Top tips on leadership
Here are some top tips that were generated at certain phases, events and reports.
Learning from phase 2 (diagnosis and solution design)
- The right leadership is essential to success
- Its important that leaders understand the skills required and are able to apply them strategically
- There should be strong service improvement leadership from a position that is central to all partners and not located within an organisation
- Leaders need to be able to access resources from within all partners
Learning event
- Leadership needs to be energetic.
- Getting the right environment to empower leaders
- Expectations – senior level leadership enabling people further down to take risks that will lead to change
- Resources
- Skills
- Leadership and communication
- Creating a sustained appetite for change
- De-mystifying and making “real”
- Sources of leadership
- Service users and carers being equal partners and leader
- Leadership strategies - Plan long, do short
What overall leadership qualities are needed and where do they come from?
1. Leaders/champions required in every stakeholder group and each work stream in order to create the right partnering conditions. Each partner must have the governance structure and culture to support the development of leaders.Personality traits that leaders must have to facilitate multi-agency partnering: Enthusiasm, authority, open and honest, the ability to consult and listen, responding flexibly to feedback, the ability to effectively devolve authority and challenge partners but retain accountability, an ability to recognise and define limitations – to agree what can be changed, and what is fixed
2. Leaders must also have the following from partners in order for whole systems approaches to flourish: Credibility, mutual respect, a shared vision and common goals, and openness.
Highlight reports
- Support from senior management in organisations imperative to enable “devolution in action”
- Leaders are VIP to engagement at the start so that if the going gets tough they can be asked to lend support.
- Chief Executive level support is essential to enable this programme to succeed.