Different Leaders Booklet by Yorkshire and the Humber Leadership Academy

D fferent

Leaders Supported by:

Contents

Foreword

Case Studies: Reva Stewart ..........................4-5 Krishnakumar Nair................6-7 Pamela Shaw .........................8-9 Johnson D’Souza ..............10-11 Clive Clarke ........................12-13

Dear Reader,

Pathway to Leadership Pull out Roadmap.............14-15

The ‘Different Leaders’ guide shines a light on our future leaders and the challenges they overcame on their journey to success.

Case Studies: Chris Jewesbury................16-17 Tracy Grey ..........................18-19 Sajid Azeb ..........................20-21 Ashy Shanker ....................22-23 Tasnim Ali...........................24-25 Appendix: Roadmap Resources........26-27

Firstly, I would like to thank Abdul Khalifa, for producing our ‘Different Leaders’ guide. We all need role models. Whilst this guide is speciﬁcally aimed at black and minority ethnic staff, who are under represented at the most senior levels of our NHS, it contains narratives that are important for us all.

We hope that these stories inspire you personally and your organisation to be more inclusive in your identiﬁcation of talent in relation to the BME workforce. We hope these narratives and the career advice that is available inspires you to realise your potential for the beneﬁt of patients, service users and yourself.

Simon Morritt Chief Executive, Shefﬁeld Childrens Hospital Executive sponsor for Innov8: leading differently for better healthcare.

leading differently for better healthcare

Dear Reader, As you read the profiles, I hope you can be as inspired as I was when given this opportunity to share the learning, skills and determination of staff within the NHS. The idea behind the production of this booklet is about connecting readers to a story and perhaps discovering a similar background by sharing experiences of these individuals who have made it through hard work and determination. Staff across the NHS can benefit and learn from these experiences. As an NHS employer we are good at providing pathways to success, but we often forget the skills, passion and resilience that are required alongside. The profiles in this booklet explain how each unique individual has become a leader by showing determination to be successful. There is no right or wrong way to be successful, but it’s the will power in the individual that makes it happen. Believe in yourself. When interviewing for these profiles I heard a lot of powerful messages, however as you can appreciate, too often this does not come across via a transcript. In order to share these with you we have

produced a DVD of the proﬁles showcasing key messages which we hope can be used for all aspects of career development and strategies to help focus people on the skills required to be successful. The booklet’s centre pages provide a pathway of resources, skills and signposts that we hope you can utilise to help you and others to develop. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but we believe these to be key. I hope that by sharing these stories you can begin to think about where you are in your career path and what you would like to achieve. I believe that if we want to see the change then “you have to be the change you want to see”. Finally I would like to say that the development of this booklet was accomplished with the excellent support of Noshina Kiani who ensured my ideas for this work were translated into action. I would also like to thank Tracy Grey and Maggie Stubbs for their guidance and to Innov8 for sponsoring this project. Finally I would like to thank my employer, Bradford District Care Trust for supporting me on the project.

*The Different Leader’s initiative is part of the Innov8 NHS – leading differently for better healthcare, a programme of leadership and organisational development work sponsored by the Regional Leadership Council and funded by by Health Education Yorkshire and the Humber.

I would like to hear from individuals directly should you wish to discuss the booklet further. Kind regards

Abdul Khalifa HR Business Partner Bradford District Care Trust

Reva Stewart I work as a business manager at Bradford District Care Trust, having been in my role since December 2011.

I qualiﬁed as a nurse in 1988, after training for three years in Leeds. My ﬁrst post was as a staff nurse in an elderly care ward and just like most nurses, I really wanted to provide the best care that I could. After a couple of years, when I had reached the point where I needed to consolidate the knowledge and skills that I’d learnt, I felt that I was ready for the next challenge. I applied for a ward sister post, as I had been doing some elements of the post during my normal working day, but when I applied for the post and was unsuccessful, I knew I could do more and I thought I had skills inside of me that would step up to the mark and deliver that. I felt leadership and management opportunities were not available and it wasn’t until I moved to Bradford that there was a turnaround in my career. Sometimes it’s about the organisation not being right for you and you may have to make that decision that, actually, I need to go somewhere else. When leaving the organisation, I promised myself that I would make more of myself and actually give more and not be put off by the fact that some people didn’t believe in my abilities. So when I arrived in Bradford in

the community health services I made a commitment that I was going to do my best and look for different opportunities so that I could showcase my skills, but also the opportunity to develop and move on. I was also successful on the Breaking Through National Top Talent Programme, which helped me to secure a secondment at Bradford District Care Trust. When I look back over my career, there was one person who was instrumental in terms of giving me that inspiration and motivation to move forward. One particular line manager who invested the time in terms of saying ‘Actually, you’ve got something, why don’t you look at this, explore that?’ and encouraged me to go on different courses. I had informal coaching sessions, which stretched me and helped me move forward. They were instrumental in terms of where I am now. If I hadn’t had that support, I think it may have taken me longer to get where I am. I think there was a risk also of just accepting the cards that had been given to me and not believing in myself. But I think my passion and my values in

terms of providing best care and also believing that I could achieve more and deliver more helped me through that and it made me a little bit stronger and more resilient. You have to keep on ﬁghting in what you believe and that’s seen me through. I think your family and friends can also give you strength by saying, ‘We know you can do that,’ you are capable of doing more even though you don’t hear it within your own organisation. You’ve got to believe in yourself and your abilities. My advice to anybody who wants to achieve, if they want to go on a similar pathway, is to ﬁnd a coach or a mentor and also your friends and family as well. Think about where you want to be, grasp any opportunities that are offered and put yourself out there. Most importantly, believe in yourself. One of the things I’d like to do, as a leader in the NHS, is to share my experiences and skills with other people and staff in the NHS.

