.Blog4 Keys to Effective, Sustainable Health Enhancement

 

4 Keys to Effective, Sustainable Health Enhancement

November 02, 2011


Your Role as Health Promotion Leader

If you’re going to set direction and define strategy, you’ll need to move out of managing mode and into leading. Health promotion leaders regularly examine 4 questions:

  1. What is our current business role, and what should it be in the future? In other words, what is your mission now and what should your vision be? If you’re operating under a mission statement more than 18 months old (or if it’s never been officially endorsed by top management), take time to review. Confirm relevance to what you’re doing and what’s expected. Also examine your vision — where you want the program and the organization’s health to be in 3-5 years — and adapt it to changing conditions/goals.
  2. Where should we concentrate our energy and resources — today, this month, this year? It’s easy to get caught up sponsoring the latest fun run, fulfilling the most recent management request, or catering to participants who provide ongoing positive reinforcement. But if these day-to-day activities aren’t contributing to your real mission and vision, it’s time to refocus priorities and set boundaries.
  3. How can we create continuous health enhancement? By constantly shifting the responsibility for personal health to individuals while supporting their efforts, you’re more likely to maintain a health improvement culture. Adjust your approach from fixing problems to encouraging positive change — through appropriate, easily accessible resources. 
  4. How can each department/unit/group contribute to organization health? If managers have been known to say “that’s health promotion’s role,” you may have your work cut out for you. Only when top management, supervisors, and employees embrace their place in maintaining a healthy workforce can you expect ongoing health improvement.


Leadership Skills

The leadership skills you or others in your department need will vary depending on the stage of program evolution:         

  • Risk taker. If you’re just starting out or your health enhancement progress has stagnated, you may need to launch completely new approaches to improving health.
  • Caretaker. If your program has evolved and is meeting the needs of your target groups, emphasize the management skills that maintain a systematic approach to planning, implementing, and evaluating for constant health improvement.          
  • Surgeon. If your services have grown to a point where some efforts yield significant results while others are flat — or even drain resources from more important projects — you’ll need to cut away and discard those parts without harming the program’s vitality.    
  • Undertaker. Let’s face it, there are times when it’s best to bury your current approach and start over. This takes courage and a commitment to follow through with a careful new way of enhancing organization health.

Health enhancement vision, direction, and strategy all come down to leadership. And leadership in health promotion isn’t necessarily tied to advanced degrees, irrefutable evidence of return on investment, or a generous budget. It depends on taking the time to address these key issues regularly, then respond appropriately today and every day.