academy Experience That Works for You
Whether you are seeking professional development for yourself or building a learning experience for leaders across your organization, the Leadership Academy offers two flexible ways to participate.
Attend a Scheduled Virtual Course
Individuals and teams can register for one or more upcoming Leadership Academy courses. Each course is offered on a prescheduled basis and focuses on practical knowledge and skills that healthcare leaders can apply within their roles.
Customize the Academy for Your Organization
Healthcare organizations can partner with CHCM to customize the Leadership Academy around their leaders, priorities, and professional development needs. Select an individual course, combine topics from multiple courses, or work with our team to create a more tailored organizational experience.
Meet Mary Harper
PhD, RN, NPDA-BC, FAAN
Leadership Development Expert, Nurse Scientist, and Consultant
The Leadership Academy is developed and led by Mary Harper, Director of Program Innovation and Development at Creative Health Care Management.
With deep expertise in leadership development and a passion for building practical, real-world learning experiences, Mary designed the Leadership Academy to meet leaders exactly where they are— especially those stepping into leadership roles for the first time or growing in their responsibilities.
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Give your leaders the tools, confidence, and support they need to succeed
Transforming Health Care Through Trusted Partnerships
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The Myth of the Lone Leader: What Nature Teaches About Collective Leadership in Healthcare
The Wisdom of Migration: Leading Through Change in Healthcare
Leading Through Resistance in Healthcare: Lessons from a Salmon Season