So I think it’s important for me to do coaching and mentoring and it’s part of the succession planning, because what I want is an NHS that will still provide the best care, for when I’m going to be using the services in the future. You can’t do this alone; you can’t rely on just the skills that you’ve got inherent in you. It’s OK to make mistakes because that’s one of the best ways of learning as long as it’s in a safe environment, but to enable you to do that you need support, you need someone there to help you view your skills differently. To me, coaching and mentoring is key to that. In ﬁve years’ time I would like to be a director. I don’t think that’s too high an aspiration to have because I believe that if you have a dream you’ve got to follow it through. With the skills that a programme like ‘Breaking Through’ has given me I think it’s achievable.

In ﬁve years’ time I would like to be a director. I don’t think that’s too high an aspiration to have because I believe that if you have a dream you’ve got to follow it through. With the skills that a programme like ‘Breaking Through’ has given me I think it’s achievable.

A good leader is somebody who: •

Is self-aware

•

Is able to communicate effectively

•

Has integrity

•

Is honest and fair with you

•

Is a visionary

XXXXX Krishnakumar Nair My current role is as a project lead, leading the roll-out of an awardwinning service improvement programme across the Airedale and Bradford Community Services and the inpatient wards within the Bradford District Care Trust.

I qualiﬁed as a general nurse and midwife from India 19 years ago and worked as a specialist critical care nurse in India. After completing a degree in clinical psychology, I was sponsored by the government of India to pursue a postgraduate programme in psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore.

premises to the new Airedale Centre for Mental Health unit. I led a presentation of new ways of working on the newly built unit for the commissioners and executive management team of the PCT and the trust. This involvement made me feel included in the organisational structure and also provided conﬁdence in working on a higher level.

After completing my psychiatry training, I really wanted to see the developments and changes in treatment methods and interventions in the ﬁeld of mental health, especially the psychological interventions. Around that time I was invited for a job interview by the Bradford District Care Trust, who came over to India and recruited me to work in the UK. I started working as an adaptation nurse in an acute mental health ward. I completed my NMC registration in January 2005, and started working as a registered mental health nurse on the same ward. In 2006, I progressed onto an assistant ward manager role on the same male acute ward. From there, I started getting involved in some of the trust’s transformation processes, especially when we moved from the old Airedale Hospital

Unfortunately, I had an incident in 2010 which affected my physical health and working life. I had a stroke that made my clinical role on the ward difﬁcult. I then moved to the community as a community psychiatric nurse and also started practising cognitive behaviour therapy. When the trust advertised for the post of a band 8 project lead, I took the opportunity and was successful. I had been involved in and successfully completed some service improvement projects while I was in India and those experiences enhanced my conﬁdence. Having moved to the UK after living in India most of my life, there were quite a few challenges; it is another part of the world, very different in culture and language. The biggest challenge

was leaving the family behind as my wife was doing her research degree back home. It took a lot of time for me to be able to focus on my goals after coming here. One of the key goals was to learn about the diverse communities and see how things work in a different setting. I come from Kerala, one of the most beautiful parts of India, and many of my colleagues asked why I came to this country to work, sacrificing my personal and professional life. I usually tell them it’s not for earning money but to improve my knowledge and skills, understand different cultures and the different types of therapeutic interventions available. One of the other challenges I had was communication. When I was very young, I used to stammer, which led to a lack of confidence when talking to people, but by understanding the culture and diversity of where I was working it gave me confidence when dealing with different people. The turning point in my career was the recognition of my potential by my previous manager when I started working for the NHS. I then started getting involved

with NHS Leadership Academy Breaking Through programmes, attended leadership master classes and also received executive coaching though the NHS Breaking Through programme. At present I am involved with ‘Conversations For Change programme – an Ubuntu driven approach’ through Tutu Foundations UK. This again is about helping the community, understanding inclusion, inequalities and other people’s needs and helping them in difﬁcult situations. There were quite a few people who helped me in my journey. The two key people who really had an impact on my life are my mum and my wife, who guided and supported me throughout my journey. The other person was the manager who interviewed me in India in 2004, and incidentally she interviewed me again in 2010 for the current role. Everyone can be a leader, if they have the determination, motivation and perseverance. I feel my career is a very good example of this. In ﬁve years, I see myself in a senior role where I can make a positive impact on the

NHS systems. I have a passion for service improvement, as I always see the bigger picture with improved quality, productivity, safety and reliability in patient care through the innovation and service improvement programmes.

A good leader is somebody who: •

Is a good listener

•

Is understanding and caring

•

Is resilient

•

Is ﬂexible

•

Is enthusiastic

•

Is conﬁdent

•

Is committed to excellence

•

Is determined

•

Has self-belief

Pamela Shaw My name is Pamela Shaw and I am currently a health visitor/ practice educator at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

