Leadership Gap in Healthcare Sector - Essay Example

Leadership Issue Name Institution Topic 2 Leadership Issue Introduction The tremendous changes in the healthcare services today have brought about concern regarding availability and quality of effective leaders (Vincent, 2010). Healthcare leaders are expected to have the characteristics and features that are required to lead systemic transformation in the sustainable delivery system. Issues concerning budget pressure, access to quality healthcare are bringing about fundamental change. The concept of healthcare that was successful in the past was that which emphasized on disease and episodic care. Nevertheless, this model and concept have shifted towards the emphasis on wellness, prevention and patient autonomy coupled with their involvement in decision-making (Weiss and Molinaro, 2013). Such shift in the model has brought about more risks and accountability to healthcare providers to come up with innovative modalities concerning care based on higher quality and low cost. But this is possible with the introduction of a more integrated model of healthcare which requires a more collaborative, involving and transformational leadership style (Weiss and Molinaro, 2013). A vital leadership gap therefore exists in the healthcare system (Fluker, 2009). For instance, women are missing in the management and leadership positions and the lack of extensive knowledge and skills required in today’s complex healthcare systems results to a leadership deficit (Weiss and Molinaro, 2013). As a consequence of the prompt change in the healthcare system, healthcare firms must make sure that they develop a high level of both technical and professional skills and expertise. In addition, they must foster the leadership capacity that is required to adapt and be successful in the future. This report will highlight the concept of leadership gap in the healthcare system and will explain why this gap is expected. Also, the paper will report a number of approaches that are required to address the leadership gap. Leadership Gap in Healthcare Sector Leadership gap can be defined as the disparities that exist between leadership precedence and current competencies and skills (Weiss and Molinaro, 2013). Healthcare system challenges entail the inability to accomplish definitive goals such as improving population health, financial protection and provision of patient satisfaction. Meeting these goals is very hard and requires attention to objectives including improved access, higher quality, and improved equity to name a few. Inadequate systems often results to poor health outcomes (Vincent, 2010). To address healthcare challenges and the complexity of the system, advanced and effective leaders are required who can control knobs of reforms. The real gap in healthcare system is leadership. In all industries and business sectors, more than 50 per cent of strategic initiatives and approaches of change fail to deliver the expected result (Scott, 2010). It is partially easy to evaluate the situation and circumstance and make recommendation on what needs to take place. It is more challenging and hard and thus takes a leadership to build momentum for action to occur. The fundamental requirement for the motivation of people is the shift and change in leadership from “tell” to “engage”. Employees together with every stakeholder are required to be actively involved in developing and implementing their vision (Nicol, 2012). They should be listened to when systematic barriers are blocking their success and they should also be guided through challenges to personal and interpersonal conflict and resistance (Nicol, 2012). Effective leadership is that which engages the right people and groups to create a vision, strategies and practical action plan. Effective leaders have the ability to work with others when it comes to development and implementation (Kouzes and Posner, 2012). Good leaders must create change in order for all professionals to achieve their objectives and ensure operational and financial outcomes are satisfactory. Most importantly effective leaders are those who are willing and ready to learn and adapt to working in a team in different stages of change. Creating and building more options for additional doctors, facilities, and private healthcare will not change much situation facing healthcare system or close the gap that exists (Goodwin, 2013). Ultimately, the simple fact is that leadership deficit in healthcare system is unsatisfactory. The leadership gap in healthcare system is expected due to the changes that have occurred over the years such as advance in technology, change in business model, population increase and demand for quality and safe healthcare (Penney and Neilson, 2010). A more patient-centred and population-driven innovative is replacing the acute-care agenda. Relying on the past’s leadership style and the yesterday’s ways of solving today’s problems facing healthcare system will reduce the ability to adapt and change. In addition, since the nature of healthcare systems is at higher risks than other industry sectors, its leaders are required to respond cautiously to these changes (Barr and Dowding, 2008). Therefore, there is a need to advance the quality and focus of healthcare leaders in order to meet the today’s needs and adapt to the change. Research Evidence According to a research study conducted in the United