Heroes Not Zombies

The current set of concepts being used to organise health care prioritise a certain reductionist view and assume the ability to predict outcomes of actions – as if health and health care were linear systems (hint – they’re not! They are complex and non-linear). One of the consequences of this way of thinking is to break professional roles down to a series of tasks. Once a simple task is examined, it is usually possible to argue that only a little training and knowledge is required to carry out that task (just the skills and knowledge required for this particular task). What we lose sight of, is a person-level perspective, and hence a professional one.

Let’s consider one type of health care professional. A doctor. What is a doctor? What’s a doctor’s role? Actually,that’s not so easy to answer, but if you read “Tomorrow’s Doctors” by the General Medical Council, which is their attempt to describe what a doctor should be able to do, you’ll find a strong emphasis on leadership.

So, it was interesting to come across the concept of “humble leadership” which is beginning to attract attention.

In the midst of spectacular failures of the “superman” type of leader in the financial, corporate and political sectors, people are beginning to question the wisdom of seeking such charismatic but frequently arrogant individuals whose main strength seems to be the conviction of the rightness of their own decisions.

So what is a humble leader? Leadership humility…

generally involves how leaders tend to view themselves (more objectively), others (more appreciatively), and new information or ideas (more openly) 

And

The humble leader behaviors we identified (e.g. acknowledging mistakes, spotlighting follower strengths, modeling teachability) as well as the mechanisms (e.g. legitimization of uncertainty and personal development) were often described as directly challenging the more popular top-down conceptions of leadership.

As doctors are expected to be able to handle complexity and uncertainty, it would seem that humble leadership skills might be highly relevant. Wouldn’t you like your doctors to observe themselves more objectively, you and their colleagues appreciatively, and to be continuously open to new information and ideas?

Such a shift to humble leadership could completely change the doctor-patient relationship for the better. It is a much more appropriate way to deal with the reality of the complexity and uncertainty which is characteristic of human health and disease.

The researchers who are studying leadership humility identify two key characteristics or qualities – competence and sincerity.

Hard to argue with that!