Leadership & the New Public Health: Analysis of Approaches to Leadership - Essay Example

?Analysis of Approaches to Leadership Leaders require a number of attributes to successfully manage the workforce under their surveillance. Self-esteem is one of those personal traits which lead to successful and efficient leadership. A person with positive self-esteem will not take the mistakes or wrong decisions as negative evaluation of his/her performance but will be motivated to learn from those mistakes. A leader making a wrong decision with high self-esteem will accept the mistake but will ensure not to repeat it (Barker, 1992 pp 159-160). On the other hand, a self-centered leader will be more motivated toward getting rather than giving. Leadership requires the leader to be familiar of the employees, customers and other affected by his decisions. If a leader is self-centered his decisions will be based on his own personal interest and will. An effective and ethical leader should always care for others or at least give enough consideration to their needs and the consequences of his decisions. The self-esteem and confidence help in developing long-lasting and strong relationships and on the other hand, self-centeredness takes the leader towards apathy and disloyalty of the related people. Health care field calls for more ethical decision making as people’s health and life is directly or indirectly related to the decisions made by the leaders. In the health care field, personal interests are not given priority over others. The concept of stewardship applies in the healthcare field as healthcare providers are accountable for their actions and decisions made for the individuals. Hence, the concept of self-centeredness fails in this context and patients and other employees are given the power to communicate and discuss the possible outcomes of the decisions made to provide proper treatment and comfortable healthcare environment to the patients and clients. The hedgehog concept On average, it took 4 years to clarify the hedgehog concepts of the good-to-great companies. The hedgehog concept simply requires a person to identify certain truths about him or in case of a business or organization to clearly understand what is important and interesting to them (HBR, 2011). The hedgehog concept requires the answers to the following three questions or ideas: What one can be the best in the world? What drives one’s economic engine? What one is deeply passionate about? For instance, firstly it is important for a person to identify what skills do each member of the healthcare providing team has. A person with good communication and management skills should be delegated the task in the administration area, for instance. Knowing the potentials of doing something and professionally applying those skills are different. Hence, it is important to apply the first idea of hedgehog concept and polish the existing skills of a person. The next step is to attain economic advantage which acts as a motivational force for the person. This, in the healthcare field, may be the compensation of the staff or free medical facilities provided to them. The last requirement is to enjoy the work and feel completely integrated within the organization. A person leading a team who is not sincere or loyal to the healthcare provider’s main object, may harm the overall success of the organizational objectives. Principles of good leadership: Barber (2004) assert that the US army laid 11 principles of good leadership in the year 1983 which are briefly explained as follows: Recognize yourself and pursue self-improvement – For an individual to better understand himself/ herself it is important to comprehend his/her be, know and do qualities. Self- improvement is a continuous process of strengthening ones attributes by systematic interaction, self- study process or formal lessons. Be theoretically skillful – A leader should know the job and have an acquaintance with the employees assignments. Be responsible for your actions – A leader will never play a blame game and will always analyze the panic situation and take necessary actions. Make timely decisions – A wise leader possess strong decision making skills. Be an example setter- Mahatma Gandhi once said; We must become the change we want to see. A leader is a trend setter. There lies no difference between his actions and words. Value your resources: A good leader is a good care taker. Keep your workers informed – A good leader always keeps the chain of commands intact. Build a responsible team –A leader makes everyone realize how important they are in their team. Provide healthy communication channel- Communication is the key to the responsibility. Build a team – A leader works in a team. He makes everyone realize they are a team together. Use the full capabilities of your resources – It is a fact, the sense of responsibility will make individuals work for the common goal. A leader creates a team and makes the fullest of them. If we apply these principles to healthcare arena, it surly is an observable fact that healthcare field requires all these principles to be followed and adhered to. For instance, the increasing healthcare needs and costs require using full potentials of the resources through proper allocation and efficiency and the delicacy of health matters require care and a responsible workforce. Hence, leadership in healthcare field may be improved by following these 11 principles laid down by the US army. Trait Theory of Leadership: The Trait Theory is the principal approach towards the study of the concept of leadership. Human beings possess traits that can influence their actions. This is called Trait Leadership (Jago, 1982), according to this theory the leaders were believed to be born rather than made. The early approach was more inclined towards the innate abilities of an individual which was later challenged and was re-conceptualized as the relationship between people in a social environment. Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory A psychologist Gordon Allport, in the year 1936, found out that an English dictionary alone contained 4000 different personality describing words (Allport, & Odbert, 1936). Laying the foundation, he categorized them into three different trait levels mainly Cardinal Traits, Central Traits and Secondary Traits. Cardinal Traits were categorized with qualities which made the person known for those traits (Boeree, 2006). Central were the basic ones forming foundation of personality whereas the secondary traits were only related to attitudes under specific situations. Raymond Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire Another theorist Raymond Cattell condensed the 4000 personality traits into 171 (Cattell, 1965) by eliminating the most rarely used traits. He further used a statistical approach of factor analysis and introduced a ‘Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF).’ Eysenck’s Three Dimensions of Personality : Another model was developed by a British psychologist; Hans Eysenck; which was based upon the three universal trails including: 1. Introversion/ Extraversion- Reserved vs Outgoing 2. Neuroticism/ Emotional Stability- Moody vs Even-tempered 3. Psychoticism- Anti-social, hostile and manipulative. (Eysenck, 992). The Five-Factor Theory of Personality : It was considered that both of the above researches were not fit in some aspect or the other and this resulted in the origin of another trait theory which is referred to as ‘Big Five”(McCrae, & Costa, 1997). This five-factor model of personality represents the following five core traits that work together to form human personality: The Core Traits: 1. Extraversion- The tendency to possess positive energy. 2. Agreeableness- The tendency to adopt and accept. 3. Conscientiousness- The tendency to be decisive and thorough. 4. Neuroticism- The tendency to be hostile and vulnerable. 5. Openness- The tendency to be innovative and inquisitive. Major Leadership Traits : Following are the major leadership traits which include: Possession of Intelligence The level of Self- Confidence The strong determination level The strength of Integrity The height of Sociability Assessing the Trait Approach to Personality : It is widely described on the basis of trait theory that individuals display mannerism according to their innate abilities, however the concept is debatable. It is not necessary that an individual always behaves or responds to certain situation according to the possessed traits (Northouse, 2009). Hence traits are poor predictors of behavior. Another problem arises when theoreticians are unable to report as how or why individual variances in personality arises or develop. The Concept of Emotional Intelligence : Another technique of evaluation of impact of traits over leadership is by the test of Emotional Intelligence. Hence Emotional intelligence can be referred to as the understanding the emotions and its application in the daily routine tasks of an individual (Northouse, 2009). Hence according to this approach a leader and his abilities are important and vital for the leadership approach. Trait Approach helpful to Organizations: There are a wide number of organizations today who are using the Trait Theory in various disciplines internally. For instance, in various organizations it is a common practice to use personality indicating tools and questionnaires. The companies recognize the high demand for well-suited, superior caliber executives and the importance of systematic and targeted selection, hence they are widely using a Psychometric testing tool, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI ®) in order to hook the right candidate in the most appropriate position to make the environment healthy and develop a high performance workforce. Another tool commonly used is the Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (Quenk 2009). Hence, we can say that the trait approach provides a categorical approach of selecting leaders; possessing certain vital leadership traits. How is Trait Approach helpful to Individuals: This approach can be very useful for individual development and finding out the leadership qualities possessed by one so that the future decisions can be made easily. Hence this is a good self-assessment tool, as it displays the strengths and weaknesses of individuals and explains them as how can they enhance their abilities. In the healthcare field, this approach helps in assessing one’s own performance as opposed to the group’s performance. A leader may understand the weak areas of his personality or role and review his leadership style to improve the group/team’s performance. SKILLS APPROACH: Unlike traits approach, where individuals are dealt according to the possession of their personal traits and innate abilities, the skills approach focuses more on the abilities of individuals; which develop by their personal and shared experience which they gain from the day to day learning. Although personality is of prime importance for the leadership but skills approach makes it very evident that knowledge and skills are rightly required in a leader. History of Skills Approach: When the theoreticians were busy finding out the perfect approach towards traits, Robert Katz came up with his classic article titled: ‘Skills of an Effective Administrator’ in the Harvard Business Review, 1955. His efforts were an attempt to surpass the trait issues and give birth to a concept of developing abilities. According to Katz (2009) the skills are what are accomplished by the leaders whereas the traits explain who the leaders are. In his paper he has suggested that the leadership depends on three basic skill levels mainly; Technical skill, Human Skill and Conceptual skill. Three Major Skills: 1. Technical Skills: These skills are related to the knowledge and experience possessed by an individual or a company in order to perform the tasks skillfully. For instance the technical skills possessed by a hospital would include providing better treatment to the patients and handling and curing them expertly. These skills are possessed by the middle and lower levels of management of the organization and are widely used by them as this is a practically applied activity which results in the generation of a final product (Sinha 2010). 