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While different healthcare settings require different types of healthcare leaders, the very best of these leaders tend to share a number of qualities in common. Read on to explore 10 of the most effective leadership characteristics in healthcare leadership.
Emotional Intelligence
Defined by the honest interpretation and effective management of emotions, emotional intelligence (EI) is a key indicator of your ability to both lead and work well with others. In fact, most experts agree that EI is as, if not more, important than cognitive IQ when it comes to determining outstanding job performance and career success.
Understanding Emotional Intelligence in Healthcare
Clinical research projects such as “A Model for the Role of Emotional Intelligence in Patient Safety” have identified EI as an essential skill set for the healthcare environment. It determined, “The four EI abilities, identifying emotions in self and others, using emotions to reason, understanding emotions, and managing them, not only enhance patient care but enhance patient safety.”
Practical Applications
The applications for EI in healthcare are diverse. An article from the Journal of Current Research in Scientific Medicine reports practical benefits for healthcare EI in the domains of self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills. The potential for enhanced patient safety and value delivery in each of these domains is vast.
Visionary Thinking
Leaders must use what they know about the present and the past to effectively propel organizations into the future. This means they should have a vision of that future along with a clear path to it
Why Vision Matters in Healthcare Leadership
Visionary thinking is particularly vital for healthcare leaders for a range of reasons. Due to the rapid pace of constant change in the healthcare sector, its leaders must be several steps ahead of emerging trends to successfully overcome impending challenges and capitalize on valuable opportunities.
How It Impacts Healthcare Teams
Beyond guiding leadership strategy, a visionary approach should show others the way and motivate them to succeed. In other words, a clear vision can serve as a beacon of light to a healthcare team. The American Medical Association Journal of Ethics explains that visionary leadership “puts mission into context and communicates why one course of action is better for achieving shared goals.”
Decision-Making Skills
Decision-making skills help leaders make better informed and more rational strategic choices. This diverse skill set emphasizes analysis, evaluation, collaboration, and creativity.
The Need for Sound Decision-Making
Few professional fields have stakes as high as the healthcare field. After all, the decisions of healthcare leaders amount to much more than dollars and cents; they can make the difference between life and death.
Balancing Data With Intuition
In light of the life-or-death consequences of healthcare leadership decisions, they must be based on sound information as well as reasoned instinct. Fortunately, there is an abundance of patient and market data to draw upon in the modern digital era.
Information Management
While data is an invaluable tool for healthcare leaders, those leaders must manage it with care. In the healthcare sector, information management involves the creation, storage, access, and use of detailed patient records.
The Role of Information Management in Healthcare
Effective healthcare information management is essential to ensure proper and accurate patient diagnosis and treatment. In addition to helping prevent dangerous errors, it can help healthcare leaders identify and exploit opportunities for improvement.
Healthcare Information Management Technology
The world of healthcare information management has been transformed by the advent of electronic health records (EHRs), practice management software, and other digital record-keeping formats/systems. Thanks to remote patient monitoring (RPM), healthcare information can even be collected in real time from patients in their homes.
Communication Excellence
The value of communication in the workplace cannot be overstated. In fact, experts across industries have found it to be the single most critical factor in professional success at all levels of seniority.
The Role of Communication in Leadership
Communication is crucial for the leaders of organizations, who must clearly explain their vision and expectations to employees and other key stakeholders. Due to the central role communication plays in orchestrating teamwork, setting expectations, and fostering trust, leaders must generally be outstanding communicators.
Building Transparent Relationships
Simply put, relationship-building is one of the most effective leadership strategies in healthcare administration — and these relationships don’t come about without free and open communication.
Adaptability
We have already discussed just how important it is for healthcare leaders to tailor their strategic vision to meet the ever-evolving demands of this sector. Thus, they must be ready to adapt rapidly to new circumstances as they arise.
Thriving in an Ever-Changing Industry
To maximize adaptability for volatile periods of change, the leadership development and organizational consulting firm Loeb Leadership recommends mastering what it calls the “quick pivot,” getting ready to make “the necessary changes to achieve success: in the face of “rapid technological advancements, market disruptions, and shifting consumer trends.”
Resilience in the Face of Challenges
Healthcare leaders who are prepared for a quick pivot improve their ability to weather sudden changes and overcome unforeseen obstacles. Even when their resilience efforts fall short, they can learn from their mistakes and ultimately become stronger.
