How medical specialists experience the effects of a mindful leadership course on their leadership capabilities: a qualitative interview study in the Netherlands

Abstract

ObjectivesMedical leaders are facing leadership challenges that ask for a leadership style that takes care of both themselves and their coworkers. Mindfulness may support this leadership style. We explored how a ‘Mindful leadership for medical specialists’ course affected medical specialists’ leadership.DesignWe conducted a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews. The grounded theory method was used to analyse the data.SettingA university medical centre in the Netherlands.ParticipantsSeventeen medical specialists (six male) with an average age of 51 years (ranging from 40 to 66 years).InterventionsThe mindful leadership course consisted of 10-weekly 5-hour sessions that focused on cultivating mindfulness and compassion. In addition, sessions included didactic and interactional teaching about leadership theories.ResultsFour categories emerged from the data: (A) Self - Attitude: psychological attitude towards self, (B) Self - Behaviour: behaviour towards self, (C) Other - Attitude: psychological attitude towards others, and (D) Other - Behaviour: behaviour towards others. Themes were defined within these categories: awareness of self, open mind, insight and appreciation of self (A), emotional and cognitive self-regulation, letting go of unhelpful behaviour and developing helpful behaviour (B), differences in attitude to others such as awareness of (impact on) others, keeping an open mind about others, allowing difficult emotions associated with others, appreciating of others (C), and communicating more effectively, providing direction, empowering and caring for others (D).ConclusionsThe results help us understand the core elements of mindful leadership, both with respect to one’s psychological attitude and behaviour towards oneself and others. More research on mindful leadership and the effects on self and others is needed. Mindful leadership courses could be a valuable part of clinical training and might contribute to more sustainable healthcare organisations.

Linking leadership development programs for physicians with organization-level outcomes: a realist review

“…Thirty-eight articles were included to inform our MRPT (Supplementary material C ) [ 19 , 31 – 67 ]. These articles reported on 35 unique LDPs, 1 23 took place in the United States [ 31 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 43 – 45 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 57 – 63 , 65 , 66 ], 5 in the United Kingdom [ 19 , 35 , 41 , 54 , 64 ], 2 in the Netherlands [ 38 , 67 ], 2 in Australia [ 49 , 52 ], 1 in Canada [ 53 ], 1 in Iran [ 46 ] and 1 in multiple countries located in Sub-Saharan Africa [ 42 ].…”

“…Thirty-eight articles were included to inform our MRPT (Supplementary material C ) [ 19 , 31 – 67 ]. These articles reported on 35 unique LDPs, 1 23 took place in the United States [ 31 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 43 – 45 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 57 – 63 , 65 , 66 ], 5 in the United Kingdom [ 19 , 35 , 41 , 54 , 64 ], 2 in the Netherlands [ 38 , 67 ], 2 in Australia [ 49 , 52 ], 1 in Canada [ 53 ], 1 in Iran [ 46 ] and 1 in multiple countries located in Sub-Saharan Africa [ 42 ]. Twenty-one LDPs were classified as in-house programs [ 19 , 31 , 32 , 34 , 36 , 37 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 47 , 50 , 52 , 54 , 57 – 64 , 66 ], meaning that they were conducted within, and developed for, participants from one healthcare institution or system (multiple hospitals within one region).…”

correlation of human capital sustainability leadership style and resilience of the managers in airline operations group of an AIRLINE Company

“…Then craft the response for the situation". This was also supported by Vreeling et al (2019) as mindfulness resulted in "self-regulation, letting go of unhelpful behaviors, and developing new helpful behaviors" (p. 5) while Pillay (2020) highlighted that positive affect and mindfulness predicted resilience.…”

“…We try to understand how they operate so that we know how can we work better with them". This highlights the leaders' awareness, attention, and acceptance of the situation (King & Badham, 2018) enables them to align with their collaborators and strengthen the group's processes (Ritchie-Dunham, 2014), seeing the bigger picture (Vreeling, Kersemaekers, Cillessen, van Dierendonck, & Speckens, 2019).…”

Effectiveness and feasibility of a mindful leadership course for medical specialists: a pilot study

“…The questions related to feasibility were: Continued open questioning was used to deeply understand the provided answers. Perceived effects of the course on personal and professional functioning and leadership skills were also explored, and are reported in a separate publication [42]. However, if responses to these questions were considered to be facilitators or barriers to participating in the course, they were included in the qualitative analysis of the feasibility.…”