Free Tools and Other Resources There are a number of free tools, which are designed to support your own self-understanding. Click on the title to access the test or use the menu bar above. We have been working on free online leadership tools for the last year and we believe that these are among the best online tools anywhere. They have been designed to support your personal and leadership development and some of them can be incorporated into personal and team development programmes. They all take between 10 and 15 minutes to complete. Test 1 - What is your leadership style? This test is designed to help you identify your preferred leadership style. Test 2 - What is your team role? This test is designed to help you understand your team role and can form the basis of personal development as well as tea development roles. Test 3 - What is your next career move? This test is designed to help you identify the stage you are at in your career and provide some guidance as to your next steps Test 4 - What are your career strengths? This test is designed to help you identify your key career strengths. Test 5 - Are you suffering from burnout This test is designed to help you assess whether you may be suffering from burnout Who Cares Wins - the business aspects of patients care Who Cares, Wins is a study commissioned by The Burdett Trust for Nursing about the business aspects of patient care and the implications for nurse leaders and their boards. Designed to trigger the actions that will take patient care ‘from bedside to the boardroom’, the report argues that if a more market driven health system is going to deliver ‘a new NHS’, then patient satisfaction and customer care need equal ranking with finance, targets and outputs on board agendas. The business of caring is a whole board issue. Nurse leaders, because they have or can develop many of the qualities that will be required to deliver on this agenda, and as a result of the increasing breadth of their responsibilities, are well placed to lead the business of caring on their board’s behalf. There are examples of exceptional clinical leaders who have succeeded in making patient care a driving force in their organisation’s strategy and operational processes, but they are in short supply. Two characteristics of these individuals stand out. The first is their skills, confidence and tenacity to ‘bring the bedside to the boardroom’ and keep this on the agenda against other competing interests. The second characteristic is a sophisticated grasp of their organisational and political context and ability to tailor their leadership style to it. Exceptional clinical leaders are important in delivering improved patient care. But Who Cares, Wins makes it clear that there are also critical organisational factors that need to be in place: clear structures and accountability; valuing, seeking and acting on patient opinion and measuring its impact; and influential champions for patients at board level1. Who Cares, Wins makes recommendations on what clinical leaders, their organisations and those in the business of leadership development can do to create the exceptional leaders and boards that will place patient experience at the heart of health care commissioning and provision. The study can be downloaded here (pdf format - 136Kb) An exploratory study of the clinical content of NHS trust board meeting in an attempt to identify good practiceThis exploratory study, commissioned by The Burdett Trust for Nursing and conducted by the University of Plymouth, studied the clinical content of NHS Trust meetings in an attempt to identify good practice. We examined publicly available board meeting minutes for a random sample of 60 Trusts. We identifi ed trusts with higher and lower levels of clinical content and examined the minutes of a sub-sample over one year to check consistency. Minutes for two trusts with high clinical content were reviewed in more detail to identify possible factors leading to greater focus on clinical matters. Based on these reviews a checklist approach was used to review factors in low scoring trusts. The study looked at practice in a random sample of 60 trusts and found that:
The study can be downloaded here (pdf format - 136Kb) Review of the literature on team leadership publishedWe have published our Review of the Literature on Team Leadership which was commissioned by the Health Foundation. The review can be downloaded here (pdf format 632Kb) and contains an analysis of the key literature on teams, team development and team leadership. It also provides an evidence base to a variety of team interventions and should be of particular use to those who are trying to develop team leadership prorgammes. The Performance and Innovation Unit Review on Leadership LiteratureThe Performance and Innovation Unit (part of the Cabinet Office) produced this literature review which is an excellent analysis of changes and trends in leadership thinking and the implications for public sector leadership. The review is Annex D of "Strengthening Leadership in the Public Sector" by the PIU (March 2001) - Performance and Innovation Unit. To read this review, click here (pdf format - 582 Kb). Warwick University's Systematic Review of the Leadership Development literatureThe field of leadership development has generated a growing body of literature. This study, which looked at about 3,500 items, mainly from the USA, Canada, Australasia and the UK, aimed to find and assess the most valuable contributions. Most of them date from the past eight to ten years, though the focus of the study was on 1997-2003. The research, commissioned from Warwick Institute of Governance and Public Management at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, was conducted by Jean Hartley and Barrie Hinksman. The main purpose was to produce a summary of the research on leadership development from across the NHS and public and private sector organisations, identifying key themes, findings and areas of debate. The research includes:
To read this review, click here (pdf format - 1.01 Mb) Henley Management College's literature review"A Literature Review: Evidence of the contribution leadership development for professional groups makes in driving their organisations forward" by Sadie Williams of Henley Management College, Greenlands, Henley-on-Thames.
