Compassionate Leadership
The Kings Fund defines ‘compassionate and inclusive leadership’ as:
“Compassionate leadership builds connection across boundaries, ensuring that the voices of all are heard in the process of delivering and improving care. In order to nurture a culture of compassion, organisations require their leaders – as the carriers of culture – to embody compassion and inclusion in their leadership.
Where leaders model a commitment to high-quality and compassionate care, this impacts everything from clinical effectiveness and patient safety to staff health, wellbeing and engagement”.
Compassionate and inclusive leadership | The King’s Fund (kingsfund.org.uk)
Videos:
Michael West: Compassionate and inclusive leadership | 25 October 2019
Michael West – Compassionate & Collective Leadership for High Quality Health Care | 26 March 2018
Simon Sinek | Empathy | 21 September 2017
Great leadership comes down to only two rules | Peter Anderton | TEDxDerby | 25 July 2016
Further reading:
Leading with Compassion, A ‘How to’ guide for all NHS organisations
Five myths of compassionate leadership | 28 May 2019
Compassion: your greatest leadership contribution? | Blog | Suzie Bailey | 25 February 2019
5 myths about compassionate leadership
Read the following article to learn more about compassionate leadership in the NHS.
Coaching and Mentoring (leadership academy)
“As part of our commitment to develop leaders at all levels we have created an integrated Coaching and Mentoring scheme to enhance a leader’s journey through the system.”
Coaching and Mentoring
Listening Skills
Listening is one of the key skills of a coach. Here you’ll find advice and guidance on how to listen with intent to understand.
Listening is one of the key skills of a coach. Here you’ll find advice and guidance on how to listen with intent to understand.
What is listening?
- Give one’s attention to a sound
- Make an effort to hear something
- To hear something with thoughtful attention
- To be alert to catch an unexpected sound
Types of listening
There are many listening models, the below is based on Stephen Coveys ‘Listening Continuum’ which you can read in ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. Covey says that our efforts to develop communication skills are focussed on reading, writing and speaking – think what happens in schools and little to no effort on developing skills to hear anothers perspective. What he said was; When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it’s like giving them emotional oxygen. He identifies 5 levels:
- Level 1 Ignoring If you have ever been ignored there is no doubt about it. You are talking but the other person is not giving any attention to what you are saying. Think – talking to someone who is also texting…..
- Level 2 Pretend Listening To truly hear someone takes time and attention. Pretend listeners give you the impression they hear what you say, and they may hear some of your words, but they are not “present.” They may nod their head or offer another gesture to indicate they are listening, but they are not giving you their full attention. If you are thinking what to say next you are not listening, if you have not lifted your gaze from your monitor, phone screen or TV you are not listening.
- Level 3 Selective Listening The person who listens selectively only wants part of the message, but not all. They are probably the person who says, “So, what’s your point? “They are quick to interrupt the person who is speaking or they have the tendency to finish the other person’s sentences.
- Level 4 – Attentive Listening Attentive listeners offer their time and attention. But they are one step short of being empathic listeners because attentive listeners hear from their frame of reference. They don’t try to put themselves in the other person’s shoes. These are the listeners that say ‘yes, I have experienced the same’ – in short they have not, no experiences are the same and this confirms they are listening with their frame of reference.
- Level 5 – Empathic Listening Empathic listening is intentional. The person who develop this skill listens not only to the other person’s words, they listen for what the other person means. They are willing to give their time AND full attention to truly hear the other person.
“To truly listen means to transcend your autobiography, to get out of your own frame of reference, out of your own value system, out of your own history and judging tendencies, and to get deeply into the frame of reference or viewpoint of another person. This is called empathic listening. It is a very, very rare skill. But it is more than a skill. Much more.”
Empathic Listening is essential to effective communication. Another frequently discussed section of the book is Habit 5 (“First Seek to Understand…” ) found within a chapter appropriately enough entitled “Principles of Empathic Listening.” Covey emphasises the importance, the power, and in some situations the necessity of not merely going through the mechanical responses that might be required for ordinary listening, but opening oneself to the talker to the point where one can actually feel what they are feeling.
