"Leadership is action not position," Donald McGannon. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, "Leadership," is defined as the act, capacity, and position to lead a group of people in an organization. Being a leader requires psychological competence in understanding people and their behaviors. A leader is one who empowers others to become the best version of themselves that they can possibly be. An effective leader takes into consideration the organization or group as a whole and analyzes ways to adapt and to lead successfully. One most know that leadership is not a destination it is a journey in which we innovatively create a positive impact. The impact a leader has on employees is directly connected with job performance and engagement.
The leadership style in an organization can be the root cause of many organizational behavior issues. We often see leaders who have a, "one size fits all," approach fail due to their inability to value differences of opinions. A leader who does not include all members of the team in the decision making process have a lower employee engaged. At New York Presbyterian (NYP) Hospital Gallup conducted an anonymous employee engagement survey in which employees were asked several questions. One of the statements was, "At work, my opinion seems to count," in which on a scale of 1-5 the score was a 3.52. At a glance the results may be looked at and think wow, this is an organization that really values their employee's opinion when in fact they don't. At New York Presbyterian Hospital the role of a Supervisor in the, "management," team is not valued. The organization's structure is one where a hierarchal senior management team dictates what will be implemented, goals to be met, and processes to be followed. The autocratic leadership style at NYP makes it very difficult for employees to feel highly motivated and valued as a key player of the team.
