How Hospital Administrators Empower their Organizations

The challenges health care administrators face require a unique set of leadership skills. Leaders, particularly hospital administrators, need to be ready for changes within the industry. Administrators are responsible for managing employees as they also contend with new laws and regulations, technology, and changing economics. Administrators who empower their teams also empower their whole organization, giving everyone the opportunity to work together to achieve goals and provide high-quality health care.

To learn more, check out the infographic below created by the Regis College Master of Health Administration program

Steps to Empowerment

The Responsibilities of Health Care Management

Health care management is built upon several key tasks. The role entails the hiring of new employees, the training and managing of medical staff, the creation of organizational goals and there are also steps managers can take to empower employees. Firstly, they must define clear roles and organizational goals. They must also show employees they believe in them through support. It’s also important to listen carefully and promote open communication. Additionally, managers must provide a safe environment for failing, and give employees autonomy and room to improve. Managers should also recognize and praise efforts, which can include rewarding success. Finally, managers must create a respectful and positive work environment that holds employees and themselves accountable for mistakes and failures, which can demonstrate supportiveness and foster trust.

The Benefits of Empowering Staff and Teams

Making staff and teams feel empowered carries a host of positives. It can enhance performance and work quality and increase employee job satisfaction. It can also encourage collaboration among team members. Additionally, staff empowerment increases employee responsibility and accountability, which could lead to a boost in productivity. Furthermore, it can foster innovation and creative problem-solving. Finally, it can reduce organizational costs, like operational and employee turnover expenses.

Empowering Organizations Depends on Leadership

There are three leadership styles that relate directly to empowerment. The first style is directive leadership. The leadership is defined by a capacity to instruct employees on what to do and enforcing consequences if it’s not done. Also known as autocratic leadership, this style is good for inexperienced employees, but bad for skilled and motivated workers, as it requires constant dependence on the leader.

The second leadership type is participative leadership. This style encourages input and ideas from team members while also participating and collaborating to reach goals. It creates a positive work environment that allows employees to feel encouraged that they can be creative. This results in increased employee satisfaction and retention.

The third style is known as delegative leadership. This hands-off approach to leadership is defined by a tendency to allow decisions to be made by employees and team members. Also known as laissez-faire leadership, the style offers employees little guidance from leaders and unclear roles and authority, which leads to a loss of motivation. This is considered to be the least effective leadership style.

What Leaders Can Do

A master’s in health administration allows you to develop a strategic management style as you learn from experienced health care professionals. It can also enable you to understand all aspects of health care administration, like business, policy, governance, finance, ethics, and patient-centered care. Additionally, it can enable you to learn to instill the importance of social responsibility and promoting public health awareness. Finally, it enables you to gain knowledge of advances in technology and health information management. Along the way, it can allow you to develop key leadership qualities, such as emotional intelligence, critical thinking, organization, and professional communication.

Empowering Power

Being a leader takes experience, confidence, and a distinct set of skills. In addition to these traits, hospital administrators take advantage of the skills of their employees by empowering both them and their organizations.