Researchers develop first practical rules for empathic leadership in healthcare - and a course to teach them
Professor Jeremy Howick
A new study offers the first-ever set of practical rules for empathic leadership in healthcare to address chronic deficits linked to preventable patient deaths in the NHS.
In addition, the study also sets out a course designed to put the empathic rules into practice.
The research, by the University of Leicester and UC Berkeley, published today (14 April) in BMJ Leader responds to findings from major NHS inquiries - including the Francis, Ockenden, and Kirkup reports - which identified failures in empathic leadership as a contributing factor in hundreds of avoidable patient deaths. Despite nearly 15 years of investment in compassionate leadership initiatives, these problems persist.
Professor Jeremy Howick, Director of the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare at the University of Leicester, who helped conduct the study, said: "Despite the well-documented need for empathic leadership in healthcare, no course existed to teach it. This study changes that."
More than 20 expert leaders from across healthcare, academia, and the NHS, came together to generate 29 practical rules (heuristics) and voted to prioritise 12 including: Listen First, Speak Last, Walk the Shop Floor, Be Vulnerable, Look for Undisclosed Brilliance in People; and Be Prepared to Muck In.
Unlike abstract theories, heuristics are concise, practical, and designed to be acted upon instinctively — even in high-pressure clinical environments.
The same group collaboratively designed the Leicester Empathic Leadership Course: a one-day programme using roleplay, reflection, and action planning to embed empathic leadership in practice.
Professor Howick explained: “Empathic leadership is associated with reduced patient mortality, lower staff burnout and turnover, and stronger organisational cultures. Evidence from organisations such as Microsoft under Satya Nadella shows it can also drive financial success - a critical consideration for NHS systems operating under severe budgetary pressure. The study argues that empathic leadership goes further than compassionate leadership by actively cultivating curiosity about colleagues' perspectives, which is often the key to solving problems.”