Three tips for medical and public health leadership career success in the face of organisational turmoil
In the face of unexpected organisational changes or crises due to wider geo-political, financial, or other causes, it can be hard to think clearly.
The recent announcements in England of changes to corporate structures, funding cuts, as well as significant changes to the global health landscape including the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva and beyond are causing tens of thousands of highly skilled medical leaders and public health leaders to feel uncertain and anxious about their professional futures. This is totally understandable – our jobs and careers are a cornerstone of our financial viability, family wellbeing, the roof over our heads, as well as being hopefully also a source of motivation and purpose, especially for senior doctors and public health specialists.
Whether you’re going through a rapid or slow organisational collapse, feeling uncertain about your job security, are being transferred to another part of the system, or facing other difficulties, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by a range of emotions – from confusion to anger and despair. But you are not powerless, it’s time to get in to action and to exert your agency. Here are three tips to get you started.
1. Know your strengths as a medical or public health leader through a validated leadership 360′
Are you clear on your strengths as a senior medical or public health leader? The most effective way to do this is through an evidence-based leadership 360′ exercise. Warning- there are actually very few leadership 360’s in use which are based on an appropriate underlying model of contemporary health leadership behaviours, underpinned by rigorous academic psychology research in a wide range of health contexts, cultures and countries. Most are generic eg the annual MSF used in medical practice is not sufficient if you are a health leader, nor are most proprietary or organisation-specific models.
Being able to communicate your strengths based on an evidence-based leadership 360′ has far more weight than describing strengths based on informal feedback from your colleagues or your own self-assessment. I only trust the Real World Group’s ‘Transformational Engaging Leader’ 360′ process with my own clients: if you haven’t undertaken a leadership 360′ exercise which meets the above criteria in the last 12 months, now is the time.
2. Keep your technical skills sharp
As a medical or public health leader, you have a very unusual skill set combination, underpinned by your technical training. Whether this is your clinical practice, public health practice, or other areas of serial mastery you have developed over time (such as research, education to name a few examples), keeping a firm grounding in these skills increases your uniqueness, and your employability and options. We need leaders who can transcend individual disciplines and talk different languages to stakeholders and audiences in different contexts. Use your ability to bridge different worlds to your advantage in service of improving health and related outcomes.
3. Turn the crisis into an opportunity
It’s time to get clear on your own needs, and to be creative in terms of the options. Empower yourself to make the most of this situation. I never thought that I would be running my own coaching psychology practice when I was faced with the heart-sink of yet another NHS re-organisation (my 5th) nearly 10 years ago. Career coaching for doctors and public health leaders when grounded in coaching psychology is an evidence-based methodology which will help you to move forwards at a time like this.
Build a support team around you and get into action!
Dr Fiona Day is the world’s only Leadership Coach with advanced coaching psychology, medical and public health qualifications (MBChB, FFPH, BPS Chartered Psychologist in Coaching Psychology, EMCC Master Practitioner Coach & Mentor) and is in a unique position to help you and your teams to flourish. Fiona specialises in coaching medical and public health leaders, is a coach Supervisor, and an EQA Foundation Award Holder. Get 3 hours of FREE CPD with Fiona’s Health Career Success Programme here. Book a free confidential 30 minute Consultation with Fiona here. Subscribe and listen to her Podcast ‘Transformational Thinking for Health Leaders’ here.
