The NHS sets leaders up to fail – and then recruits more in the same mould

The NHS sets leaders up to fail – and then recruits more in the same mould People being hired in management positions don’t have the skills to tackle the health service’s current problems

It’s my job to support and develop senior NHS managers. And I’m deeply worried that we’re setting them up to fail – then recruiting more in the same mould.

I’m a former primary care trust director; I now work as an executive coach, helping NHS executives to improve their skills. Many of my clients lead trusts whose leadership has been deemed “inadequate” or “requires improvement” by the Care Quality Commission – but few of them are genuinely bad leaders. The problem is that they were hired to do one job, and the requirement is now for something quite different. Yet they’re not being helped to change their approach, and when their trusts run into trouble they are being replaced with people likely to encounter exactly the same set of problems.

The characteristics once seen as assets have become liabilities Continue reading... The Guardian