Team leader week: A method of introducing leadership theory in to - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

‘Team leader week’: A method of introducing leadership theory in to everyday clinical practice.

Peter Eckersley, 2019

• Orthopaedic Physiotherapy Team Lead
• NHS Leadership Academy Clinical Fellow

North Manchester General Hospital

Peter Eckersley

My Background:

• Physiotherapist at NMGH since 2001
• Team Lead for In-patient Orthopaedics at NMGH since 2007
• Trust Leadership Programme 2008
• NHS Leadership Academy Clinical Fellowship Programme 2011 – 2012

Team Leader Week:

• Aims to give opportunity for a practical application of clinical leadership skills within a

clinical role for all team members

Peter Eckersley

‘Team Leader Week’ project background:

• The King’s Fund (2011) – The future of leadership and management in the NHS: No

more heroes:

• Championed the importance of leadership throughout all levels of a healthcare
• rganisation
• Brookes (2011) – Crisis, confidence and collectivity: Responding to the new public

leadership challenge:

• Distributive leadership in a healthcare environment
• The King’s Fund (2014) – ‘Collective leadership for health’:
• Distribute/allocate leadership responsibility to wherever the required

expertise/capability sits within the team/organisation

Peter Eckersley

All participants receive collective + individual teaching on:

• Modern healthcare leadership theory in relation to clinical role
• Personality type indicators
• Individual learning style preferences
• Adaptive communication strategies

Peter Eckersley

Team Leader Week practicalities:

• Carry the team bleep
• Triage point for enquiries to the team that week
• Ownership/delegation of tasks as appropriate
• Lead the formation of the team’s clinical list for the day
• Lead the Physio representation at the daily SAFER meeting
• Consider staffing distribution between wards/areas to successfully cover the caseload
• Take the lead of our weekly team meeting

N.B. Should function as an enjoyable and supported learning experience

Peter Eckersley

Team Leader Week – Personal development:

• Written feedback from all team members (Can be anonymous)
• Encouraged to complete the NHS Leadership Model Self-assessment tool
• Debrief meeting with Team Lead (or PDP supervisor)

Peter Eckersley

Team Leader Week – Outcomes:

• 43 members of staff have completed a Team Leader Week so far
• Unsubstantiated link between a leader’s actions and direct service

improvement/performance (Hardacre et. al. 2010)

• BUT staff engagement shown to have close correlation with hospital performance –

including Patient satisfaction, Staff turnover and mortality rates (West and Dawson, 2012)

• All participants asked have reported an increase in scoring on the NHS Leadership

Model Self-assessment tool

• All participants asked have recommended the continuation of the project
• Has stoked interest in several participants pursuing further leadership training

Peter Eckersley

Dispersion of Team Leader Week:

• Now embedded in to our team’s practice
• Adapted for use by several other therapy teams at NMGH
• Physiotherapy UK annual Conference
• NHS Leaders in Healthcare Conference

Peter Eckersley

“I participated in Team Leader Week during my rotation on orthopaedics. Throughout the week I became more aware that a good team does not require a ‘team leader’ as

• such. I found that a good team requires all

members of staff knowing their role, working autonomously and having a good level of communication with each individual.”

• Abisola Akinade, Band 5 Physiotherapist

Peter Eckersley

Any Questions?