Covey, as others, believes that the only way to establish communication in some professional and personal situations is by becoming, in small part, the person you are listening to. He uses the words “sensing” (others call it “intuition”) to describe the information a listener can perceive through deep, empathic listening. The experience Covey describes, standing for a moment in another’s shoes and seeing the world through their eyes, is something everyone is capable of, but most of us rarely (if ever) deliberately do. Covey notes that it takes time to listen empathically and practice to become adept at it, but the reward is a whole new level of communication and problem solving because a person acquires the ability to see a situation simultaneously from multiple points of view.
Coaching Models
Coaching can offer powerful insights for people, whether it’s workplace or life coaching. John Whitmore describes coaching as “unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them” (Coaching for Performance).
Here you’ll find a number of useful coaching models, which can be used during 121’s, appraisals and career conversations.
1. GROW Model
The GROW Model is a framework used in coaching and everyday leadership. GROW was created by Sir John Whitmore in the late 1980s and is one of the most popular coaching models for problem solving, goal setting and performance improvement.
The GROW model assumes that the coach is not an expert in the clients situation. This means that the coach must act as a facilitator helping the client select the best options and not offering advice or direction.
It is more powerful for people to draw conclusions for themselves rather than having these conclusions thrust upon them.
A good way of thinking about the GROW Model is to think about how you’d plan a journey. First, you decide where you are going (the goal), and establish where you currently are (your current reality). You then explore various routes (the options) to your destination. In the final step, establishing the will, you ensure that you’re committed to making the journey, and are prepared for the obstacles that you could meet on the way.
Goal: Goal setting for the session as well as for the short and long term
The Goal section of GROW is addressed at the beginning of each session and referred to again from time to time to keep the focus moving forward, especially if the coachee becomes stuck. Identifying what we want to achieve puts us on the path to accomplishing it by focusing on the solution rather than the problem.
Reality: Reality checking to explore the current situation
This is an exploration of the coachee’s world at the moment. Time spent here helps people get clear about what is happening and how it affects themselves and others. It provides an opportunity for viewing issues from different perspectives.
Options: Options and alternative strategies, or course of actions
Coachees will move naturally towards the Options stage as their Reality becomes clearer. Often they show a new energy by sitting up and smiling, or a lighter tone of voice.
Will: What is to be done, when and by whom and the will to do it
‘Will’ covers what action coachees will take. It is called ‘Will’ rather than ‘Action’ to stress that we must ensure that the action is one the coachee can really commit to.
Videos:
The GROW Model – MindToolsVideos, 2019
The Grow Model in Action, South West Coaching Ltd, 2012
2. CLEAR Model
The CLEAR Model offers a different perspective to GROW, and offers slightly different elements to focus on. This model demonstrates the importance of contracting in coaching, this helps us to really understand the drive for coaching.
Contracting: Facts and patterns of behaviour
Listening: Behaviours and feelings
Explore: Feelings and assumptions
Action: Feelings, assumptions and behaviours
Review: Facts, behaviours, feelings and assumptions
Videos:
CLEAR Coaching Conversation Mode, Jo Wheatley and Zoe Hawkins, 2020
CLEAR model of Coaching, University of Manchester, 2017
3. OSKAR Model
Originating from the Solutions Focused Approach the OSKAR coaching model is a powerful framework to help your coaching sessions focus on solutions rather than problems. Here is a brief description of the different stages (adapted from ‘The Solutions Focus’ by Paul Z Jackson and Mark McKergow).
The five stages of OSKAR
- Outcome
- Scaling
- Know-How
- Affirm & Action
- Review
Outcome
- what your coachee wants to achieve – this may be in the long, medium and short term
- what they want to achieve from the session itself and how they will know it has been useful to them
- the ‘future perfect’ in other words the perfect scenario desired by your coachee. At this point you might want to ask the miracle question which really helps the coachee strongly visualise and in detail their desired outcome.
