Introduction
Notably, healthcare facilities are working environments that require exceptional leadership that focuses on providing efficient, quality, and safe healthcare services to the highest degree possible. As a healthcare employee, I have observed that clinical environments are subject to changes in laws and regulations, rapid technological changes, increasing ethical issues, increased cost, and untimely clinical advancements. Consequently, different leaders apply various leadership styles based on their desirable characteristics and the prevailing conditions.
Transformational and Autocratic Leadership Style
For the recent months working as a clinician in my current workstation, I have encountered various leaders using transformational and autocratic leadership styles. Both transformational and autocratic leaders differ in several aspects. For instance, transformational leaders focus on achieving high employee productivity by creating good relationships, motivating the staff, sharing their vision with employees, and building employee confidence to ensure jobs satisfaction (Sfantou et al., 2017). On the other hand, autocratic leaders make autonomous decisions that they expect every staff member to follow unquestionably.
In addition, autocratic leaders advocate for precision and do not provide room for errors, and autocratic leaders do not entertain errors. Therefore, autocratic leadership seems a better style to apply during healthcare emergencies than transformational style.
Current Leadership Style and Personal Opinion
Currently, the leader of my workstation is exercising a Laissez-Faire style of leadership. Nowadays, every employee has the freedom to make decisions and act on them without having to consult or wait for the leader (Sfantou et al., 2017). Of all the above leadership styles, I find Laissez-Faire the best style in a healthcare setting because it allows the staff members to grow in their careers and attain equal leading capacity as their leaders. In addition, Laissez-Faire fosters a good relationship between leaders and employees and is applicable during healthcare emergencies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, various leaders lead clinical institutions using different leadership styles depending on the prevailing healthcare conditions. The application of any leadership style comes under consideration its beneficial qualities and the leader’s focus. While pursuing my career as a clinician in my current workstation, my leaders have at certain times used transformational, autocratic, and Laissez-Faire styles. Leaders use these leadership styles for increasing productivity, emergencies, or to promote leadership skills in employees.
Reference
Sfantou, D., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A., Sifaki- Pistolla, D., Matalliotakis, M., & Patelarou, E. (2017). Importance of leadership style towards quality of care measures in healthcare settings: A systematic review. Healthcare, 5(4), 73. Web.