Spotlight on... Alexandra Tillett

Dr Alexandra Tillett is the pan-London trainee lead for the Faculty of medical leadership and management. She is currently in her penultimate year of Obstetrics and gynaecology training working at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Between October 2012 and 2013, she undertook a fellowship with the London Deanery (now Health Education London) in leadership and management in education, allowing her to develop her interest in postgraduate medical training and realise a drive to improve the quality of training and support for trainees throughout their training.

What’s your day job?

I’m now back in clinical medicine, in my penultimate year of Obstetrics and gynaecology training working at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

My day job last year involved working for Health Education London as the Leadership and Management in Education Fellow for the Head of School, Mr Greg Ward.

Describe your role with FMLM in one sentence

To promote FMLM and the importance of medical leadership and management.

I know my role is restricted to London but I think that we should promote awareness across the UK and encourage wider involvement.

What are the main challenges in your job roles and how do you overcome them?

I think that this question can probably be answered beautifully with Claire Marie Thomas in mind (see our recent webinar series) because I think the main challenges (that perhaps many will sympathise with) to both of my roles is time management. 

I work with lots of academic, very inspirational, forward thinking healthcare professionals and I think that it’s a very exciting time to be working within the NHS. There are so many projects and ideas to get excited about but you can’t be involved in everything. I think that you have to learn how to manage your time, and equally manage your enthusiasm so that you can concentrate on certain projects and deliver on them.

Similarly, the main challenge in my clinical job is working within a finite number of hours, to deliver the best patient care and work as a team within the time available.

How have you improved your own leadership and management skills and why did you decide to do so?

I was looking for a different challenge following achieving MRCOG Membership in 2011. I wanted to augment my clinical practice to beyond a core basis of knowledge. I think I became interested in leadership and management because the next logical challenge for me, as a more senior clinician, was that of managing a team, of supporting colleagues and of supervision. Since working in Health Education London, my leadership and management skills have flourished (I hope!) and I’ve been given some amazing opportunities. My experiences in my role within FMLM, and the mentorship of Daghni Rajasingam, have meant that my skills have gone from strength to strength. My self-awareness and own teamworking abilities in clinical medicine have no doubt vastly improved as a result.

What is the most difficult challenge you see doctors facing in their role as leaders?

I think the continuing change in the NHS landscape is going to be challenging for future leaders.

I believe that flexibility and adaptability to change is going to be imperative. The NHS has obviously evolved vastly since 1948 but I think that this change is accelerating at an ever increasing rate.

How do you cope with that?