10 Necessary Leadership Skills in Healthcare

Here are the top 10 leadership skills and traits in healthcare that every entrepreneur needs, according to the Center for Creative Leadership.

1. Integrity

Integrity is often an overlooked trait. A person with integrity acts with honesty and honor. It starts with leading by example; every management tier should follow this practice for it to be effective. Northeastern University finds that leaders who practice humility and integrity can recognize different viewpoints. By doing so, they can understand all possible decision routes to determine which is best for the business as a whole.

2. Empathy

Arguably one of the most important traits in healthcare, empathy has strictly business applications as well. An empathetic leader understands and accepts their team’s cultural and social identity. By putting personal judgments behind them, leaders can become more empathic. Great leaders use their company’s diversity to grow and achieve more as a team.

3. Communication

Communication has the power to build up or tear down a company. It’s even more critical when dealing with people’s health. Communicating with employees about the message and the timeline to accomplish goals is key for leadership performance in healthcare. Leaders should understand both verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Both can change the team’s mindset on a situation.

4. Delegating

This skill can be tricky, but delegating tasks allows employees to learn and grow, promotes teamwork, provides autonomy, and builds trust between your staff and managers. In turn, this can help your company grow and expand. A company’s growth is based on the future of its employees; by assisting them to become good leaders, a foundation is built for the company’s advancement.

5. Self-awareness

Insperity, a human resource agency, defines self-awareness as understanding one’s own values, personality needs, habits, and emotions and how they affect others. This skill is essential to managing your emotions and staying professional under any circumstances.

6. Gratitude
Employees look to their managers for satisfaction, so leaders should show gratitude. It can help reduce stress and anxiety in the office and help build relationships.

7. Learning Agility
Warner Burke, Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University, found that of all leaders hired, 50% failed at what they were hired to do because they lacked learning agility. It’s a complex skill essential in healthcare, an ever-changing world. High levels of critical thinking and creative problem-solving techniques can help leaders embrace uncertainty in a healthcare entrepreneurial leadership role. For example, American Family Care founder and CEO Dr. Bruce Irwin did this when he opened his first urgent care, helping patients avoid high medical bills for non-life-threatening conditions, after seeing people wait hours in emergency rooms.

8. Influence
Leaders who effectively use their influence can align their team toward a common goal. Influence can work upward too. It’s healthy to collaborate with younger professionals and educate them about processes. You might learn just as much from them as they learn from you.

9. Courage

Leaders that step up and rally the troops can motivate them to move in the right direction. Courageous leaders confront a problem head-on instead of allowing confusion and misinformation to spread in the office.

10. Respect

Respecting employees promotes teamwork, defuses conflict, and improves efficiency. Like Rome, respect isn’t built in a day. However, treating people with respect will attract and retain high performers. Being a good listener to understanding all perspectives are two ways to show respect.

Without these skills, the adverse effects trickle down through the clinic. Consulting firm Criteria for Success finds poor leadership can result in employees losing motivation to work or lacking responsibility or ownership for their role. It can also cause overall mismanagement of resources and poor work culture.

AFC: Your Place to Find Leadership in Healthcare

If you find yourself meeting these 10 skills and traits for leadership in healthcare and want to help others in the medical field, American Family Care can give you the necessary boost to do so. We are a leading provider of urgent care in the U.S. You don’t need a medical degree to join our franchise. Instead, leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and passion for helping others are requirements. We will help with how to buy a medical practice and operate it successfully. Think you have what it takes? Apply now.