State in 2011, the US-based healthcare systems have changed significantly over the years. These changes have become even more apparent with the implementation of Affordable Care Act (Bercaw and Poole, 2013). There is also increased financial pressure facing healthcare system in the country. Hoverer, as observed from the research, the true deficit was not about financial issues but leadership deficit. Therefore, leaders in healthcare should be given an opportunity to flourish and influence positively the way services are delivered to patients (Barr and Dowding, 2008). Leaders should establish policies and structures that may prevent effectiveness in order to eliminate leadership gap. When leadership gap is closed, significant ability is developed which will reduce the financial deficit and conflict in healthcare service provision. Part of the leadership gap in healthcare system is as a result of traditional focus on technical skills in healthcare providers in leadership role (Tan and Sheps, 2008). According to a research carried out by The National Centre for Healthcare Leadership, healthcare organizations utilizing progressive leadership styles such as training, particular selection and recruitment strategies and defining leadership behaviors do better than those who depend more on technical skills. More than 30% of senior leaders in the healthcare fail within 2 years of operation (Tan and Sheps, 2008). A pivotal leadership study involving 35, 000 healthcare providers across healthcare sector such as employees of hospitals, insurance firms, pharmaceutical firms and healthcare agencies ranked the ability to lead people and work across boundaries as leading leadership gap (Goldberg and Page, 2006). Approaches to Addressing Leadership Gap From various research studies carried out, there are a number of key gaps that are experienced within leadership in the healthcare industry. These key gaps that exist within healthcare leadership can be addressed with a number of approaches which include; leading employees, change management, inconsistency between personal and other ratings and participative management as well as individual initiatives and leadership development programs to mention a few (Benko and Anderson, 2010). In addition, healthcare leaders ought to enhance their understanding with regard to the areas where they demonstrate their strengths and areas where they need to develop themselves (Garman and Lemak, 2011). Therefore, healthcare leaders can utilize the above mentioned approaches in order to fully close the gap in leadership that exists within the healthcare sector. Leading Employees The first approach to reducing the leadership gap is leading employees (Goldberg and Page, 2006). Leadership is known to have three key constituents: direction, alignment as well as commitment. Therefore, if a leader can manage to lead his or her employees, then they have the ability to guide a whole team to achieving a similar and collective vision and mission. Healthcare leaders also ought to possess the responsibility to conduct strict coordination in order to ensure that there is a collective action among their team and they should also make sure each and every personal interest of their employees are associated with their collective interests (National Center for Healthcare Leadership, 2010). Thus, leaders who are willing to accomplish the three components –direction, alignment and commitment– have the willpower to empower their team members as well as assign tasks to them. They also possess great communication and judgment skills. Moreover, healthcare leaders should own the mind-set to uplift their fellow team members through methods such as coaching, rewarding excellent work and providing challenge which encourage opportunities (Benko and Anderson, 2010). Therefore, healthcare leaders can improve their capability to effectively lead their employees by creating a new team, encouraging their team members on how significant their jobs are and also how important they are to the society at large. Hence, for leadership gap to be effectively minimized, organizations ought to develop progressive climate and also communicate the significance of leadership and how healthcare leaders can consequently develop their employees. Organizations should also come up with development plans for both the leaders and their employees (Goldberg and Page, 2006). Change Management The second approach that clearly addresses the gap within leadership is change management. Change management is very significant in the healthcare sector. Healthcare leaders can best learn ways of managing change through both learning and practicing which comes with years of experience (Matus, 2003). Healthcare leaders ought to be more open to both change and they should also learn to think of small steps which consequently lead to the final goal (Matus, 2003). Organizations therefore need to enhance their leaders’ capability to accomplishing change through long assignments. In addition, in order to operatively expose leaders to dissimilar environs, organizations ought to assign inter-market projects which are related to new systems. These organizations should provide sustenance to their leaders and give them mentorship programs which assist them learn and adapt quickly to their environment (Garman and Lemak, 2011). This gives them opportunities to make mistakes and correct them appropriately