Scaling
Once your coachee has a clear picture of their desired outcome you can then establish where they are already in relation to this. Using Scaling Techniques are a very good way of helping to quantifying this.
e.g. On a scale of 1 – 10, where 1 represents x and 10 represents y, where are you in relation to this goal.
Know How
- What skills/knowledge/attributes do you currently have that will help you?
- When have you done this/something similar before?
- What would others say is working for you?
This stage really is about ‘digging for gold’ and plenty of time should be taken to establish the resources your coachee has available to them.
Affirm & Action
Affirming – this is about providing positive reinforcement of what you have heard…reflecting back positive comments about some of the keys strengths and attributes your coachee has revealed e.g. I am impressed with the knowledge you have in this are?’ or it’s evident from what you have just said that this is working for you
Action – this is about helping your coachee determine what small action or actions they will now take.
Review
This final stage of the OSKAR coaching model is for reviewing progress against actions and is therefore most likely to take place at the beginning of the next coaching session. The emphasis is on reviewing the positives:
- what is better?
- What did you do that made change successful?
- What do you think will change next?
(Personal Coaching Information, 2021)
Videos:
OSKAR Coaching Model, Jo Wheatley and Zoe Hawkins, 2021
4. PRO Model
Devised by Penny Tompkins and James Lawley, the PRO Model focusses on how we distinguish between a problem, remedy or outcome.
Advantages of outcome-orientation
Over the years Tompkins and Lawley have asked participants for their top three reasons for working with a client’s desired outcome. So far, they have identified over 20 different reasons. The following head the list:
- By accessing the desired outcome state, the client’s relationship with their problem may well change and they can access greater creativity and resources.
- You and the client will know what they want to achieve and that keeps you both on track.
- Often just finding out more about the desired outcome is enough for the client to make the changes they want, and no exploration of the problem and its causes is needed.
How to recognise a problem
Like it or not, problems motivate us. Actually it is not the problem itself that motivates, but the unpleasant feelings or effects that accompany a problem.
Features of a problem statement:
- A dislike for the current or a future situation is stated or implied.
- It does not contain any words of desire, e.g. want, need, would like.
How to recognise a remedy
A remedy is a means of counteracting or eliminating something undesirable. If you listen carefully, most proposed remedies describe (in metaphor) how they expect the problem to be solved.
But a proposed remedy does not describe what the situation will be like after the remedy has been applied. A remedy eliminates the problem but it does not set a direction for action once the remedy has been successfully applied.
Features of a remedy statement:
- Has not yet happened.
- Contains a description of the problem.
- Contains a desire (e.g. want, need, would like) for the problem to not exist or to be reduced.
How to recognise a desired outcome
Desired outcomes describe how the world will be when the coachee has what they want. They differ from remedies because they are not a solution to a problem.
Features of a desired outcome statement:
- Has not yet happened.
- Contains a desire, want, need or would like, for a new situation, state or behaviour.
- Does not contain any reference to a problem (even though you may think you can guess what the problem is).
5. Cartesian Coordinates (also known as ‘Cartesian Logic’)
This model helps you to delve beyond the conscious into the subconscious to explore thoughts and beliefs linked to a coachees goal. The questions are designed to be tougher as you move through the model.
As you work through this model, you’ll find that it forces you to think creatively, provides clarity and helps you to gain different perspectives.
