Programme Structure

The ‘Taking the Lead’ programme is structured as follows:

Module 1: The Leader with the Team

Good teamwork doesn’t happen by chance. All team members, including the leader, need to be conscious and intentional about how they create and maintain the kind of interactions that are beneficial for the team and support success.

Thinking about the team as a ‘relationship system’ you’ll gain different perspectives on how teams communicate, manage challenges, motivate themselves and work together to create positive, adaptable, inclusive and resilient team cultures.

Whether you have a post of leadership responsibility or not, you will be developing your leadership skills and embracing your potential as a hub of influence in your team. 

Module 2: Communicating with Confidence, Assertiveness and Personal Authority

Whether you have formal leadership responsibility or not, you will have a professional relationship network to manage – with junior colleagues, peers, and more senior managers and clinicians in your own team and in your Trust.

Communication is the single most important element in any relationship. Being able to express what is important to you clearly and confidently and respond to the needs of others without coming across as rude, tough or unfeeling, is key to effective interpersonal relationships.

We’ll be looking at some typical situations requiring assertiveness and practising skills for communication that is both honest and compassionate.

Module 3: Sustainable Practice

Are you sometimes getting in your own way when it comes to doing what you want to do and being how you want to be, in your professional and your personal life?  In this interactive programme we’ll be taking a holistic view of TM – from dealing with your own personal top time-wasters to TM from a leadership / management perspective.

We’ll be exploring the impact of personal drivers, assertiveness, appropriate delegation, and motivation on effective time management.  Equally important, we’ll also be looking at the relationship between good time-management and well-being – yours, and that of those around you.  

You’ll come away with ideas and practical tools to enhance your personal effectiveness as a leader at work, and in your own life.

Module 4: Challenging Situations and Difficult Conversations

After years of intense effort and commitment to acquire the skills and expertise you need in your field, it can come as a surprise to find that the knowledge you have acquired is now only one aspect of your professional role. 

While you may be used to managing difficult conversations with patients, difficult interactions with colleagues may feel more challenging; they can trigger a range of emotions, and occupy thoughts and feelings for several days, damaging energy levels and undermining the sense of well-being and enjoyment at work.

This interactive programme offers frameworks for structuring potentially difficult conversations diffusing tension, accessing new solutions to previously intractable problems and building good relationships across your professional network.

Module 5: Your Voice of Influence

Approaches to leadership are changing … More than ever, conducting influential conversations is a key leadership skill.

In this module you’ll be identifying ways in which you already use your influence positively and exploring new approaches to developing your influencing skills still further. We’ll be looking at the ethics of positive influencing and the importance of aligning personal, professional, and organisational values.  We’ll also be thinking about how to create an ‘influencing mind-set’, and ways in which you can influence for change.

Most importantly, we’ll be thinking about influencing as an everyday activity – based on connection with others and solid relationships, built on trust and respect – influencing which is a source of motivation and inspiration. 

Module 6: The Leader and the Team: Thriving in Change and Uncertainty

In this module we’ll be looking at change as a process of learning and adapting, often at the very edge of what is known and comfortable. We’ll be looking at your role as a change agent, working collaboratively and getting buy-in through mini-change plans which build confidence, move the team forward, and create a momentum for change.

As always, we’ll be thinking about your communication as a leader, within the team and within your broader professional network,

We’ll be exploring ways in which the team can work together during periods of transition to promote wellbeing through positive relationships, mutual support, a sense of shared purpose and personal engagement.

Action Learning Sets

The two Action Learning Set (ALS) meetings are a key component of the ‘Taking the Lead’ programme. They provide a supportive learning environment and a safe, confidential, and impartial space, in which to think and to talk through complex issues or challenges, with a set facilitator to help manage the process.

Based on a positive, constructive approach, ALSs offer a clear structure which can open up opportunities for different, and often more creative ways of thinking and problem-solving than discussion formats. 

Having had this introduction to the ALS process, members may decide to continue as self-governing groups after the programme finishes, or set up new sets in their local area. 

Benefits reported by participants:

– a more ‘structured’ way of problem-solving
– a way of relating to, and communicating with others more effectively
– increased self-confidence and awareness
– greater readiness to assume responsibility and take forward initiatives

Participants will receive a Resource Pack to accompany each module and webinar.

Programme

Please click the link below for more information.

Taking the Lead Programme outline – 2024/25