Does it feel like there is too much dependency on those at the top of the organisation?

Is a lack of leadership, management and team working impacting on morale and performance?

Is everyone working hard but still struggling to deliver to deliver the levels of performance you desire?

 

If you answered yes to any of the above you are not alone

 

Being a leader in healthcare has always being a challenge.  It’s a 24 hour service, where demand is never known with certainty.  Right now leaders are having to face a number of additional challenges:

 

• An ageing population that is putting a significant demand on services and will continue to create more demand for services.
• Reduced levels of funding in real terms which is creating greater urgency to change ways in which services are delivered and make better use of resources.
• Rising expectations of those using services .  What people receive in other areas of life creates new and often more demanding requirements from the NHS.
• Re-building public confidence in the NHS following the publication of the Francis Report on Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
• Delivering on three distinct but connected areas of money, quality and performance.

 

Faced With Challenges On This Scale It All Too Easy To

 

Focus on reacting and fire fighting rather than stopping, thinking, listening and planning the way forward.  One of the biggest challenges of doing this is creating the time and the space to do this.  It’s easy to just keep doing what you always do.  The trouble is that while you might resolve the short term crisis you never solve or provide a sustainable longer term solution.

 

Start to work in silos and act and behave in ways that might well be in the best interests of a particular function or team.  While this might work to some extent it will not necessarily be in the best interests of  the organisation as a whole or of patients and services users.

 

Get so focused on the next target or deadline that you lose sight of the core purpose of the service and serving patients.  As events at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust highlight when you lose sight of the core purpose, you stop listening and ignore the fundamentals of good care.

 

Healthcare is ultimately a people based business 

 

The reality is that the quality of leadership and management has a huge impact on the levels of performance, the service that is delivered, the achievement of targets and patient and service user satisfaction.

 

How many of these situations or struggles can you relate to?

 

1. We are really struggling to get the engagement of people.  Everyone seems to be acting in their own self interests or in the interests of their department, function or specialty.  Relationships between clinical and non clinical staff are strained or perhaps have even broken down.  It feels like we are completely disconnected and pursuing completely different agendas.
2. We are all working really hard but it feels like that we are running to stand still.  We are on the back foot a lot of the time and always seem to be reacting to events rather than being proactive.  We all talk about the need to change and make improvements but never seem to follow through.
3.  There are pockets of great practice and performance across the organisation but it is inconsistent.  We seem to have a real lack of skills, experience, confidence and expertise in many areas of the organisation.  People are exceptional within their own area of expertise but lack the expertise in leading, managing and team working.
4. We know that we need to make change, be more efficient, make the best use of resources but are really struggling to balance a huge agenda.  When we embark on change we seem to continually encounter resistance.  Sometimes we get off to a great start then lose momentum.  We have so much that is 70% complete when what we need is to see fewer things through to completion.

 

What you really want instead

 

At the end of the day you want to have a highly engaged team of people who work together and strive to consistently deliver great performance and service, achieve high levels of patient satisfaction, hit targets while maintaining high levels of quality and making the best use of resources

 

You might be of the view that effective leadership, management and team working happens by chance.  While some might have the attributes to be excellent in this area, many who come from a highly technical, scientific and professional background find this a struggle.  They are exceptional at what they do in their professional discipline but don’t have all of the skills needed to lead and manage.

 

In other words you want leaders and managers who:

 

Can motivate, inspire, encourage and support others to deliver to their real potential.  People who orchestrate, facilitate, problem solve and make it easy for others to perform.  People who are able to bring out the best in others by really understanding them and getting them playing to their strengths.

 

Can engage with clinical and non clinical colleagues across the organisation.  Without the engagement of clinical staff it is almost impossible to deliver great performance and services.  Without strong levels of clinical engagement you will always struggle to foster an environment that encourages great team working.

 

Provide the clarity of direction and explain to others how what they do fits into the overall organisational agenda.  The truth is everyone at every level in the organisation wants to have clarity about where the organisation is going.  A lack of clarity from leaders merely creates uncertainty and anxiety.

 

Are highly productive personally and can maximise productivity from the teams that they lead and manage or processes that they operate.  You can buy more more memory for your computer or a better piece of clinical equipment but you cannot buy more time.  Leaders and managers often spend significant amounts of time in meetings.  How well these meetings function has a major impact on personal productivity.

 

Have excellent communication skills.   They can put their message across clearly in writing and verbally and are also highly effective at listening.

 

Can negotiate effectively within their teams, across teams and even across health economies to find solutions that will work for everyone and be of benefit to patients and service users.

 

Can  identify the need for and deliver change and improvement through winning the support and getting the buy-in of multiple stakeholders that is so vital to success.

 

Can get the best from teams through utilising the strengths and qualities of each team member and get people working together rather than in silos or in the interests of their own area.

 

These objectives are reachable when you have the right support in place for your leaders and managers.

 

The Solution:  The High Performing Healthcare Leader Programme 

 

The High Performing Healthcare Leader Programme is designed to deliver sustainable improvements in performance, service delivery and reputation through people.

 

This is a year long programme is for 8-10 leaders and senior managers, who are committed to delivering consistently great performance, services and results for patients and service users.

