Lead Your Way

Today, workplaces face a unique issue: not a shortage of technical skills, but of interpersonal ones. Effective leadership, like suture techniques or bedside manner, is crucial, and health professionals must be able to adapt to changing circumstances, bring a team together, and serve the patients they care for. Leadership stems from far more than just titles or control; it’s about who is heard, how vital decisions are made, and whether trust is truly earned. Just like any piece of clothing, leadership doesn’t follow a “one-size-fits-all” approach. It has variations that allow leaders to respond differently to different situations. Two leaders who are both qualified won’t necessarily have the same approach to similar issues they face. While the base values may remain the same, the specifics that separate an extraordinary leader from a satisfactory one will vary. While numerous professionals focus on boosting productivity or innovation, few are asking the more profound question: if leadership has several different forms, how do we decide which to use and when?

First, let’s look at what actually shapes leadership today. It’s usually influenced by organizational culture, team needs, and situational demands broadly. In other words, it’s about who leaders are working with, the kind of work being done, and what’s happening around them. For example, in fast-paced environments like emergency departments, there isn’t necessarily time to take a true consensus approach, and leaders will often take a directive approach. This is the authoritarian leadership style, which emphasizes quick decision-making and firm control. While not everyone likes this style, there are several scenarios where it can be the best to use. Now, this form of leadership doesn’t mean you can just order any of your team members around at any point, but in scenarios of emergencies, when time is extremely limited, or when there’s high fragmentation within a team, it can be extremely effective. Moreover, if several of your team members may not have expertise in certain fields, you can step in and offer help to guide them toward the correct path. When used too often, it risks shutting down team input, destroying trust, and eroding creativity. If you’re unsure of when to use this style, ask yourself, is there no room for error, and how much time do I have to make a decision?

Conversely, democratic leadership prioritizes collaboration and innovation. In particular, input is highly encouraged, and there’s ample time to discuss, debate, and decide on important topics. By gathering input from every member of the team, you can gauge their unique perspectives and obtain the full picture. It’s effective in long-term planning committees when team members have valuable expertise, and when innovation is necessary.

Transformational leaders operate differently. They’re typically vision-driven and prefer to be forward-thinking. They want to motivate teams to stretch beyond limits and reach their out-of-sight goals by being ambitious. Excellent at utilizing a growth mindset, they’re always pushing their fellow team members to search for ways to get out of their comfort zone and enter the “growth zone,” an ideal place for a transformational leader. An important limitation to consider that is often overlooked when using this style is that plans, ideas, etc., developed by transformational leaders may not be achievable or feasible. Consequently, when the goals aren’t met, the team may feel as though they haven’t been operating efficiently, making their improvements. In reality, the goal was too lofty and unrealistic for the current situation.

Then there’s laissez-faire leadership, which is a hands-off model where leaders trust their team to self-direct. This can be ideal in a lab of senior researchers, a highly skilled design team, an experienced team of software engineers, or a group of senior nurses running a specialty unit. When tasks require long periods of uninterrupted creativity or focus, a laissez-faire style is best. If a team member understands their roles and responsibilities, they can perform their work independently and receive feedback at a later date; however, if a member has questions about their roles or wants step-by-step feedback, this leadership style accommodates that.

However, servant leadership entirely reverses the stereotypical power structure. These leaders prioritize support from behind, placing the team’s interests and goals above their own. They listen first, speak second, and empower others, which can allow environments where people feel valued. With this style, you may not always get recognized for your skills and expertise, but it can help the team succeed overall. In service-event planning teams or ones where many of the members are busy, sacrifices from various members at different times can aid the team in achieving success. Yet it’s important as a servant leader not to avoid tough decisions for the sake of preserving harmony, especially when there are widespread impacts of that decision. 

The truth is, even if we somehow manage to remove every obstacle, whether it be conflicts, miscommunication, external factors, or uncertainty, we would still face difficult choices. While it’s seemingly counterintuitive, leadership doesn’t always revolve around being the “right” person or “my way or the highway.” It’s about navigating the incredibly difficult, constantly changing, and complex world we live in today. We need adaptability, awareness, knowledge, and experience. Whether you’re guiding a team, running an organization, or influencing your community, the real question isn’t just what kind of leader you want to be. It’s what kind of impact you’re willing to leave behind.

Yonathan Bezza

President

2025 - 2026