Leadership Perspectives, Theories, and Qualities: A Comprehensive Exploration - Free Paper Example

Question 1: Personal Leadership Philosophy

I believe that leadership is a privilege that involves the responsibility to motivate, direct, and inspire others to work towards attaining the organization's goals and vision. I understand that the most crucial asset to any organization is the people. As a leader, my most important duty is to know and understand the staff, recognize their concerns, and take great interest in them as individuals. For me to achieve this goal, I understand that I must be approachable. My subordinates need to be comfortable communicating any news, whether good or bad, and, therefore, as a leader in need to be the source of information flow. I also believe that it is important to empower others to make decisions for the organization's future. Therefore, I intend to delegate the decision-making process to subordinates, but only on the decisions that I truly believe they can give their best intentions. I do not intend to ask anyone to make decisions that are not aligned with their responsibility level or beyond their professional abilities. I shall not delegate decisions or instructions and micromanage them; instead, I will trust the staff and verify any decision that they will make. I will offer my complete support and guidance. I will not criticize but critique their decisions.

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I also believe that leadership is about encouraging and inspiring others through the entire organizational process. It involves creating a positive environment where all people can use their skills and attain their highest potential. I plan to be supportive of others to foster innovative ideas and healthy channels of communication. I believe that a leader should be considerate of other people's feelings and use their passion for their own good. I will value other people's opinions, respect their values and beliefs, and listen to their suggestions critically and with an open mind. Ultimately, leadership is about being a pillar that other people can lean on. To build a robust organization, I will be focused on developing creative strategies that are focused on achieving the organization's goals and propelling it forward. I am a transformational leader who believes in leading by example. I will not delegate duties to employees that I cannot do myself. I value persistence and dedication and strive to be that leader who inspires others to follow my lead. I will be that leader who makes every individual in the organization have pride in what they do and empowers them to understand how their presence contributes to the organization's overall good.

Question 2: Leadership Theories

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a management style where leaders empower, motivate, and inspire subordinates to innovate change to help shape and grow the company's success (Khoshhal & Guraya, 2016). Leaders accomplish this goal by setting an example through a robust sense of worker ownership, effective corporate culture, and independence. Transformational leaders empower their subordinates to make decisions without micromanaging them (Khoshhal & Guraya, 2016). They have full trust in their employees to make credible decisions and allow them to be creative and find solutions to current and future problems. Transformational leaders empower their employees and prepare them to become transformational leaders themselves through training and mentorship.

Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership is a leadership style where managers and leaders rely on rewards and punishment to ensure employees' optimal performance (Nawaz & Khan 2016). Therefore, transactional leadership involves a transaction or exchange, where the leader rewards employees who perform best in their duties and punishes those who do not perform according to the set standards (Nawaz & Khan 2016). Transactional leaders assume that employees are not self-motivated to perform their duties, and therefore, they need supervision, instruction, and structure to achieve organizational goals (Nawaz & Khan 2016). This theory also assumes that employees will perform duties as the leaders want them to exchange for something they want, such as pay.

Democratic Leadership

Democratic leadership is a leadership style where members are more involved in the process of decision-making. Democratic leaders allow every employee to participate in the decision-making process, ideas, and suggestions are exchanged freely, and brainstorming is encouraged (Khoshhal & Guraya, 2016). Democratic leadership style focuses on group equality and the free flow of ideas. However, the group leader is responsible for providing control and guidance. The democratic leader is responsible for selecting team members and deciding the members who will participate in the decision-making process (Nawaz & Khan 2016). Research shows that this leadership style is among the most effective types that result in enhanced productivity and employee motivation.

Question 3: Transformational Leader

The leader that I admire the most is Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Over time, Bezos has grown an empire and successfully runs one of the world's largest companies. Bezos is a task-oriented and transformational leader because he always seeks ways to become creative and innovative (Solanki, 2019). He is popularly known for planning and achieving results through innovation and creativity. He looks at the long-term public needs and wants and connects to come up with ways that will effectively meet these needs. First, Bezos always focuses on long-term goals (Mishra, 2016). He ensures that each of Amazon’s phases involves serving the customers and that each step of the process aligns with the company's vision, no matter how big or small. Secondly, Bezos believes in strong communication skills. He believes in communicating clearly and precisely to avoid mistakes and miscommunication.

