Leadership in Healthcare Organizations - Essay Example

? Health Sciences and Medicine Health Sciences and Medicine Introduction: Leadership is an important aspect in every field andis necessarily needed. In the healthcare sector and organizations, the leadership plays a very important role. Healthcare organizations provide critical leadership at almost all levels from nursing to dentistry, from large healthcare hospitals to domestic health provision (Route, 2008). This plan will develop a personal action plan which will be based on the critical approaches to leadership, analyzing the current trends and the future possibilities, along with demonstrating the reflective and self-analytical skills in order to design a successful action plan for the leadership potential for the next two years. Current barriers and opportunities: The leadership required in healthcare organizations is obtained through a degree program which includes training and guidance of how effective leadership should be carried out. The aim of this training is to ensure that these leaders understand the different aspects of work that will be under them. In healthcare, the leaders have to take care of the management, the complexities in the business, and the policy issues (Jumaa, 2008, p. 17). Along with this, the leaders also have to focus on the participation and duties of the team members working under the leader. This includes the clinical process improvement, as well as the management strategies (Hartley, 2010, p. 51). In today’s world, the healthcare sector has become even more challenging as the numbers of patients with diseases and health problems have increased. This is due to the atmosphere. The ozone layer damage resulting in sun’s rays to directly affect the humans, and also the harmful chemicals in the atmosphere as a result of the factory smoke and waste without which industries cannot work. Every aspect of today’s world is linked to one another. Thus many of these issues contribute in the challenging activities of the healthcare sector. It becomes challenging and thus more barriers occur because of the increasing number of patients, limited resources, limited funds, expensive drugs and medicines and lack of technological applications in the healthcare sector (Barr , 2012, p. 10). With the challenging environment comes the challenging leadership. Leaders suffer more challenging situation as they have to manage all these problems and find a solution that could be agreed upon. They are those figures that have to listen to the patients, satisfy them and at the same time manage the employees according to their comfort zones and expertise. The barriers that currently exist in the healthcare sector are communication barriers, financial barriers, allocation of resources and time issues (Gunderman, 2009, p. 123). Communication becomes a barrier because the advanced forms of communicating are not adopted fully yet, which means the communication takes place traditionally. The traditional communication methods may result in misinterpretations, misunderstanding and loss of messages. The leaders fail to communicate effectively with all their employees at once which are the basic root of every problem (Gopee, 2009, p. 144). The reason why the communication methods are not modernized is because of the limited financial aid for the healthcare sector. Even though the financial aid provided to the healthcare sector is a huge percentage of the total funds, it is still not enough. This is because of the increasing needs and demands of the patients that have to be fulfilled. The drugs, medicines, equipments and machineries that would save time are costly, and thus the finances are difficult to allocate. Because of the traditional communication and lack of modern equipments due to limited resources, more time is spent on one patient than should normally be. Leaders are facing barriers with the allocation of time, money and other resources among patients and to improve the healthcare services (Shanks, 2011, p. 31). Leaders have many opportunities that are associated currently with their healthcare practices. These opportunities allow them to enhance their leadership skills and performance which would eventually improve the performance of those working under them too. There are much technological advancement that can be applied to the healthcare practices improving the services, satisfaction levels and patients recovering from diseases (Bercaw, 2013, p. 208). Leaders have the opportunities to improve the communication methods with their employees so that commands can be travelled and understood clearly. There are also many new trainings and programs which teach the newest types of leaderships and approaches to leadership. These may help the leaders to adopt new techniques and practices to successfully deal with the employees and patients (Wolper, 2012, p. 111). Existing understanding of leadership: Healthcare leadership must ensure that the various initiatives are successfully completed and carried. The current leaders understand many of their duties and responsibilities towards the employees, patients and the organization as a whole. Leaders must ensure the strategic planning and the connections between the different stakeholders involved in the organization. Healthcare leaders understand that they have a key role in managing and controlling the stakeholders which include the patients and the employees working under them. It is important for all the stakeholders to be satisfied in order to avoid future problems (Rubino, 2013, p. 2). A leader is not a boss who would pass his commands to his employees and they have to report to him. In fact, a leader belongs to the team and is an equal member, who is answerable to the higher authority. The leader does not only pass orders but rather shows by example and practice along with his team. Thus, these leaders understand that their duty is to apply all the practices, take part in the service providing and participate equally in all activities. Apart from this, the leader’s role in healthcare is to manage the departments, the allocation of resources and ensure the patient satisfactory levels (Wolper, 2010, p. 384). Currently, the leaders are successful in understanding the meaning of leadership and are aware of their duties. This is due to the trainings that they are given which makes them ready to face the challenges. However, problems arise as the challenges become tougher and trends change. With the changing trends of communication, technology and social structures, the leadership structures are also changing. The current leadership understanding is based on the previous trends and cultures in the healthcare organization. This understanding is appreciated in regard to the trends that have been observed up till now. The future predictions and clearly seen assumptions give the idea that leadership structures and approaches must also be improvised and modernized to fit within the healthcare sector (Malloch, 2010, p. 