{"id":71,"date":"2018-10-09T23:37:39","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T06:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chiefanalyzerofthings\/?p=71"},"modified":"2018-10-10T09:34:37","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T16:34:37","slug":"servant-and-strategic-leadership-tools-hc2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chiefanalyzerofthings\/2018\/10\/09\/servant-and-strategic-leadership-tools-hc2\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on TSL and Health Care – HC2"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re the Health Angels!<\/h3>\n

\"\"This is the Health Angels first post!<\/strong> Who are the Health Angels you ask?\u00a0 We are a dedicated group of health care professionals who are pursuing their passion in becoming strategic leaders in our fields.\u00a0 The Health Angels name is actually a word play of one of the notorious motorcycle gang that is prominent in Canada and United States where members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hells_Angels).\u00a0 But not to lose focus, we are the Health Angels, strategic leaders in health care!<\/p>\n

Transformational Servant Leadership in Health Care<\/h3>\n

\"\"Transformational servant leadership (TSL)<\/strong>, is a concept consisting of the ideologies of transformational leadership and servant leadership (Imbenzi, Williaume, & Page, 2013, para. 11).\u00a0 The combination of these two concepts is strategic in nature to effectively engage followers to achieve the organizational purposes by attending to the needs to the followers (Imbenzi et al., 2013, para. 34).\u00a0 \u00a0When considering strategic leadership direction for health care, TSL greatly shifts the focus of a predominantly\u00a0service-centric industry to learning-centric in order to focus the most important asset, which is the personal and intellectual property of the organization (Imbenzi et al., 2013, para. 38).\u00a0 In other words, the paradoxical shift of the focus from patients (outward focus) to staff (inward focus) is a strategic way to\u00a0increase staff engagement and improve health care for patients.<\/p>\n

\"\"Health care professionals are overworked<\/strong>.\u00a0 Speaking from personal experiences of working in Canada under a government-funded health care system, we have some of the most caring and dedicated staff members who decided to enter into the field because of their passion to serve and to help others.\u00a0 However, the challenges with the Canadian universal health care system is the lack of accessibility and availability of care in a timely manner.\u00a0 For example, recent studies have illustrated access to family physicians in Canada is becoming increasingly difficult due to physician shortages and increase rates of chronic illness (Ansell, Crispo, Simard, & Bjerre, 2017, p.2).\u00a0 One of the results of this is patients turn to urgent care in the hospitals for non-urgent health issues which contribute to the long wait times.\u00a0 CTV News Vancouver (2017) reported emergency room wait times are the worse in the province of British Columbia compared to other areas in Canada with about ninety percent of emergency visits were complete after 8.4 hours in the 2016-17 fiscal year (Miljure, B. and Mangione, K., 2017). Waiting for health care appointments can often impose a physical and emotional burden on individuals who are in pain or worried about serious health conditions.\u00a0 However, the excessive wait times not only puts a burden on patients but to health care workers as well.\u00a0 With patients lining for hours at hospitals, health care professionals are in extremely high demand, resulting in staff being overworked, missing necessary meal breaks and working in overtime shifts constantly.\u00a0 Many professionals that talked to mentioned burn-out as one of the factors of job dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n

Creating a culture of learning is the key<\/strong>.\u00a0 In many organizations, including health care, there is a great disconnect with the people who are\u00a0running the organization and the people who are in the front lines providing care to patients.\u00a0 Achieving the enduring performance potential of the organization requires the hearts, minds, and hands of all to be engaged (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 41).\u00a0 To create a\u00a0culture of learning, the TSL utilizes strategic thinking and acknowledge it is a collective process that includes diverse perspectives from both inside and outside of the organization (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 54).\u00a0 The result of engaging staff members in different levels and departments is the creation of new connections and relationships that would foster higher levels of motivation and morality (Imbenzi et al., 2013, para. 14).<\/p>\n

Tools for TSL in Health Care<\/h3>\n

\"\"Approximately one month ago<\/strong>, my wife and I visited our elderly grandmother who was admitted to the hospital due to a kidney failure.\u00a0 Grandma was sharing a room with three other patients who are also in care.\u00a0 During this nighttime visit, two of the patients in the room require assistance and had called for help on numerous occasions but to no avail.\u00a0 They groaned and call the alarm for help until eventually, a nurse came in.\u00a0 The nurse was busy and her hands already full, running and hustling about.\u00a0 The nurse\u00a0told them they will have to wait as one of her colleague called in sick and unable to work.\u00a0 She later added there were six other patients that are waiting for her assistance as well.\u00a0 I\u00a0felt bad for this nurse, who sighed and walked away, didn’t even bother to apologize or make an excuse.\u00a0 Our health care professionals work tirelessly to care for those who are in need.\u00a0 This question comes up often: who will care for those who care for us?<\/p>\n

The essence of servant leadership is putting others first<\/strong>.\u00a0 Attending to the needs of others first will allow them to produce their best by meeting their personal needs and supporting them in the workplace (Imbenzi et al., 2013, para. 39).\u00a0 A TSL need to engage our health care workers first and address their concerns.\u00a0\u00a0When staff members are given the opportunity to be heard and recognized, they feel valued and honoured to be a part of something bigger than themselves.\u00a0 In addition, staff members will focus on generating solutions to a problem rather than complaining or waiting to be told what to do (Lepsinger, 2010, Bridge 3: Employee involvement in decision making<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Visioning collectively<\/strong>\u00a0is an important process for an organization that is servant\u00a0leadership focused.\u00a0 Many organizations have an established vision which provides direction and purpose of its existence.\u00a0 However, often the vision is created at the higher leadership level and seldom consulting with the front line staff.\u00a0 Allowing health care workers from all levels to participate in the vision-setting process allows an opportunity for people to share personal versions of aspirations for the organization to create ownership of the organization’s vision (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 76).<\/p>\n

Making common sense with transparent communications<\/strong> is vital in creating a culture of trust.\u00a0 TSL is to help others in the organization make common sense of the world around them, the challenges they collectively face, and how they will face them together (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 84).\u00a0 Developing a shared understanding is important in terms of being transparent because people often rely on implicit knowledge and fill start to fill in the gaps when information is not known.\u00a0 Unarticulated knowledge can cause people to feel unclear and even more disconnected to the organization (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 85).\u00a0 This is less likely to happen when people share a common understanding of their vision and strategy for the organization.<\/p>\n

“Staying above the line”<\/strong>\u00a0is a reframing mindset, focused on creating a culture of learning and being curious.\u00a0 Appreciative inquiry is one method of staying above the line, where the goal is to encourage others to focus on working collaboratively in solving problems versus finding faults.\u00a0 A TSL who is focused on creating a culture of curiosity and learning will result in better collaboration, creativity, innovation, and connection.<\/p>\n