“Our best doctors must take leadership of change”

The Government has today launched what it is describing as the biggest ever national conversation about the future of the National Health Service (NHS) involving patients and staff, at the outset of a 10-year health plan to deliver reforms.

Patients, clinicians, experts and the general public will be invited to submit suggestions to help ensure the NHS is “fit for the future” beyond spending increases expected to be announced in next week’s Budget statement.

Amanda Goodall, Professor of Leadership at Bayes Business School and author of Credible: The Power of Expert Leaders, said reform should be driven by those with medical expertise and experience of the healthcare sector.

“Our best doctors must not only be engaged in any NHS review, but they must lead the change,” she said.

“The review must primarily consider who is engaged in designing change and who gets put into key leadership positions. Healthcare systems at the top of the world rankings place doctors into these positions, yet in the NHS doctors have very little say in its running at a local and national level.

Professor Goodall’s work on expert leadership shows that leaders with deep understanding of the core business are associated with higher performance, higher employee job satisfaction and lower staff turnover – with evidence across business, healthcare, universities, Formula 1, basketball, and among professionals.

“Our research – now spanning 20 years and summarised in the book ‘Credible: the power of expert leaders’ – demonstrates that organisational performance is strongly linked to good leadership and line management, as is staff performance and retention,” she continued.

“Importantly, it shows that the best healthcare organisations are more likely to be led by doctors.

“Why does the NHS find it so hard to recognise that some people must be heard, and yes, ahead of others? It would be helpful if it stopped trying to please everyone and made decisions based on evidence, in the same way decisions about drug use are made.

Inspired by her research findings, Professor Goodall founded the Executive Master’s in Medical Leadership (EMML) at Bayes, which helps prepare doctors and healthcare professionals for leadership roles. The programme combines academic learning about people, innovation and change in healthcare with expertise of clinicians and partners to develop students into effective medical leaders.

“The NHS simply cannot exist without doctors, yet they are leaving in droves and recruitment of new doctors is becoming even more challenging,” Professor Goodall said.

“It must put doctors – and not weak or failed doctors but the best we have – into decision-making positions or it will continue to lose them.

“To prepare them for this, high quality leadership training is vital. Our Executive Master’s in Medical Leadership at Bayes Business School is just one example of this, and has proven evidence-based performance outcomes attached to its students.”

All quotes can be attributed to Amanda Goodall, Professor of Leadership at Bayes Business School.

Find out more about the Executive Master’s in Medical Leadership.

Order your copy of Credible: The Power of Expert Leaders by Amanda Goodall.