Developing Leadership Skills

Md. Naim Pramanik,

Lecturer
Department of Public Health
Hamdard University Bangladesh
Leadership
• Great leaders are usually characterised as highly
charismatic, high-profile individuals, e.g. Churchill or
Mandela. Leaders have great power to influence,
communicating a clear vision that is attractive to their
followers, with the ability to deliver that vision.
•Additional to this stereotype, in your workplace or
community, you could probably identify someone, not
necessarily charismatic, extroverted, or even very
senior, who has been the architect of a substantial
change and made it happen.
Definition of leadership
• Leadership is the ability to influence individuals or groups toward
achievement of goals
• the ability to influence others is a combination of
• Interpersonal Communications
• Conflict Management
• Problem solving
Public health leadership
Public health leadership is the application of
leadership characteristics to the cause of
improving the health of a given population or
community.
Public health leadership should produce
Is leadership different from management?
• Leadership complements and differs from management in
some important respects.
• Whilst an effective manager requires planning and problem-
solving skills to produce largely predictable, desirable
results, a leader will go further to establish the vision and
take it forward, usually by motivating and developing
others, to produce significant, sometimes dramatic, change.
Distinctions between managers and leaders
The relationship between
management and leadership is
suggested by adapting a
distinction between logic and
imagination made by Einstein.

‘Logic (or management) will

take you from A to B.
Imagination (or leadership) will
take you everywhere’.
Why is leadership an important public
health attribute?
For a public health practitioner to be effective,
technical skills, and knowledge are essential, but not
sufficient.

In public health, as in other areas of work, it is not only

those in formal leadership roles who can lead—any
member of a team can adopt situational leadership if
appropriate.
Competencies needed by a public health
leader
- Clear vision as to the nature of the task and its objectives and
desired outcomes
- Working across organizational boundaries to ensure engagement
of all stakeholders through appropriate, effective communication
- Gaining the trust of those who may be threatened by the
proposal, such as employees of existing services likely to be
adversely affected by the building of the new facility
- Perseverance to complete the task despite strong opposing
factions
- Professional integrity—and moral courage to present your final
recommendations strongly, in support of the population’s health.
•The leadership qualities adopted by the
English NHS comprise personal, social
and cognitive qualities, arranged in
three clusters:
Potential pitfalls
• Recognizing a public health challenge and producing a technically
competent project plan to address it is necessary, but not sufficient.

• Neither vision nor professional expertise alone will lead to change— political
skills including diplomacy, communication, and timing are just as important.

• Leadership may not always be from the front. Different styles of leadership
are needed for different situations—for example, in leading an outbreak
control team, getting a local company to take seriously workplace health or
introducing changes to clinical practice.

• Enthusiasm may be communicable, while devotion is usually not. Remember

that others may not share your vision and may need an explanation of the
evidence—as distinct from the faith—on which it is based.
Leadership qualities and capacities
Dogma, myths, and fallacies about
leadership
 ‘Leaders are born and not made’
 Leaders are tall or attractive or have significant
physical presence
 Extroverts make the best leaders
 ‘What is your leadership style?’
 Leadership is a fancy term for management: no,
leadership and management should be considered as distinct.
The realities of acquiring leadership skills
In your personal development plan, consider:
 Taking a course in leadership development
 Ensuring you understand your own personality type and
appreciate the potential impact of others
 Getting to know and learning how to work with the mass media
 Developing your communication skills
 Knowing and respecting partners within and outside your
organization
 Community leader
 Reviewing your public health competencies systematically
Traits of effective leaders
• Motivation • Patience
• Communication skills • Flexibility
• Persuasion • Integrity
• Persistence • Passion
Functions of a leader
• Build task commitment and optimism
• Build mutual trust and cooperation
• Organize and coordinate activities
• Encourage and facilitate collective learning
• Seek appropriate support when needed
• Develop and empower people
Communication
• Effective communication is key to good leadership
• How to promote good communication:
 Always keep everyone up to date and informed about events,
changes, new information, etc.
 Encourage sharing of ideas and thoughts
 Listen! Listening can be one of the most important
components to effective communication skills
Self evaluation
• Good leaders are constantly growing and improving
• Take time to reflect on your leadership and how it has
done well and how it could improve
• Then make a plan on how these improvements can be
made
Motivating
• Motivating people is a large part of leadership
• Motivating others starts with being motivated yourself: obvious
passion and energy can be contagious
• Being able to relate to others and get the message across
effectively can help motivate
Team building
• A team is a group of people with a commitment to one another, to
the team, to a high level of achievement, and to a common goal
• As a leader you must encourage team building
• Ensuring everyone is clear in their own roles, reinforcing the goals
of the team, and making sure all team members are working well
together can all help create an effective team
Conflict management
• Part of leadership is managing conflict when it arises
• It is important to be level controlled, diplomatic, and serve as a
voice of reason in situations of conflict
• As a leader, you serve as a role model and should always act in a
fair, just way
• Compromises can help greatly in conflict management
Problem solving
• Good problem solving is an extremely important skill to have as a
leader
• Being flexible and open to new plans is key when leading a
group—things always come up and it is best to be prepared for
something to go wrong
• Planning ahead and planning thoroughly are very important
Good vs. effective leaders
• Doing the Right Things vs. Simply Getting Things Done
• Good Leaders Are Responsible and Fair
• Good Leaders Develop Followers
• Good leaders leave the organization and its followers
better off than when they found it
Examples of good leaders

• Can anyone think of an example of

someone they think is a good
leader? Why?
Thank you