Workshop:

What is compassionate leadership, and what are the potential benefits in different health and care settings?

Tuesday 30 September at 12:30pm, Technology & Innovation Centre, University of Strathclyde, 99 George Street, Glasgow G1 1RD

This is the second in a series of three workshops aiming to collect and collate expertise around leadership practices in healthcare settings, leading towards the development of a toolkit that can support health and care teams to engage in leadership innovation. The project is being taken forward by Strathclyde Business School in collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland.

Our first, very successful, workshop in April 2025 focused on distributed leadership practices in health and care. This second workshop will focus on compassionate leadership and will include a keynote talk from a renowned expert in the field of healthcare leadership: Dr Wen Wang (University of Leicester)*.

Compassionate leadership involves “a focus on relationships through careful listening to, understanding, empathising with and supporting other people, enabling those we lead to feel valued, respected and cared for, so they can reach their potential and do their best work”. This workshop will help health and care professionals and leaders at all levels to consider ‘what might work’ in fostering compassionate leadership and evidence of benefits for staff and service users.

This workshop will draw on evidence from Scottish and international experts to gain a better understanding of: how and where compassionate leadership can make a difference; its potential as a focus for leadership development across triumvirate leadership teams; and what is needed to promote effective leadership practice at all levels.

This event is open to all health and care professionals and leaders at all levels and grades, and researchers with an interest in healthcare and/or leadership. Places are limited so please register.

Format

· 1230-1330: Networking lunch

· 1330: Introduction and welcome: Dr Tony McCarthy, Strathclyde Business School

· 1340: Mini-keynote: Dr Wen Wang*, Experiences of compassionate leadership – learning from good practice, followed by Q+A

· 1415: Breakout discussion on practices and challenges around adopting compassionate leadership practices

· 1440: Break

· 1500: Mini-workshop: Towards a toolkit for compassionate leadership: Dr Ioanna Nixon, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde/Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, Executive Coach at drexecutivecoach.com

· 1530: Reporting back and sharing insights

· 1545: Key takeaways and wrap-up

· 1600: Close

*Dr Wen Wang is interested in workplace changes aimed at improving productivity and staff wellbeing. Her research explores how management practices in responding to external uncertainty (resulted from economic, technological, political or legal change) impact on its workforce and good practices which can enhance performance, innovation and productivity. She has a passion for research impact since her research aims to address the societal challenges of our time (e.g., how to sustain a healthcare workforce to address challenge of an aging population). Among other topics, she has published on the benefits and impact of compassionate leadership for medical and health care professionals.

Wang, W. Senior trust leaders who show understanding and compassion are crucial in retaining junior doctors BMJ2024; 386doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1569

Wang, W., Creese, J., Karanika-Murray, M., Harris, K., McCarthy, M., Leng, C., King, C., Can Compassionate Leadership of Hospital Senior Leaders Help to Retain Trainee Doctors? BMJ Leader. https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2024-001010.

CO-PRODUCING TOOLS FOR LEADERSHIP INNOVATION IN HEALTH & CARE