Becoming a leader

While responsibilities vary across roles, great leaders enable their teams to perform at their best by:

  • Setting clear expectations for performance and behaviour

  • Develop leadership qualities within the team

  • Prioritising safety - for staff, patients, and the workplace

  • Coaching and developing team members’ skills

  • Empowering the team to solve problems

  • Listening and providing support

  • Holding people accountable and having tough conversations when needed

  • Managing resources responsibly - time, equipment and budget

  • Planning ahead to ensure the right people in the right place at the right time

  • Sharing information to help others do their job effectively.

Why it's important

It's your role to engage and empower staff to do the best possible job they can, manage the human resource and finance responsibilities, as well as complete your own technical/clinical/administerial role commitments.

What should you do?

Flip over the cards below.

Step 1

Step 1

Your first step as a leader is to understand what your role is (and isn’t). Talk to your leader and seek local resources such as your HHS’s Line Manager Toolkit (if applicable) or Leadership Capability Framework, to help you understand this.

Step 2

Step 2

Get to know your own team members and build relationships with other people-leaders, your own people-leader, and other functions, services and facilities.

Step 3

Step 3

Know how to get support and where to go for important information and any questions you have. There are a number of systems you’ll need access to which have a wealth of helpful information.