Introduction
For decades, psychologists and other specialists studying the problem of leadership have been trying to identify the qualities that distinguish a good leader. Leaders encourage people to do more than they would do in the absence of leaders, and these efforts have value, both for members of the medical team and for patients. Leadership encourages both of them to go beyond just agreeing with the system and helps them achieve their goals. In any profession, and especially in medicine, it is necessary to show characteristic abilities and qualities to do one’s job better, and to find a common language with colleagues and clients or patients. Each medical worker should demonstrate their leadership qualities so that patients and subordinate colleagues follow their instructions. Thus, the main qualities of a good leader in medicine are associated with the peculiarities of psychological and moral training.
Literature Analysis
Opinion of Experts
There are several approaches to determining the qualities of a good leader, while most experts adhere to a characterological approach. According to representatives of this direction, there is a set of personality traits that determine the differences between successful and unsuccessful leaders (White et al., 2020). Experts believe that it is possible to improve the functioning of a medical organization by selecting people with appropriate characteristics and appointing them to senior positions.
White et al. (2020) argue that the best type of leader is an action leading leader. They are characterized by such features as attentiveness due to clarity of ideas. Good leaders have a clear idea of what they want to achieve and subordinate their actions to the implementation of their plans (White et al., 2020). Moreover, they have significance due to the suggestion of their ideas. Good leaders can inspire others with their ideas and ensure that patients and subordinates realize the importance of achieving the desired results.
The features of this type of leader are also the presence of trust due to the holding of their line. Good leaders gain people’s trust by persevering, demonstrating stability, and acting in a manner that reinforces their point of view (White et al., 2020). Moreover, such leaders actively use self-affirmation due to a positive way of thinking. Good leaders retain a positive view of their personality, do not even consider the possibility of failure, and can learn from mistakes.
Scammell claims that the model of a good leader is transformational (Scammell et al., 2020). The characteristics of a transformational leader are most clearly manifested when comparing it with an ordinary leader. The latter considers the relationship between themselves and the people following them as a business agreement. A subordinate who does a good job receives a reward from the leader. Transformational leader manages to get more than a simple agreement from the people they lead. They can achieve better results by transforming the fundamental beliefs, values, and needs of their subordinates. A transformational leader understands the need for organizational changes, creates some kind of ideal, and gets people to be faithful to this ideal (Scammell et al., 2020). They form the organizational culture in such a way that it supports changes and monitors the appearance of signals notifying of the need for new changes.
The most important means of a transformational leader are public speaking and communication skills, which create an image of a strong and confident person. They awaken people’s trust and are the personification of leadership (Scammell et al., 2020). Since subordinates feel their connection with the transformational leader, they accept the ideal set by him and direct their gaze to tasks more important than their interests. Evaluating the characteristics of good leaders proposed by the authors within the framework of the characterological approach, it should be said that they have brought psychologists much closer to understanding the phenomenon of leadership.
Research
According to researchers, effective leaders have some special traits that distinguish them from other people. In the course of the research, several psychological features were identified that can be extrapolated in the medical field. First of all, a good leader is distinguished by the ability to focus on the task and people (Noreen, 2019). Given that the nursing profession is initially focused on a person, we can expect the following strategies of a medical officer in a managerial position. This is the preservation of a humanistic orientation with damage to the labor indicators of the organization.
Moreover, the nurse should be ready to move away from the humanistic orientation with a shift in emphasis on the labor indicators of employees and try to maintain both types of behavior. If task-oriented behavior has a greater impact on the labor indicators of employees, then people-oriented behavior has a greater impact on the satisfaction of subordinates with work (Noreen, 2019). The best option may be to vary the behavior depending on which result is more important, provided that the task is performed satisfactorily.
A good leader is distinguished by exceptional activity and consistent activity. These characteristics should be the basic features, manifested in social perseverance, perseverance, courage, and endurance. A good leader can shape their image and external behavior (Noreen, 2019). A nurse leader should focus on both members of their team and patients. They are obliged to sensitively grasp the various demands of people dictated by their social and demographic situation, as well as value orientations.
The hallmarks of a good leader are the ability to inspire people’s trust and the ability to use the power of authority. The first quality is particularly important because nurses cannot influence people if they are not trusted. When a person is recognized as a leader, they become an expression of the interests of a certain social group (Gaalan et al., 2019). The main criterion for the authority of a nurse leader is not the authority of a person, but the ability to establish work in the conditions of a medical team. Fundamentally important is their ability to share power with colleagues.
