What can leaders learn from the appalling standards at Stafford Hospital?

The scandal at Stafford hospital is beyond belief. When we learned of the horrendous stories between 2005 - 2009, many of us wondered how it could possibly have happened. Recently, the HSE reported that as many as 1200 patients may have needlessly died between 2005 - 2009 due to appalling failures of care.

But what can leaders learn from "the NHS's darkest day"?

1) Financial targets v customer experience:

Staff complained of ruthless cost cutting and targets. Sir David Nicholson (current head of the NHS and Senior Health Service Manager for the area at the time of the scandal), was known for pushing stringent targets and financial streamlining. Whilst his intention was to improve efficiency, by focusing so hard on this aspect of the organisation, he compromised the human face of customer service and encouraged a culture of corner cutting in order to achieve tough targets.

What Sir David Nicholson appears to have forgotten is that the principal target for every organisation should be outstanding patient/customer experience because once you lose this as your key goal, what's the point of existing? Of course businesses must keep a firm grasp on financial prudence and return on investment, but once they prioritise these aspects of business over customer experience, they risk poor service, poor products and a staff who become disengaged because they've lost sight of the value of what they do.

The Balanced Scorecard is a well known performance management tool which links 4 aspects of organisational success:

1) Finance
2) Process
3) Customer/Patient
4) Learning and development

If Sir David Nicholson used one between 2005-2009, it would appear his main focus was on finance, rather than keeping each area under close scrutiny and his approach was anything but balanced!

2) The role of compassion:

The report clearly states that there was a lack of compassion and humanity at Stafford Hospital. For some people, the ability to demonstrate empathy is a personal development issue and will take time and commitment to improve, but in reality, most of us do have compassion at our heart and it's what makes us human.

However, our ability to demonstrate compassion can become compromised when we're under intense pressure and work in a culture of fear and targets. In this situation, even selfless people can find that their natural tendencies are influenced by a need to 'do what it takes to survive' and become more selfish. Once staff members become more selfish, your organisation is in big trouble and the end result is increased staff tension, decreased staff performance and poor customer satisfaction. Whether it sounds soft or not, compassionate staff members are key to organisational success.

3) Leadership:

The family and relatives of the victims of the scandal remain defiant that the people at the top should face criminal proceedings. Whichever way you look at it, it is the decisions of the leaders at Stafford Hospital which have prompted the crisis. From recruitment, to training, to culture and policy, it is leadership who have set the tone for the hospital so they have to take the blame. Leadership is exciting, it can pay well and it's challenging, but it brings enormous human responsibility, something which many of the most charismatic and skilled individuals are not cut out to handle.

The selection of quality leaders remains a key aspect for businesses which want to survive and thrive, but crucial to leadership performance is the ongoing development of the softer skills (i.e. compassion, selflessness, cultural sensitivity and care), because the impact of a lack of soft skills is anything but soft, as the victims of the Stafford hospital scandal would tell you!

Thanks for reading

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