The Importance of Leadership
Not only in everyday life but also organizational environments, leadership is critical. Leadership helps lead groups of people to solve problems through motivation and structuring. This does not mean that teams without a leader cannot get the job done; it does mean that having a leader helps multiply the productivity and improve the well-being of the included group members. Thus, leadership is not necessary, but it is a critical element of any organizational environment in which employees exist, the need to solve a problem, and interpersonal communication systems.
Leadership in Health Care
The healthcare industry is one such environment in which leadership is paramount. In clinics, especially during COVID-19, medical practice is a little streamlined and difficult for employees, which creates many challenges. Lack of efficiency in this area equals a threat to national health, so leadership as a tool to grow this productivity cannot be used in the industry. However, there are tens of thousands of clinical institutions globally and just as many of their leaders: this creates the phenomenon of a plurality of styles. Two or more real leaders will rarely be identical in perceived values and management techniques, which means that each leader must clearly understand which leadership style he or she is using and why he or she is doing so.
Leadership Style
In general, leadership style should be understood as a leader’s pattern of behavior, characterized by his or her characteristics of communication, positioning, use of emotions, and the way he or she makes critical decisions. Razak et al. (2018) argue that leadership style helps guide, influence, and motivate subordinates, which means it directly bears workgroup performance. Xie et al. (2018) provide an exciting view that leadership style is permanent. This means that leaders generally have the same method of managing subordinates, and changing it requires much work.
The need for a clear understanding of one’s leadership style stems from the need to maximize performance. If a clinic leader acts intuitively and spontaneously, it can lead to systemic errors and conflicts within the organization. For example, if a leader has long built himself or herself up as a benevolent and open to dialogue individual but later begins to overreact emotionally to errors on the staff, this will cause contradictions and misunderstandings among employees. On the contrary, when a supervisor knows precisely what methodology they are broadcasting, it educates the staff and gives the clinic work logic and consistency.
What are they, an effective leader?
An essential question in an organizational setting is determining what the most influential leader should be. However, this question is impossible theoretically because many styles lead to covering KPIs and achieving results. Thus, a democratic leader may be equal in performance to a despotic one, although employees’ mental well-being and constructive motivation differ. Nevertheless, there is a certain common pool of personality traits that any leader must possess; their absence in an individual makes him uninspiring and incapable of managing. First and foremost is the ability to see a situation ahead, to be predictive and predictive. An effective leader must show subordinates that he or she knows exactly where the group is going and what goals need to be achieved (Major, 2019). If people see a leader who is confused, uncollected and has lost his or her bearings, they do not want to trust him or her and cannot see him or her as a prospect.
In addition, a leader must be able to inspire, no matter what the sources of that inspiration are. Some leaders can give motivational speeches, others create the conditions for employees to strive for growth, and others threaten to fire them – each of these ways can make people work harder and bring results to the company. If we talk about increasing inclusiveness, the leader should inspire confidence in people, which means it is necessary to be benevolent and honest. Subordinates will be afraid and will not trust (although they will respect) a despotic leader-dictator, which will be destructive to increase employee engagement. In contrast, a kind and open individual will inspire a desire to interact with him or her, which will positively affect the desire of workgroup members to be more involved in corporate processes. In turn, this improves diversity because, in an environment where dialogue (rather than monologue) is actively encouraged, it creates a positive environment for sharing ideas and experiences. Indeed, the leader must observe professional ethics and act as a guarantee of protection of each participant from undesirable behavior within the group. Conclusion: any conflicts, harassment, and insults are always expected to deal with by influential leaders.
Leadership Styles: Which Ones?
There is no exact number of leadership styles, as authors tend to create their classifications. Most commonly used include authoritarian, democratic, liberal, situational, transformational, and transactional. There are many more variations, but these six are the basic ones, that is, more common among leaders around the world.