Commitment to Ethical Standards
The healthcare field stresses four core principles of ethics: autonomy, justice, beneficence, and non-maleficence. This means that patients must be empowered to make their own healthcare decisions while receiving fair and equal treatment that prioritizes their well-being and causes no harm.
Why Ethics Are Central to Healthcare Leadership
Healthcare leaders must emphasize ethics to keep patients safe and provide high levels of care. Ethical leadership also tends to boost team morale and enhance public trust. Of course, many ethical healthcare standards are enforced by official regulations as well.
Fostering a Culture of Accountability
Above and beyond meeting basic government standards, healthcare organizations are increasingly instituting their own accountability benchmarks to drive quality care. After all, an organization with a culture of accountability is better positioned to outperform its competitors.
Team Empowerment
Studies have shown that most highly effective leaders stress autonomy over autocracy. In other words, they empower team members to innovate and operate independently rather than micromanaging every detail.
Empowering Through Delegation
The power of team autonomy can be precisely channeled through effective delegation of tasks and responsibilities. For this reason, delegation is a foundational skill for leaders of organizations in the healthcare sector and beyond.
Fostering Professional Growth
Aside from streamlining team activities each day, visionary leaders can foster a better tomorrow through team empowerment. By encouraging skill diversification and refinement among promising team members, leaders can drive both personal and organization-wide success.
Strategic Thinking
While the business and direct care sides of the healthcare industry can find themselves at odds, leaders can orchestrate harmony between them through well-reasoned strategic thinking.
Long-Term Planning for Success
Like any other organization, a healthcare organization must position itself for long-term financial stability if it wants to effectively serve its consumer base. Strategic thinking is essential for this type of “big picture” planning.
Examples in Practice
Strategic thinking can lead to any number of creative solutions that improve patient outcomes and experiences. For example, healthcare leaders can form business partnerships or acquire outside organizations to provide more efficient and/or less costly services. Additionally, they might invest in remote medicine and other technologies that can expand access to quality healthcare.
Conflict Resolution Skills
An article published in the National Library of Medicine deems the resolution of conflicting views “of paramount importance in assuring that patients receive the best care possible.”
Navigating Disputes Effectively
This article, titled “Conflict Management,” goes on to declare, “Respectful communication among all health care staff is the anchor to preventing conflicts.” With this in mind, methods of conflict resolution, from collaboration to compromise, must meet the unique demands of the situation at hand.
Turning Conflict Into Opportunity
Conflict, both in the workplace and elsewhere, is unavoidable — so those who seek to avoid conflict entirely will inevitably fail. Therefore, all leaders must learn how to effectively manage conflict. While it may create serious problems when handled ineffectively, conflict can produce beneficial results with the right approach. In fact, many experts consider conflict to be a core component of organizational success.
Patient-Centered Focus
Since American psychologist Carl Rogers first coined the term in the 1950s, healthcare leaders have increasingly stressed the importance of “patient-centered” care delivery. The patient-centered approach regards each patient’s distinct needs and desired outcomes as the driving force behind all healthcare activities.
Why Patients Should Be at the Heart of Leadership
As the end “consumer” of healthcare products and services, patients are the logical focus of healthcare leaders. However, wise leaders will also view patients as invaluable partners in their own healthcare journey. After all, they are uniquely poised to offer profound insights into the medical conditions they have.
Integrating Feedback Into Leadership Strategies
To effectively focus on patients, you must begin by listening to them. This means actively soliciting feedback and paying close attention to it. A wise healthcare leader will carefully consider feedback from patients and team members alike when crafting leadership strategies.
Pursuing a Career in Healthcare Leadership
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for medical and health services managers is projected to grow 29% by 2033 — a rate much faster than the national average of all occupations. Or, perhaps you wish to focus more on transforming organizational culture and educating others as a healthcare education administrator.
No matter your specific aspirations, to acquire all the key healthcare leadership qualities outlined above for this promising career, you will want to pursue formal and targeted training through a relevant educational program. To be a truly effective healthcare leader, you must continue to hone them in the professional setting over the course of your career.
Learn More About a Doctorate Degree in Healthcare Education
Delve into the intricacies of healthcare leadership and innovation through the Education and Leadership in Healthcare Online Doctorate (EdD) degree program at Nebraska Methodist College. To begin your journey today, get in touch or apply online to this doctoral program.