Example of how to use Cartesian Coordinates below:
| Q1: What would happen if you do make that change? “What WOULD happen if my inner critic DID go on vacation?”I would feel wonderful! I might have fun!!! I might get to play! I might get TONS done – because I would be enjoying myself! I would see more of my friends! I would feel light. I would be HAPPY!! Relief! Joy! This is who I want to be!!! My kind, wise self would be in charge!I WOULD HAVE FUN DOING MY WORK! I love my job but I never get to enjoy it because I’m always so busy trying to do more, beating myself up, haranguing myself, trying to cover up my feelings of worthlessness.I might also be more spontaneous & free. Doing what I WANT to do work-wise (ie. What I feel like in the moment), rather than driving and pushing and beating myself up with SHOULDs. | Q2: What would happen if you did not make that change? “What WOULD happen if my inner critic DIDN’T go on vacation?”Well, it’s going to be an unpleasant month. I’m going to feel driven, like I HAVE to do stuff. It’s not going to be fun. I’ll be guided by my shoulds, needs & musts instead of enjoying my work. Because I have a stronger connection to my kind, wise self it won’t be as bad as in the past – but I would be jumping in and out from inner critic to kind wise self to inner critic to kind wise self. I’ll be stepping between the two all the time. I’ll have to really focus on being my kind, wise self and taking care of my needs (instead of reacting to my fear and anxiety). But it will be easier in some ways – what I’m used to. |
| Q3: What would not happen if you do make that change? “What WOULDN’T happen if my inner critic DID go on vacation?”Well (without my inner critic driving me), I might not get stuff done! I might fail! I might not do the things I have committed to do. I wouldn’t beat myself up!!! I wouldn’t feel guilty when I do have fun! I would enjoy my work!!! | Q4: What would not happen if you did not make that change? “What WOULDN’T happen if my inner critic DIDN’T go on vacation?”I wouldn’t have fun.I wouldn’t know what it would be like with my inner critic gone.I will also be very afraid… I’m scared! Woah! |
Videos:
The Leader as Coach
In the face of rapid, disruptive change, companies are realising that managers can’t be expected to have all the answers and that command-and-control leadership is no longer viable. As a result, many firms are moving toward a coaching model in which managers facilitate problem solving and encourage employees’ development by asking questions and offering support and guidance rather than giving orders and making judgments.
The authors of the below Harvard Business Review article explain the merits of different types of coaching—directive, nondirective, and situational—and note that sometimes no coaching at all is appropriate. They describe how managers can use the four-step GROW model to become more skilled at listening, questioning, and drawing insights out of the people they supervise. The article concludes with recommendations for making coaching an organizational capacity—effecting a cultural transformation by articulating why coaching is valuable for the firm as well as individuals, ensuring that leaders embrace and model it, building coaching capabilities throughout the ranks, and removing barriers to change.
7 Tips for Coaching to Improve Performance, the Importance of Conversation
Managers and leaders are critical to the success of a business, and so are effective coaching skills. Consistent coaching helps with employee onboarding and retention, performance improvement, skill improvement, and knowledge transfer. On top of these benefits, coaching others is an effective method for reinforcing and transferring learning.
While there are many important leadership skills and competencies, coaching is central to improving the performance of entire teams.
A coaching leadership style is proving to be much more effective with today’s employees than the more authoritarian styles that many business leaders operate under. Leaders who coach employees instead of commanding them are able to build a much more talented and agile workforce, which leads to a healthy and growing business.
Good coaching can be easy to spot, but hard to emulate.
First, you need to meet your team members where they’re at. Coaching isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavour. Some people will need a lot more handholding than others, depending on where they’re at in their job role and overall career.
So before we get to our seven coaching tips, here’s a quick look at how you can align coaching conversations with individual employees’ needs.
How to Coach Employees at Different Levels
The best coaches do not use the same coaching style for each individual team member. They are flexible enough to adapt to the situation at hand.
There are five levels of employee performance, and you’ll have to adapt your style for each one to coach them effectively:
- Novices
- Doers
- Performers
- Masters
- Experts
Level 1: Novice
Novices are in the “telling” stage of learning. They need to receive a lot of instruction and constructive correction. If you’re confident in the people you’ve hired, then they probably won’t need to stay in this stage very long. Also, watch out for your own micromanaging tendencies – you don’t want to hold an employee back from moving to the next level!
Level 2: Doer
Once Novices begin to understand the task and start to perform, they transition to the Doer stage. They haven’t yet mastered the job, so there’s still a heavy amount of “tell” coaching going on. But they’re doing some productive work and contributing to the team. So, there are now opportunities to encourage new behaviours, and praise Doers for good results.
