Leadership Is a Critical Tool in the Public Health Sector - Essay Example

Critical Reflection: Leadership and Management Leadership is a critical tool, especially in the public health sector that has a number of challenges. A leader has to hone his or her skills to suit the prevailing needs and to resonate well with his/her followers. One can define leadership as the ability to motivate and inspire followers to work together towards attaining a common or shared objective. Since leadership requires some form of influence on the followers, it is imperative for the leader to uphold the highest standards of honesty and integrity. Primarily, the responsibilities of a leader include mentoring, problem-solving, conflict resolution, decision-making, planning, and relationship building. It means that a leader has to have high emotional intelligence and be mindful in order to be successful and competent. In the public health sector, leadership may come in the form of a Medical Coordinator or the Director of a large health organization like World Health Organization (WHO). Whether in the political arena, organizations, family or in public health organizations, leadership is a key component of managing people. A leader has to guide and direct his followers. The leader can only do that if he/she has a significant influence on his people. Ego and leadership do not correspond because leaders who are egocentric usually possess little knowledge and vice versa. Furthermore, Good leadership and management in the public health care sector will always lead to efficiency, elimination of mistakes, positive patient outcomes, and better population health outcomes. Dr. Kiran Martin is an example of good leaders who transcended insurmountable odds to transform the society positively. Owing to the fact that no single leadership style can work in all situations, various leaders have chosen distinctive leadership styles that suit their prevailing needs. Whichever leadership style adopted should benefit the lives of the followers and those of their leaders as opposed to making them miserable. The major types of leadership styles include transformational leadership, transactional leadership, autocratic leadership, participatory leadership, servant leadership, transcendent leadership, situational leadership, and Laissez Faire Leadership Styles. Any one of these leadership styles may be applicable in unique situations, depending on the characteristics of the leaders in question. While others require active participation of the leaders, some require a passive approach to public health management. As far as Laissez Faire Leadership Style is concerned, it is worth noting that only leaders with competent staff normally try to be ‘hands-off.’ The leaders in this particular case play a passive role in the management and guidance of their followers. They may only chip in when they have to make serious decisions. On the other hand, the followers, employees, and juniors in this case have a high self-motivation and do not necessarily need the direction of their leader. The autocratic leadership style is the opposite of Laissez Faire leadership style in the sense that leader micro-manages every aspect of the organization with little participation of his/her followers. The leader is the main authority and his/her decision is final. Participatory leadership is largely a merger of both Laissez Faire and autocratic leadership styles, but each scaled down significantly. Perhaps transformational leadership is the most popular form of leadership style because it involves the seeking of the trust and assurance of the followers towards a certain objective or goal. Such leaders try to be role models and sell their ambitions to their followers in order to gain charisma. On the other hand, transactional leadership involves rewarding good performance and punishing poor performance. It is close to situational leadership except that situational leadership focuses on the problem or need at hand because the next need may require a different approach. In all these leadership styles, ethics may a major role and some leaders tend to adopt ethical style of leadership by conducting themselves in a way that shows respect for others. Since leadership involves a number of aspects, some people actually believe that leadership is hereditary or innate. The reality is that one has to none their leadership skills if he/she wants to become a competent manager, especially in the public health sector. I recommend that even the accomplished leaders should continue to refine their leadership skills to match the dynamic world that comes with changing needs. For instance, emergence and re-emergence of diseases may necessitate the incorporation of various leadership styles that a leader can learn. Fundamentally, good leadership comes from patience, perseverance, practice, emotional intelligence, and change management. In their quest to ensure efficiency and orderliness in their areas of management, leaders encounter various challenges, some of which require emotional intelligence and mindfulness. The public health care sector is one sector that has countless needs because of the unpredictable situations that normally arise. In this respect, leaders in public health care sector ought to be good communicators and good planners, particularly in times of disease outbreaks. These characteristics will enable them to negotiate with various stakeholders on the best approaches to adopt. Additionally, team building is an essential part of leadership because teamwork has proved to overcome insurmountable odds. It means that leaders themselves have to be team players who can motivate and coach their followers to work towards achieving a common goal. I have learnt that leaders are usually visionary as opposed to managers whose main objective is to maintain the prevailing favourable situations. Consequently, leaders normally embrace change and transformation in order to keep abreast of the dynamic nature of needs, especially in the health care sector. In this sense, leaders have to keep on developing their skills whilst managing the existing needs appropriately. From experience, reading is a commendable way of honing one’s leadership skills because one improves their conceptual knowledge in the wider perspective. Moreover, a person can work in improving a particular aspect in him/her while at the same time volunteering in minor leadership roles in order to gain experience and insight. Since leadership is a dynamic area, continuous learning and practice is essential. Given the fact that leaders can be either competent or inept depending on their approaches, attitude, and practice, certain personality traits can make effective leaders. I believe that self-assurance and enthusiasm top the list of the traits of highly effective leaders. Leaders have to believe in themselves first before many people can follow them and believe in them. Secondly, trustworthiness is part of a good leader’s reputation because reputation id everything in leadership. Other personal traits that make leaders effective include warmth and emotional stability. It means that no matter how much leaders can be extroversion assertiveness, they must be prepared to endure high levels of stress and frustrations. Of course, humour plays an important role in lightening mood during strenuous leadership activities. Although participating in a leadership role can be one of the most fulfilling moments in life, I think passion and ethics are indispensable. More often than not, leaders, especially those serving in the health care sector, find themselves entangled in ethical dilemmas. Since leaders influence a huge number of followers, they ought to display the right leadership behaviour. In my view, such leadership behaviours may include the relation, task, consideration, and initiative behaviours. An ethical leader would want to protect and uphold equally the rights of his/her followers and those of his/her boss or partners. In the process of doing so, a leader ought to demonstrate ethical behaviour and choose an approach that will not lead to the detriment of one party. Read More