Wellness & Fitness

Soft skills that deliver great healthcare organisations

skills

This past week, I was named among this year’s ‘Top 40 Under 40’ awardees by Nation Media Group’s Business Daily that recognises men and women under 40 years of age in corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, sports, arts and creatives who have created an impact.

My peers then asked me how I have, managed to achieve success in healthcare leadership across public and private sectors. Honest, I have no silver bullet or a one-size-fits-all answer. I continuously learn.

The fact is that healthcare organisations follow the path of what is described as complex adaptive systems. This means that healthcare management challenges are a dynamic process wherein the interactions and relationships simultaneously affect and are shaped by the whole healthcare system.

The real value of complex adaptive systems thinking is that healthcare managers can make positive outcomes and impacts by influencing these contexts and relationships. This complexity is further compounded by the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) environment of healthcare systems.

Navigating these complexities to achieve positive results necessitates a healthcare leader to foster organisational teamwork and have a continuous willingness to learn. It is never entirely just about technical skills.

Whereas technical know-how is key, good healthcare leadership is anchored in soft skills that espouse the age-old values of demonstrating empathy towards one’s team members, approachability, good communication skills, ability to trust team members, professional decorum, continuous learning and most importantly, the ability to listen.

These notions, I think, hold the key to building successful healthcare teams and organisations geared towards achieving memorable excellence.