In Search of Positive Leaders in Health Care

Authenticity

2010-02-04T15:34:00.002+01:00

Leadership is not about charisma or certain hereditary or acquired qualities. Studies on leadership shows that it is more about being genuine with who you are, being authentic - following your own inner compass of beliefs.

Leaders that "walk their talk", having a goal and always standing up for their ideals and being able to change their mind when proven wrong (obviously being able to excuse themselves) are more likely to be a effective leader.

How can you be authentic?

Studies imply that leading yourself, taking responsibility for yourself, your mind and life is the first step of being a good leader. Being aware of yourself and your inner beliefs, how you behave and react and do this congruent with your beliefs - you will be truthful and trustworthy. I guess that is the same as authentic.

I saw a quote the other day that actually sum this up;

"Be independent of the good opinion of others."
(Dr Wayne W Dyer)

If a leader is more interested in being liked or is more cautious about his/her own career - than following his/her inner beliefs - people feel that their heart is not involved in decisions being made. People trust hearts... Not figures or statistics.

In health-care that should be more obvious. Even so - the leadership culture in health care - often premiere clinical skills more when choosing their leaders, than leadership skills. Especially hiring leaders for medical doctors. Too many doctors becoming leaders are afraid of losing their identity (medical doctor) if they become leaders, so they choose to do the leadership badly - to still work in the clinic/ward. So I wonder - is it about the title as a leader they want or do they really have a committment for leadership?

Reality is contingent

2009-12-02T13:25:00.001+01:00

"We do not see the world as it is but as we are and no human being has a privileged view of reality."
"When we forget our contingent view of reality, we lose our capacity to live together."

When someone asserts that only they see what is really going on - they actually making a demand for obedience."

(From Presence An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society - Senge et al)

Securing quality in procedures in health care

2009-11-28T14:04:00.003+01:00

I am worried about the newspapers aim of creating a distrust against hospitals that are trying to make the health-care more secure by intensifying reports of faults that occur in health-care procedures.

There is two ways to handle the faults;
One is to withhold every information about them and hope that no one finds out about them...
or you can create a system of reporting the faults and learn from them - making the procedures more safe in the future...

Earlier the first way of doing it was more common - and still are at some hospitals.

Leaders in health care are responsible for the safety for their patients and that includes making sure that every procedure during a stay in hospital is safe. An operation or stay at hospital shall not exceed the risk for infections or mistreatment.

One way of doing this is to identify all mistakes in the chain of handlings during a hospital stay. This mistakes takes place even if we don't report this. There are human beings with a great deal of responsibility working in every hospital and clinic.

At the hospital and clinic where I work - the work with health-care security intensified about a year ago. This lead to a significant increase of reports of mistakes and faults - both to the report system within the hospital - as to the national report system "Lex Maria" at the National Board of Health and Welfare. (Socialstyrelsen)

As I see it - there is no other way than to identify mistakes in the aim of getting better. In the flight-industry the pilots report mistakes or trouble with the airplane or engine all the time - and it is obvious that the aim for this reports is to enhance the flight-security in the future.

So what is really the difference with health-care? If we have the aim to reduce nosocomial infections (infections that you get during a hospital stay or procedure) or drug-related mistakes - we have to identify structural unsatisfactory state of things. Like in the flight-industry.

Another way of reducing incidents because of misjudge is to train emergency situations in a simulator training setting. Again - this is what pilots and astronauts do. They train emergency situations and so do we at the hospital. We train for the worst thing to happen, so we are prepared in our minds and train the co-operation between us in a stressful situation.

I am proud to work in a hospital that have the second approach to handle faults. Our leaders take responsibility for doing better in the future...

I am also disappointed at the Swedish newspapers that they write what they do - they do discredit the nurses, doctors and the leaders. The journalists make a choice not wanting to listen at all to this side of the story.

Authenticity

2009-11-17T14:52:00.003+01:00

When I dig deeper into my reference literature on leadership research, many studies point out authenticity as the main success-feature for being a great leader - in that sense that people want to follow.

What is the characteristics of authenticity?

It seems like authenticity have a tangential point with "flow" - the magic feeling of being totally wrapped up in the moment of now and the things you are doing.

This phenomenon is often described for musicians, artists and in other creative occupations - as magic moments - being one with their creation. Being a former singer - I know from my own experience - that when you are being one with what you are doing - being within flow - that's when everyone present can feel the magic happening. Everything gets very clear, true and honest - because you are the music being created. (Compared with trying to create.) This magic moment is never going to be the same again - they are created freshly in a new way the next time - adding up more experience.

