Businesses flourish thanks to the contributions of great leaders. In the healthcare field, skilled healthcare leaders motivate staff to work at their highest potential to benefit patients, their colleagues, and the organization.
Nurse managers, doctors and administrators supervise teams and daily operations, but they may or may not be natural healthcare leaders. What makes certain people stronger leaders than others? Do you want to be a great healthcare leader? We examine the importance of leadership in healthcare and identify the characteristics and skills you need to fulfill these roles.
What is Leadership in Healthcare?
When considering what defines leadership in healthcare, it’s essential to look beyond what you have accomplished. How did you accomplish your goals? How did you treat your colleagues? Excellent leaders make a difference in their organization by exemplifying the following leadership qualities in healthcare.
1. Show Humility1
True healthcare leaders do not think of themselves as above others. Rather, they understand the inner workings of their team and recognize everyone’s contribution. Leadership in healthcare requires admitting when one doesn’t have all the answers, showing respect and genuine appreciation of colleagues by asking questions and listening to all perspectives. In turn, their team members reciprocate this trust and respect.
2. Have Vision2
To positively influence and successfully lead a team, healthcare leaders must be visionaries who see the big picture and set ambitious goals. By maintaining focus on their vision, leaders guide their teams to make progress on their patient and business goals even when they are simultaneously pulled in several directions.
3. Act as a Mentor3
Good healthcare leadership equates to supportive mentorship. Mentors share their knowledge and experience with their counterparts and act as role models of the organization’s culture. Along with personally advising their staff, mentors can also make an impact on a healthcare student’s professional development. Healthcare leaders communicate with their mentees, provide support, connect them with resources and help them define their career goals.
4. Demonstrate Integrity4
Good healthcare leaders know their values and act in alignment with them. This makes them trustworthy—not only to their colleagues but also to their patients. Honesty with patients means doing what you say you’re going to do, and this integrity helps to foster a healthy relationship with everyone.
5. Value Collaboration
Great healthcare leaders value teamwork. They understand that an interprofessional work environment, where clinicians across disciplines work as a team, is correlated with better patient outcomes.5 Collaboration helps clinicians agree on the best possible approach to treatment and communicate better during patient handoffs.
Leadership Styles in Healthcare
Given that medical systems are large organizations composed of many departments, groups and specialties, healthcare leadership should empower their multidisciplinary team and put their diverse skills to work to provide the best patient care.
The following leadership in healthcare approaches can be adapted to optimize management in large organizations.
Collaborative Leadership
This type of leadership in healthcare involves strong communication with coworkers to help them make informed decisions. Collaboration is a cooperative and assertive process in which administrators and clinicians work together to meet the organization’s goals. As healthcare leaders, you must be the first to model collaborative behaviors, such as motivating and encouraging teamwork between practitioners across disciplines.
Transformational Healthcare Leadership
Transformational healthcare leaders emphasize a sense of purpose, and they empower others to achieve it together. They communicate their vision with the team in a way that motivates performance beyond expectations, where everyone shares their insight and works with a collective purpose.
Ethical Leadership6
Sometimes healthcare leaders are forced to make tough decisions for the organization that may seem to favor some staff members at the expense of others. Amid these challenges, an effective healthcare leader must act ethically, treating each staff member with fairness and respect.
Conflict Management7
When gaps in communication develop between practitioners, conflict can arise. In these situations, effective healthcare leadership means finding a way to resolve conflict and create a positive outcome. This can include incorporating strategies of compromise, mediation, emotional intelligence training and enhanced communication to resolve issues and restore harmony.
Essential Skills for Healthcare Leadership8
It takes a unique set of healthcare leadership skills to be at the forefront of the industry. Successful leadership in healthcare can help you transform a struggling team into an effective one. Developing the following soft skills for the workplace can help you become a true healthcare leader and better contribute to the team.
Strong Communication
Listening and learning are vital in healthcare leadership. One way to be an effective leader is to strengthen communication with colleagues and patients. Effective communication in nursing and other healthcare professions establishes trust between you and your patient, improves patient satisfaction and reduces medical errors.9
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient or EQ, is the ability to understand one’s emotions and the emotions of others and respond in constructive ways. Healthcare leaders with a high EQ set the tone for the whole team by modeling empathy, improving communication and de-escalating conflicts. In situations of discord, leaders ensure that their responses aren’t emotionally over-reactive, instead using their empathy skills to understand the other party’s perspective. This helps maintain respect all around.9
Problem-Solving
Leaders must apply problem-solving skills to make good decisions under pressure. Especially in healthcare, leaders should stay composed during crises, maintaining the flexibility to think creatively and take decisive action when traditional measures are ineffective.
