Leadership Development
My scholarship gave me a unique opportunity to create a bespoke development programme, tailored to suit my career at a point of transition. Working with the hugely experienced Florence Nightingale coach and a personally ascribed mentor, meant my personality profile and professional experience was fully taken into account as part of the assessment. The outcome provided me with an individual, bespoke package to enhance the areas of leadership and learning I had identified for my development. It proved hugely successful – this personal approach is characteristic of the Foundation’s ethos.
Career Leadership Development
I undertook an Executive Coaching Certificated course with Tavistock and Portman Consultancy with my scholarship award. This provided me with the skills and experience – as it is a highly practical, but rigorous programme – to lead our organisation’s ‘Striking the Match’ coaching programme. We are introducing a trust wide coaching approach for our front line teams and managers, as part of our commitment to building highly performing teams who are heard, supported and licensed to act to improve quality and their own resilience. This consists of regular progressive discussions based on a coaching management style, rather than a traditional appraisal model of reviewing performance against objectives.
Teams using a coaching model actively, can focus on the impact of their behaviour on their team relationships and performance and understand why we repeat patterns in our interactions, it is a powerful process and can lead to lasting change. Mental Health teams work with troubled people and their suffering and conflict can affect the professionals who care for them. Coaching and supervision can help to make sense of this behaviour and our reactions to it, making it more bearable and manageable.
Addition experiences undertaken during the programme included:
Leading Change and Organisational Renewal, the Stanford programme, RADA Communications Skills for Leadership, and a Northern Ireland study tour with fellow scholars.
Improvement Project
My scholarship was devoted to ensuring that my sphere of influence as a Director of Nursing was more effective. At a time of unprecedented change in health and social care, it is critical that nursing leaders are impactful and direct about achieving system change, and the aspirations of the Five Year Forward View. The nursing care support workforce in London will make the largest contribution to the new clinical models which will emerge from the STP priorities. The responsibilities of nursing leaders to work together in a united way to effect that change is unprecedented and exciting as a challenge. The Florence Nightingale Foundation gave me the opportunity to make a renewed personal contribution to this agenda.