I qualified as a general nurse in 1991 and worked as a staff nurse for two years before embarking on a career in midwifery. I later trained as a health visitor and then after two years of qualifying I completed a Practice Teacher course at Huddersfield University as well as a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. The turning point in my career was when I was nominated by a manager to attend a Mary Seacole Development/Leadership Award Ceremony event in London in 2008. The purpose of the awards was to enable the awardees to undertake a project to develop and improve services for marginalised groups in the community or BME patients/clients to reduce health inequalities. During the awards ceremony I was inspired to undertake an innovative project. A woman, who was unknown to me, informed me that she would like to see me receive an award as she thought I could do an interesting project. Her comments were the catalyst I needed to put a long-standing idea of mine into practice, to improve equality & diversity training. I wanted create a training tool that highlighted a balance between important elements of legislation and discriminatory facts as well as the

positive contributions that BME professionals make to the NHS and society. I was successful in being awarded a Mary Seacole Leadership Award in 2009. This enabled me to develop a DVD which captured the life stories of successful BME professionals from different professional backgrounds, ethnicity, ages and gender. But most importantly, the DVD aimed to show professionals in charge of their own destinies through capturing their career progression stories, how they remain focused, what inspires them, their views on inclusive leadership and why they thought it was important to have role models reﬂective of the community. My DVD showcases individuals at both National and Local levels. Such as, one of the ﬁrst BME female director, as well as the then ‘National Director for Equality and Human Rights’ and a key individual from the ‘Breaking Through’ programme. My hard work and enthusiasm regarding my project generated lots of interest both locally and nationally and I was invited to a celebratory evening at Downing Street. I also visited Whitehall and shadowed the Chief Nurse for a day and became a member of her BME Advisory Group. I have also

published articles on the importance of inclusive leadership in professional journals. I feel that self-motivation is a key factor to career progression and fulfilment, but having a plan through the annual development review structure, is also an important factor along with actively seeking out opportunities for personal and career development. Other important factors include networking widely with others who share a similar passion and drive to make a difference. Furthermore, having access to good mentors or accessing coaching will be beneficial - I have met and remain in contact with some very motivational individuals who have been very generous with their time in supporting and advising me. I am driven by a strong belief to always give my best and to encourage others to do the same and not accept the average. I am very determined and don’t give up easily, I strongly believe in exploring other directions if my first option is not available. On a personal level, my parents have done more for me than anyone I know, as they were selfless and always put the needs of the family first. They were very encouraging, courageous and honest

and always instilled in me that I was in charge of my own destiny and not to let others set limits for me. I consider myself a positive person who doesn’t see barriers, only challenges - I like to think I can rise to a challenge no matter how great. I have experienced some challenges during my career journey, but these have developed me in many ways and I would like to think developed others along the way too. The knowledge that I am providing an excellent service and receiving positive feedback from clients, colleagues, managers and those I would hold dear to me, such as my family/friends has kept me motivated. Winning the Health Visitor of the Year award has given me that extra boost and drive to continue providing excellent care, strong leadership as well as achieving personal goals and professional development. Furthermore, I consider myself a lifelong learner and enjoy expanding my knowledge, I am now completing my MSC with support from the SHA. I am also keen to develop others, and my role as a practice educator in health visiting allows me to train and develop student health visitors and I have a

lead role within my organisation on clinical preceptorship. If someone had the same desire to achieve, I would encourage them to live their dream – seek out opportunities to reach their goals, and surround themselves with individuals who are prepared to offer unconditional support and direction. Finally, always be prepared to help others as you progress in your career, and set your own limits - don’t allow others to set your limits for you!

A good leader is somebody who: •

Has self-belief

•

Is able to inspire others

•

Encourages and develops the potential of others

•

Is open, honest and fair

•

Can champion change and innovation to improve service and create engaged and fulﬁlled staff

Johnson D’Souza I am a general practitioner and the acting medical director for the former NHS Wakeﬁeld District

I have an interest in medical management and in 2007, after I ﬁnished my general practitioner training, I was offered a role as a senior clinical advisor with the clinical management committee of the PCT. That gave me an understanding of how primary care trusts operated and in general gave me exposure to the working of the NHS. I was successful in getting a placement with the NHS Institute’s ‘Breaking Through’ programme, which helped me structure an 18-month secondment across primary and secondary care trusts as part of my development. Apart from this I was fortunate to have access to senior leaders in the NHS who coached and mentored me. As a clinician, the major challenge for me was getting to know the complexities of the NHS as you take on senior roles. There is always a worry about leaving front-line general practice and dipping your toes into medical management; it’s a hard balancing act trying to juggle the two and get it right. When you start training to become a manager you do encounter resistance at times, but it’s about working around this resistance, and demonstrating your resolve.

In order to balance both roles as a medical manager and clinician, you need to be adaptable and flexible when working with colleagues. This is a very sharp learning curve, and you’ve got to put yourself in this position of wanting to learn, wanting to go out and meet people and develop new networks whilst benefitting from the expertise and experience of your colleagues. There’s always a honeymoon period when you take on a new role, where you can ask questions and they won’t be considered as basic, so don’t hesitate or be afraid to ask. In terms of support, I feel that the role your family plays cannot and should not be underestimated. My wife, my son, parents and extended family have all been supportive. You’ve got to make sacrifices, you’ve got to invest a lot of your time in personal development and you can’t fathom initially the commitment that is needed while undertaking this career path. Of course fellow medical directors and other senior colleagues have also guided me through the maze of regulations and in learning the ropes of the trade. Also being part of an action learning set, where you can share thoughts and opinions with likeminded individuals in a safe environment, is hugely beneficial.