Democratic leadership seeks to encourage the involvement of all participants; a plurality of opinions is welcomed in such groups. Such a leader clearly understands and intelligently uses employees’ skills because he sees in it opportunities to achieve a common corporate goal. Levine’s research shows that democratic leadership is the most effective style (Cherry, 2021). On the other hand, an authoritarian leader is isolated from the team and positions himself firmly above it. One person makes decisions in such a team, and in general, there is a centralization of power in any discussion; subordinate participation occurs only by necessity. When decisiveness is required at short notice, the authoritarian leader can be highly productive. The liberal leadership style is built on the principle of non-interference, as “employees know best” themselves. Such leaders are willing to give their subordinates complete freedom and isolate themselves from the team. Hence, aspects of vertical motivation are not peculiar to this type of leadership.
The fourth type of leadership is situational, in which the manager can use a set of different practices to manage depending on the conditions. A high focus on people can replace a high task orientation, or it can be transformed into the total absence of a leader in the team with delegating command. This kind of leadership is helpful in industries where conditions can change drastically, and a measured and calm work schedule can easily replace the urgent pace of decision-making. There is also transformational leadership, which focuses on the employee’s qualities and the leader’s motivation to enhance these qualities. Group members are perceived as valuable resources; only their well-being is the basis for achieving the goal. Finally, transactional leadership uses the principle of carrot and stick, where pleasant encouragement is replaced by authoritative pressure. This style is not designed for creative companies and brainstorming but for the precise execution of a clearly defined task, where responsibility is distributed between the participants.
For Health Care
For healthcare, the two most significant styles are democratic and authoritarian, as these are the ones that can bring the most effective to a clinical company. Democratic leadership will emphasize a diversity of professional opinions from specialists, which is especially important in collegial discussions of diagnoses and treatment plans. It will enhance the quality of work, the creative involvement of health care workers, and an interest in the ultimate mission of the clinic. On the other hand, a democratic style requires full involvement and cannot work with conflicts within the team.
On the contrary, authoritarian leadership by a respected chief physician will allow each specialist to do his or her job and eliminate any problems of negligence and permissiveness. In addition, it allows for disciplined completion of tasks in a short time frame. However, this style does not provide a creative component to the company’s work, encourages work stress and overwhelm, and creates a monopoly of power in the team.
Predictors of Leadership
Leadership styles are not born by themselves but become products of an individual’s social upbringing. One of the most discernible patterns is the observation of parents in childhood and the unconscious desire to copy them. In addition, the organizational environment also affects the selection of leaders – if the work is associated with the need to carry out its tasks firmly and the lives of patients depend on it, then liberal connivance seems completely inappropriate. Part of the connection can be traced to the socio-political structure in the community: if it is characterized by authoritarianism, company leaders may unconsciously repeat after the politician in the hope of encouragement.
Additional Predictors of Leadership
However, the world is changing, and common approaches to leadership are changing. Globalization catalyzes humanitarian norms in which the identity and dignity of employees are respected (Perez, 2017). The ability to borrow experiences from other cultures, especially in multicultural organizations, catalyzes the need for more loyal leadership styles that accommodate a diversity of opinion. Tolerance, inclusiveness, and sustainability may be valued in such companies, and thus rigid leadership styles may seem ineffective. Thus, organizational environment conditions impose serious constraints on possible leadership styles.
References
Cherry, K. (2021). Leadership styles and frameworks you should know. VeryWell Mind. Web.
Major, D. (2019). Developing effective nurse leadership skills. Nursing Standard, 24(6), 61-66.
Perez, J. R. (2017). Global leadership and the impact of globalization. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 14(3), 48-52.
Razak, A., Sarpan, S., & Ramlan, R. (2018). Effect of leadership style, motivation and work discipline on employee performance in PT. ABC Makassar. International Review of Management and Marketing, 8(6), 67-71. Web.
Xie, Y., Xue, W., Li, L., Wang, A., Chen, Y., Zheng, Q.,… & Li, X. (2018). Leadership style and innovation atmosphere in enterprises: An empirical study. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 135, 257-265. Web.