The Fundamentals of Leadership in the Workplace

In this paper, I examine the relationship between gender and leadership within healthcare. First, I will identify the current trends of female high-level positions in healthcare. I will take into consideration the traits associated with gender and addressing the barriers. The goal of this paper is to analyze the differences of gender within leadership and identifying the factors to increase the recruitment of high-performing females in the healthcare field.

According to the textbook, Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice, there are over 100 definitions of the word “leadership”, and all of them are unique in their own way (Northouse, 2015, p.1). There are so many different aspects to leadership that is it nearly impossible to have one definition that covers every area. Each and every person that is a considered a leader has his or her own way of leading because every situation, whether it be work, a team, at home, etc., calls for different and distinctive ways of leading people. Northouse states that there are six main aspects of leadership; it’s a trait, ability, skill, behavior, relationship, and an influential process (Northouse, p. 3-6). Giving a clear answer as to what leadership is defined as is very difficult, but this paper will talk about my specific leadership skills and what leadership means to me.

Confidence, integrity, purpose, empowerment, determination, and courage. These are some of the many words associated with leadership. Regardless of gender, these words apply to all leaders. It is no longer a question of what women leaders are, but rather why there are not women leaders. Today’s society focuses on fulfilling leadership positions with males, not because females do not have the same skills and knowledge as men, but because people associate men with leaders. There are various daily obstacles that women face in the attempt towards leadership roles including prejudice beliefs, resistance due to stereotypes, leadership styles, family life demands and underinvestment in social capital. We have found that through depictions in the media, women are not seen as effective leaders in the same sense as men. These media findings and various research techniques provide evidence for the lack of female presence in leadership positions.

From the vantage point of the present, it is easy to look back at the tenure of any great leader and draw conclusions about just what it was that made him/her great. We can examine the circumstances under which their leadership flourished; piece together what we know of their character and personality traits; delve into the factors that may have driven them; and dissect their leadership style all in an effort to pinpoint the source of their success. The ‘Great Man’ theory, popular in the 19th century and now thoroughly debunked, held that leaders are born, not made; suggesting that men like George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and Winston Churchill were born with the innate capacity to change the world (Landis,

What is leadership, and how do we attain the best and most effective leaders? These are questions that are as old as civilization itself. Bass (1974) wrote that, “from its infancy, the study of history has been the study of leaders” (as cited in Wren, 1995, p. 50). Since the study of history in the West is commonly held to begin with Herodotus of ancient Athens, it is not surprising that we should examine the historical views of leadership through the eyes of two titans of Greek thought: Plato and Aristotle.

Leadership is a concept that many probably think is a clear-cut subject that is well understood and extremely recognizable. Many would picture an all-powerful individual in a leadership postion, such as a chief execuative officer (CEO) of a company or a leader of a country. These individuals, most people would identify as obvious examples of people who have qualties, skills, or traits that have set themsleves apart from “the common man” and propelled them into the positions they now hold. It would surpirse many to find out that leadership is not as obvious concept as commonly precieved. In fact, as these indiviuals begin to study the numerous theories and studies on leadership, a picture obscure and non-sensical would emerge leaving the individual feeling like they are no closer to understanding what a “leader” is then when they had started. This relatively unknown truth about the absract concept of leadership is best demonstrated by an analyses of two individuals with two unique views of leadership.

In prior studies, leadership roles have been based off one’s sex instead of gender. According to Park, male gender qualities characterized as; aggressive, independent, objective, logical, rational,analytical, decisive, confident, assertive, ambitious, opportunistic and impersonal are distinguished from female gender qualities described as; emotional, sensitive, expressive, cooperative, intuitive, warm, tactful, receptive to ideas, talkative, gentle, empathetic, and submissive (p. 12). These characteristics brings up the notion of how women pursue being leaders because they are opposite of men who dominates the leadership

