"I remembered the leadership skills of scanning, focusing, mobilizing and inspiring. I found [the data], used my mobilization skills to inspire contact persons in them to give me the specific information I required. The system is now established and running.”
—Aquilino Oduma, Director, Human Resource Development, State Ministry of Health, Eastern Equatoria, Sudan.
The Need for Leadership Good leadership is more important than ever in the current health care environment. The rise of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases; health reforms such as decentralization and social insurance; and uncertainties in donor funding present formidable external challenges to health care organizations. At the same time, organizations confront low staff morale, staff shortages, weak systems and processes, difficulty in sustaining high-quality services, and other internal challenges. To address these challenges, they need managers who can not only manage, but also lead their staff through change.
When organizations invest in leadership development for managers at all levels, they increase their ability to adapt to change. Their managers learn to reinforce leadership values and apply leadership practices that promote sustainable organizational performance. By practicing both leading and managing, managers are able to achieve results and maintain high-quality services despite the obstacles they face.
Purpose of the Program
The Leadership Development Program (LDP) helps organizations to develop managers who lead with a vision of a better future. The program has three major learning objectives:
- learn the basic practices of leading and managing so that managers are capable of leading their workgroups to face challenges and achieve results;
- create a work climate that supports staff motivation;
- create and sustain teams that are committed to continuously improving client services.
Program Description
Teams engage in the program over a period of four to six months. Teams discuss strategies for—and actively address—their challenges through all program activities. To help organize and support their work, five kinds of program activities are held:
- Senior Alignment Meeting, an initial meeting which generates commitment and ownership of the LDP among key organizational stakeholders;
- LDP Workshops, a series of workshops comprised of 12 half to full day core sessions during which participants learn core leading and managing practices and concepts;
- Local Team Meetings, on-the-job meetings between workshops in which participants transfer what they learned to the rest of their work team, discuss strategies to address their challenges, and apply leading and managing practices;
- Regular Coaching, in which local health managers support the teams in implementing the tools of the LDP;
- Stakeholder Meetings, in which stakeholders are periodically updated and enlisted as resources to support the teams.
The LDP can be quickly integrated into an organization's daily work, as it focuses on real challenges in the work place. Teams choose their challenge based on current problems they face on a daily basis that is preventing them from achieving results. This allows them to immediately apply the leading and managing practices they are learning in the LDP workshops to real life situations.
The LDP can be used in any organization—private and nonprofit; district level ministries; at the clinic level. It works on the premise of developing managers at all level. The LDP guide contains introductory materials for setting up the program, complete facilitator notes and all necessary handouts.
