Leadership and Effecting Change in Public Health

This article discusses the role of leadership in effecting change in public health and improving healthcare systems. It explores the traits and skills required for effective health leadership and provides insights into a leadership scenario involving a young leader in a community that is resistant to change. The article also discusses the importance of self-assessment tools for leadership development.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND EFFECTING CHANGE IN PUBLIC HEALTH 1
Leadership and Effecting Change in Public Health
Name
Institution

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Leadership and Effecting Change in Public Health
Introduction
A leader is a person who occupies a role which involves conforming to a set of
behavioral functions and expectations of followers thus; leadership is defined as the ability to
mobilize an individual or a group to achieve a common objective. The health care leadership is
different from other kinds of leadership in that, it aims at the well-being of the health care system
and improving the quality of life indicators (Asiri, Rohrer, Al-Surimi, Da’ar &Ahmed , 2016).
Health care leadership directly or indirectly influences the patient’s care. Helen’s scenario is
complicated since it involves a community that is not open to young leaders and this poses a
challenge to her leadership. Helen has to adopt a leadership style that will suit this particular kind
of people.
Health leadership frame work
The health care leadership has underlying principles which include; the person that you
are is the leader that you are, a person’s character determines the kind of a leader that he or she
is. Their traits define the style, strength, and role the leader will undertake. Everyone owns
leadership is another principle that stipulates that direction is a collective task that everyone
needs to partake. Capable leaders enable better leadership capacity (Mcauliff , Ward , DeBrun, &
Cunningham, 2017). Health leadership requires passion, capabilities, and courage for the leader
to influence better health outcomes. The main aim of health leadership is to achieve effective,
equitable and a sustainable health care system.
Helen's leadership scenario involves a new environment in which she has to incorporate
various leadership values to achieve the assigned tasks. The council believes that Helen is
capable of developing an effective medical system that will aim at improving the health of the

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entire community and improvement of the general healthcare system. The following are the traits
that Helen possess according to the Australian leadership framework they include;
Leads self
Helen is a leader who focuses on self-lead. In her previous station, she was able to impact
change by increasing immunization rates and cancer screening awareness which shows that she
is capable of effecting change in her current station by creating awareness on proper sanitation,
immunization, housing, and infection control. She is a trusted general practitioner whom the
stakeholder's sort to assign the task to impact change in the remote area due to the characters she
displayed. Helen shows strength of character by accepting the responsibility of working in a
community that does not perceive a young single lady cannot achieve proper leadership .
(Shannon & Sebastian, 2018) She takes the challenge of working with many subordinates despite
the introvert trait; this shows that she makes the trial as a platform for personal development.it is
also mentioned that she is a trusted general practitioner due to her honesty, integrity, and courage
to undertake diverse tasks in a completely different environment.
Engages others
An effective leader engages others in their leadership activities ( Gopee
&Galloway ,2018) .This leadership framework that Helen has adopted in her practice. This is
evident in that she involves her colleagues to work with her to develop a teleconsultations and
telesurgery system that will integrate the specialist doctors from the city with the patients in the
remote area. Helen is ready to adapt to the diverse community by assimilating their cultural
practices and trying to incorporate her skills and knowledge to the people in this area thus
building a healthier population through influencing them to identify critical medical concerns in
their area. Helen’s nomination came about due to her ability to listen, present ideas and issues in

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a manner in which the people will understand. These abilities enabled her to increase
immunization rates which came about through educating people on the importance of this
practice.
Achieve outcome
Helen is a leader who is determined to achieve results (Barr&Dowding,2019). In her
former station of work, and she showed a determination by creating awareness of cancer
screening and increasing the immunization rates which in return created a healthier population.
This created a more robust community in Warnambool. , and this led to her nomination as the
new public health officer. She is also a goal oriented person since she shows efforts of
integrating the entire community to get involved in policy formation framework. She also takes
the responsibility of trying to improve access to medical care by planning on how patients can
access specialist Medical care through an online platform. This shows that she is determined to
continually impact change and improve medical care which she considers a personal
responsibility.
Drives innovation
Helen drives innovation by gathering and coordinating resources to build a telesurgery
and telecommunication health care system that will benefit patients from the remote areas to
access medical care without having to travel 300km to the city. This innovation aims at
decreasing the death rates that are caused by the lack of specialists around that area and long
travels to the town. Helen is optimistic; thus she is determined to impact positive change
especially on the perceptions of the community that a young single lady is not capable of leading
the health care sector effectively. To change this perception, Helen will have to integrate efforts
to build a good relationship with the community that will in return enable change their opinions.

