Effective Leadership Styles and Employee Engagement

The assignment discusses the importance of transformational leadership in inducing people under their supervision through concentration on final results for people and the organization. It highlights the need for leaders to motivate subordinates and maintain their high levels of morality, as well as create a healthy environment and good communication skills. The document also touches on the different types of followers, including active and proactive followers who are open-minded and honest, and passive followers who are self-centric and lack courage and creativity.

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Running head: HCAD INTERVIEW
HCAD interview
Name:
Course number:
Date:

2HCAD interview
Introduction
The interview was conducted with Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, the former director of the
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) during the period (2003-2013). She was graduated
from the National University of Cordoba in 1969 as a surgeon. Moreover, she had earned her
degree in Public Health, with specialization in infectious diseases, at the University of Buenos
Aires. Also, she was certified in Tropical Medicine at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.
Her career started in hospital care and teaching started in Cordoba University, Argentina, then it
was directed at the National Institutes and Research Board and the National Health Emergency
Management Board of the nation’s Ministry of Public Health. In 1948, she joined the Pan
American Health Organization/World Health Organization as coordinator of the Caribbean
Epidemiology Center in Trinidad and Tobago. Then she was escalated in many other positions
till 1995 when she became the Assistant Director of PAHO, then she was elected as the Director
of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau in 2002 for two consecutive periods. By this, she became
the first Argentine and the first woman to hold such position at the WHO since its foundation in
1902. She led the creation of the first special UN session on chronic diseases and the launch of
Wellness Week in the Americas (World Health Organization, 2018).
Interview: The questions asked and the responses received.
The following dialogue took place with Dr. Mirta Roses:
Question 1: How would you qualify your leadership style?

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Answer 1: I used to implement many leadership and management initiatives, including
coordination and negotiation with partners, technical cooperation among countries, advocacy for
the PAHO/WHO mission, reports and Biennial Work plans which should be implemented on
time and within budget. The leadership of the PAHO/WHO maintained active engagement in
health and development formal and informal partnerships, including the UN forums with regard
to health issues (World Health Organization, 2011). Accordingly, I can qualify my leadership
style as a transformational leader, I used to induce people under my supervision towards striving
for their higher needs. I always look for useful outcomes for both the individual and the
organizational levels. Individuals sacrifice to achieve the organizational goals. Through
establishing a role model, I could gain the trust of the followers and partners worldwide and
could effectively fulfill PAHO/WHO goals. My subordinates used to be inspired, motivated and
enjoying high levels of morality. I used to give special attention to them and to make sure that
appropriate decisions are taken. As the team members are empowered, they can make process
evaluation, planning, budgeting, time management, and many other related activities.
Question 2: What do you find most admirable in people? Why are those things so important to
you?
Answer 2: In my opinion, the followers are influenced by the leaders' behaviors in most
of the cases. Effective leadership characteristics could be reflected in the followers' behaviors. I
prefer the active and proactive followers who have the courage to express their opinions, share
information, collaborate with each other and maintain good communications. Followers who are
proactive with my feedback and remarks are conducting positive attitude, open minded, provide

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honest answers to my questions and show participatory attitude. This type of followers is able to
create two way communication and healthy environment.
Question 3: What type of followers you find least admirable by you? And why?
Answer 3: People who usually take the negative direction are the alienated followers who
can think independently but act in a passive way, as they are only concerned with their personal
interests and feel uncertain. The self-centric approach of those followers needs to be carefully
monitored, motivated and directed to be able to cooperate with the team members and fulfill the
organizational goals. Another pattern, is the conformist people who always accept the directions
of the leader without any kind of discussion or thinking of the consequences. This type of people
could hinder the work as they do not offer any new ideas that assist in enhancing the work
process due to their fear of losing their job. I am a democratic leader I appreciate the active and
proactive followers who express their opinions and provide creative ideas to enhance the
workplace, not the passive followers who act as the sheep and obey the orders of their leader and
let me think instead of them.
Question4: What’s the best way to get others to do what you want them to do?
Answer 4: I use different motivational tools to let people do what is required from them
and share effectively in the decision making process. Employee motivational tools are used to
align what motivates the employee to the work with various degrees. They are used in
maintaining the employee commitment, job satisfaction and lower absenteeism and turnover

