Anson, Betty. (2003). \"Taking Charge

¶ … Anson, Betty. (2003). "Taking Charge of Change in a Volatile Healthcare Marketplace." Human Resource Planning. 23 (4): 21.

Within the context of organizational behavior, leadership is one of the most crucial aspects of the entire rubric of the organization. Within the context of the healthcare paradigm, it moves beyond critical to vital -- with literally the power of life and death as a direct consequence of the role of the leader, the team, and the ability for the function of leadership to function beyond the managerial, and into the ideal of successful leadership. Decisions are made constantly in healthcare and business alike; it is the part and parcel of being effective in one's job. Innovation and improvement on a regular basis are required to maintain and improve the ability to make rational decisions, and some psychologists even believe that the ability to make effective decisions is at the core of the individual's success of failure within their organization

In healthcare, it is particularly important that leaders model the way. Leaders demonstrate their beliefs in their actions. They speak honestly about their vision and do what they believe is right. Leaders encourage the heart. Showing appreciation and providing rewards are ways leaders show encouragement and motivate others. Leaders create change, focus on leading people, have followers, have long-term goals and are proactive. They create a vision, approach the vision by setting the direction, facilitate in decision-making, and use personal charisma. Leaders appeal to the heart, are persuasive by selling their vision, want achievement, take risks, and break rules. They also have a transformational style, exchange excitement for work, use conflict to resolve issues, and make new roads. Most of all, leaders are concerned about what is right, give credit to others, and take the responsibility for what may go wrong.

The ability to transform an organization to the next level, through specific leadership techniques, and to have the vision to carry out the task, is called transformational leadership. Transformational leaders influence followers by acting as a teacher, mentor and coach. They empower others and help them to achieve career and organizational goals. Communication is the basis for this theoretical model -- the leader is highly visible and uses a chain of command to get results, but is never satisfied and is constantly looking for ways in which the organization can reach beyond the current vision. It is this constant search for efficacy, the move to "transact" the organization or specific project to a new level that keeps this theory alive -- and continual feedback and stimuli are as necessary as food and water to this leader. This type of leader might not be satisfied with lengthy tenure in an organization -- they thrive on crisis, their ego feeds on the ability to constantly prove themselves and move into even greater challenges -- these are not detailed personalities, but visionaries of the highest degree.