Reflections. How Leadership Affects The Streets

Poor morale and the degradation of paramedical services are a double edged sword that every individual should pay special attention to. It is a fact that paramedics and EMT's are good at adapting and overcoming a lot of adversity to ensure that patients receive excellent care. There comes, in time though, a negative feedback loop if the leadership of an industry becomes complacent and appears unsupportive of its staff. This is true in any industry but today we will focus on paramedicine. When leaders become disconnected from the street they can sometimes start to make decisions that in their eyes appear beneficial. This is not always the case, and if there is poor communication from the leadership it leaves the people on the street confused, and angry. This then causes a decrease in the general morale of the people on the floor. The people on the floor are the reason an EMS system works and degrading morale can directly affect their ability to do their job. It's the street staff that are going into people's homes to help them. The leadership team has a part to play in taking care of the business side of things, but if there is no back and forth communication and no acceptance of input from the people on the street the problems become worse.


The problem though is that the leadership are not the only people at fault. Sometimes street level staff are not the best at finding ways to communicate ideas to the upper management teams. I spoke the other day about how it is important to let ideas surface and find practical ways to implement them. That being said, it is evident sometimes that there is a complete disconnect from upper leadership and the street. When a leadership team has issues with implementing good ideas, and spend a lot of time arguing about things, and on occasion fail to get along themselves it will reflect directly to the street. The street level is a direct reflection of their leadership. We have all heard the phrase lead by example, and if the example being portrayed is disconnected, confrontational, and apathetic these attributes will show up at the street level as well. This is a known and studied fact. There is good news though!

There is room for improvement and fortunately it only takes one or two good leaders to at least affect positive change for morale. When a leader steps up and listens to the street level staff there can be a drastic increase in morale. When that happens there is a good chance that the staff will be able to let their good ideas surface. The people at the street level are the people that are going to give you the best ideas for improvement. Necessity is the mother of invention, and when someone sees something that can improve patient outcomes, or safety or any number of other things that person should be able to send that idea up the chain of command. When leadership teams can't even accept ideas from one another though, the staff becomes complacent, and reflects the actions of their leaders.

This double edged sword can freeze an industry in apathy, and complacency. When this happens, morale crumbles, leadership fails, and the industry can fall apart. Good communication is one of the biggest factors that can drive change within an industry. It is known that not all ideas can be implemented, but if ideas are at least heard, and discussed openly, that alone can boost morale. It can show that ideas are being considered. This will make a huge impact at the street level. Leadership is important, there is a vast difference between running an organization and leading one. At the street level it is important to remain positive and let good ideas surface and find the right channels of communication to implement or at least have good ideas looked at!