Every person is a leader in their own way. BUT, in order to be a successful leader. A leader should develop some great traits that will make them shine in this darkness of so many leaders. In order to let this start shine, the person should know how to communicate with the team in a way that involves empathy and understanding. The second way to add to that is being flexible and open-minded that will enable the team from not only love them but respect them. In order to meet that; it should be looking from accepting what the team has to offer and being more kind of understanding and flexible with them. The third and most important thing to me is; conviction and as I mentioned earlier , that the only way to develop this is by being a great leader and following a great example for them. As I remember from my grandma when she told me: “be a good example for your sister (Down Syndrome) because she will end up being like you, so it is your choice to make your sister in the future.” I would never be able to forget this. And these are the great ways to be a great leader and a leader that not only benefit you or me BUT the entire society. Perhaps we could have more people who pick these traits as one of theirs so we live better. And in order to develop these traits, the individual him/herself have to work on their inner self and start to apply these as much as they can, and we will know and feel this which is by people having more and better

I agree with Manning’s statement that women are hypercritical of themselves and men are often more confident of their abilities than they ought to be. Traditionally, women are more cautious and aware of their actions as they heavily impact their ability to advance within an organization. According to Sebastian Bailey (2014), women are several underrepresented in senior leadership, holding less than 5% of Chief Executive Officer positions in Fortune 500 companies in 2012. Bailey (2014) also suggests that society typically associates successful and efficient leadership with the characteristics of masculine traits and a female leader would violate those gender norms.

the though of a woman being their superior is a dreadful thought. Researchers have long suspected that women employ a different leadership styles than men. And even though women make up only a small fraction of CEOs at the largest corporations in the United States and beyond, their leadership style might actually be more effective than men’s, according to at least

There could also be conflicts with outside organizations such as unions of any represented employ-ees that may be working for the state agency. Many states are seeing cuts in its workforce and this also potentially could reduce the number of represented employees that can be members of a union. This type of cuts will also gain the attention of the media and many workers may feel compelled to share their stories which could make the governor look bad in public.

The results were surprisingly different from general belief. Of the leaders, 64% of them were men and the higher level the more men there were. Despite this, women scored higher than men in most categories and were evaluated as better overall leaders than men at all levels. Survey results prove that women are more nurturing and ethical leaders. Men are stereotyped as being strong-minded and vigorous, but against this belief women were actually demonstrated to be the more ambitious and go-getting leader.

Leadership is a grey territory. The delicate balance between being inspiring and intruding the subordinates as well as co-workers is often hard to find. Every employee comes from a different backdrop with a different set of experiences that shaped his notions of fairness and professionalism. A leader is vested with the responsibility to bring this kaleidoscopic set of values under one umbrella, to sprinkle some of his eccentricities and designs into this mixture and redefine the work culture to include the best of everything. A leader need not necessarily be a superior. He may be a co-worker or a person stationed below the traditional leadership chairs. He just needs to have the vision to recognize a problem when he sees it, and a self-assigned mission to deal with it at the very roots. There are no roadmaps to great leadership. There are mistakes and there are shortfalls. But what sets a leader apart in the potpourri of personalities trying to assert themselves in a common arena is his belief that he can – self efficacy. A leader trusts his own abilities to excel and places faith that he may be able to draw out commitment and a hunger to

The Foundations of Leadership program that has been put into place as part of our talent management program has its focus on creating a talent pool from which the organization may draw for vacancies among from line leadership positions. Collins (2005) pointed out that that the selection and interview processes used by organization are not flawless. Leaders will make good hire decisions as well as bad ones. The Foundations of Leadership program provides an opportunity to observe and assess participant performance, behaviors, and leadership styles in through four days of developmental exercises. The organization receives the benefit of building competencies while also mitigating the risks associated

Gender and leadership? Leadership and gender? A journey through the landscape of theories start off by giving a statistical summary of percentages of women in higher echelon position in the workforce. With this information in the intro, the article quickly highlights the limited representation of women in exclusive positions in Fortune 500 companies. Next, the paper examines multiple theories why this problem exists in the workforce. The four theories examined are biology and sex; gender role; causal factors; and attitudinal drivers (Appelbaum et al, 2003, p. 44).