Training doctors in leadership and management is crucial to the future development of the NHS. Paul Brankin, co-founder and Director of Oxford Executive, talks about how his passion for empowering NHS healthcare professionals to become brilliant leaders led to a new initiative that has just received accreditation by the University of Oxford.
When I co-founded the Management in Medicine programme in 2010, along with several other Green Templeton College (GTC) Fellows, our mission was to help both clinicians in training as well as postgraduate students with an interest in healthcare management, to develop their management and leadership skills.
Why is this important? Because the most important asset of any organisation in ensuring its vision or strategy becomes a reality is its people. The leaders of successful organisations, or managers of successful teams, are those who create a culture that encourages and supports its people to believe that their vision or strategy is achievable.
Nowhere is this more relevant than in the NHS, where senior managers require a plethora of skills that include agility, flexibility, focus, resilience, diligence, patience and understanding. Good leaders have integrity, balance and commitment to their people. It’s through leadership that we see improved performance driving success. Coaching can help successful people in realising not just their own potential, but that of the organisation they work for, or lead.
Since 2010, over 1000 trainee doctors have attended one or more of the Management in Medicine Programme’s events. Our mission for the programme was reaffirmed with the creation (also in 2010) of the Federation of Medical Leadership and Management. This was a recognition by the Royal Colleges of the importance of doctors in leadership, both in the NHS and in healthcare more widely. Its development over the past ten years has confirmed this strategy.
Ten years on and we’re celebrating the successful accreditation of the GTC’s Management in Medicine Programme by the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. This is thanks to the hard work of GTC Associate Fellow Nicholas Hicks and the Academic Projects team, led by Ruth Loseby. The accreditation of the Programme will significantly enhance its influence.
An ideal next step would be the incorporation of leadership training in university medical courses. In the meantime, the Management in Medicine Programme provides a brilliant alternative for trainee doctors in the Oxford area.
For more information on how Oxford Executive might be able to help you develop your leadership skills, go to our website or call us on 01865 310320.