Level 3: Performer
As Doers start accomplishing a task to standards, they become Performers. Now they’re doing real work and carrying their full share of the load. And they’re doing the task the way it should be done. With Performers, there’s much less “tell” coaching, if any at all. But there’s still feedback, mostly focused on recognizing good results and improving the results that don’t meet expectations.
Level 4: Master
Some Performers may continue to grow on the job and reach the Master stage. At this point, they can not only accomplish tasks to standards, they can do so efficiently and effectively. Plus, they have a deep enough understanding of what should be done that they can teach and coach others on the task. And they know enough to actually help improve standard processes.
Level 5: Expert
Experts are valuable members of the team and may become front-line team leads. Experts don’t need a lot of direction – they’re highly self-sufficient. If anything, they can provide direction to others. Experts don’t necessarily require a lot of recognition and praise to stay motivated, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want any.
7 Coaching Tips for Managers and Leaders
So, now that we’ve gone over the different performance levels your employees can be at, we can discuss some top tips for coaching.
1. Ask guiding questions
Open-ended, guiding questions lead to more detailed and thoughtful answers, which lead to more productive coaching conversations. As a manager or leader, it is critical that you develop strong relationships with your employees. This will help you determine if your employees are curious, have the capacity to perform and improve, and what kind of attitude they have towards their work.
This is where communication skills and emotional intelligence really come into play. Managers must guide conversations both by asking questions and listening, not by giving directives. Employees learn and grow the most when they uncover the answers themselves.
2. Recognize what’s going well
Coaching well requires a balance of criticism and praise. If your coaching conversations are completely focused on what’s not working and what the employee has to do to change, that’s not motivating, it’s demoralizing.
Your recognition of the things your employee is doing well can be a springboard into how they can build from that to improve. We’re not talking about the compliment sandwich here, though, because that coaching technique often devolves into shallow praise that comes off as insincere.
Giving compliments that you don’t actually mean can have a worse effect than not giving any at all, so take the time to think about specific things that are going well, and let your employees know that you see and appreciate them!
Another aspect of this is how the employee likes to be recognized. This is a good question to ask them from the start of your relationship – does frequent recognition help them stay motivated, or is every once in a while sufficient? Do they prefer recognition to be given publicly or privately? The last thing you want to do is embarrass someone when you’re trying to be a good coach!
3. Listen and empower
Coaching requires both encouragement and empowerment. As a manager and a leader, your job is to build one-on-one relationships with employees that result in improved performance.
Your employees are likely to have a lot of input, questions, and feedback. It’s important for them to know you care enough to listen to what they have to say, so encourage them to share their opinions.
Some employees will have no problem speaking their mind, while others will need a LOT of encouragement before they share an opinion with you openly. Once they do open up, be sure to respect those opinions by discussing them, rather than dismissing them.
4. Understand their perspective
When you’re coaching employees to improve performance and engagement, approaching things from their perspective, rather than your own, will help enormously with seeing the changes and results you want.
Everyone has different motivations, preferences, and personalities, so if you ask questions to help you understand where their “why” comes from and what their preferred “how” looks like, then you can tailor your coaching conversations to align the way they work best with the improvements you’re both aiming for.
For example, maybe you recently moved from an office plan that had lots of individual offices to a much more open plan, and one of the reps on your sales team has shown a drastic decrease in successful calls. If you start asking questions and find out that this is someone who is excellent in one-on-one conversations, but rarely speaks up in a group setting, then you can see how they’d feel like everyone is listening in on their call, making them less confident than when they had their own space.
With that perspective in mind, you can work with them more effectively on how to get their numbers back up.
5. Talk about next steps
Coaching conversations are meant to yield changes and results, so be sure to clearly define and outline what needs to happen next. This will ensure you and your employee are on the same page with expectations, and provide them with a clear understanding of the practical steps they can take to make changes and improve.