2. Human Skills: Unlike the technical skills which is related to skillfully dealing with the objects, things and products; human skill pertains to dealing with the humans. This means making the best use of the resources available and involves a lot of tactics. This skill should be in possession of all three levels of the management. The lower level management should have this in abundance so that they may make the best use of the resources below them. But there is also a need of the middle level management and the upper level management to possess these skills too. 3. Conceptual Skills: The conceptual skills refer to as the skills possessed by an individual or a company in order to deal with the ideas or concepts. Individuals in possession of this skill can give a shape to the vision and goals of their organization. They know how to tactfully handle their ideas in order to give birth to something as a project. These skills are required to keep the building blocks of any organization and design their goals and objectives. These skills are majorly required by the top level management of the organization as they are the developers and thinkers of the organization who are responsible for laying the foundations. However it is slightly required by the middle level managers and the lower level management too in order to creatively finish their assignments. Summarizing the Skills: The three skills i.e. technical, Human and Conceptual, all are required in a good leader, however, the level may vary from one person to another and from an organization to another (Sinha 2010). How the Skills Approach works for an Organization: According to the Katz’s Skills Approach, the significance of the leadership skill fluctuates depending upon the hierarchy level of the leader. If the leader is in the Top Management level; his possession of the skills; would be different from the one in Middle Management level or in the Lower Management level; and he should have strong conceptual and human skills. The Four Skills Model: Nonetheless a research study conducted in the year 2007, examined the skills needed by executives at different levels. Four skills were used in the model which included Cognitive Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Business Skills and Strategic Skills. The results of the research showed that Cognitive and Interpersonal skills are required more in the lower level whereas the need to possess all four skills enhanced as the channel moves on to the higher level (Mumford, Campion and Morgeson, 2007). Hence a leader should possess the Problem Solving Skills, Decision Making Skills and Knowledge in themselves. How the Skills Approach works for Individuals: The possession of the three skills at individual level plays an important role depending on which point you stand or hold. Whether, it is household or personal profession. Every member of the family possesses certain skills according to the role they perform individually or in group. No matter what the role, Human skills are equally required by all individuals and at all levels. The Comparative Analysis of Trait Approach vs. Skills Approach: The Traits approach of leadership can be effective when it comes to hiring an individual for any vacant position of the company. Seeking the help of any of the emotional intelligence tools or the personality trait indicator tools before the appointment, one can frame as to where the individual best fits in accordance to the possessed qualities and the personal preferences. This new tool is now widely being used in the organizations with the name of Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which at initial level helps the employee in knowing the place where he would like to fit in; in an organization. Whereas this cannot be of further help; as at an organizational level; making changes at a large scale in hierarchy or a field change may sound very impossible. However, the skills approach is very feasible in the decision making criteria and in designating of the responsibility according to the leadership excellence. Not only during the hiring procedure of a new employee but also throughout the period of the delivery of responsibilities. Individuals can be assigned duties according to the possession of the Technical, Human or Conceptual skills. Referencing: (2011). HBR's 10 must reads on leadership. Boston, Mass, Harvard Business Review Press. ALLPORT, G. W., & ODBERT, H. S. (1936). Trait-names, a psycho-lexical study. Princeton, N.J., Psychological Review Co. ARTHUR G. Jago, Leadership Theories and model in practice(1982) BARBER, B. E. (2004). No excuse leadership lessons from the U.S. Army's elite Rangers. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley. http://www.netlibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=108608. BARKER, A. M. (1992). Transformational nursing leadership: a vision for the future. New York, National League for Nursing Press.  Bennis, W, (2000), Leadership - Character and Traits, . Available from: http://www.depts.ttu.edu/aged/leadership/leadchr.htm, : [Accessed: Oct 3, 2011]. BOEREE, C. G. 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