On reflection, if I could have done anything differently to get to where I am now, it would have been to gain additional management qualifications. As a medic you struggle initially when you have to deal with taking management responsibilities. There is a need to understand board behaviours, finance matters, overall strategy, policy, decision-making, and the art of negotiations, but these are the things we don’t get exposed to during core medical training as part of a medical curriculum. So perhaps I would have benefitted had there been an element of management training. If someone has the same desire as me to develop as a medical manager, then I would say you need to determine what it is you want, and how you want your career to progress. You need to know your strengths and weaknesses; obviously you need to work on developing your strengths and minimising your weaknesses. I can’t emphasise how important it is to develop networks – you’ve got to invest your time into personal development, which comes at a cost. Find out what opportunities exist: the NHS does have lots of training and development resources, so find out

what’s right for you and undertake those development opportunities. Above all, I think you need to have self-belief. In order to be a good leader, you’ve not only got to ‘lead’, but you’ve got to be seen to be leading in an effective way. By developing your teams and the people who work with you and alongside you, it puts you in a better position to delegate and get the best out of people. There may be times when you need to take the flak for things that have gone wrong, but being able to keep your head above the parapet and say ‘yes, this was where a mistake was made’ enhances you as an individual and as a leader. Above all, it’s making the decisions and demonstrating thought leadership while keeping the patient at the core of the whole process. Asking the basic but all-important questions, ‘Is this going to make a difference to patient care, are the patients going to benefit from this, is it going to impact on the service in the next five or ten years?’ is what should be a guiding principle. An element of future-proofing, and scanning the horizon for developments in order to be one step ahead of the changes, is mandatory to be able to succeed.

I think these are really challenging times for the NHS with the passing of the Health and Social Care Bill and as GP-led commissioning is being established. But I think there is always going to be a need for experienced medical managers dealing with issues around performance, contracting, commissioning and governance and long as you are able to adapt yourselves to change, learn new skills, keep developing your existing skills then I think you will always have a role to play in the NHS, and this is where I would continue to see myself in the next ﬁve years.

A good leader is somebody who: •

Has self-belief

•

Is able to future-proof

•

Can develop people

•

Can lead effectively

•

Has a visual presence – is seen to be leading

•

Is adaptable

•

Is ﬂexible

Clive Clarke I’m the Deputy Chief Executive for Shefﬁeld Health and Social Care Foundation Trust and as the executive director for operational delivery I lead on social care within the Trust.

My background is very interesting, in the sense that it’s something that’s kept me focused and grounded. I came from a singleparent household and inherited a very strong work ethic from my mother who is a strong inﬂuence on me. She brought us up to think in a positive way about ourselves and what we could achieve, and also made us think positively about our spirituality, and this kept us very close to what we believe and use as a mechanism for support and enablement.

I got into my current position on the back of two things: one, that I had dual qualiﬁcation. If you have aspirations, I would suggest that you need to get qualiﬁed so that you are level pegging with everyone. The second thing is that I’ve always been really honest with people about what I wanted from my career and how I was going to do it. Putting yourself out there, marketing yourself so people can see that you have aspirations is key because then even they will eventually say ‘let’s give him a try’.

I left school with limited qualiﬁcations, and decided I was going to go into industry. After six weeks in a factory I decided it wasn’t for me and my mother, who worked as a support worker at this current trust in the early years, suggested I go into nursing as I was able to communicate very well with people.

I’ve been an executive in my current organisation for over ﬁve years and before this I was a director, managing adult mental health services. I’ve had a number of senior roles within the NHS and social care and having worked within a PCT, I feel that the wealth of background and knowledge and direction of travel has set me in good stead. Another thing that has helped me is having a very good support mechanism externally, with people I can trust and who advise me, but are real so keep me very grounded.

Having matured, I did some studying and qualiﬁed as a nurse. After a year working on the wards, I decided again that I needed something more and I went off to university to train as a social worker. I was then dual qualiﬁed in both mental health nursing and social work and was an approved mental health practitioner before I went into management.

I also tapped into a mentoring programme where I’ve received support and my current chief exec encouraged me to get on to the ‘Top Managers’ programme.

The challenges that we face sometimes come from the most unexpected sources, and I can say that what I’ve always done is be honest with people about where I want to be. I remember the first time I was offered a job managing a team that I’d worked in and with people I had worked with when I started out in social work. I’ll never forget the reaction from my peers to this and if I hadn’t been resilient then the attitude of my peers would have stopped me in my tracks. But with the support I received, I continued and pushed on anyway. I still remember when I got my first director role and that fills me with pride because I was able to compete with a number of other people to get that job, not just for myself but for my whole community. I went to the church that following weekend and they applauded for me, because they saw themselves and their children progressing to a place where we hadn’t had people before and that keeps me going. I’m not just here for myself; I now have a young son as well so I am being a role model for him. I want him to see me in a positive light and believe that he can do whatever he sets his heart to do.

Another thing that has helped me is having a very good support mechanism externally, with people I can trust and who advise me, but are real so keep me very grounded.

In ﬁve years’ time, I certainly see myself being deputy chief exec and I’ve set a target. My motivation is to help people, and do the best I can. I want my voice to be heard, and I always say to my community that we’ve got to be in positions of power, on boards. I want to inﬂuence direction and improve services at a senior level, not just in this organisation but across the country as well.

A good leader is somebody who: •

Has self-belief

•

Is resilient

•

Has a vision

•

Is a good communicator

•

Inspires others

•

Motivates others

•

Can reﬂect

•

Can engage all the way up through an organisation

•

Is grounded and real

Pathway to Leadership Pull out Roadmap

Chris Jewesbury Until recently I was the Deputy Director for joint commissioning for children, young people, maternity services in a joint post between NHS Calderdale and Calderdale Council.

