ABU DHABI PUBLIC HEALTH CENTRE WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME
In December 2021, the Leadership Centre designed and delivered a leadership programme focussed on supporting women in leadership roles across the healthcare sector in Abu Dhabi.
What did the work set out to achieve?
The Senior Leadership Team at Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre are making a significant investment in women across their organisation and developing a culture in which every woman sees themselves as a leader.
The programme was delivered in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre, the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UK Health Security Agency and Leading Communities, an organisation with extensive experience in developing local leaders. The aim was to develop a group of female leaders who had the potential to operate at a senior level, and who, as a result of their learning, might bring greater diversity and representation to issues affecting women’s health.
Who participated?
28 Section heads and specialists, working in both clinical and non-clinical roles from Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre came together in the UAE with the programme facilitated remotely by the Leadership Centre in the United Kingdom. The programme was co-designed with the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre, including a number of the participants, helping to ensure the design met the needs of the group.
Features of the programme
The programme was split into three broad areas:
Developing leadership self awareness
The participants were encouraged to think about what mattered most to them in their leadership – what type of leader they are and want to be, as well how others perceive them. Each participant completed a diagnostic tool to understand more about their leadership preferences prior to the programme, which helped to develop a greater understanding of the power of difference.
Tackling systems challenges by applying multiple lenses
The group explored four key issues in teams, applying different lenses and taking a layered approach, designed to surface new insights. The issues explored were:
1. How might we get greater take up of screening and vaccination opportunities by older women so improving their health and wellbeing?
2. How might we co-design and improve our vital ongoing health work programmes at the same time as tackling the current Covid emergency and other emergency situations in the future?
3. How can we better support women in the workplace in UAE so that mental health concerns are recognised and supported earlier?
4. What more can we do to create healthy lifestyles so that we can improve health and wellness among women?
The thinking universally changed with each new lens that was applied. The groups described how the process allowed them to re-imagine the whole issue.
Sharing of skills and experiences between leaders in the UAE and the UK
Women leaders from across Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre joined participants and shared their experience of leading in complexity. Participants really valued the opportunity to have exploratory conversations together and in a way they had not done before. A number of international speakers attended the final day of the programme to join in a conversation with the teams about the system challenges and also share their leadership learning. There was a huge thirst to hear and learn from different parts of the world and the benefit was reciprocal with leaders in both locations taking away valuable insights.
(L-R) Eng Zainab, Ms Awatif, Finola Hegarty, Shadi Abu-Hayyeh UKHSA, British Ambassador to UAE Patrick Moody, ADPHC Chief Exec HE Dr Mutair, HE Dr Farida, HE Dr Omniyat
What impact did the programme have?
Individually, the leadership learning appeared to be significant, with participants realising that you can change the system just by the way you are as leaders. Metrics from a pre and post programme survey showed a positive shift in participants’ sense of leadership capability, and everyone left the programme with a Personal Development Plan to support their ongoing development over the next year.
Bringing people together from different directorates seemed to create a new realisation of shared challenges. The lenses applied to these issues helped participants to re-think new approaches to systemic issues, with individuals leaving the programme equipped with new insight and potential solutions to test.
Bringing people together from different directorates seemed to create a new realisation of shared challenges. The lenses applied to these issues helped participants to re-think new approaches to systemic issues, with individuals leaving the programme equipped with new insight and potential solutions to test.