Great leaders contribute to the success of businesses. Skilled leaders in healthcare motivate staff to work at their highest potential to benefit patients, their colleagues, and the organization.
Although nurse managers, doctors, and health administrators supervise teams and daily operations, this does not mean they are natural leaders. What gives some people an advantage as leaders over others?
If you aspire to be a great healthcare leader, let’s look the characteristics and skills needed to perform well in these roles.
1. Strong Communication
All great leaders are good communicators; they have the ability to get their point across in a constructive manner and have strong interpersonal skills. Healthcare leaders must be able to communicate with both colleagues and patients – two groups that can require significantly different communication styles.
Effective communication in nursing and other healthcare professions establishes trust between you and your patients, improves patient satisfaction and reduces medical errors.
Communication goes beyond just one-on-one scenarios and includes communicating with management teams in meetings and getting your point across in written form, too.
2. Emotional Intelligence
An empathetic leader will take into account the needs of others and will also have insight into their feelings and thoughts.
Emotional intelligence, or “EQ,” is the ability to understand and respond constructively to your own emotions and the emotions of others. A leader with a high EQ improves communication and de-escalates conflicts by setting the tone for the whole team. When you can express empathy, you have the ability to remain level-headed while understanding the other individuals perspective. This skill helps maintain respect among the team
3. Collaboration
A successful leader doesn’t wait for things to happen; they are proactive, and they anticipate desired results. They identify potential problem areas and take action against them. They are constantly thinking of ways to improve and do better. Whether that goal is business-related or personal, they always strive to do better.
4. Ability to motivate
Healthcare leaders who want to positively influence and lead a team successfully must be visionaries who see the big picture and set ambitious goals. Even when they are simultaneously pulled in several directions, leaders guide their team to make progress on their patient and business goals by maintaining focus on their vision.
This fire in their belly comes from their passion and pride to be the best and to achieve more than they ever expected. And as the great Maya Angelou once said: “Nothing will work unless you do.” So, if you want to encourage, you need to show people how.
5. Time Management
The importance of time management skills to maintain productivity and patient care is understood by a good healthcare leader. Leaders know what to prioritize and when to delegate multiple urgent tasks to other team members.
Organizational skills are crucial for this to happen. You need to be able to handle a number of different projects and spend ample time on each, ensuring you meet the needs of many stakeholders and patients. If you lack this ability, you should find techniques and methods to help you be more organized.
“Without effective leadership, it will be impossible to meet the evolving needs of patients while also supporting hardworking medical staff.”
6. Conflict Management
If communication breaks down between practitioners, it can lead to conflict. An effective healthcare leader finds a way to work out conflicts and create a positive outcome in many different situations. Harmony can be restored by incorporating strategies of compromise, mediation, negotiation, and enhanced communication to resolve issues.
7. Decision-Making
Being able to make decisions quickly and correctly is an effective skill to have. Healthcare management often involves many time-sensitive issues and managers have to prioritize and decide what the best action is to take against a specific problem. It’s often advised to limit your options in order to make better decisions. By weighing the pros and cons of each, you’ll be able to make wise decisions that offer the best outcome.
8. Flexibility
Leaders must be adaptable to new situations. Flexibility helps leaders pivot when necessary and stay on track to meeting the organization’s goals, which is important in a complex industry where external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic can upend business models overnight. As technology continues to evolve, healthcare does as well; good leaders embrace and adapt to these changes.
9. Honesty and Integrity
A good leader knows their inner values and leads with them. Not only does this create trust with their colleagues, but also by their patients. Honesty with patients means being truthful and transparent with them, and this integrity helps to foster a healthy relationship with everyone.
When you are open and honest with your team, you’ll open the path for truthful behavior. Your staff will respect you and your decisions and, in turn, will make better choices.
10. Recognition
Recognizing your team’s efforts is essential. If a member of your medical team has made an excellent decision under pressure or devised an actionable plan that helps the department, let them know about it — don’t wait until their annual review to tell them that they have exceeded your expectations. The impact of recognition is strongest when the least amount of time has passed between the excellent work of your team and when you recognize it.
These leadership qualities don’t appear out of nowhere. Management training in healthcare organizations is crucial.
As healthcare technology advances, staff may feel pressure to keep up. You can ensure a smooth transition into a leadership role by participating in training programs. Most participants who went through leadership development training agreed that they felt more confident, capable, and empowered in their roles to lead others. Organizations can establish career mentoring programs to provide coaching and constructive feedback, encourage staff to attend conferences, and support their continuing education.
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