Oberving the management of COVID-19 strategies across the nation as an Organizational Development Consultant, it emerges that communication across health care facilities in Ghana in this pandemic times has not being managed effectively from the professional point of view. For change to be sustainable, the leader must quickly scan his/ her environment to know who are the key stakeholders and come out with effective plan on how not to leave employees or surbodinates behind in crisis management. Leaders must be able to assess their organizational culture, design a plan with the involvement of his/ her team, give prompt and timely feedback. Without feedback, you can win the battle and yet lose the heart and the commitment of your team members. In crisis time like the covid-19, I expect every health facility across the country to employ what is called " process fairness": where people are selected based on an agreed criteria by management through an expert sub committee, this process must be made known to all your team in order to gain their support. The 21st century worker does not just want to be told, he / she wants to be involved or if you like engaged in making an input. When this happens, the entire team rally their support for the crisis management team. Members selected to manage crisis are supposed to possess certain qualities for results and keeping relationship intact in the crisis period.
For subordinates or employees to have confidence and trust in leadership and management committees in crisis management, the following criterias should be certified:
✓ Information giving by crisis management team( leaders) should be factual, devoid of ambiguity.
✓Trustworthy and truthful
✓Open / transparent communication, no hidden of information from any team member or employees. This is key in winning the pandemic and winning your people along. It is probably to win the covid-19 battle and lose the trust of your team, caution is key. Disabuse the minds of your critics by making processes open, example: Selection of Frontline health workers should never and ever be a secret, there should be an open communication on that in order not to foster grounds for conflict.
✓ Compassionate: Leaders should be able to appreciate the fears, uncertainties and concerns of team members and employees, listen to your team, address their issues genuinely without being judgemental, let them know that you feel their pain and guess what, you will win their heart and minds. This is where many leaders fail: Leaders must be careful of their choice of words in order not to cause more pain to members.
✓ Competent, Courageous, Considerate: Know your men and who to deploy in times of crisis, select people based on their strength and competent skills. How will your team react when you choose an incompetent member onto your team? Not paying attention to these spotlights will bring automatic disaster to your organization.
✓ Public engagement: Any health facility that is not engaging the public by way of giving them timely and regular updates on COVID-19 and it's related management plans, will lose the public trust. If you do not inform, others will misinform.
✓ Post COVID-19 Analysis: Your COVID-19 management Team should be documenting all their meetings with minutes and matters arising. Every intervention, milestone reached, success chalked, input, output, outcome and impact should be documented for useful lessons to be learned from them and for sustainability purposes.
COVID-19 is the acid test for effective and efficient leadership for all health care managers globally, Ghana in focus. Your leadership acumen and prowess as a health care manager will be tested by COVID. You have the opportunity to demonstrate good leadership through the application of tested principles and best oractices, you are either winning the trust of your team or losing it, do not take feedback lightly, appoint your team with a lot of caution, give the team terms of reference and assess them based on key performance indicators. Leadership is not cheap, you have a greater price to pain in order to win the support and the cooperation of your team, becareful not to neglect your team. Always remember, that no matter how well you perform, you will always have a critic. Thank God for the lives of those who criticize you, you need them to succeed in your leadership journey. Always remain resilient and fortify yourself with knowledge and skills, demonstrate your excellence and competence to all especially your critics. The best way to answer your critics is to succeed.
You have three Ps in leadership and always remember them: Price, Power and Privilege. Your wisdom is measured by how and when you use any of the 3 Ps.
Time with your Leadership Consultant
Rev.Jefferson Agbotro Kwasi
MSC OD
www.founder.fohaghana.org