Another difficulty is raised by the nature of the environment in which the leadership function is exercised. The medical field is a traumatizing one, in which people need not only follow their professional desiderate, but also cope with the drama of human death on daily basis. This makes it significantly more difficult for the leader to motivate his staff. Within a general business context, the employees deal with numbers, commodities, customers, deadlines, targets, final products and so on, and the major risk is that of registering financial loses. At Ascension Health, the major risk is that of losing human life.

The challenges virtually imply the necessity for the leader to possess a combination of three distinct characteristics:

Technical knowledge of the medical field

Ability to lead the people, and Ability to understand and manage trauma.

In order to reduce the power of the challenges -- because their entire removal is not possible -- the leader at Ascension Health could be subjected to the following:

His subjection to...

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