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Team coaching is a promising way to advance a shift from the classical leader to a coach who leads his/her interprofessional colleagues. It is acknowledged as an effective instrument to reinforce leaders’ roles but is rarely used in the health-care sector. This paper aims to present the team leader coaching programme (TLCP), designed to strengthen team leaders by implementing coaching tools into their work routine.

The TLCP was designed based on the evaluated intervention on patient-centred team development, an expert workshop and a literature search. It addresses leadership styles, self-reflection, role clarity, attitude, moderation techniques and coaching tools with a focus on systemic questions. It was implemented as a train-the-trainer concept, in two training groups including 27 participants from 12 clinics (“multi-clinic” group) and another in-house training group (“single-clinic” group) including 15 participants from one clinic.

There were differences in the evaluation of the training between the group that received an inhouse training (“single-clinic” group) and the group that received a workshop in a group of professions from different clinics (“multi-clinic” group) with a tendency for a more positive evaluation by the “multi-clinic” group.

The TLCP is a promising programme to potentially improve teamwork in rehabilitation clinics, as it provides team leaders with coaching tools they can use in their work routine without being dependent on external coaches. It is characterized by a reflective stance, which seems to be highly necessary to optimally fulfil the role of a team leader.

Based on a resulting typing model, this paper focuses on four types of leaders (Approachables on the sidelines, Distanced overseers, Realistic succeeders and Dedicated sensitives), who differ in the analytical core category of “development of awareness.”

Internal team coaching is intended to strengthen leaders in the health care system. The Team Leader Coaching Programme (TLCP) was implemented as an internal coaching instrument at rehabilitation centers using a train-the-trainer format. Twenty-one team leaders were surveyed on their experience of the coaching process they implemented in their teams. The interviews were analyzed using the grounded theory method (GTM) as theoretically discussed by representatives of second-generation GTM (Charmaz, 2014).

Use of the TLCP proved to be an intervention for initiating and enhancing an awareness development process regarding team leaders' reflections on their own position and leadership role, regardless of their profession. This process was found to be a prerequisite for implementing the learned content. The typing model is discussed given current contextual conditions in the rehabilitation system and their connectivity in practice for integrating coaching elements into daily management.

This article presents a typology of healthcare leaders. Thanks to the reconstructive approach using grounded theory methodology, this article presents an in-depth analysis of the implementation process of a coaching program. The findings are both connectable to applied leadership research and useable for further development of training and interventions to strengthen team leaders in clinical settings.

Mid-level executives are confronted with many dilemma situations, in which they are forced to decide between conflicting options, none of them leading to the desired result. If they fail to cope with them constructively, their individual risk for mental strains increases (Gerlmaier and Latniak, 2013). Initial findings focusing on executives in industry (Bossmann, 2020) show that fostering effective dilemma management in executives is a preventive factor against stress-related diseases. Yet, there is little empirical research that evaluates the contribution of dilemma management training on leadership’s mental health prevention in hospitals. This study aims to examine whether such a training program, adapted to current working conditions in German hospitals, promotes mid-level executives’ mental health.

A 10-month training program was administered to N = 69 senior physicians, senior nurses and senior service and administrative staff in four hospitals. To evaluate training effects on perceived stress reactivity, on cognitive and emotional irritation over time as well as the effects of the training dose on these results, participants’ self-reported measures were collected at four points in time: before (t0), during (t1), immediately after (t2) and three months after the intervention (t3).

Overall, participants showed less cognitive irritation and perceived stress reactivity over time. However, their emotional irritation did not change significantly. The dose of training participation did not moderate these results.

This paper contributes to the prevention of stress-related diseases and the promotion of sensemaking in mid-level executives’ dilemma management routine in the face of increasingly aggravating working conditions due to financial restrictions in the German health-care system. Findings of this study are explained in greater depth using previously reported qualitative data from the same research project.