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Tailor-made YUO leadership course will sharpen key competences at EAU20

The YUO leadership course aims to give expert recommendations to urologists and health care professionals aged 45 and younger on how to develop leadership and management skills. For Sunday 22 March 2020, during the 35th Annual EAU Congress (EAU20) in Amsterdam, the EAU Young Urologists Office (YUO) has again arranged for a specialist management-and-communications team to help participants acquire effective management skills.

During EAU19 in Barcelona, many urologists attended the course. One of them was Dr. Bernhard Haid (AT, in the centre of the photo above).

What have you learned from the YUO leadership course?
“Taking part in the YUO leadership course provided me with a comprehensive insight into important principles of leadership in general. By means of pre-course questionnaires, the contents were adapted to the individual participants, allowing for a more tailored focus on personal weak spots. In my case, identifying my weak spots and tackling the associated skills was a main takeaway which provided me with new resources to improve my daily practice. Another highlight was working on challenging questions concerning leadership in urology together with people in a similar leadership situation. The excellent tutorship of the course leaders Mr. Herman Rijksen (NL), Mr. Michiel Evers (NL), Mr. Thijs Quakkelaar (NL), and Dr. Michiel Sedelaar (NL) opened up the invaluable opportunity to exchange views and make contacts. The course alone was too short to cover all relevant aspects; however, with the reading material, the pre-course reading, and the mailings over a longer period of time, I could clearly extend my theoretical knowledge and thus have acquired applicable, relevant new skills.”

How have you applied these skills in your daily practice?
“I have put my focus on more effectively identifying tasks to delegate and to assign those tasks in a more efficient way. Furthermore, I took on the offer of the course leaders to contact them per email with questions arising from daily work. Not only did I get valuable advice whenever I needed it, but I was also recommended helpful literature which later on had a practical impact.”

How was the course taught?
“It was a delightful experience of learning together in a relaxed atmosphere. The course leaders employed a well-balanced mix of lectures and tasks assigned to groups of participants. One example was to analyse one’s own leadership profile based on the pre-course questionnaire and derive concrete measures applicable in daily life from that.”

Do you feel you have become a better urologist because of this course?
“The course was a beacon pointing the right way to sharpening key competences. Building leadership skills and reflecting on one’s role within a team is essential for being a good clinician, scientist, surgeon, colleague, and leader. Therefore, probably yes.”

To know more about the YUO leadership course and how to apply, please check out this article, too. The deadline for applications is 1 February 2020. The YUO board will review all applications on a first come, first served basis.