I started my career as a social worker in 1992 working in Kirklees Council with children and young people. I did that for about six years, before being promoted to team manager. I then moved to within Kirklees to more strategic roles where I was responsible for children’s planning and elements of children’s commissioning. From there, I moved to Bradford, where I was employed by one of what were then four PCTs on behalf of the NHS and the council, to lead on the development and commissioning of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). I did that job for about four years and then moved into my current role as deputy director for children’s joint commissioning at Calderdale. A number of things helped me to get to where I am but I feel that one of the most important was being part of a BME staff network, such as the ones I joined when I was working in Kirklees and Bradford. As I was a relatively new member of staff, joining the network helped me understand how the organisations worked, how things ﬁtted together and how BME staff could support each other throughout the organisation. I think for me being a part of BME networks

has been less about overcoming barriers and more about having an opportunity to network with other BME colleagues within the organisation. Another thing that is helpful is having a clear idea of what you are doing. My career has been very much around vulnerable children and young people, and this is the area where I want to make a big difference and have an impact. Working in this area helped me when I moved into a commissioning role as I was able to understand what it was I was commissioning and what it was that I was trying to achieve. Having access to training whilst on my career path has also been vital in terms of how I got to where I am now. When I became a team manager in Kirklees, I was given the opportunity to go on a Certificate of Management Studies and subsequently a Diploma in Management Studies, which were both post-graduate certificates. I found them really helpful in terms of making that transition from being a frontline practitioner to a manager and helping me to reflect upon what my skills were as a manager, what was

important about managing and what was different. When I was training in the workplace, as a newly qualiﬁed social worker I got quite a lot of training and support enabling me to develop and become a more reﬂective practitioner. I started to develop skills in supervising student social workers, which helped me to develop supervisory skills and become a manager. I think I have been quite lucky, in being able to access fairly rigorous, high-quality management training. When I moved to Bradford again, I think I was lucky in terms of the leadership development programmes in place there within the PCT and the wider health service. These were either leadership development opportunities regionally or locally, which enabled me to look at my own skills and access opportunities like coaching. The transition from the council to the NHS has enabled me to understand the differences and similarities between working in a local authority and within the NHS. We work in a sector which involves helping people and making a difference to their lives, so I think remaining true to that, and to our values, is what counts. One

of the key things in terms of children’s commissioning is to understand the interface between the NHS, local authorities and education. My experience has enabled me to understand this and to work effectively in partnership. My advice to anyone out there who wants to achieve is that you shouldn’t hold yourself back but that you also need to spend time to build your knowledge, experience and skills. Having the self-conﬁdence to put yourself out there, to apply for jobs and opportunities is also essential to moving forward in your career. In ﬁve years’ time I want to be in a position where I’m still making a difference to children and young people. I’d see myself working in a more senior position, possibly working towards roles like director of children’s services in the local authority, or looking at how we can support CCGs to continue to work more closely with local authorities around joint commissioning, for children and young people and other vulnerable groups within the local community.

A number of things helped me to get to where I am but I feel that one of the most important was being part of a BME staff network, such as the ones I joined when I was working in Kirklees and Bradford.

A good leader is somebody who: •

Has self-belief

•

Is supportive

•

Has vision

•

Is good at networking

•

Works hard

•

Is conﬁdent

Clive is now in a new senior post at the NHS Commissioning Board.

Tracy Grey Until recently I held a dual role as a Health Improvement Specialist (advanced) for NHS Leeds and as a regional business partner for Innov8.

I haven’t come through a traditional NHS route, and instead have a mixed portfolio of experience, having worked for the third sector, local authority and the private sector. A large part of my career history was spent in the third sector working for a leading mental health charity. I have also worked for the local authority in a variety of roles, largely youth and community work, working with young people, supporting their social and educational development. I later took on further roles at a more strategic level working in the ﬁeld of regeneration. This involved extensive stakeholder and relationship management leading partnerships to tackle social and economic inequalities in a deprived area of Leeds. The catalyst for getting into the health service was the work I undertook earlier on in my career when I worked for the Healthy Living Centre.

An opportunity came up with the NHS whilst I was working for the Healthy Living Centre, and as the remit was around tackling health inequalities across vulnerable groups, my past experience placed me in a very strong position and I got the role of advanced health improvement specialist. Before getting this position though, I had applied for another role within the same sector but I

didn’t get it. Instead of seeing this as a negative experience I requested feedback from a senior level person on the interview panel, which I found very useful. By reﬂecting on this feedback I was then better prepared for the interview for my current role, which surprisingly was on a more senior level than the one I hadn’t got originally. My journey through the NHS has been both rewarding and challenging. Rewarding, because my latent talents and abilities have been recognised, at a local, regional and national level. My passion for tackling health inequalities and indeed championing workforce issues was recognised by a national BME network and I was asked to lead at the regional level. I also participated in many Innov8 initiatives. Not only was I active during the embryonic stages, sharing my perspectives, but later invited to sit on the Innov8 executive group, where diversity in leadership styles is encouraged and actively promoted. It has been challenging at times, as sometimes this passion can be misconstrued by others, and I have experienced setbacks. But if I could pass anything on to others, it would be about being

open to constructive feedback, and also that you have to take responsibility for your career, which requires self determination and also resilience. I have learnt from setbacks and challenges and didn’t let them get me down. I surround myself with positive people; it’s important to have strong family, social and career networks. Having people believe in my ability from an inclusive stance has helped harness my leadership capabilities and given me the opportunity to use my business acumen to lead on high-level stretch assignments which have been instrumental in my success. The ﬁrst person who was the key in unlocking my potential was a line manager from the voluntary sector who always promoted continuous improvement and self reﬂection. She encouraged me to enrol at university to consolidate my knowledge and arranged for the organisation to fund my master’s in public health. The other thing that I feel helped me the most to get to where I am now was selfbelief, because I knew I had the track record and experience. I’m also very committed to social and health inequalities and want to empower communities to make the best of their lives and to experience good services and

interventions. Linked to this is the idea that everyone’s potential needs to be recognised and nurtured and I am passionate about creating new opportunities and role models for the next generation. As a role model, you sometimes don’t realise the impact you are having on someone’s life. As a working mother, balancing work commitments, studying and maintaining a healthy and stable life is hard work, but seeing my daughter get her degree in psychology and now become a qualiﬁed teacher has to be my biggest success. If seeing me ‘juggle all those balls without letting them fall to the ground’ inspired her in some way then my hard work and determination was an investment that has paid off greatly. I am currently embarking on a MBA programme and at one point I would have said that this is beyond my capabilities. However, I believe we only fail if we don’t try. Having a ‘can do’ attitude is key and I am applying the learning to the NHS. I believe this learning lends itself well to the new changing NHS – these business skills are going to be critical. I have had to work hard to get where I am today; it has not been easy.

Working in the NHS has been a career goal of mine and I have always had a strong desire to make a difference on a macro and micro level. In ﬁve years’ time, I would have hoped to have achieved my ambition of becoming a director within the NHS and continuing to make a positive difference to the patient experience. Tracy is now in a senior post in the Health Inequalities team at the NHS Commissioning Board.

A good leader is somebody who: •

Has self-belief

•

Is a strategic thinker

•

Is dynamic

•

Has integrity

•

Can manage relationships

•

Is a good listener

•

Has political astuteness

•

Is a good negotiator & inﬂuencer

•

Is values driven

Sajid Azeb I am assistant divisional director for children’s, women’s and families services at Calderdale and Huddersﬁeld NHS Foundation Trust.

From an early age, I’ve always had a desire to work in healthcare. My family is from Pakistan, and it’s a developing country where healthcare is a scarce resource, especially for people who can’t afford to access good healthcare, so I have always been interested in this line of work. After I qualified as an orthoptist in 2000, I worked for almost two and a half years in a clinical field. Interaction on a one-to-one with patients was excellent and I loved it, but I felt by moving into management I would have a bigger impact on larger numbers of people at a higher level and that’s what drove me to change career paths. I have a passion to help people and I’m in the NHS because I fundamentally believe in the NHS, and in what it stands for and why it’s there. The passion has always been there and as I’ve got into the different job roles and enjoyed them, that passion has grown over time and I can see the results and the impact of the work that I’ve been involved in. When you realise the benefits that those projects bring to individuals and populations, that’s what really drives you as an individual to say that what you are doing is making a difference.

The biggest challenge I faced was the transition from clinical care into management and that was because there was a mindset, both in myself thinking ‘I have trained as a clinician; I can’t move into management’, and possibly people around me at that time, thinking ‘will he, can he get into a management post?’ But I think as I did it fairly early in my career, the risks weren’t that great and I was able to explore different job roles. I realised personally that I enjoyed the managerial job role and people around me saw that I could deliver as well, and from then I’ve not looked back once. The ‘Breaking Through’ programme has been fundamental in getting me to where I am today and it wasn’t until I went through the programme that I realised the power of networks, mentors and cultures. Even now, I believe you need to stay ‘linked in’ with people and to make sure you seek out people for support. It’s all too easy to stay behind your computer in your ofﬁce and churn out paper after paper, but I think one of the leadership qualities is being able to network and create relationships with people and give something back as well. One of the

things I could have done earlier is develop those types of relationships. As I had to think about where I wanted to be and how I was going to make this happen, I enrolled onto a Diploma in Management Studies, which I then converted into a MBA. That was extremely difﬁcult, not because work was hard but it was balancing the demands of an MBA with the fact that I’ve got a full-time job, a family and a desire to achieve. But I overcame this and I’m now in a position where I can potentially continue to inﬂuence health care and progress from here as well. The NHS is constantly growing and changing, but it’s about how you as an individual respond to that. For me, it’s about working as a team: as a leader you are only as good as your team and for me it’s about being absolutely open, transparent and creating a culture where people work together for the greater good. To get through challenging times I don’t think you can do it as an individual, no matter how good a leader you think you are. You get through those times with your team.

I’ve been in the NHS for 12 years now and earlier on there was a time in my career where I thought I wanted to be a director by the time I reached a certain age. But as I’ve progressed, I’ve realised that it’s less important to work towards a time frame and more important to get the right job. In five years’ time I would hopefully be in a job that I enjoy doing, which would be like the one I am currently in, hopefully at a more senior level and then I hope that I have a choice to make about whether I want to go for a chief executive position. It’s a really difficult decision to make now, because I don’t know what it’s like to be a chief exec and I have to get to a director level to experience that, but I still aspire to get there. The next five years are about consolidating my experience, broadening it where I can and hopefully getting into a board-level position in order to make this a possibility.

The ‘Breaking Through’ programme has been fundamental in getting me to where I am today and it wasn’t until I went through the programme that I realised the power of networks, mentors and cultures.

A good leader is somebody who: •

Is open and transparent

•

Wants to make a difference

•

Can network

•

Can manage relationships

•

Supports others

•

Has self-belief

Ashy Shanker I am a strategy and systems manager for NHS Doncaster. I have recently been appointed as a general manager for anaesthetics, critical care and pain management in Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

After completing my MBA in 2001 I started in the NHS working in general practice as an ofﬁce manager. From there I moved to a service improvement role in an acute trust, and gained considerable experience and knowledge of service improvement tools. Following this I worked as a commissioning manager leading on service pathways, managing contracts and developing service strategies.

The ‘Breaking Through’ transformational leadership programme helped me discover and develop my cultural competence. I am more of a strategic thinker now, capable of understanding multiple perspectives and using emotional intelligence to arrive at more positive outcomes.

I came from India as a graduate into a very different environment with hope and unﬁnished aspirations. There were challenges associated with culture, language and most importantly opportunities presented.

Over the past few years my personal development has included a shift from perfecting business skills to focusing on achieving outcomes. Motivating people around me and inﬂuencing them through my passion for achieving better patient care has been a lot more productive and rewarding than performance managing a team on delivery of speciﬁc tasks.

I have realised that working twice as hard and embellishing your name with degrees alone is not the elixir for success. Watching your junior colleagues becoming more successful than you is also an experience that is difficult to comprehend or accept, especially if there are no seemingly identifiable shortfalls in you that you could fix. Observing and experiencing this has made me more analytical and critical about my surroundings and about organisational cultures and leadership qualities.

In NHS management, it is essential to be able to adapt, get along with others and create networks to inﬂuence. To a greater extent it is also about differentiating between the battles and wars and focusing your efforts on the latter. For someone with very clear and strong values and belief systems this may be an uncomfortable grey area to take on since there is a pull to go with the majority and not to stand out. The interesting paradox in my efforts to develop into an

effective leader has been the need to deﬁne and consolidate who I am and how I want to function as an individual. I increasingly use my competencies well and adapt my behaviours to achieve the outcomes I seek. I also give people time to understand and accept me for who I am, with my shortcomings. I believe opportunities do not come searching for you – you have to actively seek these. Being part of the Emerging Leaders Bursary I was able to undertake a placement at a trust and into a role I wanted to progress into. The feedback process as part of the programme also helped me to push myself to apply for roles that suited my abilities. Feedback from people you trust is a crucial development opportunity, especially to identify and work on your ‘blind spots’. There were challenges and barriers too; the way I look, the way I speak, my gender, the context I present, they all have been barriers at various times. What I have learnt is to become more aware of the assumptions that are commonly made about me. I can then choose to nurture them or

dismantle them. In any case, I think focusing on challenges and barriers does not help you progress so I tend to learn from them and move on. My friends and colleagues have helped me succeed in various ways. I am grateful to all of them and to the people who made it more difficult at times because that made the journey more interesting and reinforced my resilience. My main motivation, however, has undoubtedly been my family. I have two beautiful children and a supportive and hardworking husband and they inspire me every day to try my best and to have more confidence in myself. I think one of the most challenging and responsible things for a woman is to raise her kids to become complete individuals. The second most difficult thing is to manage a successful career alongside. Many women do it and I’m proud to be one of them. The specific leadership competencies that I have utilised the most include resilience, perseverance and strategic thinking. My interest in organisational behaviour also helped me understand organisational

cultures I am exposed to. Having a mentor has deﬁnitely helped me progress and I would recommend this, however, ultimately you have to take responsibility for your successes and failures. In ﬁve years’ time, I hope to develop further, perhaps into a director role. Currently I am focusing on and enjoying my new role and before long I know I will be seeking new challenges.

A good leader is somebody who: •

Has self-belief

•

Is honest and credible

•

Has integrity

•

Can inﬂuence others

•

Relates competencies and behaviours to their values and principles

•

Is someone you aspire to be

Tasnim Ali My name is Tasnim Ali and I’m a senior service quality improvement manager for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

I’m a nurse by background, having completed my degree in nursing in 1988 and then worked in a hospital environment for about 2 years. After working in a community setting as a District Nurse, I worked in Leeds for a while before getting into management around 1997, as a Clinical Leader. Since then I have worked with community, district nursing teams, health visiting teams and have also worked with some of the GP’s in that area. I think being a nurse I’ve always had a passion for patient care and I wanted to work within a different part of the NHS economy, but still be able to inﬂuence patient care. I saw a job within Yorkshire Ambulance Service which was as an Assistant Director of Operations, and that’s the job I actually secured 2 years ago in April 2010 and I’ve had a very privileged position in terms of being able to go out with our ambulance crew, seeing the complex care that they deliver to our patients in the sort of very vulnerable settings at times; I got this job as a Senior Service Improvement Manager last September and that was following a re-organisation. I found that I have a wide range of skills and because I’ve worked with acute settings in the community and GP practices, it has been really beneﬁcial for me in this role because it is very much around pathway development

or dealing with efficiency issues with hospitals that impact on our ambulance staff, that’s what a lot of this role is about. In order to get to where I am, the most important thing in terms of my career development has been my personal drive to do well, I remember when one of my children was only five years old and I started my Masters degree at Huddersfield, so there was a lot of personal commitment in wanting to do better and achieve better. I think part of that drive has been an internal, but also I want to be a good role model for my children; I want to show them that as Asians they can do well and how you can actually expand your career using basic skills. So there’s a world of opportunities out there but you need to know where to look and how to find them. I think part of my success is my drive to do really well in the job, so I have to understand my objectives, what my contribution is, how I’m still able to impact on patient care and how I translate that into actions with the people that I’m managing. I think for me, I have certain principles that cannot be compromised and these are around fairness, transparency and what I do, which I feel are necessary in order to operate in an honest way.

I probably went through some personal challenges whilst progressing with my career as well, partly because of the way I look. I went to pilgrimage in 1997 and decided I was going to wear my hijab and it was then that I got into management. When I had my interview I wasn’t wearing my hijab and I told them then that when I come back I will be wearing a scarf and therefore I will look different. So I’ve always worn a hijab in my managerial role. I think some of the challenges are that people see me as an Asian woman, and automatically assume that either I might be an expert witness on some things, I’ve accompanied a health visitor to court once and they assumed I was the expert witness but I was there in a managerial capacity. I think I’ve been quite lucky in the sense I’ve not faced too many challenges from a work environment. I’ve felt managers have responded very well to me as have the people I’ve been managing so I have been quite lucky; but I personally also believe part of it is my view on life. I deﬁnitely view the world in a positive light, there’s far more good out there and I’m always looking out for good things in people and in situations-and I would like to think my positivity, inﬂuences people I work with and sort of helps to motivate them.

