The International Hospital Federation (IHF) envisions a world where healthy communities are supported by well-managed hospitals and healthcare services, enabling individuals to achieve their highest level of health. To achieve this vision, the IHF emphasises its competency model, a vital tool to empower healthcare leaders to excel.
Competencies, as defined by the IHF, encompass skills (the doing), knowledge (knowing what to do), and aptitudes (doing it well). These competencies are not rigid but flexible, closely connected with actions. They are essential for applying, facilitating, achieving, or sustaining various actions in the healthcare sector. By promoting and nurturing these competencies, the IHF aims to enhance the quality of healthcare delivery and leadership worldwide.
The leadership model was created in response to the evolving role of health systems and the increasing significance of leadership at all levels within organisations. Over time, the model has undergone changes and refinement, resulting in a distinctive framework encompassing vital subjects for forward-thinking leaders, including environmental sustainability.
Targeted mainly at current and aspiring healthcare executives, the model applies to individuals, teams, and entire organisations. Its purpose is to offer a valuable leadership perspective to effectively guide their work and mission. By using this model, healthcare leaders can better navigate the complexities of their roles and drive their organisations towards a future-oriented approach to leadership, including a focus on environmental sustainability.
The competency model is categorised into two main domains: enabling and action. Enablers serve as the foundation, involving the offline work that supports and maintains the actions.
Enabling competencies encompass personal, professional, and organisational values, along with self-development and self-awareness competencies. Action competencies pertain to the direct, on-the-job responsibilities of healthcare executives. These include execution, building and managing relationships, handling the context in which they operate, and driving organisational transformation.
Here is a quick overview of the key action and enabling domains:
Values: Involves establishing personal, professional, and organisational guiding principles to aid in decision-making. These values create a shared sense of responsibility across the organisation.
Self-development: Refers to managing oneself as a valuable resource and continually seeking opportunities for learning and improvement.
Execution: Involves clearly defining, implementing, and monitoring actions based on shared goals and direction. This includes strengthening existing structures and processes as necessary.
Relations: Focuses on actively listening, understanding, and supporting the individual needs of people within the organisation. It also emphasises the ability to inspire and positively influence others to foster strong relationships and teamwork.
Context management: Refers to effectively managing and making decisions within one's sphere of influence, both within the hospital or organisation and extending beyond its boundaries.
Transformation: Involves leading and driving systemic changes in healthcare services, guided by the understanding of needs, shared vision, and building trust among stakeholders.
The IHF's Global Healthcare Leadership Competency Model 2023 was created through expert consultations from September 2022 to March 2023. The development process involved 45 experts from 30 countries, each contributing their expertise and insights, with additional knowledge in numerous other regions. The research project aimed to formulate a comprehensive and globally relevant competency model for healthcare leadership.
Source: IHF
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