Anesthesia Management: 5 leadership strategies that make you stand out from the pack

Leaders are born and not made?

That idea is a thing of the past. Today, leaders and mentors are realizing it’s possible to embrace effective leadership qualities to become great leaders of tomorrow.

Obviously, the starting point is having the germ of leadership in you and drawing on that to become a true leader. Even the smallest of urges for leading, inspiring and motivating people can help you become an inspiring role model for others.

In this discussion, we shed light on some tested strategies for effective leadership:

1. Develop a broad vision
A good vision is the building block for any leader. You should be adept at envisioning the future, understanding the relationship between the organization and the environment, acknowledging the importance of people as drivers to change, and facilitating the smooth progress of the organization towards success. Effective leaders are able to acknowledge these factors to maximize their impact and influence on others.

2. Set an example
Although quite self-explanatory, many leaders seem to blatantly ignore this fact. Effective leaders don’t tell others to follow them, they establish themselves in a way that inspires others to follow automatically. Being a good leader is all about setting high personal and ethical standards, and demonstrating them in your actions, intentions and words. If you set a good example, others naturally follow suit.

3. Treat people well
If you want to maximize your effectiveness, whether as a leader, a mentor, or simply as an individual, you need to treat people well. Although this factor is informed more by ethics than by leadership theories, it is a crucial component of effective leadership nevertheless. It is important to make people feel they are vital to an organization’s success, and to give them the respect they deserve. Unless they feel part of the entire setup, they’ll lack commitment, which ultimately reflects badly on the leader.

4. Lead from the midst
Conventional wisdom is that you should lead from the front. But a good leader takes everyone along. Simply leading from the front can at times be misinterpreted as dictating from the front, and that may distance people from your leadership endeavors. Not only does leading from the midst ensure greater participation and commitment, but also maximizes the impact the leader is able to make.

5. Stay true to your cause
This is the most important element in effective leadership, and is central to well-rounded leadership. Staying steadfast to what you believe, and religiously pursuing your cause regardless of the consequences is what sets an effective leader apart from the rest. Don’t falter, and don’t let anything deter you from the path you have chosen for yourself and your organization.