Programme Content

As a programme created to be supportive both during and after participation, all who attend our Leading Well programme will complete a 360 feedback and MBTI Step 1 profiling as standard.

Day 1:

– What’s expected of leaders at Gateshead

– How to effectively lead others, based on their own unique preferences using Myers Briggs (personality profiling tool)

Day 2:

– How to lead compassionately, and inclusively and what practical steps can be taken in teams

– A session lead by external speaker Ivan Hollingsworth, on how to build psychological safety and trust in teams

Day 3:

– Outlining what steps leaders can take in their own areas of responsibility to build the right culture, and civility

– The strategic leadership challenge, led by the executive and senior management team

– Commitment to action session where learners will identify 3-5 key actions for the next 12 months, to include in their next appraisal

Next steps:

– Attendees of the Leading Well Programme will participate in 360 feedback – for more information on what this entails please click here. Leaders will have access to wider development opportunities both internally and externally, and a shared teams space to share ideas, learning, and challenges

Signing-up

Before completing an application to participate in Managing Well, you’ll need a Sponsor, who is usually your line manager.

The sponsor will take an active role in your ongoing development and actions upon completion of the programme. As outlined above, you’ll commit to a series of actions on Day 3 of the programme itself, and work with your sponsor over the 12 months thereafter to bring them to life. Commitments you make should be embedded into appraisal, and shared with your sponsor on completion of the programme.

Once you’ve discussed your participation with a sponsor, you can register for an upcoming course. As outlined, Leading Well is a programme which takes place over three full days. To make this more accomodating for managers, programmes tend to take place over the course of three weeks – meaning you can generally expect to spend only one working day per week participating in the course, rather than demanding three consecutive days.

Compassionate & Inclusive Leadership

Compassionate and inclusive leadership sits at the heart of our leadership approach here at Gateshead Health. Compassionate leaders empathise with colleagues and seek to understand the challenges they face; are committed to supporting others in coping with and responding to challenges and are focused on enabling those they lead to be effective and thrive in their work. They do not have all the answers – but they engage with those they work with to find solutions to problems.

For leadership to be compassionate, it must also be inclusive. Compassion blurs the boundaries between self and other, promoting belonging, trust, understanding, mutual support and by definition inclusion. This creates an inclusive, psychologically safe environment in which diversity in all forms is valued and team members can contribute creatively and enthusiastically towards team performance.

Professor Michael West's work on Compassionate Leadership

Over the years Gateshead Health has worked closely alongside Professor Michael West CBE, an author, editor and co-editor of more than 20 books and publisher of over 200 articles on teamwork, leadership and culture in healthcare.

During our work together, the Professor shared his thoughts and insights on the importance of leading with compassion as well as the part that self-compassion plays in our ability to do so. Those that would like to tune into a 90 minute presentation that Professor Michael delivered to #TeamGateshead leaders on the topic can do so by logging into StaffZone and visiting the compassionate leadership page.

You can also check out more of Professor West’s work in the field via The King’s Fund, while for those interested in the impact individual leaders can have on organisational culture, we recommend reading his article, ‘If it’s about NHS culture, it’s about leadership‘.

360° Healthcare Leadership Model

The Healthcare Leadership Model was developed to help leaders be better in their day-to-day role – regardless of whether their position is clinical, operational or otherwise; and regardless of the size of the team they lead.

Comprised of nine behavioural dimensions, the model aims to create a vision for leadership which reflects the very best in care and compassion while focusing on excellence in strategy, vision, direction and engagement.

There are two parts to the 360° process, with the first being the self-assessment tool. This places the focus on helping indivduals assess their leadership behaviours, highlight your strengths and prompt thought about where further development may be of use. The assessment also prompts you to consider which dimensions of the model are most important to your role.

Elsewhere, 360° feedback is a powerful tool linked to each dimension of the model. The tool helps you identify your strengths and development needs through objective feedback from a trained facilitator, who will work with you to discuss confidential ratings given to you by your peers, reports and line manager.

Getting the most out of 360° feedback

There are a series of benefits and challenges to the 360° feedback process. Amongst the benefits are that you are using a holistic tool, providing you with feedback from a variety of sources and against different leadership dimensions, helping you build a clear picture of strengths and areas for development. The tool provides leaders with a safe space to recieve this feedback, and increases self-awareness around your current performance, while helping you understand the behaviours needed to improve both individual and organisational effectiveness.

On the flipside, 360° feedback isn’t there to be used as part of appraisal – those using the tool should do so as part of their own personal development. To complete the feedback session, you’ll need a minimum of six ‘raters’ to provide you feedback, and you should be aware that some feedback can be perceptions of your colleagues which come from pressures that your raters aren’t always aware of, blurring the lines slightly.

To participate in the 360° feedback healthcare leadership process, please drop a line to [email protected].