Hello my name is Mary and this is my very first blog…I’m always up for a challenge but I really didn’t have a clue what I would blog about or indeed what you might find interesting.
There are so many things happening in our organisation that I can hardly believe I have been here six months already. It’s fair to say it’s been both challenging and interesting and yet I have been really struck by the willingness of people to engage and focus on trying to change the conversation to improve things for our patients and staff.
Over the last few weeks I have been involved in a number of conversations about leadership and so I have been reflecting on leadership at all levels. How well do we do at engaging everyone in shared decision making in order to promote a collective leadership? Collective leadership is about being connected, recognising that people are inherently capable and can be trusted to do the right thing. Building relationships based on trust may mean we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Engaging with others is about getting to know people and how well do we really know each other strengths and do we always create opportunities to amplify the voice of others.
Early this week I was with my AHP colleagues talking all things strategy and professional development and we discussed how we all have to take responsibility for creating an environment that champions clinical leaders but it’s not just about clinical leaders every one of us has the ability to lead, it’s a choice. Increasing ownership and accountability means that we also have to adapt and our Dudley People Plan and supporting behavioural framework is key to helping us.
It is always good to have an opinion but opinions are just words we can all change by example “deeds not words” . Small steps every day will in time make a big difference that’s collective leadership.