The approachable team leader: Front line perspectives on leadership in critical care

Abstract

Good leadership in critical care is essential for patient safety, staff moral and system performance. The approachability of a leader is a core skill enabling appropriate challenge, sharing of mental models and flattening of hierarchies. This study explores the front line critical care multidisciplinary team’s perspective on leadership characteristics that enhance approachability in one of the world’s biggest co-located critical care services. It highlights individual and team aspects and organisational considerations that may warrant further study with potential significant effects on patient safety. It identifies characteristics that leadership development programmes may wish to consider and the need for an underlying socio-technological system that supports the adoption of these leadership behaviours. It concludes that both individual training and socio-technological healthcare system design are essential for a critical care unit that desires approachability of its leaders to become a routine part of its organisational culture.