Also, these next steps should be mutually agreed upon – talk about what is reasonable to expect given their workload and the complexity of the changes being made.
6. Coach in the moment
If an employee comes to you with a question about a process or protocol, use this opportunity to teach them something new. If you’re not able to stop what you’re doing right away, schedule time with them as soon as possible to go over it.
Better yet, keep a weekly one-on-one meeting scheduled with each employee so you can go over questions and issues regularly, while maintaining productivity. Coaching employees with a goal of improving performance means making them a priority each week!
7. Commit to continuous learning
Make a commitment to improve your own skills and competencies. If you’re not continuously learning, why should your employees? Lead by example and your team will follow.
Show that you are interested in their success (why wouldn’t you be?). Ask questions about where they see their career going, or how they see their role evolving in the company. Even if they don’t have a plan laid out yet, these questions will make them think about their career and what they want to accomplish within the organization.
Show your employees that you don’t just want them to do better so you look better, but that you’re actively interested in their career, accomplishments, and professional success.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a critical aspect of coaching employees in a way that builds relationships, boosts engagement, and improves performance. Managers and leaders can see greatly improved coaching skills by taking steps to improve their EQ – they go hand in hand.
The Ten Components of a Thinking Environment
The ten behaviours that generate the finest thinking, and have become known as The Ten Components of a Thinking Environment, are:
ATTENTION
Attention is an act of creation
EQUALITY
Even in a hierarchy people can be equal as thinkers
EASE
Ease creates; urgency destroys
APPRECIATION
The human mind works best in the presence of appreciation
ENCOURAGEMENT
To be ‘better than’ is not necessarily to be ‘good’
FEELINGS
Unexpressed feelings can inhibit good thinking
INFORMATION
Full and accurate information results in intellectual integrity
Recognising our collective social context creates psychological safety
Facing what we have been denying leads to better thinking
DIFFERENCE
The greater the diversity of the group, and the greater the welcoming of different points of view, the greater the chance of accurate, cutting-edge thinking
INCISIVE QUESTIONSTM
A wellspring of good ideas lies just beneath an untrue limiting assumption
An Incisive Question will remove it, freeing the mind to think afresh
PLACE
When the physical environment affirms our importance, we think more clearly and boldly
When our bodies are cared for and respected, our thinking improves
More information can be found at The Ten Components – Time to Think
Schwartz Rounds
The Point of Care Foundation describes Schwartz Rounds as:
“a structured forum where all staff, clinical and non-clinical, come together regularly to discuss the emotional and social aspects of working in healthcare.
The purpose of Rounds is to understand the challenges and rewards that are intrinsic to providing care, not to solve problems or to focus on the clinical aspects of patient care.
Rounds can help staff feel more supported in their jobs, allowing them the time and space to reflect on their roles. Evidence shows that staff who attend Rounds feel less stressed and isolated, with increased insight and appreciation for each other’s roles. They also help to reduce hierarchies between staff and to focus attention on relational aspects of care.
The underlying premise for Rounds is that the compassion shown by staff can make all the difference to a patient’s experience of care, but that in order to provide compassionate care staff must, in turn, feel supported in their work”.
Format of Rounds
Rounds follow a standard model to ensure that they are replicable across settings.
Rounds normally take place once a month for an hour at a time with catering provided before the Round.
Once the Round starts, a panel, comprised of three staff, share their experiences for the first 15-20 minutes. On each panel, there should ideally be a mix of clinical and non-clinical staff with different levels of seniority.
A Round can either be based on different accounts of a case, or can explore a particular theme such as ‘when things go wrong’ or ‘a patient I’ll never forget’. Experiences are shared from the perspective of the panel member – not the patient – and the emphasis is on the emotional impact.
The remainder of the hour features trained facilitators leading an open discussion. They do this by asking participants to share their thoughts and reflections on the stories. The key skill is for the facilitators to steer the discussion in such a way that it remains reflective and does not become a space to solve problems.