 

It is tailored specifically for your organisation.  It includes assessments, workshops, training, coaching, mentoring and consulting.

 

What’s different about this programme?

 

The programme is practical, realistic and pragmatic rather than being full of theory, models and ideas that most people don’t get or cannot see the tangible benefits to their situation.

 

It’s delivered by people who have actually worked in the NHS for a number of years so really understand the size and scale of the challenge faced by the people who work in the service day to day and in making large scale change.  It’s grounded in reality.

 

It’s a highly supportive programme. We are here ready and willing to roll up our sleeves and help leaders through the process of improvement rather than just standing on the sidelines.

 

The key benefits of this programme

 

Leaders and senior managers are getting consistently great results from teams.  They are consistently getting the best from each and every member of the team.  They understand people’s strengths and their motivations so can allocate responsibilities appropriately.

 

Relationships between clinical staff and managerial staff are improved and more productive.   Different groups of staff have better understanding of each others roles, contributions, challenges and work collaboratively to deliver the best outcomes for those who use the service.

 

Time is spent wisely and invested on those areas that are most important to delivering high quality care.  The focus moves from the number of hours worked to the results and outcomes that are delivered.  Meetings are much more focused with clear purpose, preparation and action focus being the priority

 

Process problems are resolved rather than just being allowed to continue or partly fixed with more process or adding extra layers of process.

 

Change and improvement initiatives are chosen wisely, thought through, evaluated and tested on a small scale basis so that they have a higher chance of success when fully implemented.  People have the skills, knowledge and expertise to properly review processes, identify and implement improvements and to ensure that the benefits to be delivered are actually achieved

 

Communication is improved within teams and across the organisation.  Leaders and managers are listening more effectively and acting on the ideas of others.  There is more collaboration and better working relationships with health economy partners.

 

Improved team working across the organisation and across health economies as the focus moves from what is best for us to what is best for the patient and service users.

 

Everyone in the organisation is consistently striving to operate at high levels of performance.  Initiative and innovation is supported and encouraged.  When things go well this is recognised.  When things don’t work out as planned, people are encouraged to reflect, learn and try a different way.

 

The organisation starts to get a reputation as a great place to work which positively impacts on recruitment, retention, team working and patient care as there is less dependency on higher cost and often lower quality temporary staff.

 

What you receive in this programme

 

The High Performing Healthcare Leader Programme is for 8-10 leaders and senior managers, who are committed to delivering consistently great performance, services and results for patients and service users.  It’s lead by me personally.  It’s open to leaders and senior managers clinical and non clinical.

 

The programme starts with a meeting with the project sponsor or programme steering group.  This is the individual or team within the organisation who we partner with to deliver the desired results.  We meet 4 times during the course of the programmme to ensure flexibility and responsiveness to the participant needs.  As partners we are collectively responsible for delivering the results from the programme.

 

We interview each participant.  We spend 45-60 minutes with each participant to learn about them, their insights on the organisation and their aspirations from the programme.  We will also spend time outlining the programme for them and handling any questions that they might have.

 

We undertake assessments to help participants to get a real insight into their areas of strength and areas for improvement.  This includes a combination of self assessment and feedback from bosses, peers and subordinates.

 

We deliver 4 in person workshops in 2 day blocks on specific areas that contribute to effective leadership, management and team working.  These provided the opportunity to build skills, confidence and competence.

 

Between workshops we provide monthly coaching and mentoring by telephone for programme participants.   All of these calls are recorded and an mp3 file of the recording is made available to the individuals.

 

We also provide ongoing tips, strategies and additional knowledge through e-mail updates and other online and offline communications which could include webinars and teleclasses.

 

Participants are required to identify and work on a specific improvement project within their organisation which we help and support them with through our coaching and mentoring.  This re-enforces the learning and gives people the opportunity to put the learning into practice.  Participants are expected to present the results of their improvement project to a team of senior people within the organisation.

 

Is The High Performing Healthcare Leader Programme For You?

 

This programme is for your organisation if you are committed to achieving sustainable improvements in performance, service delivery and reputation through great leadership, management and team working.  At its core this programme is all about getting the very best from each and everyone in your organisation.  Ultimately it is people that determine whether the organisation thrives or struggles.  How people are lead, managed or work together has a huge impact on results.

 

You want your leaders and senior managers to play a significant role in delivering success for years to come.  Some might be able to deliver short term solutions but the real measure of success is high performance over the long term.

 

You are ready to provide the internal support to people to help them with finding and implementing a significant improvement project during the course of the programme.

 

How To Find Out More

 

If you believe that you might be interested in this programme, I would like to invite you to take advantage of a no obligation Strategy Session.

 

In this strategy session we will explore the challenges you and your leaders are facing, the kind of results that you would want to achieve and whether this programme would help you or not.

 

The session takes about 90 minutes and can be done in person or by telephone.  Whether we move forward together and deliver the programme or not you will get real clarity from this session.

 

To book your  Strategy Session, simply click here to be taken to our contact us page, complete the form on that page and I will be in touch within the next 48-72 hours.

 

Duncan Brodie, Managing Director, Goals and Achievements Ltd