Is the role of leaders in the attainment of successful outcomes by teams often overstated? Not if you go by Prof Stephen Adei’s well-publicised dictum. Leadership is cause, after all. Everything else is effect, he says.
Ideally, the leader casts the overarching vision, serves as its key driver, selects a high-functioning team, and shapes the team’s dynamics and work, ultimately leading them to high performance. So maybe all the accolades are well deserved. Or maybe not.
My recent delivery of the 9th John Evans Atta Mills Leadership Lecture at the University of Health & Allied Sciences brought the above issues into sharp focus for me. Indeed, so overwhelmed and thankful was I for the great help I received from the team I constituted, that in the end, I sincerely felt that all the accolades coming my way were not fully deserved. To the extent that these accolades did not appear to take account of the massive burden borne by numerous comrades on my behalf to ensure a successful delivery. Today, in part, an expression of sheer gratitude to my team, and in part, a rumination on leadership, performance and attribution, I intend to celebrate my team through noticing and naming their appreciable efforts.
Arc of the Story
I set out to tell a series of stories. About the early days of UHAS. About global health disruptions. About quality health systems. About applicability to the Ghanaian context. And about a vision for the future. Will this arc help me achieve the objectives I set myself? Off I went to Prof. Pierre Barker, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Chief Scientific Officer, Prof. Fred Newton Binka, Foundation Vice Chancellor of UHAS, Dr. Christina Amoako-Nuama, Presidential Advisor in charge of setting up the two new Universities under President Mills, and Prof. Jeffrey Braithwaite, immediate Past President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, and Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation for a sense check. With their useful guidance, I locked in the storyline, proceeding to fill in the details.
Look & Feel
Stephen Kemetse and I agreed very early on to go very light on slides, pictures mainly. The bulk of the speech would be written, and a handful of slides would be deployed for purely illustrative purposes. After three sessions of intense back and forth, we settled on the final slide deck, shipping it off to UHAS. Before this, which slide template would be most appropriate became an issue. Ultimately, I became convinced by Kemetse’s strong recommendation to proceed with a uniquely branded John Evans Atta Mills Leadership Lecture slide deck. And off he went to design it. Yaa Amankwa Opuni, UHAS’s Registrar, bore, with dignity, the brunt of my multiple requests for pictures.
On the matter of situating my lecture recommendations within the context of the current political health environment, to give it greater relevance, Prof. Samuel Kaba, Director General of the Ghana Health Service, provided clarity with wise counsel. This landed me in a whole new place, mentally. Ahead of the lecture, Comrade Ludwig Hlodze, Director of the Atta Mills Heritage, was diligent enough to check in to discuss recent efforts on their part to buttress the former President’s legacy in UHAS in particular.
Content
Putting the presentation together was challenging on multiple fronts. I wanted technical credibility, condensing almost two decades of work in the global healthcare quality and safety space. I was also wary of an overly technical presentation that failed to address modern healthcare challenges as Ghanaians knew them. How, for example, would my theme of quality health systems be impacted by interventions like the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, the free Primary Healthcare policies of the government or the mandate of the two-year-old National Vaccine Institute?
All the above ruminations were roundly compounded by the fact that for almost every slide created, critical information, sieved from two to three bulky documents, was needed. Synthesis for relevance was key. Poignancy too.
This is where a whole group of experts came in to assist. Pearl Exornam Selormey spoke eloquently to the central role of nutrition in the NCD burden, backed by data, while Dr. Dennis Odai Laryea went to town on Ghana’s preparedness for the next pandemic. Prof. Fiifi Yawson generously shared his independent evaluation of the Ghana Healthcare Quality Strategy in addition to Ghana’s plans.
Rev. Prof. A. S. Aryeetey forcefully drew my attention to the perennial neglect of pre-clinical faculty development as a component of building a ready healthcare workforce. When I needed an exemplar in Burkina Faso, WHO’s Dr. Fred Osei-Sarpong came to my rescue with Burkina’s enchanting ability to pay their counterpart funding for vaccine purchases, one whole year ahead of schedule.
The work of Dr. Victor Bampoe, CEO of the NHIS, provided insights on the government’s recent domestic resource mobilisation efforts, as did the work of HEFRA CEO, Dr. Winfred Baah, on the most recent efforts of the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HEFRA) to improve healthcare quality and safety. Stephen Kemetse provided useful summaries on the Ministry of Health’s 2024 Financial report. And when I needed a practical example of a hospital consistently recording positive financial margins underpinned by robust governance and management systems, CHAG’s Dr. Peter Yeboah and Holy Family Hospital, Techiman’s Christopher Akanbobnaab, readily came to my rescue.
Dr. Naa Adorkor Sodzi-Tettey served as a massive sounding board, helping to vet, adapt and better tailor recommendations for public consumption. Last but not least was Carolyne Acquaye-Nortey of the National Vaccine Institute, who perhaps provided the most consistent research support throughout my preparation. The young lady did a great job, digging up fact after fact to meet request after request. Let’s not forget friends and family who drove hours to cheer. Or Courage Agbah, the traditional Kente weaver who wove an unforgettable design fully branded in UHAS colours.
No doubt, it was I who stood up to tell the story. The leader who served as the arrowhead. And I, who received the applause. Took the glory. Glowing in my bespoke traditional Kente cloth. While that may all be merited, somewhat, I also find it very important to amplify the critical role played by my mighty team, to whom I feel a debt of gratitude.
After all, as Don Berwick, one of my mentors, says, gratitude is infinitesimally divisible. Truly, we did this together. So, thank you for your gallant efforts, thoughtful considerations and your labour of love.
And so, given the above, do leaders take undue credit for successful team achievements? Maybe. Maybe not.
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Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey delivered the 9th J.E.A. Mills Leadership Lecture & was recently awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the University for Health & Allied Sciences.
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Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey
sodzitettey@gmail.com
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