Moreover, a good leader can understand other people, take responsibility for himself, and increase authority. One of the important qualities of a nurse leader is their ability to understand other people. This feature assumes the presence of pronounced empathy as a stable characterological trait (Gaalan et al., 2019). The basis of the responsibility of the nurse leader is their motivation. The content of the motives largely depends on the heightened sense of duty, and the development of social dignity. Those leaders who know how to show firmness of character, do not compromise principles, correctly perceive criticism, and soberly assess their successes enjoy deserved authority in teams (Gaalan et al., 2019). In general, the researchers found that the qualities of a good nurse leader are designed to help them formulate their social position in each specific case and determine the form and content of their behavior.
Application to Nursing
None of the professions known today has such an important relationship to leadership qualities as the nursing profession. It is recognized not only as the most honorable and socially significant, it has special requirements affecting not only the level of professional knowledge, and skills, but the level of personal qualities of a specialist (Gaalan et al., 2019). In this context, attention is drawn to the fact that in many works devoted to the problems of the formation and development of the nurse’s personality, the importance of having the main qualities highlighted within the characterological approach is noted.
The structure of personality qualities highlighted by experts and researchers can be integrated into the main areas and functional tasks of the professional self-realization of a nurse. The moral and ethical qualities of a leader highlighted by the authors, such as honesty, decency, and kindness, have been the most important in the professional activity of a physician since the time of Hippocrates since they allow to keep medical secrecy (White et al., 2020). Effective leadership qualities, such as efficiency, discipline, and the ability to introduce new, progressive in their work, determine the effectiveness of the professional medical activity. In this section, the leadership qualities of a person, defining self-attitude and reflexivity, including confidence, exactingness, and self-criticism, acquire special importance.
Among the communicative qualities of a leader, respect for people, politeness in communication, endurance, compassion, the ability to empathize, sociability, and flexibility in relationships with people are highlighted. All of them, along with the absence of suspicion and obsession with opinions when communicating, charm, and other qualities become a kind of connecting links of the general system as personal components of the nurse’s activity (Noreen, 2019). Many researchers must emphasize the saturation of the nurse’s activity with psychological and pedagogical tasks in solving which pedagogical abilities are necessary.
The activity of a medical specialists is not only that they strengthen physical health, but that, by influencing the patient’s personality, they mobilize their will, control their emotions, stabilize, and sometimes help to rethink the system of values and motives, remove the complex of doom, optimize the overall vitality. Medical ethics naturally acquires the importance of one of the central thematic lines in the discussion of the problem of the professional training of a nurse. Within its framework, as well as within the framework of the characterological approach to effective leadership proposed by experts and researchers, questions arise about the duty, conscience, and responsibility of the leader’s personality (Gaalan et al., 2019). They reveal selflessness, vocation, self-denial, humanity, and a sense of duty as professional traits. The importance and value of the studied works are great both for understanding the personal leadership component of medical activity.
Conclusion
The developed qualities of a good leader in a nurse are formed as a result of the unity of professional and non-professional activities. There is a certain dependence on the development of leadership qualities on both sides of the nurse’s personality – professional and non-professional. A person’s worldview, own needs, and attitudes, personal, spiritual, family, psychological, and other valuable aspects of their life play an important role in the formation of the qualities of a good leader.
I often apply the concept of good leadership in my professional practice. While working with patients and colleagues, I try to show such qualities of a good leader as communication, attentiveness, politeness, and a sense of humor. A high level of professional knowledge and skills, kindness, responsibility, honesty, sociability, and attentiveness initiative allows me to achieve positive contact with the patient. I am also guided by the listed leadership qualities when cooperating with colleagues.
References
Gaalan, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Akkadechanunt, T., Wichaikhum, O. A., & Turale, S. (2019). Factors predicting quality of nursing care among nurses in tertiary care hospitals in Mongolia. International Nursing Review, 44(5), 1-7.
Noreen, B. (2019). Resilience and professional joy: A toolkit for nurse leaders. Nurse Leader, 17(1), 43-48.
Scammell, J. M., Apostolo, J. L., Bianchi, M., Costa, R. D., Jack, K., Luiking, M. L., & Nilsson, S. (2020). Learning to lead: A scoping review of undergraduate nurse education. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(3), 756-765.
White, E. M., Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., & McHugh, M. D. (2020). Nursing home work environment, care quality, registered nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction. Geriatric Nursing, 41(2), 158-164.