Foreword by Dr. Graham Dickson
In the past few years, leadership development in the health
sector in Canada has been recognized by provincial and national organizations alike as vital to the future of the Canadian
health system. Canada’s health system is undergoing, and will undergo dramatic
transformation as it attempts to respond to the demands for financial sustainability, shifts in demographics leading to a
greater demand of its services by an aging population, integration of technological advances into service delivery, and public
expectations for service. There is no factor more important in leading the needed
changes than quality leadership—and leadership can be developed, nurtured, and grown through deliberate action. That is the responsibility of all individuals in the health system wishing to help
shape the health systems future, rather than simply inherit it. My vision is
that leadership development becomes a social good: that is, available to all who aspire to exercise leadership to create a
sustainable, universal health system for our children.
For this reason a number of national organizations and provincial
jurisdictions have endorsed the LEADS in a Caring Environment capabilities framework
as a guide to the qualities of leadership that are needed to lead change in the health sector in Canada. LEADS is a set of standards, and expectations, that define effective
health leadership. As a consequence, the Canadian Health Leadership Network (a
coalition of over 30 provincial and national organizations), the Canadian College of Health Leaders (a professional body dedicated
to developing and credentialing health leaders), and the Health Care Leaders Association of BC (HCLABC) have partnered in
endorsing the LEADS framework as a guide to leadership development and succession
planning. This group of organizations have worked together to support the responsibility
of developing materials, tools, products and instruments that can be used in a disciplined way to facilitate high quality
leadership development around the capabilities within the LEADS in a Caring Environment
framework.
This resource— Tri-namics™:
Leadership Wisdom for Healthcare—is a tool outlining a process of development that encourages leaders to Lead Self
and Engage Others (the L, E in LEADS) and operationalizes the power of coaching as a developmental process.
Daniel Goleman, in his book Primal Leadership, identifies the coaching style
of leadership as one of four constructive styles that it is important a leader develop to be effective in modern organizations.
Tri-namics™ provides a disciplined process to develop
coaching skills and encourages developmental activities to grow and develop all LEADS
capabilities. Its purpose is to integrate developmental opportunities into the
workplace and give people a regimen for ongoing practice of important leadership and coaching skills. As a consequence, I, and the organizations I work with, have been extremely privileged to work with the
creators of Tri-namics™ in putting together this custom resource dedicated to developing the capabilities of the LEADS in a Caring Environment Framework.
In this resource the authors have taken the behaviours that
are utilized in the LEADS in a Caring Environment 360 assessment tool and mapped
each capability to a set of exercises that can be used to stimulate leadership development.
These exercises are also aligned with the content of the five LEADS in a Caring
Environment resource booklets, connecting the research that underpins the framework with the developmental exercises within
Tri-namics™: Leadership Wisdom for Healthcare.
Tri-namics™:
Leadership Wisdom for Healthcare can be used
in multitudes of ways.
It can be used for self development, to share thoughts with
a mentor, peer coaching to enhance skills and critical thinking, explore activities with a coach, a support for teaching,
or as part of the debrief and action following a LEADS 360 assessment. It can be used to develop individuals within a team, be used in a workshop or program, or as a resource for activities to provide interactive coaching
opportunities to extend and sustain learning.
Tri-namics™ can be used by leaders in both informal as well as formal roles. For informal leaders, it provides a disciplined process to develop the skills they deem to be important
to be more effective in their ‘activist’ role. For formal leaders,
Tri-namics™ provides activities for leadership and coaching that are aligned with the LEADS 360 behaviours for each of four levels: front-line supervisor,
mid-manager, senior leader, and executive. Tri-namics™ provides opportunities for leaders to explore to the level
they are and beyond; to build their capabilities and heighten their awareness.
The LEADS enterprise is privileged to have the opportunity to make this resource
available to all individuals in Canada and beyond, who are dedicated to developing the capabilities of the LEADS in a Caring Environment framework. It is one of many tools
that both embody the spirit of LEADS in the processes of development it employs,
as well as providing a practical discipline for growth and development. Many
thanks to the authors—Debbie Payne and Erna Hagge—for bringing this resource to health leaders in Canada.
Yours sincerely
Graham Dickson, PhD
Bio: Graham Dickson was the Principal Investigator
in the research that led to the development of the LEADS in a Caring Environment Leadership
Capabilities Framework. He has continued to work with the Canadian Health
Leadership Network (CHLNet) that is comprised of over 30 national and provincial agencies across Canada, the Health Care Leaders
Association of BC, and with the Canadian College of Health Leaders to support initiatives in LEADS-based leadership development
and succession planning. Graham is former Director of the Centre for Health Leadership and Research and Professor of Leadership
in the Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences. Graham teaches in the Canadian Medical Association’s Physician Management
Institute, the International Foundation’s Advanced Trustee Management Seminar, and is affiliated with the World Federation
of Medical Managers. He continues to work with Royal Roads University since retiring,
in the role of Principal Investigator in a national research project looking at leadership for change in Canada’s health
system. Dr. Dickson has articles and chapters on leadership in health published
in Canada, Europe, and Scotland.