Leadership

The brief

In the past four to five years, Southern Cross Hospitals have seen rapid expansion in the number of hospitals and there had been a large amount of new managers added to the group.   By 2009, they had 14 hospital operations including a number of joint ventures with other health providers.

Senior management recognised the opportunity to increase the performance and leadership capabilities of the hospital managers and their management teams.  Many of these people have a strong day-to-day operational focus and this sometimes means they operate in a reactive mode – escalating issues to their Hospital Managers rather than taking ownership for developing their own solutions for discussion with their managers.

Historically they have operated within operational ‘silos’ and there was an opportunity to create stronger, more united management teams with the leadership, business acumen and problem-solving skills needed to support the strategic growth plans of the Southern Cross Hospitals.

The solution

During 2009-2010, over 70 Hospital Managers participated in a comprehensive Leadership Development programme designed and facilitated by The Learning Wave.

This programme was conducted over a six-month period to allow the managers the opportunity to integrate their learning into their own team environments and coaching support was provided.

In addition, cross-functional project teams were established to work on projects that would allow them to use all their new leadership skills in creating innovative, business improvement projects.

The result

The early results have been positive.  Managers are now working to find alternative solutions to their day-to-day operational issues and they have a better understanding of how to be leaders within their Hospitals. 

The business improvement projects have meant that individuals have worked together as multi-disciplinary teams to bring changes in various areas of the business including:

• sustainability
• patient safety
• new performance management processes

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