How my Executive MBA is helping me drive innovation in the NHS

NHS change leader, recent 30% Club award recipient and Inspiring Females Scholar Leilei Zhu reflects on how continuous learning on the Executive MBA (London), equality, and innovation are shaping her approach to transforming clinical coding services within the NHS.

Becoming a Change Maker in the NHS

Change in the NHS doesn’t happen all at once - it happens through people who act with purpose. For me, leadership has always started with purpose, passion, and vision. My vision is simple: to grow, to nurture, to look ahead, and to deliver.

Joining Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust as Director of Clinical Coding Services 10 months ago opened a new chapter in my career. I inherited a team full of potential but one that hadn’t been able to sustain proactive change, reflecting a wider challenge across our profession. My role quickly became clear: nurture curiosity, encourage learning, and challenge the status quo - so together, we could define what a digitally enabled service should look like.

Every day, my team put a smile on my face. Their dedication, resilience, candour, and trust make leading both energising and humbling. Reading the NHS Constitution reminds me why this work matters. Its values - improving lives, everyone counts, and working together for patients - guide every decision I make. Leadership is a privilege, and being able to contribute to something greater while supporting colleagues and patients is deeply rewarding.

Why I applied for the Inspiring Females scholarship

The NHS is facing challenges like never before. To be a better leader, I realised I needed to learn, recharge and to draw inspiration from the practices of other industries. I wanted non-fragmented, systemic learning - to sharpen my leadership, deepen my understanding of organisational behaviour and challenge my assumptions. Warwick felt right. The core values: curiosity, openness, restlessness and excellence resonate with me. That is how I strive to be and how I would like my team to strive to be. That is why I applied for the scholarship, believing I can be a role model to uphold those values because they matter to me.

What the scholarship means to me

My first module, Organisational Behaviour, encouraged me to rethink how I understand my role. Concepts such as motivation, emotion, and team dynamics were no longer abstract theories - they reflected the realities I navigate every day in the NHS. Being able to apply these frameworks immediately and share with my team has accelerated my development in ways that self-directed learning alone could never achieve.

The truth is simple: without the scholarship, I wouldn’t be sitting in the classroom. It opened a door that would otherwise have remained out of reach, giving me access not only to world-class teaching but also to a community that continually challenges and inspires me.

One of the things I value most about WBS is the wealth of open learning opportunities - from regular discourses and book launches to seminars and webinars accessible to everyone.

These resources have become something I can share with my managers, allowing us to explore new ideas together and broaden our thinking as a team.

Let me tell you, there is no better feeling than growing alongside your team. When you know that you have a teammate(s) on the journey with you - learning, stretching, and evolving together - in small and practical ways, has definitely made this journey feel more connected and worthwhile.

Championing equality - my way

For me, equality is simple: it begins with offering truly equal opportunities and recognising people as individuals. A job title does not define a person’s worth or determine their potential - merit and integrity does.  When we look beyond labels and assumptions, we create space for people to thrive based on who they are and what they bring, not the boxes they are placed in.

Championing equality isn’t about grand gestures; it’s about everyday choices. It’s the decision to listen without bias, to question outdated norms, and to create environments where talent is seen, valued, and nurtured. It is about ensuring that every person feels they belong, not because they fit a mould, but because they are who they are.

Living the WBS Change Maker values

When I visited The Shard for the WBS Open Day earlier this year, two quotes displayed on the wall immediately caught my attention. The first read, “Nothing is constant; everything changes,” attributed to Frida Kahlo. The second, from Vivienne Westwood, stated, “You have to make people feel great before you get change.”

These simple statements resonated deeply with me.

Change is inevitable, but meaningful change is never imposed. It is sparked through positive engagement, not pressure; through inspiration, not instruction. These quotes reminded me that effective transformation requires empathy, trust, and the willingness to walk alongside others - not ahead of them. It is a shared journey, not “your” journey alone.

At Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, we encourage our team to question why we are doing certain things we do, identify deficiencies in an embedded process, propose a new idea to support our clinical colleagues, learn best practice or new ideas from another department, or encourage a teammate to try something different. We are not afraid of failures as somebody has to be the first one to innovate and I want that someone to be my team.  These are the essence of the WBS Change Maker mindset.

Advice for future applicants

When I joined WBS, I came with a very specific purpose: to become better at my job and to grow into a better leader - one who can influence, collaborate, support, and guide others with confidence and integrity. Because of that, my advice may differ from what others might offer.

Start by rethinking your motive: Know exactly why you want to pursue this journey. If your main goal is simply to add three letters after your name, you’ll miss the deeper value of the experience. Put learning above everything else.

During our induction, Professor Dimitrios Spyridonidis asked us a thought-provoking question:

“Do you think getting an MBA will make you a good leader?”

The answer, as we discovered, is no.

A qualification alone won’t give you courage. It won’t teach you empathy. It won’t instil integrity or purpose. Leadership is rooted in who you are and how you show up for others - not in credentials or titles.

My Executive MBA won’t magically make me a better leader. But the learning journey - the conversations, challenges, self-reflection, and growth - absolutely will. And that’s what I hope it will do for you, too.

It’s an exciting, transformative journey. Commit to it with openness and intention, and it will shape you far beyond the classroom.

Closing reflection

Being an Inspiring Females Scholar is both a privilege and a responsibility. It has strengthened my commitment to shaping a digital future for clinical coding and contributing to an NHS that evolves with compassion, ambition and inclusivity. My journey is still unfolding - but every step reminds me why I chose this path: we are here to serve, to grow and to create change together.