Philosophy of Leadership - Term Paper Example

?Introduction A leader should be flexible at all times, which means in all situations. Today, it is not necessary to confine our ideas about leadership on traits and styles. What is important is the thought that every leader should go beyond traits and styles in leadership. Primarily, there is a need to apply this philosophical concept particularly on health issues within the United States. The US health care system is one substantial example in which one could see the need to employ leadership principles. There is a great role every health care leader should play within the context of US health care system. Concerning this, health care leaders must be primarily guided by the actual situations facing the US health care system today. This means there is a need to employ leadership activity that would efficiently and sufficiently respond to varying situations. In this paper, the proponent tries to integrate a personal philosophy of leadership. Within this philosophy, the proponent tries to expound the role a health care leader should play, a leadership theory they should follow and substantial reasons why they should follow such theory. In addition, in this paper the proponent’s current sphere of influence is described including personal assessment on current position and how the chosen leadership philosophy could be applied. Finally, the proponent also tries to elaborate the actual idea how to use informal, formal, positive and negative power implying the chosen personal philosophy of leadership. Leadership and management First, let us define what leadership is all about. Although leadership is an integral function of management, these two have primary distinction that when properly understood would lead to effective implementation of leadership activities in a given situation. According to Kotter (1998), leadership complements management; the former manages with change, while the latter copes with complexity. In the case of the US health care system, many people would agree to the idea that there is a need for relevant change in it. Thus, this issue would require better understanding not just about the associated complexity but how to ensure effective change. For this reason, there is a need to identify relevant information that would lead to successful change. The proponent believes that there is a need to understand the actual context of a certain situation and this is important prior to the implementation of actual change. For this reason, there is a need to understand other relevant concepts associated with leadership. Situational leadership Prior to digging deeper into the main point, let us first understand the prevailing concept about situational leadership. The idea of situational leadership completely debunks traits and styles as primary strong factors associated with leadership (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010, p.472). The theory of situational leadership includes Fiedler’s contingency model and House’s revised path goal theory, which define leadership beyond the context of traits and styles. Fiedler’s contingency model tries to emphasize situational control as important component to a successful leadership. House’s revise path goal theory on the other hand is based on expectancy theory assuming that motivation to exert effort would increase together with environmental factors. In other words, this theory tries to establish the point that in leadership it is important to integrate leader behaviors, employee characteristics and leadership effectiveness. These two theories if to be widely expounded should come together at the bottom line, applying leadership in an organization integrating both styles and actual situations. In the US health care system, it would not be a bad idea if the health care leaders would emphasize a specific style to be employed in their actual leadership. However, in order to employ maximum achievement, a leader should not overlook the idea that there is a need to consider the assessment of actual prevailing situations. Kreitner and Kinicki try to expound the point of situational leadership as the key to achieving powerful influence for it tries to seek actual motivating factors, particularly on exerting efforts through environmental factors. Personal chosen leadership philosophy Based on the stated above arguments, leadership should complement with how to cope with change, but it is important to understand actual prevailing situations in order to successfully implement change. This specific point could remarkably be applied in the prevailing US health care system which currently becomes one of the problems facing the US. Thus, at this point, it is not only important to employ styles and integrate traits with leadership, but above all, defining the actual situations in order to evaluate better moves to be employed on the part of health care leaders. Leadership, sphere of influence and power Leadership is not about power, but influence as suggested by other relevant theories (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010, p.472; Collins, 2005). For this reason, it is not safe assume that leadership could be successfully employed with corresponding power. In the first place, it should not be about styles or traits, but based on the context of situational leadership, there is always a good reason to influence or motivate an individual by evaluating environmental factors. Thus, the environment which constantly brings in different situations should be evaluated. However, it is also important to understand that an individual is primarily influenced by the environment. So in this case, the sphere of influence should speak something more about the kind of environment where a person belongs. This primarily applies to the sphere of influence the proponent has. This means that the kind of situations the proponent is facing right now should substantially define the kind of leadership options that most primarily be implemented especially in the prevailing context of the US health care system. In other words, leadership should therefore be defined based on the actual situations, and the level of influence should therefore be a corresponding implication of associated environmental factors. That is why leadership should not only be defined based on the context of traits, styles or even power. The power associated with employing situational leadership for employing change should be used primarily for motivating individuals based on understanding actual situations and associated environmental factors. Thus, the power associated with defining the actual situations in order to evaluate better moves to be employed on the part of health care leaders within the US health care system. Conclusion We see remarkable problems associated with the US health care system. There are some factors one could therefore consider concerning on how to address them. However, one essential idea that needs to prevail is the concept of change which is highly integrated not only with other relevant management concepts but leadership in particular. For this reason, the proponent identifies the need to integrate situational leadership in order to successfully cope with change within the US health care system. Thus, leadership in this case should not focus primarily on its associate power, but the actual influence that should be generated based on the prevailing environmental factors and situations, and not on leaders’ actual styles and traits. The leaders employing this should therefore initiate situational control, for this could remarkably help them generate higher level of influence and not just power. This leadership philosophy could not just be applied by someone else, but everybody, for this would mean employing the best move based on the prevailing situations and environmental factors. Thus, to use informal, formal, positive and negative power as implication of using this leadership philosophy could substantially be employed by actual initiation of change particularly in the case of US health care system, which a leader should primarily consider with high level of situational control. References Collins, J. (2005).Level 5 Leadership: The triumph of humility and fierce resolve. Harvard Business Review. Kotter, J. P. (1998). Harvard Business Review on Leadership: What Leaders Really Do? Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. (2010). Organizational Behavior (10th ed.). 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