Leadership in Healthcare

Core Leadership

Healthcare, like many other industries, relies on good leadership to ensure success in its functionalities and the services it provides to the people. When looking into the future of healthcare, the whole aspect heavily relies on a solution-driven individual. Good leadership qualities are in demand, with healthcare leaders continuing to learn and continuously sharpen their skills to improve their impact (Burnham, 2020). Healthcare leadership encompasses more than being a representative of healthcare professionals; it also harbors values that ensure good patient care management and is critical in analyzing the challenges that may arise. This paper sheds light on leadership in healthcare, highlighting the core skills required, the influences that arise from culture and the interpretation of leadership in different setups. Leadership quality is a valued skill that any profession must embody, and it must ensure that it promotes trust and builds an opportunity for support for every individual.

Core Skills

A healthcare setting experiences vary in functionality, and the role carries a considerable responsibility, including ensuring impactful business performance in the institution. Therefore, a leader in such a setting must be well-rounded, know how to manage his team and the patients, and relay information to the stakeholders when necessary. Some of the core skills required include:

• A moral and ethical approach to leadership is critical to impacting the necessary changes in such a setup (Edwards, 2022). A healthcare leader needs to show utmost respect to the patients and staff. The skill also depicts a commitment to the wellness of the patients and open communication, embodying the true essence of a leader.
• The concept of mentorship in leadership is crucial, as a leader is responsible for preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals (Burnham, 2020). Therefore, an effective leader will hold space for the less experienced in the career path, challenge them to set goals and ensure a compelling career path.
• Healthcare revolves around working around very vulnerable people and may be overwhelming at some point. An empathetic approach to treating patients is critical to making changes and learning and understanding other team members’ challenges (Burnham, 2020). Relating information in a supportive manner is crucial in fostering a positive impact on the patients and the medical team.
• This element takes on high responsibility and is crucial to interaction. Whether it be patients or the medical team, communication opens collaborative opportunities to ensure patients have the best care (Edwards, 2022). A good leader can share responsibilities effectively and accept feedback to help improve services. The approach ensures that delegated tasks are done effectively and covered when necessary.
• Decision-making and Problem-solving. Unplanned events are bound to happen any day, which means poor decisions may deteriorate the situation if action is not taken immediately (Edwards, 2022). The healthcare sector is very fast-paced and will need someone who can assess the risks quickly and make an effective decision when required. The aspect of problem-solving is ensuring that all potential threats are eliminated. The skill requires strategic thinking that covers all possibilities and comes with the right outcome when needed.

Understanding these leadership skills is critical to bringing change and ensuring efficiency in the medical field. A huge part of successful leadership is embodying these skills and their implementation in everyday scenarios to develop solutions. Other skills such as agility, adaptability, and humility are just as essential and share a collective goal of forging success in the healthcare field.

Leadership and Management

Leadership and management are said to be the same. The definition is mainly coined to the belief that the roles of leadership and management are the same; one cannot exist without the other. However, some definitions try to bring out the differences in functionalities, citing leadership as tied to a person’s values. In contrast, management is more of a craft or skill one must learn (Azad et al., 2017). Examining this concept in different industries and setups is critical to highlight that incorporating the two concepts is the main contributor to success in high-performing setups. Therefore, it is clear that leadership and management qualities must be present for a successful administration.

Differentiating the two cannot be effective in achieving success and is seen as a more impactful approach in a healthcare system. Developing and impacting the concept of healthcare leadership is very important and transcends the skills learnt on the job. These values in an individual are essential to shaping how teams in a healthcare setup perform and informing how patient care can be described effectively (Azad et al., 2017). Attention to leadership and management is tied to the individuals’ willingness to entail strategic thinking and approaches to improve the institution’s performance.

Leadership Culture

The approach in leadership is a crucial determinant of the success of a specific group of people. It is tied to the approach leaders use or the culture set to promote success in the said organization. Successful leaders are linked to having related values and beliefs around them that influence the teams they work with (Özcan, 2021). Aspects such as leadership styles play a role in creating the organizational culture. This involves a shared understanding of expectations in leadership that affect how groups or teams should behave. The concept of culture, therefore, determines the assumptions tied to the organizational levels and views on leadership (Özcan, 2021). Leadership styles are inherently seen as the main contributors to positive environments and continue to pave the way for high-functioning teams across different setups.

Leadership styles like transformational and innovative foster an environment where teams take the initiative in the healthcare setting. These styles create a culture that encourages forward-thinking and practical goal-setting, which paces the performance of different professionals across the various setups (Edwards, 2022). A vast responsibility is tied to achieving goals and ensuring service effectiveness. Leaders who embody this approach in managing the teams encourage proactiveness and create a culture of success in the facilities. Other impactful approaches include democratic and servant leadership, which serve diverse setups and teams, ensuring collaboration (Edwards, 2022). Leadership style is highly linked to the success of an organizational culture and, therefore, can be tied to the efforts that hone in on creating an efficient experience.

Leadership Analysis

Reflecting on leadership proves to be one of the most critical aspects of any organization. Learning the different dynamics is essential to understanding leaders’ influence on their followers. Contemporary workplaces have different visions and approaches to leadership that may serve various purposes (Zawadzki, 2020). Leadership practices form perceptions of how workplaces operate, primarily focusing on ethics. When analyzing the aspect of leadership, especially in healthcare, its benefits impact how service is given to patients. Analyzing the leadership style can quickly help understand the organizational culture and approach to fostering problem-solving and teamwork (Malik et al., 2022). Patient-centred approaches are critical in healthcare and are one of the indicators of practical techniques in leadership style and, eventually, organizational success.

In summary, leadership is a critical part of healthcare. A healthcare leader needs to embody skills and values that distinguish them in caring for the patients as well as caring for their teams and followers. Leadership transforms healthcare by ensuring more people and the staff have successful outcomes. Leadership styles are closely tied to creating an organizational culture, whereby styles like transformational leadership allow for innovative and proactive decisions to achieve success. Understanding the impact and essence of leadership in healthcare makes it easy to comprehend how healthcare works and the goals to achieve effective health.

References

Azad, N., Anderson, H. G., Brooks, A., Garza, O., O’Neil, C., Stutz, M. M., & Sobotka, J. L. (2017). Leadership and Management Are the same. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 81(6), 1–5. NCBI. Retrieved from NCBI.

Burnham, K. (2020, October 1). Effective Leadership in Healthcare: 5 Essential Traits. Retrieved from Graduate Blog website: https://graduate.northeastern.edu/resources/leadership-in-healthcare/

Edwards, C. (2022, December 20). Healthcare leadership: Qualities of a good leader | GHE Australia. Retrieved from globalhealtheducation.com website: https://globalhealtheducation.com/au/categories/leadership/leadership-in-healthcare#servant

Malik, M., Mahmood, F., Sarwar, N., Obaid, A., Memon, M. A., & Khaskheli, A. (2022). Ethical leadership: Exploring bottom-line mentality and trust perceptions of employees on middle-level managers. Current Psychology, 42. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02925-2

Özcan, M. (2021). The Bottleneck Metaphor of Leadership Culture: How Shared Understandings About Leadership Develop in Groups and Impede Diversity and Effectiveness of Leaders. Frontiers in Psychology, p. 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635751

Zawadzki, M. (2020). Book review: Critical perspectives on leadership: The language of corporate power. Management Learning, 135050762093525. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507620935252