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Helen encourages the community involved in policy formulations to generate new ideas and
impact improvement in the areas that are highlighted by the members during the policy
formulation process.
Shaping system
Helen is a leader that emphasizes on shaping system. Developing systems involves the
integration of services, funding, and legislation; thus a change in one of these functions affects
the functioning of the others (Reagan & Agha, 2017). Helen is determined to engage the
community at large in decision making so that they can make decisions that are suitable for their
wellbeing. She also respects the diverse culture of the people in the remote area since she
recognizes that the people have a negative opinion on young single ladies success in a critical
position as that of the medical sector. However, Helen does not take this into account, and
instead, she tries to be an influencer to impact change among the people. This character will
enable her to build alliances that will allow her to influence change through developing
understanding, trust, and respect among the community members.
Self-assessment tools
The self-assessment tools are essential in that; they help one identify their leadership,
areas of strength and weaknesses and also identify the areas in which the leader needs to input
more emphasis on for better development (Bercaw, 2017). The tools include:
Demonstrating personal qualities
The leader should demonstrate effective leadership by acknowledging their values,
abilities, and strengths and also learning from past experiences (Day & Leggat, 2015) . All these
traits involve developing self-awareness. The leader should be able to manage his or herself but
take into account the needs of the followers. An effective leader should consider continued

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personal development and act with a high level of integrity which involves openness, ethics, and
honesty. I believe in acquiring feedback to enable behavioral change in areas that subordinates or
the public consider to defective.
Working with others
This tool stipulates that a leader should be able to collaborate with others to develop
improved operating systems (Sonnino, 2016). Teamwork is an integral part of the leadership that
I consider essential in any organization. Through working with others, a leader can achieve
higher results due to the diverse knowledge and skills. I also value working with the right
professionals at the right time to perform a particular task. Through teamwork, better relations
are built. As a leader, I respect the values and ideas of the team members and aim at proper and
effective communication channels.
Managing services
This involves aiming at the success of the health care systems. The leader must be
efficient in planning, managing resources, leading people and handling performance (Janssens,
simon, Beckmann, & Marshall, 2018). As a leader, I would consider the management of
resources is a crucial factor for the effective functioning and productivity of the health care
systems. However, my skills in supporting team members develop roles and responsibilities are
not effective.
Improving services
The leader should show the ability to enhance services by developing systems that aim at
delivering high-quality services (Grant el at., 2015). Enhanced services can be achieved through
maintaining patient’s safety, enforcing improvement and innovation, facilitating transformation
and critical analysis. As a leader, I would consider taking action on shortcomings on patient’s

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safety and implement strategies to reduce the risk. As a leader I would not be able to improve
services effectively since I am not able to facilitate transformation and innovation on my own.
Setting direction
Leaders need to contribute to the aspirations and strategies of the health care system and
act according to the values of the system. Leaders must be competent in identifying conditions
for change, decision-making abilities, applying knowledge and evidence and evaluating impact.
My decision-making skills are, and I prefer consulting other members to make decisions.
Creating a vision
The leaders must demonstrate effectiveness in creating a compelling future vision and
integrating the whole organization towards achieving the vision (McSherry & Pearce, 2016).
Forming an image includes designing, influencing, communicating and incarnating the vision.
Due to poor decision-making skills I am not able to create compelling visions.
Delivering the strategy
The leaders should agree on strategic plans and remitting policies that aim at improved
patient care thus ensuring the strategies are translated into operational plans (Platis & Zoulias,
2017). This framework involves framing, developing, implementing and embedding the
stipulated procedures. Can deliver strategies effectively since I am good at following the
specified procedures
The action plan
I would have adopted a participative kind of leadership where there is involvement of
other practitioners and members of the public in decision making. This leadership can take a
persuasive or consultative perspective depending on the type of subordinates (Asiri et al., 2016).
I would adopt the advisory attitude where a decision is based on proper scrutinization of all

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members of the group. The community has a negative perspective on young female leaders; thus
a participative decision-making model will reduce the risk of being accountable for wrong
decisions. Helen will also benefit by using the participative kind of leadership since it will enable
her to build a close-knit community which will intern yield to a better relationship with the
community. In my profile there is a gap in the ability to make proper and effective decisions.as a
leader am not able to formulate future visions on my own due to the poor decision making skills.
This explains why I prefer to have a participatory or democratic kind of leadership (Lega,
Prenestini, & Rosso, 2017).
Key strengths Ability to integrate people to work together
Diverse knowledge and capabilities are
brought together to reach at an effective
decision.
It enables people understand each other’s
diversities this improving their innovation
capabilities for a better medical care.
In this scenario, integration of efforts will
involve encouraging the public especially the
trusted leaders in all fields participate in
decision making and policy formulation.
Development needs This kind of leadership involves long decision
making processes since all members of the
public have to be consulted before reaching
the final decision.

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During emergency situations this kind of
leadership may not be effective due to lengthy
consultations.
Reason for choosing This kind of leadership is considered the most
suitable because it aims at taking into
consideration of each and every member’s
opinion to achieve effective strategies that
will be acceptable to all.
The system encourages innovation in attempt
to improve medical care.
Goal The main objective is to achieve better
medical healthcare systems that are suitable
for the general population.
Benefits In this case scenario, Helen will achieve by
involving members of the public in policy
making thus in case of any misunderstand.
Risks This style of leadership poses risk in that the
subordinates and the public have a lot of
information concerning the health care system
thus they can hack operations.in this scenario
the public is involved in policy formulation
thus they know how the system operates in
detail.
Obstacles A limited population of qualified medical

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practitioners
Lack of proper procedures to develop and
improve the medical systems (Denis &Van
Gestel, 2016).
How you are going to overcome them? Involving professionals only in the decision
making process.
Limiting the magnitude of information
disclosed to the public.
Resources and support needed Financial support to develop improved
medical systems(Dellve, Andreason,
Jutengren, & Hermansson, 2018)
Increasing the number of professionals in the
field of medicine.
Where available From the government and the relevant
medical donations facilities.
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