“Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” (Northouse, 2016, p. 6)
As I reflect on all of the leadership roles that I have held, and all of the follower roles that I have held, the word that strikes me in this definition is “process”. When I think of the word “process”, I always assign “time” to this word. Every process takes time. Does true leadership take time?
We have all experienced situations where an individual can lead or influence a group of people in a moment in time. Assigned leaders are expected to be able to make decisions, cast vision, develop and implement strategy from the moment that there position is announced, and successful leaders appear to accomplish all of these things. Emergent leaders can influence others and create a following from the time that they enter a room, and we have all seen this play out in positive and negative ways.
The best way that I can pull together my thoughts and my learning from the reading is to apply it to examples from my healthcare world. I have two professional licenses: Physical Therapist and Emergency Medical Responder (EMR). Responding to an emergency scene requires an entirely different set of leadership skills than treating a rehabilitation patient. On an emergency scene the group context and goals are known, and power is absolutely necessary. The incident commander has legitimate power that is assigned to him/her, as well as expert and informational power. There may be a relationship with the commander, in which case there may be referent power, but even in the absence of relationship everyone must follow that person’s lead. The influence on the team is through assigned power – the group context dictates this in order to attain the goal of saving lives. This is positive leadership that is established in seconds.
In the physical therapy world, the process is quite different. The team is often two people: the physical therapist and the patient. The physical therapist does have informational and expert power, but wielding this without referent power is often disastrous. Coercing a patient in pain to do exercise is almost never successful. The group context, and the goal attainment requires the use of referent power and the development of a trusting therapeutic relationship so that the patient understands that our purpose is mutual. This is positive leadership that is established over days.
Obviously both scenarios are different, and the different leadership styles are absolutely. Based on the reading, one could argue that the first leader is functioning more in a management role than in a leadership role. So I pose the question again (more to myself than to my fellow students): does true leadership take time?
Well said! Its actually a very interesting and thought provoking question and in my opinion it does take time. Like its very well said that leadership is more of a process and to be fair every component of leadership is polished and more learned with time and every obstacle that comes in the way of leader or the followers while working to attain a mutual goal. Its about constantly growing and understanding the true values of the mission and staying true to it over time.
Hi there,
I loved your question about leadership taking time as it is one that I am pondering as well. A key component of leadership is our ability to form relationships with others. Building positive relationships definitely does take time and effort. Building awareness of the political and social environments and pre-existing issues that exist where we work also takes time. It also takes time to build our own skills and knowledge base so that we have something to share with others. Do you think it takes less time to be perceived as an emergent leader or an assigned leader?
Warmly,
Lara (awalkinthewoods)
A true leadership doesn’t only mean that you are leader and you are working efficiently for the organisation, yes it takes a span of time to understand how to overcome pros and cons to be a leader and how to understand the basic essence of leader. A quote “keep what is worth keeping and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away” by Dihah M Craik ,this is a trait which a leader should learn to be an effective leader which can only be learned over a span of time.
You have applied Northouse’s (2019) discussion of information, referent, legitimate, expert, reward, and coercive power (p. 10) effectively to two very diverse patient/provider experiences, identifying key differences in these situations that result in the need for different leadership actions. Certainly, in an emergency situation like an EMT might face, the patient wields much less power than the provider. However, as you discuss, the power of a patient (to resist or comply, among other things), is much different in a physical therapy situation. You’ve analyzed the power scenario for the provider — what do you think about the power of the patient? How can someone in a provider role collaborate in leadership with a patient?
— Leadership Prof
This is a fantastic question, and one I am very passionate about as a Physical Therapist (PT). I have often told many patients and providers that the strength of Therapies is their role in empowering patients and families. My goal is to “work myself out of a job” so to speak – if I am performing techniques that make them dependent on coming back to me week after week I am failing. I need to be handing over the information and expert power that I possess by teaching them exercises and self-management techniques so that they can continue their rehab to completion independently. Our province has also mandated that every improvement team needs to include Patient or Family representatives. We have also embraced a “patient first” philosophy, “Nothing about me without me”, which reminds providers and healthcare teams that patients have the expert power – they know themselves the best. You are correct that in an EMS situation the patient usually does not have much power, but families still should have the ability to speak on behalf of that patient if they are present on the scene, the EMS staff recognizing that families have the information power initially (and then having to transfer that power to the EMS staff). It is a fantastic topic, and it is my goal as a clinician to empower patients and families as much as possible.