Leadership in Health Care: Most Priority

Health care delivery and patient circumstances are constantly changing, and managers have to continue to learn new abilities and skills to keep up. A significant portion of management involves skills and competencies such as motivating staff , communicating and negotiating with stakeholders, and maintaining certain attitudes and behaviours that maximize staff discipline and performance. Managers also need to understand the basic technical aspects of the services delivered. For most of these competencies, training courses, while effective, are often not sufficient to provide all the necessary skills. How can managers create and foster an environment in which they, and the people they manage, are constantly learning? One way is to clearly and regularly identify challenges that the service faces, and the skills and knowledge that the team needs to overcome these challenges.
The ways to acquire the necessary skills and competencies for leadership may include:
■ Continuous education and learning regarding leadership and management (including self-learning programmes)
■ Structured “academic” courses; the most common form of management training;
■ Secondments, attachments, shadowing/observation and study tours provide practical learning and examples of how others handle situations you will likely face;
■ Mentoring and coaching relationships – experienced mentors provide insights into managing partnerships and relationships, opportunities to seek advice and explore options when managers are faced with difficult situations;
■ Peer to peer learning – an opportunity to meet other managers at regular intervals, share experiences, challenges and solutions, build a common understanding of processes, and to support each other.