Time Management10
Good leadership in healthcare requires understanding the importance of time management skills to maintain productivity and patient care. When multiple tasks become urgent, healthcare leaders know what to prioritize and when to delegate tasks to another team member.
Flexibility
Finally, healthcare leaders must be willing to adapt to new situations. In a complex industry where external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic can quickly disrupt business models, flexibility helps leaders pivot when necessary and stay on track to meeting the organization’s goals. Technological advancements continue to transform healthcare; good healthcare leaders embrace and adjust to these changes.
The Future of Healthcare Leadership
As the industry grows, so does the demand for more leadership in healthcare. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment of medical and health services managers is projected to grow 29% from 2023 to 2033.11
This growth in demand, plus constant technological advancements, should inspire facilities to cultivate leadership skills in healthcare staff through development training and career advancement programs.
Recruitment and Leadership Development Training
As healthcare technology advances, staff may feel pressure to keep up. One way to facilitate a smooth transition into a healthcare leadership role is through training programs. In their efforts to provide coaching and constructive feedback, organizations can establish career mentoring programs, encourage staff to attend conferences and support continuing education.
Career Programs in Healthcare Leadership
Another way to develop healthcare leadership skills is by earning a graduate degree in a health sciences field with a focus that interests you, whether that’s education, executive leadership, nursing, etc. The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS) offers graduate degree programs for clinicians and health administrators looking to improve their leadership skills, better understand healthcare policy and advance their careers. The following programs focus on healthcare leadership development for medical professionals:
- Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
- Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
- Doctor of Education (EdD)
- Post-Professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy (PPOTD)
If it’s your goal to pursue a leadership role within your organization, explore the degree options above to identify which one is right for you. Healthcare leadership roles provide numerous opportunities to positively impact on your colleagues, patients and work environment.
The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS) offers a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Post-Graduate Nursing Certificates designed for working nurses. Our degrees are offered online, with optional on-campus immersions.* Role specialties include Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)**, Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner*** and Nurse Executive. The MSN and DNP have options to accelerate your time to degree completion. Earn your advanced nursing degree while keeping your work and life in balance.
*The FNP role specialty includes one required hands-on clinical intensive as part of the curriculum.
**The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner role specialties are not available for the DNP program.
***Call for availability.
Sources
- Al-Rjoub, S. and Mrayyan, M., “The Impact of Humble Leadership on Knowledge-Sharing and Creativity in Nursing Setting: A Cross-Sectional Study,” SAGE Open Nursing, December 20, 2024, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11660065/.
- Sulosaari, V. et al., “Nursing Leaders as Visionaries and Enablers of Action,” Seminars in Oncology Nursing, November 22, 2022, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749208122001437.
- Lysfjord, E. and Skarstein, S., “Empowering Leadership: A Journey of Growth and Insight Through a Mentoring Program for Nurses in Leadership Positions,” Journal of Healthcare Leadership, November 1, 2024, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11537044/.
- Bryden, D., “Ethical leadership in healthcare,” Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine, October 4, 2024, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1472029924001772.
- “The Importance of Interprofessional Collaboration in Healthcare,” Johnson & Johnson, Getting Real: Nursing Today, September 10, 2023, https://nursing.jnj.com/getting-real-nursing-today/the-importance-of-interprofessional-collaboration-in-healthcare.
- “Ethics in Health Care: Improving Patient Outcomes,” Tulane University Blog, January 19, 2023, https://publichealth.tulane.edu/blog/ethics-in-healthcare/.
- “5 Examples of Conflict in Healthcare Settings (with Resolutions),” Defuse De-escalation Training, Defuse Blog, https://deescalation-training.com/2024/11/healthcare-conflict-examples/.
- Snively E., “10 Essential Healthcare Leadership Skills and Examples,” Relias Blog, January 10, 2025, https://www.relias.com/blog/10-essential-healthcare-leadership-skills-and-examples.
- Jeanne Segal, Melinda Smith, et al., “Improving Emotional Intelligence (EQ),” HelpGuide, August 21, 2024, https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/emotional-intelligence-eq.htm#:~:text=Emotional%20intelligence%20.
- Addis BA et al.,“Time wasted by health professionals is time not invested in patients”: time management practice and associated factors among health professionals at public hospitals in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia: a multicenter mixed method study,” Frontiers in Public Health, July 21, 2023, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10403234/.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Medical and Health Services Managers: Summary,”BLS, August 29, 2024, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/medical-and-health-services-managers.htm.