giving them hands on experience. Participative Management Healthcare leaders ought to learn to include their fellow employees in management. Any leader possessing strong participative management is considered to be very courteous in sharing information with their team members openly leaving no secrets behind. They are also known to be characters that drive decision-making to as low as possible which are at an appropriate level (American Hospital Association, 2013). Moreover, they are considered to be open minded to any opinion directed towards them. Therefore, leaders in the healthcare industry can be able to reduce the existing leadership gap by having regular meetings with various subordinates in order to get solutions to problems as well as share new ideas. As leaders engage in participative management, they also focus more on receiving input rather than giving output. Therefore, organization should ensure proper and vivid communication together with forums which can enable their employees share and exchange ideas (Garman and Lemak, 2011). This approach in leadership can help minimize the leadership gap within an organization. Inconsistency between Personal and other Ratings These inconsistencies demonstrate that healthcare leaders lack proper understanding of both their strengths as well as their developmental areas (Larkin, 2012). This may be caused by their inadequate communication or miscommunication. These inconsistencies come between the healthcare leaders and their fellow colleagues. Hence, in order to minimize such inconsistencies, individual leaders ought to maintain constant communication with their team members, seek feedback, and most importantly, find some time for self-reflection (Vincent, 2010). Organizations can take care of such leaders by fostering an environment that encourages feedbacks. These feedbacks can either be formal or even informal. Recruiting and Promoting Senior Leaders Since healthcare is considered a very complex field, hospitals have been always recruiting from within the area for positions such as senior roles (Larkin, 2012). On the other hand, some organizations are willing to take in other candidates from other institutions if they fit the description. Capabilities such as non-traditional health partnerships and creative thinking as well as innovations are some of the capabilities that are reported to be inadequate in the healthcare sector (American Hospital Association, 2011). Therefore, in order to break the leadership gap in the health sector, opportunities such as providing senior leadership for both candidates inside and outside the healthcare can be an excellent and appropriate method. Leadership Development and Training Programs In most of the existing healthcare facilities, healthcare leaders are currently being confronted with regard to the dynamic change of in the healthcare costs (McAlearney, 2008). This then calls for leadership development and training programs which are highly prioritized for the healthcare leaders. It focuses on various methods which develop leadership skills amongst the healthcare leaders. This approach is considered to assist these leaders by building knowledge in specific areas, giving them an insight of job-skill courses available and executive coaching lessons (McAlearney, 2008). In addition, a number of leadership programs draw together clinical leaders with respective administrative as well as business leaders. This brings about promotion of an integrated thinking as well as mutual learning. They also aim at specific development goals such as change management, service excellence, employee engagement and lean management techniques (Garman and Lemak, 2011). Over a number of years, these leadership development programs have led to improved leadership standards which have been spread through the organizations. This has considerably addressed the issue of leadership gap within the healthcare sector. Out of the mentioned approaches, leadership development and training programs are the most effective in addressing leadership gap in healthcare sector. Conclusion Ensuring the delivery of higher quality care to patients within a healthcare sector requires leaders who have the ability to develop sustainable positive change. Adapting to the changes that have occurred in the industry require a mix of technical skills and experimental learning and competency-based curricula. Leadership gap in healthcare may be on the basis of deficiency of women in leadership position, the ability to lead people and the ability work across boundaries. Healthcare system has undergone some changes over the years in terms of technological advancement, change in model, increase in population and demand for quality and safe care. Due to this, yesterday’s leadership styles and skills cannot serve entirely the needs of today. As a result, leadership gap results. However, there are a number of approaches that can be used to address the available leadership gap existing in healthcare sector. These approaches include leading employees which involves giving direction and alignment to the employees; management change which involves the training of leaders to adapt to changes in the healthcare system and participative management which involves sharing of information among team members which helps in effective communication between the employees and leaders. 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