Main Body
An Overview of Leadership Principles and Theories
Seth Frey
Throughout my 10+ years of experience in both business and healthcare, I have personally moved from roles that fit the more traditional definition of a follower, to that of a manager, and more recently to that of a leader. As I have progressed to my current level of the organization, I have also witnessed, and been a participant in, areas with both effective and ineffective managers and leaders that have tremendous amounts of followers or some leaders that have no true followers.
Over the course of this chapter we will cover a high-level definition a leadership, the differences between leadership and management, why leadership has become a dynamic factor in healthcare systems, and different leadership principles and theories. These topics will also be further enhanced with personal reflections of my decade worth of experience in both business and healthcare.
What is Leadership?
There are thousands of specific ways to define leadership but most follow a definition similar to that of how Bruce E. Winston and Kathleen Patterson of Regent University define (in part) leadership: “A leader is one or more people who selects, equips, trains, and influences one or more follower(s) who have diverse gifts, abilities, and skills and focuses the follower(s) to the organization’s mission and objectives causing the follower(s) to willingly and enthusiastically expend spiritual, emotional, and physical energy in a concerted coordinated effort to achieve the organizational mission and objectives. The leader achieves this influence by humbly conveying a prophetic vision of the future in clear terms that resonates with the follower(s) beliefs and values in such a way that the follower(s) can understand and interpret the future into present-time action steps…” (Winston & Patterson, 2017).
This definition encompasses all the aspects that I personally feel an individual need to do/have to be considered a leader. Not until recently did I think of myself as a leader. This epiphany did not occur until I understood how my thoughts on the future of my organization were being perceived by others. For example, my organization was very price focused and believed that the only way to compete in a mature sector was to continue to lower price; my thought (developed through my MBA coursework) was that we should build a strategy to best serve our customers so they continue to buy our product. I, at the time, was pushing for the option to say “no” and the realization that we (the organization) cannot satisfy everyone; we need to build a strategy where we satisfy several customers and are comfortable giving away margin to our competitors. This thought process is now being implemented (since I have developed consensus and a large follower base), and we are see sustainable growth in markets we once did not.
How to Differentiate Leadership from Management
The terms leadership and management are often used interchange