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The evaluation of Compassionate Inverclyde suggests that good leadership has been an essential component of its success.
The Programme Manager of Compassionate Inverclyde was Director of Care at the local Hospice for many years, and brought to the project credibility, expertise, and a network of influential individuals and groups within the local community. As someone who had lived and worked in Inverclyde for many years, she understood the local context.
The evaluation report highlights how helpful these attributes were from the outset of the project, and provides a person specification listing the key characteristics of a leader as initiator / catalyst for a Compassionate Community.
Key characteristics of the Project Lead
- Inspires a compelling vision
- Introduces systems and processes to support the realisation of the vision, including managing risk
- Commitment and passion - heartfelt, wholehearted and visible
- Clinical credibility - knowledge and expertise helps to open doors and build trust
- Local credibility - local awareness and use of diverse networks ('one of our own')
- Ambition (for the initiative not self), proactive, determined, can-do attitude
- Experience of leading others; change management
- Good communicator and networker
- Inclusive – an ability to engage at all levels (skilled narrator – versus orator – listens, curates ideas, sees value and constructs and tells stories that serve as a call to action)
- Emotionally intelligent relationship building - “it comes from inside/out”
- Empathy - ability to actively listen and empower action
- Inspire and develop the potential of others - through such support they enable a culture of autonomy, a leadership-at-every level culture to be nurtured.
- Accountability - provides regular progress on activities and plans.
- Creativity, innovation and perseverance - a ‘can do’ attitude
- Catalyst for developing a compassionate, collaborative, trusting culture
Compassionate Inverclyde Evaluation Report A Deeper Dive, p13
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Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash