At a Glance
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Leading with care
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The healthcare leader of today is Versatile and Decisive
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Practices for Effective Healthcare Leadership
Leading with care
What does this entail for the new generation leader?
● Understanding the unique qualities and needs of his team
● Providing a safe and caring environment to every member of the team enabling them to do their jobs effectively
● Having the essential qualities a leader in the health and social care segment should possess
Why is this important?
Leaders are meant to understand the underlying emotions that affect their team members while caring for team members as individuals, while helping them to manage their feelings. This would help the members of the team focus all their energy in the care and service of the patients.
What it is not?
● It does not allow anyone to make excuses for poor performance
● Does not encourage the possibility of the leader not taking responsibility for the poor performance of members of your team
● Failure to comprehend the impact of your emotions or conduct with colleagues.
● Taking responsibility away from the others in the team
Other important attributes to be seen:
● Caring for the team
● Providing opportunities for mutual support
● Recognition of underlying reasons for behavior
● Spreading a caring environment beyond one’s zone of influence
The healthcare leader of today is Versatile and Decisive
Research has proven that 30% of senior healthcare leaders are responsible for manifold executive roles. Healthcare leaders who have an education which covers many disciplines often have an advantage since they are expected to take on diverse responsibilities. Studies show that most successful CEOs with a medical or clinical degree also hold a master’s degree in administration.
The new environment needs leaders to encourage a collaborative spirit and thereby improve the skills of the workforce. The ability to mentor and inspire the workforce is a trait that is a must in the health care professional of today. Those executives who are able to create a new list of traits that the fast-moving healthcare marketplace requires will be better equipped to manage and handle the challenges and the competition for future career opportunities.
Thus the transformation of the healthcare industry has in turn seen the evolution of the healthcare executive.
Practices for Effective Healthcare Leadership
While we may list several personality traits that are desirable in the healthcare professional and those that define a successful healthcare leader, there is no one single trait that defines success. There are on the other hand practices and tendencies that these leaders share.
Firstly, they should have a vision and strategy for the future. They have to inspire performance in others in the pursuit of their individual goals. The primary focus and mandate of any healthcare industry is to improve the quality of healthcare in the societies and communities where they serve.
These leaders may vary in their individual vision and goals but by and large they have striking similarities in terms of essential, fundamental skills that they possess in order to build success. These are elucidated here:
Building Strong Teams:
As healthcare evolves it will continue to require greater collaboration and with patient focussed medical homes becoming the custom model, the need for alliances, partnerships and teamwork becomes intensified. Hence the need to understand the effective allocation of talent to build effective teams, while having the confidence to let the teams work together. The more effective the teams, the greater the variety of skills and experiences they exhibit. For leaders to be successful they should begin with recruiting the right team with the right skill sets bringing together the many varying experiences of people from different backgrounds, perspectives and ideas. These leaders would then have to ensure that the carefully chosen team is provided with the right collaborative environment to bring out the best in themselves and the rest of their team members. These leaders then provide their folks the freedom to explore new possibilities.