Balancing act: supporting finance leaders to deliver on short- and long-term priorities 13
3. Leading with hope and optimism
Overview Finance leaders have an important leadership role to coalesce teams around a common goal, bring people together, and drive evidence-based decision-making. There needs to be a clear change narrative that is engaging, optimistic and relevant to clinicians and other healthcare professionals, operational colleagues and the finance community. It can be challenging to lead with optimism in times of such uncertainty and change. Authenticity, consistency and conviction will be essential in how the narrative is communicated. Practical actions are set out at the end of the section and case studies are included in the appendices.
This is at the crux of the value discussions, being able to engage on the underlying behaviours and decisions, as opposed to just cost implications. People shared experiences in the challenge of trying to find a narrative that works across different groups, without becoming generic and losing impact. For example, engaging with the general clinical base is very different from communication with one very sceptical but very key clinician. The roundtable discussions echo the key themes identified in HFMA’s briefing, Common themes from financially stable systems 20 : • building good relationships • encouraging openness and transparency • clearly communicating the strategy • using the available levers. It can be challenging to lead with optimism in times of such uncertainty and change. In the roundtable discussions there was a real sense that not only does change have to be delivered this time, but that under the right conditions it truly can be delivered. Authenticity and conviction were agreed to be essential in how the narrative is communicated. Hope and optimism will also be key to inspiring the change required to achieve the long-term strategy, all while meeting the short- term demands. Further leadership support can be found on the HFMA website (both on the events page and online learning and qualifications) 21 and further opportunities to network with other leaders can be found on the HFMA events page 22 .
Finance leader reflections and experiences Finance leaders reflected on the need to have a change narrative that is engaging and optimistic. Given the diverse range of people and roles involved in large scale transformation and improvement, the narrative needs to be engaging and relevant to clinicians and other healthcare professionals, operational colleagues, and the finance community. ‘We need to find time to think about doing things differently – to make clinicians aware of the financial position and the alternative ways of doing things. We need time and space for creative conversations.’ Roundtable participants reflected on finance functions often being seen as the ‘honest broker’, able to help convene across disciplines and/or organisations. How can finance leaders step further into this role, bringing others together and using evidence-based decision-making, strong value cases, and alignment with the long-term change plan? Within this context it was agreed to be particularly important to engage clinicians early and take them on the journey in terms of where you are aiming for and why, and what it means for patients.
20 HFMA, Common themes from financially stable systems , November 2024 21 HFMA, Career development , webpage 22 HFMA, Events and CFO Network , webpage
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