Bezos also leads by example (Mishra, 2016). He sets goals for himself first, works towards achieving those goals, and ensures that he achieves them. After achieving his own goals, he directs his employees through the same process (Solanki, 2019). He does not believe in strict supervision; rather, he believes in motivating and inspiring his employees to follow his lead. Lastly, Bezos sticks to laid-out goals and plans regardless of obstacles or problems that may arise (Mishra, 2016). He ensures that he develops a clear and strategic plan so that when criticism comes inevitably, this plan helps him stay on course (Solanki, 2019). To Bezos, effectively knowing the market is paramount. He believes that any business needs an established market to ensure that products or services will sell. He believes that it is better to have a mediocre good for a large market than to have a lucrative product with not market.

Question 4: Can Leadership be Taught?

Yes, leadership can be taught. Leadership can be learned, and if it can be learned, then it can be taught. Several leadership aspects require practice. Not all leaders have inborn traits that dictate their leadership capabilities. Even the best leaders in the world did not have innate leadership traits from the first instance. They had to go through failure to find ways of working with their teams to discover success. Many leadership aspects can be learned or taught. For example, a good leader needs to be an excellent communicator to communicate its vision to the team. If a leader cannot pass a message across concisely and simply, no matter how brilliant the idea is, it may be lost to the staff.

However, communication can be taught and learned. Communication skills need practice to become perfect. Leaders can learn excellent communication skills by finding out what they need and how they need it. Leaders also learn through experience. The longer one is in a specific position, the better they are at becoming perfect. Leaders can learn effective skills by watching others and learning from them. For example, transformational leaders mentor and motivate their subordinates to become transformational leaders in the future.

Question 5: Qualities of a Healthcare Administrator

The sole purpose of a hospital is to deliver quality care to patients. However, in hindsight, just like any other, hospitals operate like any other business (Cyprus, 2016). Therefore, successful healthcare administrators should combine patients' well-being with managerial or leadership skills. As the chief operations officer, I will select a healthcare administrator who has credible knowledge of the industry (Cyprus, 2016). This person would have to have a master’s degree in healthcare backed by The Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME) (Casullo, 2019). Administrators with a CAHME-accredited MHA possess quality education, the relevant skills, and networks to help them be effective healthcare administrators.

Secondly, the healthcare administrator must be a leader. Healthcare administrators are among the hospital's executives, and so they are mandated to inspire others to deliver quality care (Casullo, 2019). As such, administrators must have effective leadership skills and command respect and authority from others. Also, the healthcare administrator I select must be a critical thinker. They need to possess effective analytical skills to determine the organization's most appropriate course of action (Casullo, 2019). An administrator's job requires solution-oriented individuals who can monitor goals and data to make informed decisions (Cyprus, 2016).

Lastly, the healthcare administrator I select has to have effective relationship-building skills. During the day, a healthcare administrator might communicate and interact with many people, including doctors, the board of governors, patients, and the finance team. Therefore, they must build strong relationships and communicate clearly to rally others towards a common goal and the smooth running of the organization(Cyprus, 2016). They need to formulate relationships that are founded on trust and to make decisions that are aligned with the organization's long-term goals.

References

Casullo, M. E. (2019). How to become a leader: Identifying global repertoires for populist leadership. In Populism and World Politics (pp. 55-72). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Cyprus, J. (2016). Seven skills you must have to be a great hospital administrator. Retrieved from http://www.healthworkscollective.com/

Khoshhal, K. I., & Guraya, S. Y. (2016). Leaders produce leaders and managers produce followers: a systematic review of the desired competencies and standard settings for physicians’ leadership. Saudi Medical Journal, 37(10), 1061.

Mishra, A. S. (2016). The Role of Corporate Leadership in Business Growth. Effective Executive, 19(2), 5.

Nawaz, Z. A. K. D. A., & Khan_ Ph.D., I. (2016). Leadership theories and styles: A literature review. Leadership, 16(1), 1-7.

Solanki, K. (2019). ‘To what extent does Amazon.com, Inc success be accredited to its organizational culture and ND Jeff Bezos's leadership style?. Archives of Business Research, 7(11), 21-40.