The Major Leadership Ideas/Theories Various theories exist to explain the practice and concept of leadership. This section offers a brief overview of the better known or most dominant theories. They include the trait, situational, participative and behavioral leadership theories. The trait assumes that a person is born either with or without certain qualities which predispose them to success in leadership (Dolan & Holt, 2013). Therefore, people inherit certain traits such as cognitive ability and personality which make them effective leaders. The most constantly cited key qualities of a leader include determination, sociability, and intelligence.

The situational theory postulates that different situations call for different leadership approaches. Therefore, an effective leader must have the ability to adjust or adapt the leadership approach to the prevailing circumstances. Further, the basic factors that determine how one should adjust the style are the followers’ commitment and competence levels. Based on the factors, the leader decides whether to adopt a supportive or directive approach.

The participative approach suggests that the leader must consider other people’s input. This leadership style insists on the contributions and participation of team members thus it helps to make followers feel more relevant and committed to the leader. However, in this style, the leader holds the right to allow others’ input (Downe et al., 2011).

Behavioral approach is based on the premise that successful leaders are made and not born. With its roots in behaviorism, this style concentrates on the leader’s actions...

Overall, one can simply become a leader through observation and teaching.
The Current State of Leadership at Your Organization

In my organization, people have different strategies for approaching their teams. Therefore, transformational, transactional, and action-centered are the most dominant leadership theories (Downe et al., 2011). Some of the people practicing transformational styles are the chief executives, medical officers, nurses and department managers. The leadership style practiced by these individuals is essential to achieving the desired higher levels of patient safety. Nevertheless, if the facility depends solely on the traditional, transactional style, such higher levels of patient safety are likely to be difficult to achieve. For this reason, the facility also uses transactional leadership approach.

For instance, individual nurses desired a great variation in the number of hours they wished to work on a weekly or 24-hour basis. They tried to secure their dedication to the facility by accommodating all such requests. They did so despite knowing or having the evidence that such extended work hours could be not only harmful to patient safety but also unsuccessful and time-consuming. This demonstrates the presence of transactional leadership. In the context of transformational style, the leader would engage the involved employees in a discussion about worker fatigue and patient safety and together. During this discussion, they would come up with work scheduling and work hour policies to prioritize patient safety while responding to employees’ scheduling…