This study aims to strengthen leadership competencies among CU SOM faculty who have at least five direct reports by promoting meaningful behavior change in leadership practices and fostering a culture of peer support, to advance employee well-being and help reduce burnout among healthcare professionals. 125 leaders will take part in a six-month leadership development program consisting of 6 self-paced learning focus areas and 6 in-person sessions with peers to discuss. The investigators will evaluate the program's implementation process and its effectiveness in achieving desired outcomes.
The goal of this project is to design, implement, and evaluate a creative, sustainable leadership development program - Leadership Thrive Circles - focused on helping supervisors: 1) lead with respect and inclusion by ensuring all team members feel valued and welcome; 2) communicate openly and transparently, 3) seek input regularly, 4) support each person's professional growth and aspirations, and 5) express genuine appreciation and gratitude for their contributions. This program will be grounded in evidence-based leadership practices that support professional well-being and help reduce burnout among healthcare professionals. A core premise of this initiative is that leader well-being is foundational to team well-being. Leaders who experience fulfillment, support, psychological safety, and manageable stress are better positioned to model healthy behaviors, build supportive environments, and promote well-being among their direct reports. Thus, Leadership Thrive Circles is also intentionally designed to strengthen the well-being of leaders themselves-recognizing that investing in leaders produces positive ripple effects across entire teams and departments. There is a recognized need for leadership development. While there is substantial evidence highlighting the importance of leadership in healthcare-and the core skills leaders should demonstrate with their teams-there remains a gap in programs tailored specifically to the unique needs of CU SOM leaders. In addition, emerging research underscores that leader well-being directly influences workplace culture, team functioning, and the well-being and retention of faculty and staff. Leaders facing high stress, burnout, or misalignment may struggle to provide effective support, communication, and recognition-factors that the CU SOM well-being data consistently identifies as essential to a healthy, high-functioning environment. Addressing leader well-being is therefore not only beneficial for leaders themselves but also essential for promoting the well-being of their direct reports. Leadership Thrive Circles aims to fill this dual need by equipping leaders with both the skills and the personal well-being resources required to lead healthy, thriving teams. The objectives are to: 1) Strengthen leadership competencies among CU SOM faculty who have at least five direct reports. 2) Promote meaningful behavior change in leadership practices among these leaders. 3) Foster a culture of peer support as leaders integrate new skills into their daily workflows. 4) Evaluate the program's implementation process and its effectiveness in achieving desired outcomes.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
125
The CU SOM leadership program is based on the Wellness-Centered Leadership framework and Mayo Clinic Leadership Index behaviors, using a COMPASS-style peer group model to build leadership skills and community. Leaders complete brief pre-work and on-the-job practice challenges delivered through an online dashboard, then participate in facilitated peer sessions to discuss implementation successes and barriers. Sessions are led by trained leader-facilitators, with researchers not present, and include structured agendas to support consistent implementation and skill development.
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Aurora, Colorado, United States
Burnout
Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) - Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel (MBI-HSS MP) is a 22-item survey that covers 3 areas: Emotional Exhaustion (EE, range 0-54, higher score greater EE), Depersonalization (DP, range 0 - 30, higher score greater DP), and low sense of Personal Accomplishment (PA, range 0 -48, higher score greater PA). Each subscale includes multiple questions with frequency rating choices of Never, A few times a year or less, Once a month or less, A few times a month, Once a week, A few times a week, or Every day.
Time frame: Change from baseline to immediately after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up
Leadership
Mayo Clinic Leadership Index (MLI) - a validated, self-report instrument developed at Mayo Clinic that asks healthcare professionals to rate their direct-report supervisor across key dimensions of well-being centered leadership, including inclusion, communication, empowerment, professional development, and recognition. The instrument is a 9-item questionnaire. Each item is scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree").
Time frame: Change from baseline to immediately after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up
Professional fulfillment
Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI) - a validated instrument designed to measure professional fulfillment (positive aspects of work) among physicians and other healthcare professionals. It includes 6 items assessing intrinsic positive reward from work (e.g., meaningfulness, satisfaction, sense of contribution). It was measured on a Not at all true (0), Somewhat true (1), Moderately true (2), Very true (3), Completely true (4) scale.
Time frame: Change from baseline to immediately after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up
Leadership self-efficacy
Leadership self-efficacy was measured with a modified version of the Mayo Leadership Index to assess their confidence in enacting each of the leadership behaviors. 8-items from the Mayo Leadership Index were modified to start with "I feel confident I can…" and were measured with the following scale: Strongly Agree (5), Agree (4), Neither Agree nor Disagree (3), Disagree (2), Strongly Disagree (1) scale.
Time frame: Change from baseline to immediately after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up
Belonging
Adapted from the belonging assessment used in Hunderfund et al., Sense of Belonging Among Medical Students, Residents, and Fellows: Associations with Burnout, Recruitment Retention, and Learning Environment. Two items capturing participants' self-reported sense of belonging within key institutional contexts - within the school and their unit. This was assessed on a 1 = Strongly disagree to 5 = Strongly agree scale.
Time frame: Change from baseline to immediately after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up
Social isolation
Social isolation - the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) 4-item short form of the social isolation scale was used. It was measured on a Never (0), Rarely (1), Sometimes (2), Often (3), Always (4) scale.
Time frame: Change from baseline to immediately after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up
Organizational health climate
Organizational health climate assessment includes 10 questions assessing their organization and supervisors engagement in practices that support employee health. It was measured using a Strongly Agree (5), Agree (4), Neither Agree nor Disagree (3), Disagree (2), Strongly Disagree (1) scale.
Time frame: Change from baseline to immediately after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up
General self-efficacy
General self-efficacy measures an individual's broad, stable belief in their own capacity to cope with a variety of challenging demands, and has been identified as an influential variable related to adaptation to stress and chronic illness. This was measured with Romppel et al.'s (2013) measure. It has 6-items measured with a Not at all true (1), Hardly true (2), Moderately true (3), Exactly true (4) scale.
Time frame: Change from baseline to immediately after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up
Intent to leave
This outcome is assessed via a single self-report survey item developed for this study to capture an individual's perceived likelihood of leaving employment with the CU SOM within the next two years. The item is designed to serve as a pragmatic indicator of turnover intention, a commonly reported correlate of well-being, job satisfaction, and organizational climate in healthcare workforce research.Higher scores indicate a greater self-reported likelihood of leaving CU SOM within the next two years (i.e., stronger turnover intention).
Time frame: Change from baseline to immediately after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up
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