The APP Servant Leader

Is servant leadership realistic in the healthcare environment?

APP Colleague’s last article outlined the unique ability of APPs to empathize and lead a healthcare team.  It also discussed “servant leadership,” a philosophy that flips traditional organizational hierarchy upside down and requires a leader to focus on “serving” the needs of their followers/employees.  Positive culture shifts, increased productivity, and heightened employee satisfaction are among the natural consequences of servant leadership [1].

The Journal of Medical Practice Management explores how servant leadership can be effective in a medical practice or healthcare facility.  The author describes the benefits of servant leadership to a healthcare organization but, more importantly, provides suggestions for developing one’s servant leadership skills.

Three “practical and immediate” steps to becoming a servant leader include:

• Restructure your organizational chart:  patients should be at the top, the team leader is at the bottom, and the team members rest above the leader.  The author recommends sharing the chart with one’s staff to demonstrate organizational priorities.  Look at the chart often to keep the focus on serving one’s customers and support staff.
• Listen > speaking:  servant leaders talk less and listen more to understand their teammates’ points of view better.  Careful listening prevents personal biases and prejudices from distorting the messages we receive from others.   Empathy is a servant leader’s “most important virtue [2].”
• Expand agenda at staff meetings: an essential characteristic of servant leadership is “the well-being and the development of people.” Staff meetings should address pertinent organizational duties/goals and include discussions on professional development and work-life balance [1].

It is suggested that clinician mentors who lead and teach using servant leadership principles help reduce feelings of burnout and “imposter syndrome” among their trainees [2].  APPs and physicians who guide their medical teams using servant leadership have the potential to develop more confident and loyal healthcare workers.  Furthermore, trainees and students of servant leaders are more likely to become mentors to future generations of healthcare workers [2]. 

How do you serve your team as a clinician leader?

-Nikki Rataj Casady, DMSc, PA-C

email@appcolleague.org