Leadership Style ReflectionAbstract

Effective leadership in healthcare environment is important for delivery of quality health
care and satisfaction of healthcare providers. Given the fact that leadership is often
exercised at all levels of an organization, it is important that every member of an
organization knows their leadership styles, strengths and weaknesses. In this paper I
presented a self evaluation of my leadership style based on analysis of my personality
traits, work experiences, and theoretical leadership approaches. I found that my
leadership style is a combination of situational and transactional leadership approaches.

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Introduction

Health organizations pursue two main goals. The first one is providing of high quality
health care that is characterized by reasonable cost and positive health outcomes for patients. The
second goal is to make profits so that it can sustain itself. The task of achieving these two goals
falls not just on the top leadership of healthcare organizations but every personnel involved in
healthcare delivery in such an organization. The success of the healthcare organization depends
on the effectiveness of leadership provided by everyone in the healthcare environment. Effective
leadership is important in establishing a positive working atmosphere where staff members are
motivated to do their best to achieve positive health outcomes for patients (Ledlow & Coppola,
2013). In a healthcare environment, it is not just persons in positions of authority that provide
leadership; physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and many other personnel provide leadership all the
time. Almost all the time situations arise that call for effective leadership such as when there is
an emergency and the life of a patient depends on the soundness of the decisions of the personnel
taking care of them. Thus, as a person working in healthcare environment I do not need to have a
top position of authority to seriously evaluate my leadership qualities and skills. In this paper I
present a self evaluation of my leadership style based on various theoretical frameworks and
practical experience that I have had in the course of my work.
As Ledlow & Coppola (2013) note, the first step in determining one’s leadership style is
to conduct a personality test. This is because it has been found that there is a direct link between
personality of an individual and their personality type. To determine my personality I assessed
myself using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

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Using this test, I found that I am introverted. As an introvert I am at my best when
working alone because I derive my energy from within. My listening skills are also generally
excellent. Perhaps because of my good listening skills I find it very easy to connect with my
patients as a nurse. I easily make patients comfortable in my presence and because I am a good
listener, I provide them with the care that they need. My introversion allows me to have a
relatively professional relationship with my colleagues because I rarely engage in non-
professional talk that may lead to toxic work environment.
I am also a judging, not a perceiving person. Before making a decision I look at all the
options available and the consequences for each position. Then I choose an option that I believe
brings the most benefits or has the least risks or takes care of the interests of various entities.
Generally, I am not a spontaneous person.
Based on the same test I also found that I am a thinking person, rather than a feeling one.
I prefer to logically look at situations and make a decision that I think is logical. I am generally
not a very emotional person and, therefore, do not put into consideration the emotional impact of
my decisions to persons who may be affected by them.
Lastly, I am a sensing rather than an intuitive person. I like looking at all information
available before making a decision. Such information includes how a given situation was
handled in the past or in another healthcare environment.
In addition to these findings from MBTI test, I also found that I am a Type B personality.
That means that I can focus on one activity or project for extended period of time (Ledlow &
Coppola, 2013). I am also good at relaxing when need be. As a professional in the healthcare
industry this attribute is important because my work often involves supervising my subordinates
for long periods of time.

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Having determined my traits I next looked at the various theories and models of
leadership styles. The goal of this examination was to determine the leadership style that best
applied to me based on my discussed traits and personal experiences. The two leadership styles
that best reflect my approach are situational and transactional leadership.
Situational leadership theory was developed in the 1970s and 1980s by Hersey and
Blanchard (Thompson & Glaso, 2015). The theory argues that there is no single effective
leadership style (Thompson & Glaso, 2015). The type of approach that a leader takes depends
on the task at hand. The approach adopted should be one that guarantees effective performance
of that task (Thompson & Glaso, 2015). Since effective performance of a given task depends on
the willingness and ability of those tasked to perform the task, an effective leader is one who
convinces the unwilling and empowers the unable to perform a given task (McCleskey, 2014).
In the course of my work there have been numerous times I have applied situational
leadership approach. As a healthcare practitioner, I have worked under numerous bosses. I have
also had many people work under me. Early in my career, I had experiences with a horrible and I
swore never to lead the way he did. The boss was authoritarian and his idea of leading was
giving orders which he expected to be followed. It didn’t matter whether you were feeling unwell
or tired. He was also frequently abusive and never bothered to listen to the concerns of his
subordinates. Tasks were, thus, never performed well because of the tense and toxic environment
that he created.
In dealing with my subordinates I take a different approach from the one my boss used to
take. In any given task I make sure that the people performing it have relevant skills and are in
the right physical and mental frame of mind to perform the task. For instance, if someone has
been working continuously for many hours and feels tired I don’t assign them more tasks because

