NMIH307 Assignment: Critical Leadership Analysis of Dr. Tom Frieden

This report provides a critical analysis of Dr. Tom Frieden's leadership attributes and behaviors, particularly in the context of healthcare. It explores his experience, vision, commitment, and intelligence, linking these traits to leadership theories like the Trait Theory and transformational leadership. The report examines how Frieden's leadership has influenced organizational culture and outcomes within health organizations, such as the CDC. It also discusses the importance of his leadership in addressing public health challenges and the development of future leaders in the field. The conclusion emphasizes Frieden's role as an exemplary figure in healthcare leadership, highlighting the significance of overcoming drawbacks and achieving positive results.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP
Introduction
The primary purpose of this topic is to critically analyze the leadership attributes and
behaviour displayed by the personality that resonates with the writer as a health professional.
Examples of the attributes and behaviors of the chosen leader will be given, along with the
linkage between those attributes and behaviors with leadership theory and relation of
influencing cultures and outcomes within a health organization. The chosen leader for this
topic is Dr. Tom Frieden, also known as Thomas R. Frieden, is a public health expert based
in America. He mainly deals with the patients suffering from infectious diseases. He is the
CEO and President of Resolve to Save Lives project worth of 225 million dollars. It is a five-
year program which aims to prevent cardio-vascular diseases and epidemics. He had served
as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene during
2002-2009. He was also the Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention
(CDC). In addition to that he had been appointed by President Barrack Obama as the
administrative head for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry during 2009-
2017.
Attributes and Behaviors
Dr. Tom Frieden is an outstanding and inspiring leader which is extremely important
for running complex organizations such as health, security and safety of people and also
ensuring success of that organization. Like a true leader he possesses the attributes such as
experience, vision, commitment and intelligence. Along with that he also has the bravery to
take immediate and hard stands or choices on issues. He also has the courage to tell people
about news that they must hear but sometimes don’t want to (Jaffe, 2018). Drive coming to
mind is another strong leadership characteristic possessed by him, and it has been found from
the researches and studies that inspiring leaders are very much important to taste the success

2LEADERSHIP
by the companies. Apart from this, they are also to identify, mainly those leaders who are
capable enough to run the composite companies with full responsibility for the health, safety
and security concerns required for all the people of America. CDC is the major health
protection agency of the nation of America, and scientists and disease detectives associated
with the organization work in this region and as well as around the world to research
outbreaks, trace diseases and respond to all kind of emergencies. And it can be noted that the
organization has reached this level mainly because of the leadership abilities of Dr. Tom
Frieden (Abbasi, 2016).
One of greatest passions of Dr. Tom Frieden at CDC has been the aid for activities to
strengthen and grow the public health framework along with the following generation of its
leaders. This is an essential objective which can be critically analysed. It can be noted that the
United States is in the middle of a public health workforce emergency. Approximately more
than 250,000 additional public health workers are required to continue with the present
capacity of health awareness and programs (Anand & Campbell‐Yeo, 2015). The programs of
CDC, along with the most intense effect related to meeting this challenge are the Epidemic
Intelligence Service (EIS), the Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) and
the Laboratory Leadership Service (LLS) fellowship program, all of which are channels
into the field of protecting the health of the people of America (Fleck, 2018).
Relation with Leadership Theory
There are any leadership theories, but the most important one which can be related
with Dr. Tom Frieden is the Trait Theory. This theory believes that the people are either born
with leadership abilities or capabilities within themselves, or are made like the way which
will help them to excel in their respective roles (Antonakis & House, 2013). Particular
qualities, like sense of responsibility, intelligence and creativity among others are possessed

3LEADERSHIP
by Dr. Tom Frieden, which fall under this theory of leadership. He possesses the attributes
like experience, vision, commitment and intelligence, along with that he also has the bravery
to take immediate and hard stands or choices on issues, which typically falls under this
leadership theory. His style can also be linked with another theory and that is
transformational theory of leadership. This leadership style states about the interaction
between the leader and the other people or the followers of the leader. This helps to create a
bold relationship between the people engaged and results in building trust among them,
which will help to motivate them as well as other people, which will be both extrinsic and
intrinsic in form (Giltinane, 2013).
Influence
Healthcare industry possess to be one of the most sensitive business sector around the
world. Emergency situations arises at every single time. The leader need to tackle those
complex situations with the ability possessed by them, like health, security and safety of
people of America (Kumar, 2013). He possesses the attributes of experience, vision,
commitment and intelligence. Which are very much essential and required in the healthcare
industry to face emergency situations and safe the live of the people. Different types of
people exist in the healthcare industry, or in a health organization, who forms a diverse
culture within the organization. The attributes and behaviors of the form of leadership help
the leader to effectively face the situations and provide outcomes efficiently, which will not
harm the flow of that organization from where the leader belongs to. The leader possesses the
power to motivate the employees of different level and control the complex situations by their
leadership skills (Nishtar et al., 2018).

4LEADERSHIP
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that Dr. Tom Frieden is the perfect
example in the healthcare sector through whom the people working in this sector can learn a
lot about leadership and its style. Dr. Tom Frieden has led efforts to improve or develop the
public health in the United States of America for the past two decades and will continue to do
so with his leadership skills and abilities. Though there are drawbacks in each of the
leadership followed by the leaders, it is the inner capability of that leader to outcome those
drawbacks and turn them into positive results, which will be an example of true leadership,
like that of Dr. Tom Frieden.

5LEADERSHIP
References
Abbasi, J. (2016). On CDC’s 70th Anniversary, Director Tom Frieden, MD, Looks
Ahead. Jama, 316(18), 1857-1858.
Anand, K. J., & Campbell‐Yeo, M. (2015). Consequences of prenatal opioid use for
newborns. Acta Paediatrica, 104(11), 1066-1069.
Antonakis, J., & House, R. J. (2013). The full-range leadership theory: The way forward.
In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary
Edition (pp. 3-33). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Fleck, F. (2018). Tom Frieden: strategic interventions for maximum health impact: Tom
Frieden tells Fiona Fleck why countries that focus on a few carefully selected public
health interventions to reduce noncommunicable diseases will save the most
lives. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 96(1), 8-10.
Giltinane, C. L. (2013). Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard, 27(41).
Jaffe, S. (2018). CDC faces leadership changes, potential spending cuts. The
Lancet, 391(10121), 644-645.
Kumar, R. D. (2013). Leadership in healthcare. Anaesthesia & Intensive Care
Medicine, 14(1), 39-41.
Nishtar, S., Niinistö, S., Sirisena, M., Vázquez, T., Skvortsova, V., Rubinstein, A., ... &
Robles, J. N. (2018). Time to deliver: report of the WHO Independent High-Level
Commission on NCDs. The Lancet, 392(10143), 245-252.