2024-03-12 11:23:23
We repeat over and over that the hospital is no longer attractive. That certain territories no longer appeal to health professionals. That certain health professions are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit. We talk regarding the system, the establishments, the institutions. But what attracts, what motivates, what retains? Is it a place, an organization? Or are it the leaders who embody them?
By Aude Nyadanu, expert in collaborative health innovation.
Before going any further, it is appropriate to choose, among the numerous definitions of leadership that fill management works, the one on which this forum will be based: “the ability of an individual to influencerhas motifs and to enable others to contribute to the efficiency and success of the organizations of which they are members”[1].
A lack of inspiring leaders?
Given that the crisis in attractiveness of the health sector is partly attributed to a loss of meaning[2]it seems reasonable to assume that in mirror image, the system lacks leaders capable to inspire and give meaning.
However, I do not believe that we should blame the individuals who run the French health system for a lack of intrinsic qualities and hastily conclude that they should be replaced. Because it seems to me that the vision of leadership as a set of character traits[3] innate and fixed is dated.
On the contrary, the big challenge to overcome, in my eyes, is to identify what, at a given moment, meets the needs of organizations in terms of leadership, in order to adapt to them. And it is clear that today, in the midst of a crisis in the health system, these needs are not being met.
So how can we identify what style of leadership these turbulent times call for? How can decision-makers in the sector adapt to the new expectations of the professionals they must inspire? Let’s propose a pragmatic approach.
Identify transformative leaders
Despite all the current dysfunctions of the system, there are people who seem to succeed in initiating ambitious projects and bringing committed teams along with them. These individuals are therefore, in fact, leaders. By identifying them, observing them, detecting their common points, will we be able to redefine a new form of leadership that resists crisis, loss of meaning, distrust, ambient pessimism, growing anxiety? and the epidemic of burn outs who is decimating our disillusioned caregivers? Perhaps we might even adapt management training to the current context to give managers new tools?
So, let’s change our approach. Let’s find momentum in new spaces! Let’s detect new health leaders. Let’s allow them to share their visions and beliefs. Let us rely, internally, on intrapreneurs who spontaneously launch initiatives and resonate with their peers. Let us draw inspiration, from outside, from those who have found levers to activate to stimulate positive and effective dynamics.
In these troubled times, that elusive aura called leadership has changed. Decision-makers, don’t be afraid to take inspiration from those who have found the new levers to activate!
[1]House, R. J. 2004 House, R.J. (2004) Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The Globe Study of 62 Societies. Sage, Thousand Oakspage 15
[2] Hospital: leaving the emergency room – Report No. 587 (2021-2022), volume I, filed on March 29, 2022 (Senate Commission of Inquiry Report)
[3] We talk regarding “trait theory”, a vision of leadership which equates it to character traits.
To know
The Watch team is pleased to welcome Aude Nyadanu among its contributors to the articles and analyzes that we publish. Aude is the founder of Lowpital (which applies collaborative innovation methods to health) and of the podcast Les transformers.
On March 19, she is organizing an original event called LowpiTalks. It will bring together, on the stage of a cinema, 8 health leaders who have come to offer us new avenues to explore, in which they have already trained dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people.
After this morning of inspiring talks, workshops will allow participants to experiment with various collective intelligence tools and to think together regarding the future they wish to defend. The vision they want to convey. To the leadership they want to embody.
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