Leadership Development in the health services sector
Staff writer
The Zimbabwean health sector, though going through some challenges, has over time been poised for major reconfiguration and upgrade as the drive towards universal health coverage of sufficient quality consistent with an empowered upper-middle income economy takes center stage. (This is just a summary of events - no one specific source.)
This entails that the sector needs to have the right people at the right time for it to be able to meet the sectors aspirations. Not only does leadership speak to achieving the sectors goals but it is vital for leadership development to start form organisational level which then builds to achieving national goals.Nikki Etal (2021)
This calls for the need for leadership development in the health services sector. Leadership is more than just managing tasks and delegating responsibilities. Kyriakidou et al., (2017) note that leadership it is about inspiring, engaging, and motivating your team. It’s about coaching and developing your team members to reach their full potential. It’s about creating a culture of trust, respect, and collaboration. Leadership can be development thus necessitates commitment to education, a inclination to learning and a desire to making a positive impact on “your team and your patients”.
Healthcare professionals, owe it to their patients and colleagues to be the best leaders they can be can be.
The lack of leadership development prospects is a major challenge for healthcare organisations hence healthcare professionals should be provided with training and support to develop the necessary skills to become effective leaders. By committing to leadership development, scholars have argued, healthcare organisations build a culture of trust, respect, and collaboration that benefits both patients and staff. Veronesi H (2017).
Effective leadership ensures the enhancement of local organisational cultures to deliver high standards of compassionate and safe healthcare services. It is also one of the critical determinants in shaping organisational culture, and along with some other key performance indicators, therefore, fundamental to ensure the development of the leadership behaviors, strategies and qualities of healthcare professionals. Veronesi H (2017)
On the other hand ,Clay-Williams et al. (2014) notes the importance of engaging more clinicians in management and Clinical Commissioning Group roles as clinical leaders are capable professionals with on the job experience in managing the departmental structure and work process. This also stretches to patients outcomes, safety and quality issues as well as the capability for intelligent and informed actions in regards to healthcare quality provision and organisational processes. Experience in leadership is the most valuable factor in enabling leaders to develop their skills, especially when they have appropriate guidance and support. Also, focusing on how to enhance leaders’ learning from experience should be a priority.
Leadership development in health care is needed to ensure a return on the huge investments made. When it comes to healthcare, there is a considerable emphasis on clinical education and training. Many healthcare leaders have little to no formal training in leadership, which can lead to detrimental effects on patient care, staff morale, and team culture.
Participation in health leadership programmes has a positive impact on health professionals’ leadership potential, leadership styles and talent management. However, leadership qualities are also influenced by factors such as national and organisational culture, structure and team dynamics. Leadership in this sector needs to ensure direction, alignment and commitment to the core task of developing cultures that deliver continually improving, high-quality and compassionate patient care. Leaders need to work together, spanning boundaries within and between organisations, prioritising overall patient care rather than the success of individual components, and to build a co-operative, integrative leadership culture – in effect collective leadership.
It is worth noting that developing collective leadership for an organisation depends crucially on local circumstances and is likely to be done best ‘in house’ with expert support, integrating both organisational development and leadership development Experience in leadership is the most valuable factor in enabling leaders to develop their skills, especially when they have appropriate guidance and support hence focusing on how to enhance leaders’ learning from experience should be a priority. Studies have shown that the level of leadership directly affects the satisfaction of the team, their engagement, and the culture of the team. As healthcare professionals, it's essential to recognize the importance of leadership and the impact it can have on patients and colleagues. It is imperative to shift focus to include leadership education and training so that leaders have the necessary skills to succeed.
Current emphasis in the sector on empowering clinicians and other front-line staff in terms of their decision-making competencies, also emphasises subtly the need for collective leadership that includes a broader practice of leadership by clinicians and other front-line staff, rather than by designated managers alone. Such collective leadership is best obtained by a developmental focus on the collective, rather than on individual leaders alone.
However, traditional leader-centric development programmes with vague links to organisational output have continued to rule. The implication of new understanding of leadership is that the sector’s approach to leadership development is biased by a preoccupation with individual leader development often provided by external providers in remote locations.
In conclusion, leadership of organisations needs to be consistent in terms of leadership styles and behavior working within and across organisations in health and in social care.