If anybody wanted to aspire to be a Director I would say go for it because anything is possible. However, if you want it then you’re going to have to work for it. This might be about you sitting and considering what your skills/knowledge deficit may be or where you can go to get those skills needed or who you need to speak to as well as who could help. There are lots of people out there and never be frightened to ring people because people in senior positions always welcome that they might have been identified as a potential contact . Coaching was also helpful for me, and my coach from the SHA was very useful even though sometimes it’s just been a telephone conversation that I’ve had with this individual when I might have been struggling with something-and it’s not to say that as a leader that there won’t be times where you need help; so it’s about knowing what support you need and when you need it and who is that person that you can just ring and say I need help on this please. And look out for opportunities, because they helped me along the way, programmes such as ‘Beacon Leadership & Development Course’, as well as ‘Breaking Through’ conferences for networking. I think the NHS landscape is changing really rapidly but within the next five years I would

still like to be part of the NHS and still be able to inﬂuence patient care in some form. In terms of ‘what next’ for me, I’m not really 100% sure in terms of my next career move but what I am 100% clear on is I’m happy with what I’ve got in terms of my work life balance. My work is extremely interesting and I want to be able to use my position within the organisation to talk to other BME staff to say how you can be really good in your role, how you can inﬂuence patient care, how you can really make a difference and you know there are opportunities still out there. So I think that’s where my niche is, it’s about me helping and motivating others.

A good leader is somebody who: •

Has self-belief

•

Is visionary in their approach

•

Can spot, develop and nurture talented individuals

•

Has passion

•

Has personal drive

•

Is ambitious

Appendix: Roadmap Resources National NHS Resources The NHS Leadership Academy brings together for the ﬁrst time all the national activity supporting leadership development in health and NHS funded services. The principal purpose of the Academy is to develop outstanding leadership in health, with a continual focus on improving patients' experiences and their health outcomes. You can self- assess your own leadership behaviours against the NHS Leadership Framework model free of charge. You can also ﬁnd lots of resources and also think about undergoing a 360-degree feedback exercise as part of your development. Visit the NHS Academy website for more information. www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk

Two personal and organisational change models for leaders ADKAR – (awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement) applies to both personal and organisational changes you want to make and an internet search will give you lots of websites and resources with more information. The NHS Institute website is a great resource and you can ﬁnd information about Leading

Large Scale Change at www.institute.nhs.uk This model includes a focus on the need to engage the hearts and minds of all those important to any change.

A selection of accessible and practical books for leaders The Thinking Environment offers a model of human interaction to improve the way people think and thus the way they work and live. Researched and written by Nancy Klein over many years, it suggests that the most important act of any leader is to help people think for themselves. It also challenges each of us to really think for ourselves too. www.timetothink.com/us Taming your Gremlins is a practical and engaging take on how we create our own gremlins of ‘self-defeating behaviours and beliefs’ and more importantly what we can do to tame them www.tamingyourgremlin.com The 18 Challenges of Leadership is a useful blend of insightful theory and practical actions for leaders. The book addresses the 18 most common challenges experienced by people in leadership roles and suggests frameworks, exercises, self assessments etc to help with each of them. It is written by Trevor Waldock,

Shenaz Kelly-Rawat, published by Prentiss Hall Business. David Allen’s book Getting Things Done provides an easy to read but provoking ‘manual’ on just about every aspect of professional life that either helps or hinders us to ‘get our stuff done’. www.davidco.com

A few selected leadership models Situational Leadership Ken Blanchard has developed a number of practical models, tools and resources for leaders over a lifetime of work. In particular, Situational Leadership offers a simple but profoundly helpful model of leadership practice that begins with what is most needed and most helpful for the ‘follower’ and argues that leadership is, ﬁrst and foremost, about understanding what followers need and adapting our behaviour to suit. www.kenblanchard.com

Factor 8 Factor 8 is a leadership model developed by The Diversity Practice that helped inform the Yorkshire-Humber work of Innov8: Leading differently for better

healthcare. It offers a contemporary understanding of leaders and leadership that supports many of the personal stories found in this Different Leaders role model project. http://diversitypractice.com

Ethical Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership has its origins in the late 1970’s and emphasises the act of leadership as a collaborative & social act that has less to do with formal authority, instructions and ‘orders’ and more to do with co-creating outcomes that matter to everyone involved regardless of their ‘authority ’. There are lots of resources to be found on the internet but in Yorkshire-Humber, The Real World Group has been involved in many innovative research projects looking at the application of transformational leadership to achieving measurable beneﬁts to health outcomes www.realworld-group.com

A selection of website resources

The road ahead

The following are a ‘starter for 10’ on websites to visit and we hope you will share your favourites in return:

The NHS faces some big leadership challenges on the road ahead and Innov8 asserts that we need all our talented leaders to rise to these challenges. If you have found this booklet useful, please take time to ﬁnd out more about the development opportunities available and think how you could support someone else in their leadership journey too.

• The Kings Fund - www.kingsfund.org.uk • The International Journal of Leadership in Public Service www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/ journals.htm?id=ijlps

• The Prince’s Trust Leadership Group in Yorkshire www.princes-trust.org.uk/support_us/ industry_leadership_groups/yorkshire.aspx

• Women’s Leadership; Public Service and Global Health womeninpublicservice.org/institutes/womensleadership-public-service-and-global-health/

• Business in the Community www.bitc.org.uk/about_bitc/leadership_at_bit c/index.html

leading differently for better healthcare