Time out with purpose
Effective leadership styles
The programme: its origins and objectives University Hospitals of Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust is made up of seven Groups, which have devolved responsibility for most of the operational and strategic management of the organisation. Each of these Groups has a leadership team with a Group Clinical Director (generally a medical doctor), Group Director of Nursing and Allied Health Professionals and Director of Operations. This triumvirate provides leadership to the Group, with the Clinical Director being in a ‘first among equals’ relationship with their two colleagues. The Trust approached Warwick Business School to scope the potential for a senior executive programme, designed to support the individual and collective development of the triumvirate appointees. The programme focuses on building capability around Systems Thinking and Systems Leadership as well as prioritising the need for succession planning into senior roles within the Trust and the Health system. An additional golden thread is that of diversity and inclusion, acknowledging that any successful system requires curiosity, inclusion, and diversity of thinking. “Supporting leadership development is a key part of our People Strategy, ‘Valuing and Enabling our People’, which runs to 2030,” says Donna Griffiths, Chief People Officer at UHCW. “We believe that leaders that are equipped with knowledge, skill and the right behaviours will support the development of a compassionate, innovative and inclusive culture across our organisation, ensuring the very best care and experiences for the communities we serve.”
Each of UHCW’s Groups are led by a ‘triumvirate’ of professionals made up of a Group Clinical Director (generally a medical doctor), a Group Director of Nursing and Allied Health Professionals, and a Director of Operations; and the idea of triumvirates working together has been the driving force behind the Leadership Programme with WBS. However, the programme also made an impact on a very personal level, influencing individual leadership styles. “It encouraged me to be more curious, exploratory, and to seek broader inclusion,” one delegate said. Another said that they would “consider the motivations of others” and adapt their leadership approach accordingly, as a result of their learning. For Beth Harrison, a clinical haematologist, the one-to-one coaching sessions offered by the course helped her imagine herself more effectively into a leadership role that has not traditionally been her core skill set. “Understanding teams and workforces is not my natural area but the coaching helped to reinforce my personal leadership style which is focused on the big strategic picture on the one hand, and on lots of small conversations with colleagues on the other.” “I was also helped by Professor Pietro Micheli’s masterclass in Leading a High-Performance Organisation in the third module, which was interesting and thought-provoking.”
For other delegates, it was the session led by another WBS academic that stood out. “Professor Helen Bevan’s theoretical model on leadership in the second module resonated for me,” says Jamie Deas. “As a member of the Corporate Directors Grouping, and as a Director of Strategy, you’d think my main concern would be strategy, but the emphasis “One day you might be acting as a Strategist, but another you might be acting as an Expert, or Achiever, according to Bevan’s seven categories of leadership. On another day altogether, you might be taking on the mantle of Alchemist – someone who is a change maker.” “There are opportunities to go up and down this transformation ladder, and I feel this is what we did in the real world with the merger of acute and emergency of Helen Bevan’s masterclass was Understanding Action Logics and for me that was transformative.”
All in all, delegates on the Leadership Programme believe that spending time out with senior colleagues on a residential basis at the University of Warwick has been a very useful exercise. “The opportunity to jump off the NHS treadmill and refocus with colleagues from the other triumvirates without the need to report back to our Chief Officers was invaluable,” says Jamie Deas. “I also appreciated the way outside speakers like Liv Garfield, the CEO of Severn Trent, were brought in to share their thoughts on leadership too. I was struck by her leadership style, in particular, because it is so people-focused. “The programme gave us that opportunity to learn about other leaders, and space to reflect about yourself as a leader.” For Edward Hartley, the opportunity to meet up with Corporate Directors such as Jamie Deas was a major bonus. “The mixture of Clinical leaders and Corporate leaders was a real plus point because all together you had people there doing the doing, and others whose core mission was to facilitate that doing.”
with community services. We got out there, spoke to people doing the work on the ground, reframed our approaches to problems and kept people motivated. I went from Strategist to Manager and back again.” For Edward Hartley, though, it was more a case of a greater appreciation of his team’s strengths. “I don’t think it would be possible for me to inhabit some of the spaces in Helen Bevan’s hierarchy,” he says. “Understanding this theoretical model helped me to recognise the different skills people in my own team have, and the importance of having a balanced team of different talents. There are also some people in my team who definitely have the aptitude – personality-wise – to move informally between different leadership positions, and it’s important to recognise that.” Interrogating personality is definitely something new in healthcare management, the Clinical Director adds. “In the old days, you gained a leadership position through virtue of no-one else wanting it, and if you didn’t hash it up you’d be asked to step up again. “Now, though, it’s all much more considered, and the programme at WBS has been part of that careful consideration.”
But above all, Edward Hartley appreciated the opportunity the programme gave him to “explore strategy and new approaches to old problems”. “I am not one who says ‘Oh, I must apply so-and-so’s theory of change to this problem’. That’s not how my brain works,” he says. “But the WBS programme has definitely given me a framework to fall back on. I now have the tools to think my way through any issues that the Emergency Medicine Directorate might face.” Summing up her experience, Clinical Director Beth Harrison thought that the programme was well-paced and well-targeted. “The triumvirates lead high-performing teams. We need to learn at pace, and that’s what we did.” She would recommend the programme to other NHS professionals. “I think there is definitely a need to cascade this type of leadership development to future leaders.” One thing is certain: with winters in the NHS famously long, well-trained and adaptive leaders able to analyse and act upon the pressures facing the service during those times of high demand, and outside them too, will always be needed.
Professor Pietro Micheli Professor of Business performance and innovation
wbs.ac.uk
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Leadership Programme
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