Embracing Authentic Leadership in Healthcare
Serving as a healthcare leader puts you in a unique position. Hospitals and medical centers are high-pressure, emotionally charged environments where decisions can have life-changing consequences. These settings call for precision and flexibility; they are both definite and filled with nuance and shades of gray.
In such a setting, quality leadership goes beyond just making sure the job gets done. It’s about navigating complex dynamics with integrity, empathy, and purpose. Authentic leadership in healthcare means being present, consistent, and true to yourself, even when the stakes are high and the demands are unrelenting.
Learn more about what authentic leadership means, why it’s so important and how leaders can step up to the task.
The Importance of Authentic Healthcare Leadership
Serving as an authentic leader is essential to creating an engaged and empowered workforce and delivering quality patient outcomes. Here are some of the key results leaders who are committed to being authentic with their teams achieve:
Building Trust: Trust is paramount in healthcare, and it’s cultivated when leaders are consistent with their actions and words. When leaders are clear in their decision-making, honest about their mistakes, and realistic about challenges, the result is trust from patients and employees.
Enhancing Team Performance and Morale: When leaders are inspiring, empowering and supportive, they create teams that feel ownership over their work and go above and beyond.
Fostering a Culture of Open Communication: One of the most damaging aspects of poor leadership in healthcare is the culture of secrecy that can arise when mistakes are covered up or issues are swept under the rug. Authentic leaders are committed to fostering a culture of transparency where open communication is not only encouraged, but expected.
Setting the Standard: Leaders set the tone for how their employees show up. When they operate with integrity and act in accordance with the best interest of their teams, patients and organization in mind, that becomes the standard.
Elements of Authentic Leadership in Healthcare
How does one show up as an authentic leader? It starts by looking in the mirror. Healthcare leaders must have an understanding of their own strengths, weaknesses, values and biases, and how these traits show up in the workplace.
Authentic leaders are also consistent. Their employees and peers know what to expect from them. They make decisions from a place of high ethical and moral standard, they are committed to fairness, they care deeply about those they work with and serve, and they give their best effort each day.
Authentic leaders are also committed to self-improvement. Here are some action steps leaders can take to show up as their best version:
Share both successes and challenges with their teams.
Regularly seek feedback.
Encourage staff to voice concerns about workplace issues.
Take time to consider the potential impacts of decisions on patient care and team dynamics.
Authentic Leadership Results in Positive Healthcare Outcomes
Healthcare leaders have a profound responsibility to lead in such a way that balances the data and science with the human experience. By embracing authenticity, leaders can build stronger, happier teams that are better equipped to tackle any healthcare organization’s primary goal: provide exceptional patient care.