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I know that they are unlikely to perform the tasks well. For subordinates that are generally
stubborn or not self driven I often resort to making orders. Thus, my leadership approach
depends largely on the circumstances and the individuals I am dealing with just as the situational
leadership theory suggests.
Another leadership style that applies to me is transactional leadership. As
Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swammy (2014) note, transactional leadership style involves use of
rewards and punishments to achieve the desired action from followers. In this style of leadership
the goal is not to achieve so distant goal or vision; the leader strives to achieve short term results.
Such results could be daily, weekly, or monthly. Followers or subordinates are induced to
achieve the set objectives through rewards such as praise, promotion, higher salaries, or even
days off work (Holten & Brenner, 2015). Punishments such as criticism are also used to induce
desired action. This style of leadership has been found to be effective in dealing with emergency
situations where short term results are required (Alharbi, 2017).
In the course of my work my leadership style closely follows the transactional leadership
approach described above. Often, any time I give out a task I closely monitor how it is performed
to make sure that there are no errors or faults. Once the task is completed successfully I may buy
the participating workers a drink or even if they are too tired I may give them a time off.
Additionally, I often praise those who perform their tasks well. My goal for these approaches is
usually to motivate my subordinates to accomplish a given task fast and in the stipulated manner.
I rarely employ direct punishment for work not done or for errors committed during performance
of a given task. However, my withholding of praise and other rewards could be viewed as a form
of punishment.

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I believe that the transactional approach that I employ is appropriate for the type of work
that I do. Often, I have to deal with patient emergency situations. In such situations, there is need
for close observation of nurses to make sure that they are handling the patient in an appropriate
manner. The stakes are just too high to allow for errors.
I admit, however, that the transactional approach that I often employ has some major
weaknesses. Perhaps the main one is that tasks are only performed well out of self interest of
those performing them. When there is no possibility of rewards or punishment, such as when I
am not around, they do not perform their tasks appropriately. This shows that the approach does
not instill the kind of motivation required for long term excellence in a healthcare facility.
Indeed, transactional style of leadership has been found to lead to high turnover as staff are only
concerned about short term fulfilment of their goals and have little attachment to the organization
(Delegach et al., 2017).
In addition, this approach is not suitable when an organization may need to make changes
to their policies to better meet the needs of their patients and employees. In such organizations,
transformational style of leadership may be a more appropriate one. As Dvir et al. (2015) note,
transformational leadership style involves the leader creating a vision for the group or
organization, convincing members of the group to be part of that vision and then executing the
vision with the help of committed members. A transformational leader convinces followers to
take ownership of a given project so that its failure becomes their failure and its success their
success (Donohoe & Kelloway, 2016). Their motivation is, therefore, not short term (Engelen et
al., 2015). Neither is it determined by any rewards or punishments.
My leadership involves employment of very few tenets of transformational leadership.
However, I believe that with improvement of some of my leadership skills I may be able to

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achieve a good balance between my dominant transactional approach and transformational
approach. For instance, transformational leadership style generally requires the leader to be a
good communicator. Perhaps because of my introverted personality trait, I am not a good public
speaker. I prefer listening to speaking. If I manage to improve my communication skills, I
believe I can become both a phenomenal transactional and transformational leader.

References

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