To read this review, click here (pdf format - 497 Kb) Sir William Wells' Review of the NHSU This report was commissioned in 2004 into the NHSU and has never been released to the public. Following a landmark victory with the Information Tribunal by Rod Ward, this report has now been made available. We are indebted to Rod Ward for making this report available and his summary of the report is as follows: "The NHS university was proposed in the labour manifesto of 2001 and established as a special health authority in 2003. It's demise was announced on November 30th 2004 by the then Health Secretary John Reid, following a report into it's progress and performance by Sir William Wells. The report itself is in two parts, the first detailing progress and performance and the second forward to the creation of the "NHS Institute of Healthcae Innovation and Education". It starts by setting out the original concept behind the NHSu, but even on page one criticises the lack of clarity about where the NHSu fitted into the "already crowded healthcare education and training sector" and what its role should be. It goes on to describe tensions between strategic objectives and potential roles as a provider or broker of training. The lack of understanding of the wishes of customers (eg Strategic health Authorities) , is highlighted as a reason for the lack of support and integration with the wider NHS. The quest for University title is highlighted as a major problem which was not understood by senior staff in the NHSu or ministers and added to confusion over the NHSu's role. A major part of the report is devoted to delivery and value for money, which deals with a range of issues including; the staff complement of 412, learning services, and academic partners. It gives some numbers of the limited take up of NHSu courses ad predicts that these would not meet the projections, particularly once the courses had to be paid for. Comments from a variety of stakeholders about the lack of a clear business plan caused Sir William concern as did the processes for governance. The 30% of staff involved in corporate services "seems disproportionately large" especially when viewed in the light of comments about the "culture and style of a start-up enterprise" and the lack of focus on structure and systems. Frequent changes of structure and individual roles were seen as another barrier to the establishment of effective working. The report concludes with some answers to crucial questions about whether the investment was appropriate and over what timescale it is likely to bear fruit. The answers are damming and relate to lack of clarity of purpose, the absence of market surveys or prices, governance, pursuit of the University title, and engagement with stakeholders. It suggests that in the light of the £72 million investment up to March 2005 "the Department of Health is exposed to significant embarrassment if the value for money delivered by the NHSU were to be probed"." The report can be downloaded here in pdf format (3.6 Mb) Improving Leaders
Guides published by the NHS Leadership Centre Process mapping,
analysis and redesign Matching capacity
and demand Measurement for
improvement Sustainability
and spread
In this guide, we will describe actions, that you as an Improvement Leader can take to sustain the gains from past improvement efforts and improve the way ideas for better practice can be spread across the NHS. (download this guide - Adobe pdf format 217k) Involving patients
and carers An increasing number of initiatives in health and social care explore how to actively engage members of the public in determining local priorities. Such approaches demand active involvement of local community members in dialogue about local provision. Guidelines for undertaking activity at these levels are being developed collaboratively by the Department of Health, the Modernisation Agency and other organisations such as the Commission for Health Improvement. They are not included in this guide. Our focus is more around the shaded elements in the table below: on service delivery and treatment, with the emphasis on active partnership leading to jointly designed and implemented improvements in these two areas. (download this guide - Adobe pdf 220k) Managing the human
dimensions of change Impact of the Manager’s Span of Control on Leadership and Performance by Doran et al This study examined the relationships between types of leadership, the number of staff that managers are responsible for, and patient and nurse outcomes. • Nurse managers with positive leadership styles, who develop, stimulate, and
inspire followers to exceed their own self-interests for a higher purpose and are
based on a series of exchanges or interactions between leader and followers, had
more-satisfied staff. The full report can be downloaded here (pdf format - 453 Kb) Budgeting for change(pdf format) - developed by the NHS National Nursing Leadership Project This is a workbook designed to help nurses understand and manage budgets. The guide is divided into nine sections
Each section includes case studies to help practically illustrate each subject area. Leadership Style
Survey - Questionnaire Click here to take the Questionnaire Team Development
Tools Tools
for building & developing a team
How
do we involve all the team members
Problem
solving
How
to develop a learning culture in your team
Tools
for improving team performance
Working
with the people we serve
Leadership and
Learning Guide: Teams Handbook Section 1 - The basics
Section 2 - Understanding team dynamics/process
Section 3 - Checklists
To view "Sections 1,2,3" click here (PDF 1,215Kb) Section 4 - Tools
Section 5 - Resources
To view "Sections 4,5" click here (PDF 848Kb) Blake and Mouton
Managerial Grid - Questionnaire 5
Instead of presenting a manager with a dilemma of choosing one or the other alternative, it shows how a leader can simultaneously maximize both production oriented methods and those that are people orientated. Click here to take the fifth Questionnaire Centre for Coaching and Mentoring - Leadership Quizzes This area conatains a number of self-development quizzes covering:
Centre for Coaching and Mentoring - click here to take the Leadership Quizzes |
Home | About us | News | Courses | Virtual seminars | Contact us | Resources | This site was last updated March 12th 2015 by David Dawes