310). Future possibilities of healthcare leadership: In the last 10 years, there is a revolutionary change made to the healthcare leadership culture in order to increase efficiency and restructure the organizations. Because of the technological and social setting changes, the leadership culture is becoming more future-oriented in the healthcare organizations. Even though the financial aspect for the management and control of the organization has been the most important aspect to consider, but the future possibilities of healthcare leadership evaluate the importance of technological advancements, modern communication methods and the different approaches towards leadership as well. The leadership will be given in the hands of those managers who have the potentials of developing broad leadership skills. New leadership approaches include transformative and innovative approaches. These approaches are flexible and future-oriented. The future possibilities of effective and innovative leadership styles have increased greatly because of the advancement seen in technology and changing social trends (Feldman, 2005, p. 270). With the help of new studies, the organizations can introduce new programs and trainings through which they can become more strategically strong and effective. The future possibilities can help leaders gain effective controls, flexible management techniques, modern communication methods and satisfied stakeholders. These factors will increase the overall leadership culture of the organization making it effective (Roussel, 2010, p. 16). Vision of the future action plan and how to achieve it: An achievable and realistic vision for the future action plan is to increase the amount of funds for the healthcare sector and allocate the resources in en efficient way. When these two aspects are controlled and managed, the vision of the future action plan becomes clear and realistic. All the plans and efforts required to ensure a successful leadership culture in the organization are dependent on the financial and functional sectors. The future action plan of the leadership would be to enhance the strategic planning and management within the organization, ensure that stakeholders are satisfied and adequate service is provided to all those who are in need. The best way to achieve this is to call a meeting with the organization’s board of directors and investors to figure out the value of funds that have to be used to fulfill the demands and needs for the successful management techniques. After this, the leader can prepare a report with the help of the marketing, recruitment and finances department in order to allocate the resources and duties to the employees. After this the leader will have to implement the strategies and methods chosen to create a successful future-oriented organization. The best way to achieve the action plan is to coordinate and respect each other. For this, the motivation of employees and educating them is the key part (Smith, 2011, p. 381). Action plan: The action plan for the personal leadership development will focus on the skills and developments that the leaders must adopt. The decision-making should be technological and high-level so that the organization can run on a fast pace to remain competitive and up-to-date. In the next two years, there is a lot that technology has for the assessment of management decision-making as well as clinical practices. The leaders should take decisions that encompass the competitive edge over the other healthcare organizations’ products and initiatives. The most important part is to evaluate the right technologies to be used in the right direction that fit the organization’s future success (Davies, 2010, p. 99). The leaders must also ensure that they are connected to the clinical management. This does not only mean that the managers should know the clinical issues, in fact they should understand them and should be capable enough to evaluate them according to the needs of the patients. When leaders become skilled in the clinical practices, the physicians will effectively carry out their decisions. Leaders must also ensure that they are ready to handle the diverse groups of physicians. Managers in a healthcare organization tackle with many types of people. This includes the cranky and worried patients, and the highly professional and serious physicians. Thus, leaders should be skillful and trained enough to handle the diverse groups of people effectively (Lussier, 2009, p. 28). Leaders must be visionary and innovative. They must develop a culture around them because of which other members are encouraged and attracted towards the culture. This culture can include being visionary and innovative. The leader can develop his own ways of dealing and interacting with the members of the organization. One of the ways is to consider their ideas and apply them in the strategies or decision making process. This would make them feel motivated and they would respect their leader. In these ways the leader can create a respectable position in the organization and form good relations with his members. Development of leadership: Leaders must have self-analytical and reflective skills that enforce them to be visionary, innovative, efficient and respected by the members. There are several personal qualities that must be present in the leader so that he performs potentially as a leader. These skills are necessary when developing the leadership toolkit. Leaders must have the patience and control that helps them to control themselves in hard times. When there are patients and employees who belong to different cultural and racial backgrounds, the leaders must accept them keeping aside their personal feelings about them. They must be unbiased and equal towards all stakeholders. Leaders must also have the urge to learn more through internal and external sources to understand the best technologies and their applications for best investments in the organization. They must have friendly and self-analytical skills to deal with the members as a part of them without showing pride, anger or domination. The leader must also know how to listen to his members and understand them. This helps him create a reputable position in the organization and to make decisions and strategies that are accepted by all. Leadership qualities are not learnt or studied; they develop with time as the leader experiences different and difficult situations. The leadership of healthcare for the next two years must be developed keeping in mind the changing trends and technologies that will exist in the near future. Even though technology assists the leaders in many aspects, it is difficult to assess its application and the decision making process parallel to one another at the same pace. This is why the leader must develop his personal qualities and skills along with professional skills to ensure the success of the organizations in the future. References Barr, J. 2012. 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