Nursing Leadership Shaw, Sally , 2007 ; International Council of Nurses/Blackwell Publishing : 215 pages. Paperback (ISBN : 978-1-4051-3523-8 ). Nursing Leadership provides an invaluable guide on developing leadership knowledge and skills, together with an evaluation of the International Council of Nurses' (ICN) Leadership for Change (LFCTM) programme as implemented in more than 50 countries. The author Sally Shaw led the LFCTM programme for almost a decade from when it was first implemented in 1995. The LFCTM programme was developed in response to the global need for nurses to understand the ‘context and purpose of health care reform; (to have) a vision of how nursing and health care may develop in their countries; (to be able) to plan strategically and to manage change; and the strength and confidence to be proactive and fully involved in a challenging and often stressful change environment’ (page 22). With her vast experience of leading nurses through this programme in many different health care contexts, Shaw is well placed to draw on numerous real-life examples in support of the lessons she conveys. The examples are situated strategically in shaded boxes throughout the book. In the penultimate chapter, five case studies are presented that illustrate the return on investment of implementing the LFCTM programme in very different settings. Shaw herself leads the reader through the 11 chapters of Nursing Leadership in a process that develops from its focus and content, to the challenge of change, the nature of leadership (what it is and what it is not), the environment(s), designing a programme, the followers, mentoring, the ‘soul’ of leadership, outcomes for the individual and the setting, sustaining leadership and long term impacts, defining success, and making a difference. Nursing Leadership is therefore not only a highly readable account of a practical programme for nurse leaders and educators alike, but also a personal biography of how this was achieved and the responses of many of those involved with Shaw as she took the lessons of LFCTM around the world. Of course, the case studies and examples are all anonymous, although many of the countries from which they are drawn are named. At the recent ICN biennial conference in Yokohama, I was inspired by many of the nurses who made presentations at workshops on a variety of themes and issues initiated and supported by ICN. I have no idea whether those nurses had themselves participated in LFCTM. However, attending my fifth ICN conference in a row, I was struck by the growing self-confidence of so many of the nurses in what they had to report. It may be too far a stretch of the imagination to link that conference experience directly with the LFCTM programme. Yet I was left in no doubt that nursing is changing as nurses take control of sometimes desperate situations that might once have left them unsure of a strategy and possible courses of action. In many ways this is the real test of such a massive programme for change, which under the present leadership of Stephanie Ferguson, is now well into its second decade. Nursing Leadership is therefore much more than a teaching and learning tool, it is a reflection of the commitment and integrity of its author in taking forward ICN's own mission for developing nursing and health care globally. Some of the LFCTM outcomes can be empirically substantiated, others are much more diffuse. We do well to reflect on the wider impacts that programmes such as these have had, and are having, on nurses' leadership throughout the world. Needless to say, I strongly recommend Nursing Leadership to nurses everywhere involved in health care organisation, reform and change.