The quality of leadership can make the single biggest difference as to whether organisations are high performing or not. Leadership is especially crucial to organisations during times of unprecedented change, much like the kind the NHS is currently experiencing. The current period of transition in the NHS places intense pressure on all staff to develop, transform and improve the way that health and social care is delivered.  
 
It is important to highlight that the concept of leadership should not be restricted to those in positional leadership roles. Leadership can come from all levels of an organisation and should be seen as a shared responsibility. Everyone can contribute to the leadership process whether it's through the decisions they make on an everyday basis or through the type of example they set to others.

"Outstanding leadership needs to be developed at all levels of the NHS, with clinical and non-clinical staff, to meet new challenges and ultimately to improve patient care."

There is therefore a clear challenge for the NHS: outstanding leadership needs to be developed at all levels of the NHS, with clinical and non-clinical staff, to meet new challenges and ultimately to improve patient care. To help achieve this, the secretary of state for health launched a new leadership framework earlier this year. In support of the leadership framework, we have been working with the NHS Leadership Academy[1] to design a new 360° feedback tool to help staff manage their personal leadership development.  
 
Participants choose around 10 people to rate their leadership behaviours – normally consisting of their line manager, peers and direct reports. The choice of raters in any particular case will tend to include those who have had regular enough contact with them to be able to observe and assess their behaviour at work. Because each 'rater' offers a different perspective on the participant's leadership behaviours, the tool provides a rounded picture of their leadership strengths and development areas.
 
360° feedback is a practical yet powerful tool which can help an individual understand the impact their behaviour has on others. The online format of the NHS 360° tool is helpful as it allows individuals to initiate and manage their own feedback process, giving them ownership and control of their development. Once they have completed the tool, the participant then works with a fully trained NHS feedback facilitator to interpret the report, decide what their development priorities are and begin to draw up an action plan.
 
There is no restriction on staff who want to undertake the 360° assessment. However, the tool is primarily designed to support staff working across teams and departments, responsible for taking decisions that impact on the wider service. In addition to the 360° tool, there is a self assessment tool available for anyone else in health and care service to use to manage their own self development. This can be downloaded here.
 
Feedback from those who have used the 360° feedback tool shows that participants tend to feel they are more self-aware and have more self-belief. It even gave many of them a significant confidence boost as they discovered leadership skills they weren't aware of, which left them feeling better qualified to encourage team working and collaboration.

One of the aims of the 360° tool is for it to introduce a consistent 'leadership language' across the NHS and help individuals identify where their strengths and development needs lie in line with the new leadership framework. Statistical research will be conducted annually to provide the Leadership Academy with information on the local and national profiles of leadership capacity and capability. In time, the data collected by the tool will allow individuals to compare their leadership ability against other NHS leaders, helping to set a clear benchmark for leadership standards across the NHS. In this way the tool is the beginning of the much bigger and critical process of building a sustainable pipeline of leadership talent throughout the NHS.
 
 
 
Pippa Cronk is senior consultant at Right Management
 
[1] The secretary of state, Andrew Lansley, announced on July 5 2011 that a new NHS Leadership Academy would be created. The Leadership Directorate team of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement is working with the workstreams of the National Leadership Council to create this new body, which is due to be in shadow form in late 2011.