Photo Credit: Mironov Konstantin
Linda Girgis, MD, FAAFP, provides expert advice on how to be an effective leader of a healthcare team, and reminds physicians that leading well takes practice.
Whether or not we want to be, we are healthcare team leaders. What should be a noble designation is often tarnished by bad or ineffective behavior. Patients always talk about “bedside manner.”
We all know colleagues who we would rather not talk to. As residents and students, we all had those attending that were toxic, and no one wanted to be around. A hospital admission on the nights those attending were on-call would fill us with dread. This is not just a personality issue and can impact patient care.
How to Improve Our Leadership:
Listen: We must listen to not just our colleagues but also patients, nurses, techs, or anyone who shares a duty to the healthcare of a patient. If a nurse tells you something doesn’t look right, they are usually right. Patients often give us the answer to their diagnoses without ordering thousands of dollars of tests. Chest pain may be a toxic work environment. Back pain may be standing too long in heeled shoes.
Lead by example: People notice how we behave. Ever notice how your mood can turn dark if someone is not very nice to you? Life threatening situations can be tense, but some behaviors should not be excused. Losing your temper and throwing things is just going to put the team off their game. If a patient’s life hangs in the balance, this is not helping them but instead just increasing the intensity of the situation and making others lose their respect for you.
Remember, everyone has an important role on the healthcare team: Don’t just bark out orders and expect others to do your will as if they were highly trained servants. Professionals know their jobs and can be great assets to help. There is no place for superiority on the healthcare team. Ask for their help when you think your team may have something important to add.
Maintain self-control: We all want to lash out sometimes. We don’t like it when things go wrong. We are perfectionists. We must remember that bad outcomes happen despite our best efforts.
Build strong relationships among the team. No one wants to work in a toxic environment. Don’t be the cause of that toxicity. If another person is the cause, find a solution.
Fix mistakes, don’t criticize them: We all make mistakes, some bigger than others. If someone on the team makes a mistake, correct it with understanding, not ridicule. Teach them what the mistake was and how to do better next time. Ignoring mistakes is also a dangerous strategy. Mistakes should be acknowledged, even if we made them.
Be empathetic: Patients often come to us at their worst. They may be sick, dying, or just really stressed out. Someone losing their cool over their deductible may be just a person in fear of losing their job. We also need to have empathy for the rest of our team and each other. We are not immune from life stresses or tragedies.
Education, not intimidation: We encounter many teaching moments in our careers. For those of us who train residents and medical students, those moments can be obvious. However, as the saying goes, we learn something new every day. We can learn from others as well as teach others.
Stay current with medical science: We should know what is new in our fields. Medical science is rapidly advancing, and we can’t know everything. As the leaders of the healthcare team, we often need to implement new medicines or procedures. We should be prepared to share this with others.
It is not easy to be a good leader. Like everything else, it takes practice. The most important thing is to remember that we are all there to take care of patients, and we should give our best efforts to that goal, even if it means putting aside our own biases and feelings.