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rates. These motivational tools include, building trust, as without trust people start to fear from
each other, and blame them instead of delivering results. Also, to ensure that the employees feel
positive at work. Moreover, I used to listen from different sources to get new ideas concerning
effective employee engagement. In addition, I always search for the expectations of the
employees and design the tasks accordingly, including financial and non-financial motivations
and incentives to ensure effective employee engagement. Also, roles and responsibilities are
allocated according to the employees' strengths to ensure effective execution of tasks. Moreover,
I used to emphasize stretch goals to enable the employees to express new and innovative ideas
and creative ways of goal fulfillment. Also, job rotation could be used as a motivational tool to
help employees to learn new tasks and to assist them to grow as leaders. Job rotation provides
employees with many new ideas and broaden their thinking.
Question 5: What were the top principles you have learned?
Answer 5: The principles I learnt during my professional life are so many, but I will
concentrate on the major principles I believe they control my actions. To be self-confident is the
first principle, as it gave me the power to implement new ideas in practice. My belief that I can
do whatever I dream of could energize me and my followers as well. The second principle is the
necessity of creating and maintaining a healthy organizational climate and culture to ensure
better contribution and employee engagement. This principle ensures that every employee feels
appreciated and valued, which maintains trust and creates healthy communication atmosphere.
The third principle is about empowering employees to get the most of their efforts when they
take the responsibility and feel free to take decisions. Respecting their failures and giving them
the chance to correct their actions to assist in creating good future leader. The fourth principle is

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to encourage the creativity of the employees and help them to provide the best ideas that could
be implemented and gain the support of their leader. Guidance should take place, but helping
people to discover and express their hidden capabilities assist them in providing creative
solutions.
Analysis of the interview results
This interview was very fruitful, as it could increase my awareness of the professional
experience of the former director of the PAHO/WHO, and I could gain new insights concerning
leadership and its effectiveness from her practice. I could understand that the transformational
leader, is highly effective in inducing people under their supervision through, concentration on
the final results for people and the organization (Ahmed et al., 2016). He aims to motivate the
subordinates and maintain their high levels of morality (Harper, 2012). It is very important that
the employee feels he is valued and respected and free to express his opinion as he finds leader
support (Afsar et al., 2014).
Followers that show active and proactive attitudes are considered the best followers that
match the transformational leadership (Ford & Harding, 2015). As they tend to express their
ideas, show cooperative attitude with their colleagues, open minded, honest, work for the
collective interests of the group and show participatory attitude (Bandstra, 2013). They assist in
creating a healthy environment and maintain good communication skills. In contrast, the passive
type of employees are self-centric and work hard (Ford & Harding, 2015). But they seek to fulfill

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self-interests instead of the group interest (Alan & Bekker, 2009). They lack courage and
creativity and just follow the rules set by their leaders (Ahmad et al., 2012).
It is useful to leaders to use a variety of motivational tools to align people motivation to
work according to their styles and the tool that is highly compatible with their attitudes and could
be effective in motivating them (Gignac & Palmer, 2011). As employee engagement is becoming
a challenging issue to different types of organizations. Motivational tools are efficient in
connecting the employee mentally and physically with the workplace. The unappreciated worker
faces difficulties in the highly competitive market. The motivational tools include trust in the
leader, colleagues and the rules of the organization. It also includes financial and non-financial
incentives. The authority delegation empowers employees and energizes them to do their best to
succeed in achieving the desired goals (Rao, 2017).

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References
Afsar, B., Badir, Y., & Bin Saeed, B. (2014). Transformational leadership and innovative work
behavior. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 114(8), 1270-1300.
Ahmad, A., Zafifa, N., Hussin, Z., & Campbell, J. (2012). The power of followership: leaders,
who are you leading? IEEE Symposium on Humanities, Science and Engineering
Research, 1-5.
Ahmed, Z., Nawaz, A., Khan, I., & Ismail, D. (2016). Leadership theories and styles: A literature
review. Journal of Resources Development and Management, 16, 1-7.
Alan, J., & Bekker, C. (2009). Know thyself and your followers. Regent University.
Bandstra, R. (2013). How do effective followers actually behave? An exploratory, video-
observational, and survey study. The Netherlands: University of Twente.
Dion, M. (2012). Are ethical theories relevant for ethical leadership? Leadership & Organization
Development Journal, 33(1), 4-24.
Ford, J., & Harding, N. (2015). Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and illusion.
Leadership, 1-22.
Gignac, C., & Palmer, B. (2011). The Genos employee motivation assessment. Industrial and
Commercial Training, 43(2), 79-87.

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Harper, S. (2012). The leader coach: A model of multi-style leadership. Journal of Practical
Consulting, 4(1), 22-31.
Rao, M. (2017). Innovative tools and techniques to ensure effective employee engagement.
Industrial and Commercial Training, 49(3), 127-131.
World Health Organization. (2011). Knowledge Management and Communication Strategy for
all PAHO/WHO entities. USA.
World Health Organization. (2018, March 01). Former Directors. Retrieved from Pan America
Health Organization: http://www.paho.org/director/?page_id=166#MirtaRoses