Like innumerable other emergency departments (ED) in the UK, Leicester faced difficulties with recruitment and retention of medical staff at all levels.

What did we do?

The delivery of international recruitment by a core team concentrating on processes of recruitment, support, training and integration of this staff group into the workforce and the retention of junior grade doctors (with time growing our own future middle grade/senior workforce), including constantly reviewing practice for improvements to ensure patient safety and staff satisfaction.

http://www.fabnhsstuff.net/2016/04/16/lead-leicester-emergency-advancement-development-international-training/

In this guest post, Nigel Dessau, founder of The 3 Minute Mentor, explains why you should take a proper vacation – getting some quality time away from the workplace can help you to reduce stress and improve your productivity.

https://www.mindtools.com/blog/2016/04/18/5-steps-to-a-better-vacation/

Your dream comes to an abrupt end with the alarm clock’s screech, and your heart sinks. You have a long commute to face, but that’s not all. At least eight hours stretch ahead with a manager who cares nothing for you or your co-workers. All she’s interested in is results, results, results. As she said yesterday, “We’re not here to have fun!”

If this scenario sounds familiar, you’ll know all about the “Produce or Perish” style of management. This gruesomely but accurately named approach is rarely appropriate and is often counterproductive.

After all, if you’re treated callously or with suspicion, you might feel resentful or afraid in response. Then your behaviour arouses further concerns for your manager, who “ups the ante” and tightens his grip further. Together, you can get locked in a negative cycle – and you certainly won’t be productive…

https://www.mindtools.com/blog/2016/04/15/not-here-have-fun/

Leaders of world-changing movements, from social leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. to business leaders such as Steve Jobs, persuade people to follow them into the unknown, the unpredictable, and the untested. Because change is both scary and difficult, they also help those followers push through their fears and overcome big obstacles. I wanted to see if there was a method to that magic, since it’s so critical for organizations to keep innovating and reinventing if they want to survive over the long term. (Many companies, including my own, have learned this the hard way as core products and services have matured beyond their sell-by date.) So my colleague and I studied the most successful movements in business and society to look for common patterns.

https://hbr.org/2016/03/successful-movements-all-have-3-acts

When you last applied for a job, what was it that attracted you to the role? Was it simply the salary and perks, or did the company offer something more?

The paycheck is the deciding factor for some people. Others want to feel fulfilled by their roles, and to work for an organization that shares their values. So, how can you meet the needs of these more demanding candidates, so that you can attract the best people? And how can you keep them on board and engaged for the long term?

One way to do this is with DREAMS – a model for creating authentic organizations and for helping people to be their very best.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/goffee-jones-dreams.htm

No one intends for their communication to be a burden; it’s not like people leave voicemails with the express purpose of distracting you from your most important work. And yet far too often that’s the result. You receive their missives with dread because each one entails more time expended and new obligations that you’ve been dragooned into.

If you have colleagues that are needlessly demanding too much of your time, here are four strategies you can use to deflect — politely — the entreaties of the less productive.

https://hbr.org/2016/03/fending-off-a-colleague-who-keeps-wasting-your-time

Despite the initial reactions of dislike, discomfort, annoyance, and resistance to opposition, successful leaders and healthy teams know that disagreement and differing viewpoints are necessary for good decisions and productive teams. When you separate the behaviour from the person, notice and manage your own reactions, and take explicit steps to encourage and reward opposition, you will be moving toward building stronger teams and running your business more effectively.

https://hbr.org/2016/03/how-to-handle-the-naysayer-on-your-team

This case study examines the experience of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS foundation trust who commissioned the development of a staff engagement tool. The survey tool is based on the NHS national staff survey questions and sits alongside a number of exploratory questions. They are sent to staff every quarter to assess morale and engagement. The case study provides more information on the tool and its uses, how the trust communicates with staff and the results that have been achieved so far.

Case study

http://kingsfund.blogs.com/health_management/2016/04/enhancing-staff-engagement-and-patient-care-through-the-go-engage-survey-tool.html

What would it be like if clinicians, administrators, clinical support staff, the people who come into contact with patients every day, were able to do great things for the people they serve in an environment where doing the right thing, every time, was made easy by the organisations for whom they work?

What if excellence was routine because of, rather than in spite of the organisation?

What do organisations need to do differently to let the fab stuff and the fab ideas done or created by their staff grow and flourish?

http://www.fabnhsstuff.net/2016/03/04/self-managed-teams/

Ever watch a professional football game on television? The head coach paces back and forth along the sidelines, delivering plays, processing information he receives through his headset from other coaches, and patting players on the back in recognition of their hard work.

Through it all, the coach is at the center of a vigorous tornado of activity. He never loses sight of what’s happening on the field. He’s always ready to throw the challenge flag to dispute a referee’s call or make the decision to go for it on fourth down. A good head coach conveys such an impression of involvement with each play that we wouldn’t be surprised to see him put on the pads and head out on to the field himself.

For coaches and their players, teamwork is much more than a metaphor: it’s their entire philosophy. But the coach’s role is to lead the team from the sidelines. Coaches can’t step onto the field. The boundaries are defined.

But if you want to be a leader who truly inspires, you can’t be content to stay on the sidelines. You’ll need to maintain a strong leadership role while interacting with your team members. If you’re on the sidelines, bellowing out orders while your team does all the heavy lifting, you’re not going to experience the unity that comes from a leader actively engaging in the task…

https://www.mindtools.com/blog/2016/04/05/leaders-into-the-game/