The facilitators will remind participants that Rounds are a confidential space, in which patient and staff identities are protected.
Making Every Contact Count
Making Every Contact Count (MECC) is an approach to behaviour change that utilises the millions of day to day interactions that organisations and individuals have with other people to support them in making positive changes to their physical and mental health and wellbeing. MECC enables the opportunistic delivery of consistent and concise healthy lifestyle information and enables individuals to engage in conversations about their health at scale across organisations and populations.
The fundamental idea underpinning the MECC approach is simple. It recognises that staff across health, local authority and voluntary sectors, have thousands of contacts every day with individuals and are ideally placed to promote health and healthy lifestyles.
- For organisations, MECC means providing their staff with the leadership, environment, training and information that they need to deliver the MECC approach.
- For staff, MECC means having the competence and confidence to deliver healthy lifestyle messages, to help encourage people to change their behaviour and to direct them to local services that can support them.
- For individuals, MECC means seeking support and taking action to improve their own lifestyle by eating well, maintaining a healthy weight, drinking alcohol sensibly, exercising regularly, not smoking and looking after their wellbeing and mental health.
MECC focuses on the lifestyle issues that, when addressed, can make the greatest improvement to an individual’s health:
- Stopping smoking
- Drinking alcohol only within the recommended limits
- Healthy eating
- Being physically active
- Keeping to a healthy weight
- Improving mental health and wellbeing
Handling difficult situations with compassion – training programme
A training course for frontline, patient facing NHS colleagues, which aims to teach the skills and techniques to handle difficult situations with compassion, including using appropriate communication techniques and active listening skills, whilst focussing on how to keep yourself safe and seek support if you feel affected by a situation.
Support for line managers and those holding wellbeing conversations
NHS England have co-designed a national training programme with support from a number of NHS organisations, that aims to offer delegates an opportunity to learn more about what a wellbeing conversation is, when it may be appropriate to initiate one and provide them with additional knowledge and skills to have safe and compassionate conversations about various aspects of wellbeing.
The programme, delivered by trained professionals from Passe Partout, also advises how to safely signpost staff to additional support when needed, and offer an opportunity to practice a conversation in a safe, supportive and non-judgmental space of the session.
The programme is aimed at line managers (of any profession, banding or grade), peers and colleagues working across the NHS in roles which have caring responsibilities for staff – for example clinical and educational supervisors, team leaders, members of staff networks, health and wellbeing champions or Wellbeing Guardians.
What is a wellbeing conversation?
Good practice for wellbeing conversations.
Wellbeing conversation are:
- Caring and compassionate – they give space to enable employees to holistically explore their wellbeing.
- Employee led – they enable the employee to lead the conversation and focus on the most important things to them.
- Supportive – they signpost employees to the most appropriate support.
- On-going and dynamic – wellbeing changes over time, therefore these conversations should be held regularly.
- Inclusive – every NHS employee should have ongoing supportive conversations that enable their unique and diverse personal wellbeing needs to be met.
Wellbeing conversation are not:
- Therapeutic interventions – employees should, where necessary, be signposted to access appropriate support from trained professionals.
- Judgemental or performance-related – wellbeing conversations should not be used for performance management or as a way of judging the quality of someone’s work.
- A formal mental health assessment – if you think your colleague needs a formal mental health assessment, you can signpost them to a relevant trained professional.
Wellbeing Conversations
The aim of the Wellbeing Conversation is to Identify areas of the individual’s health and wellbeing that could be improved by taking a prevention and self-management approach – this could include support from line managers for workplace adjustments or flexible working arrangements. Where to go for additional, targeted support when needed and to identify factors beyond the individual or team level which are impacting on health and wellbeing and require action at an organisational level to change.
Toolkit
NHS Employers Website – Wellbeing conversations – Our NHS People
Educational PowerPoint – https://people.nhs.uk/download/11156/
Example Action Plan and Tips for Managers (editable slides) – https://people.nhs.uk/download/11159/