Leading Leaders

By Chadi Awad, Past President SCTONL, CNO Methodist Hospital Metropolitan

The healthcare environment is dynamic; therefore, a leader in the sector must constantly push the workforce to deliver safe, efficient, and high-quality care to all patients. For leaders to succeed, they must perform administrative duties effectively, guide the clinical team, and manage resources appropriately. Since the healthcare industry is known for shifting regulations due to continuously evolving technologies, rising costs, emerging ethical concerns, and clinical advancement, it is essential for leaders to integrate relevant leadership theory, qualities, and skills, to become more adaptable (Figueroa et al., 2019). Hence, to ensure that healthcare organizations maintain a positive culture, it is essential to start creating and modeling future leaders and give them the skill necessary to develop patient-centered care strategies and abilities to tackle complex issues related to care delivery. This speech explores ways of creating future leaders, effective mentorship strategies, and measuring results-oriented nursing leadership.

What are the evidence-based ways of creating leaders of the future?

Identifying and developing leaders in the organization is an effective strategy to prepare for the future. The three evidence-based ways of creating future leaders entail giving them professional growth objectives, integrating continual training programs, and responsibility delegation. Incorporating professional development goals enables future leaders to map their career trajectory (Rasa, 2020). Typically, when developing the professional objective, it is vital to encourage the future leaders to think about what they want to achieve in five years and allow them to create concrete goals to keep them focused. Professionals' development guarantees knowledge and skill growth and enables future leaders to become more informed on dynamic healthcare trends and directions. Subsequently, integrating ongoing training programs allows young leaders to learn how to enhance performance, increase productivity, reduce turnover, and transform positive healthcare culture.

Besides, training induces confidence as young leaders refine their abilities and knowledge while learning to increase their strengths and improve on their weaknesses. Training programs may take various forms, including allowing employees to attend conferences and workshops and offering them a network that will enable them to access support, information, and advice. Consequently, responsibility delegation is crucial as it gives young leaders more control, promotes professional development, and fosters trust (Rasa, 2020). Promoting delegation enables self-motivated employees to recognize their strengths and learn how to collaborate for better results. Indeed, these three strategies help develop future strategic leaders capable of facing any healthcare challenges.

Describe the best mentorship strategies?

Successful leaders today had mentors in their field that were more experienced and effectively showed them the ins and outs of their careers. Mentorship in healthcare is crucial because it enables potential future leaders to know how to handle stress and move out of their comfort zones. The best healthcare mentorship strategies include being a good example, offering challenging opportunities, and listening and supporting. A good mentor should lead by example, demonstrating excellence, work ethic, and professionalism (Sheinfeld et al., 2020). A good mentor should monitor and correct negativity and help the mentee engage in professional activities. Leading by example also entails delivering problem-solving approaches to allow mentees to handle healthcare problems effectively and strategically.

The second mentorship strategy offers challenging opportunities to encourage mentees to get out of their comfort zones and undertake new activities requiring new skills and abilities. Subsequently, integrating support strategy encourages young leaders to accomplish things they did not realize they could fulfill (Sheinfeld et al., 2020). Likewise, through listening and supporting in the mentorship stage, a mentor can read between the lines and anticipate doubts, stress, and concerns that mentees are facing. Supporting mentees enables them to work through the process and develop an effective solution. The listening technique requires understanding, compassion, and patience to achieve desirable outcomes.

Evaluate this statement: the best leaders are results-oriented, i.e., in the nursing executive
arena, leaders are measured by low turnover, high patient experience scores, and safe and
high-quality care delivery.

Indeed, the best leaders are result oriented as they tend to be confident and decisive when taking charge. Result-oriented leaders are often logical, organized, and focused and thus set high expectations for the workforce. In nursing, a leader is referred to as result-oriented when they deliver high-quality care, desirable patient experience, and enhance labor retention (Poels et al., 2020). However, a leader must become the backbone of all improvement strategies to achieve high-quality, safe care. They should provide unity of purpose, establish direction, and offer support that influences the workforce to deliver patient-centered, high-quality care matching established standards.

Subsequently, result-oriented healthcare leaders achieve high patient experience by training the workforce to honor patients, communicate effectively, and commit to timeliness. To continually enhance customer satisfaction, result-oriented leaders promote cleanliness in facilities, promote patient education, and deliver integrative health services. Likewise, since result-oriented leaders focus on outcomes, they aim to engage the workforce to promote retention and reduce turnover (Poels et al., 2020). The leaders also recognize high- 5 performing professionals, honor teamwork, set achievable timelines, and give professionals a voice to air their concerns. The result-oriented leader also creates a conducive environment for the workforce to allow them to produce desirable productivity.

Evaluate and show evidence that the best leaders believe in transparency; direct, clear feedback; believe in the fun at the workplace; focus on the delivery of results; and finally, are great storytellers.

The best healthcare leaders have the potential to transform care delivery by providing vision, promoting integrity, and communicating clearly. The best leaders promote transparency by encouraging accountability, trust, and open communication. Through openness, a leader can demonstrate the value of each employee and make everybody feel valued. Transparency in leadership enhances employee satisfaction and promotes engagement leading to high healthcare outcomes (Figueroa et al., 2019). Likewise, the best healthcare leaders offer direct, clear feedback within the facility, improving workforce confidence, motivation, and interactions. These leaders are timely, regular, and specific when giving feedback, thus allowing peer practitioners to make corrections by accepting positive criticisms.

Subsequently, best leaders embrace enthusiasm to create a sense of fun, enabling providers in the organization to have a positive mindset and enjoy high-level well-being and good mental status. These leaders promote fun by celebrating good days, rejoicing in small wins, indulging in team-building activities, and decorating the office place to boost staff morale. Consequently, the best leaders aim to deliver a good result; thus, they know how to prioritize tasks, motivate teams, and apply strong analytical skills (Figueroa et al., 2019). The leaders also demonstrate expertise, make employees perform to high-level capacity, follow up tasks, and strengthen accountability to achieve objectives and get good results. Lastly, the best leaders are great storytellers and compel the workforce to build credibility through narrations. The stories they offer inspire the workforce as they promote engagement, thus connecting and supporting employees with practical skills and abilities.

Conclusion

Indeed, leadership is a crucial aspect of any healthcare organization because it determines the outcome of all activities. In order to continue building a sound healthcare system and organization, it is vital to create good future leaders by nurturing and mentoring them to exploit their capabilities. Strengthening their professional growth makes them great leaders that would promote transparency and good results, offer clear feedback, and promote high-quality care, thereby increasing patient satisfaction.

References

Figueroa, C. A., Harrison, R., Chauhan, A., & Meyer, L. (2019). Priorities and challenges for health leadership and workforce management globally: a rapid review. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1-11. doi:10.1186/s12913-0190-4080-7

Poels, J., Verschueren, M., Milisen, K., & Vlaeyen, E. (2020). Leadership styles and leadership outcomes in nursing homes: a cross-sectional analysis. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1), 1-10. doi:10.1186/s12913-020-05854-7

Rasa, J. (2020). Developing effective health leaders: the critical elements for success. Journal of Hospital Management and Health Policy. doi:10.21037/jhmhp.2019.11.01

Sheinfeld, Gorin, S. N., Lee, R. E., & Knight, S. J. (2020). Group mentoring and leadership growth in behavioral medicine. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 10(4), 873-876.doi:10.1093/tbm/ibaa067