Authenticity in leadership is about the same. An authentic leader is "being" true, having a clarity of who he/she is and having an inner compass with a moral rightness. He/she is almost creating like an artist/musician - in that sense. They lead within a presence - being aware of the things happening and acting upon them, within the same flow as an artist, musician or sportsman. You can fix your vision upon a goal when the surroundings change - fine-tuning the direction because of new conditions when you work within flow. But you are doing it without actually being aware of what you are doing.

Everyone working within a doctor-patient meeting or coaching setting have hopefully experienced this kind of meetings. We go in to the meeting never knowing exactly how it will end - until we are in the middle of it. We create this magic moments together and fine-tune the meeting as it goes along. We do this in total presence - within flow.

When I go through the literature I have found that leaders being authentic are doing exactly this. Besides creating good meetings they work with flow, being their task and their goal - without actually being aware of it.

In health-care settings - how can we create this high-quality meetings and flow - between our leaders and employees?
Is health-care business doing the right choice when they appoint the best qualified researcher or professor as chief of a clinic? Is the curriculum vitae more important than authenticity?
Can we give leaders training in authenticity?

That is some of my questions I want to find answers to along the way.

That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something.
(Meredith Monk)

Think about it!

2009-10-09T08:51:00.002+02:00

“If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.” (Khalil Gibran)

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”

(Henry Ford)

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”

(Henry Ford)

About Leadership

2009-10-04T10:12:00.005+02:00

“Leadership is about coaching people around their weaknesses and celebrating their magnificent strengths.”

“The deeper the relationship, the more effective the leadership. Relationship-building is job #1 for any leader. Why? Because people will not follow you if they do not trust you. And people will not lend you a hand until you first touch their heart.”

In defense of change

2009-09-13T17:51:00.000+02:00

"Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting another result." (Albert Einstein)

How can we link purpose and meaning with work in health care?

2009-08-30T14:15:00.002+02:00

Martin Seligman is talking in this speech about how to keep happy emotions longer and he is referring to research showing that "having fun" often leads to a dip in emotions after the peak of happiness is gone. BUT when someone is doing something altruistic and good for someone else, the good and happy feeling lasts longer. ("Goes on and on and on").

So - that leads me back to my aim for this blog...

Why are people working in health-care not feeling happy feelings over work? They actually are doing good things for others everyday - but still many are feeling a lot of stress, many feel bad about themselves and can not find a meaning of what they are doing.
What is different with the one's feeling happy feelings about work, themselves and life?
How can we link purpose and meaning with a positive emotional result as a factor for personnel in health-care?

Get inspiration from Martin Seligman here!

I have some ideas and I hope to try them out, soon...

Quote on leadership

2009-08-22T11:56:00.002+02:00

Go to the people. Live among them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know, build on what they have. But of the best of leaders, when their task is accomplished, their work is done. The people will remark, "we have done it ourselves."

Ancient Eastern saying

Energy

2009-07-25T17:14:00.001+02:00

"There is no problem if there is a gap between the present and the goal. The tension between them produce energy for moving further"

Leadership

2009-07-25T16:52:00.004+02:00

What qualities is needed for supreme leadership?

Leadership research shows that authenticity, courage and visions/dreams for innovation are the three main qualities needed.

If you carry a dream in your heart - you know where you are going - and if the leader know that - it is easy to follow!

I am lucky to know just such a leader!

"He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind."
Leonardo da Vinci

Why this blog?

2009-07-24T22:39:00.004+02:00

I have always wondered why human beings working in a hospital EVER can doubt the meaning of their work. My aim is to find out why they doubt. Have they just forgot the reason for why they chose to work as a doctor, nurse or physiotherapist? Or is economy and production goals concealing their inner goal and conviction?

Is there a difference between leadership in health cares compared to other business settings?
What is needed to get healthy personnel at a hospital or clinic? Is that an existential question or is it about good or bad leadership? What factors are protecting us from losing our passion for work?

How do we get back to a meaningful experience in going to work with our patients? How can we keep the empathy alive, year after year, at the clinic and keep cynicism out of there?

I honestly believe that we own our patients, ourselves and each other to keep believing in life and every individuals right to be seen as a human being at every time. If we forget that - I think we lose our commitment to work in health care settings.

So maybe that is what a leader in health care must believe and coach his/her personnel at every time?
Although, I will argue later on that health economy is necessary and in need for ethical decisions and therefore our responsibility to consider at all time if we do not want our politicians to make the decisions.

I will find some inspiration in people I meet, books I read and giving examples on how we can do and must not do. As usual with blogs - they are personal - and no absolute truth!

Hope you find something here - that can reach your heart!