The concept of “leadership in healthcare practice” is something which lacks in developing countries like Pakistan. This lack of awareness of the importance of leadership qualities is probably responsible for the stagnant growth of the pharmacy profession in Pakistan, where the duties of pharmacists are still limited within the premises of pharmacy department. The government of Pakistan, healthcare professional bodies and universities have not yet explored the importance of leadership, although appropriate leadership is the biggest scenario that the country is facing at the national and political level. For the profession of pharmacy to grow in Pakistan and being better represented at organizational and national level transformational type charismatic leadership and emotional intelligence could play pivotal role.
AIM OF THE PAPER
In this paper we will discuss the skills and attributes of a charismatic leader and will present a comparative description of charismatic leadership with my earlier style of leadership while I was working as a “lead pharmacists” in Pakistan.
RATIONALE FOR THE AIM
As highlighted earlier that the importance of leadership is yet to have acknowledged by the healthcare system of Pakistan and perhaps the Pharmacy profession is in the highest need of charismatic and emotionally intelligent leadership if we compare the Pharmacy in Pakistan with United Kingdom and the role that pharmacists are performing.
Since I did my training in Pakistan so I had no idea of different traits of leadership that exists, and how they could contribute in enhancing the overall efficiency of the pharmacy department. In my short professional career I have mostly worked as a team player rather than a team leader, as can be expected of a less experienced pharmacist. However, I was fortunate enough to work as an “Acting-In charge Pharmacy” for a short period of time before I resigned from the post out of desperation which I consider as my failure to bear the pressure and face disappointments. Main tasks that I was suppose to perform during my tenure as “In charge Pharmacy” was the optimization of drug inventory, build up good relationship with other professionals and increase compliance in the pharmacy staff towards their job. I failed in achieving any of those tasks as the inventory did not come under control, pharmacy staff resigned on regular basis and there were complaints against pharmacy department from other professionals (doctors, nurses). After learning and getting inspired by the concept of charismatic leadership, in this paper I have compared my so called leadership style with that of a charismatic leader to highlight the lacking in my style of leadership.
CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP
The first impression that one can develop after listening the words “charismatic leader” is that of a person with heroic nature or abilities. So, were the earlier theories of leadership correct which defined it as a “gift”, a “magic” that only some people possess. If we accept the earlier theories of leadership then we probably would reject the reality. Take the example of sporting arena, politics, military force of any country, all the leaders were not born with sporting abilities, or political wisdom or courage, all these abilities developed over a period of time with experience and knowledge which then takes them to higher status. If the charismatic leadership qualities were only possessed by few people then where does all these people came from. The three areas named above i.e. sports, politics and armed forces required some kind of charismatic influence among the team members to perform the tasks. A junior cadet does not become a team leader and same is with the sports and politics. In my opinion to become a charismatic effective leader requires experience and knowledge in the relevant field, knowledge of traits of charismatic leadership, emotional intelligence and enthusiasm and sincerity towards his/her profession . If my opinion is incorrect then anyone can become a lead pharmacist in any hospital or community setting. A charismatic leader is someone who can influence the followers by generating excitement in them by creating in them an overall picture of a desired and successful future by communicating with them at a very basic but strong emotional level. Above description of a charismatic leader highlights three core components that are required in the charismatic leadership process i.e. envisioning, empathy and empowerment.
If I relate this to my scenario when I had the chance to work as a leader, things were not aligned for me from the very start, because I never had a vision of my own nor was I compliant with the task I was provided with. Since, I was not informed what went wrong and why went wrong I felt a bit left out and was not able to formulate anything. Being more pragmatic in today’s world especially in healthcare, you normally do not develop your own vision, rather a vision, a goal or a target is transferred to you by your higher authorities. Dedication and compliance towards the transferred vision and the organization makes the leader to take the vision as their own. The most important step in the process of envisioning I believe is the way the leader transfers the vision, and this is the point where a charismatic leader gets differentiated from a non-charismatic leader. A charismatic leader transfers the formulated vision by communicating with the followers through verbal means and by showing commendable behaviour. According to Kirkpatrick and Locke (1996) a charismatic leader inspires the followers to sacrifice their personal interests for the collective goal by exhibiting extreme dedication to the vision, making sacrifices and by getting involved in unconventional behaviour. For a vision to have influence on the followers it must touch them personally.
If I had either my own vision or I was able to develop compliance towards the transferred vision, I might have been able to develop energy and enthusiasm in my team members by means of personal sacrifices and by leading from the front in everything I do. Since I never shared my objectives with my team members so all my sacrifices and hard work was probably taken by my team members as means of achieving my personal goals rather than towards achieving a collective vision. Hence, the sense of group work was missing from my department from the very start. Articulation of vision and collective sense of achievement for the vision are of vital importance for the success of a charismatic leader (Simonton, 1988).
After the vision is formulated and is transferred to the followers, the leader by this stage is able to gain attention of the followers. In the next stage a charismatic leader develops respect of the followers for him/her, for the vision/objective and for the organization.
“Empathy” one of the five competencies highlighted by Mayer and Saolvey (1990) that constitutes “emotional intelligence” is the understanding of the emotions and feelings of other people or followers. Wong and Law (2002) stated empathy to be one of the most crucial traits of a charismatic leader. To gain respect of the followers a leader has to understand their needs, their values, emotions and motives and exhibit by his behaviour that he/she understands and respect these values. The most influential way of realizing to the followers the respect for their values is to keep into consideration their objectives and values while making decisions regarding the organizational goal. A charismatic leader clarifies and proves to the followers that how the achievement of the organizational and collective goal will contribute in meeting their individual objectives. This will not only create enthusiasm and energy among the professional but also a sense of ownership to the goal will also be nourished. According to Jasper and Jumaa (2005) motivation and inspiration that can be developed in the healthcare staff will not only result in high quality performance by the department but will consequently lead to better patient outcomes and increased cost savings, which are the primary objectives.
Going back to my case, now I shamefully regret the fact that I did not tried or even thought about it even once about what my team members were aspiring to do and what their problems, objectives and motives were, so that I could have succeeded in getting their respect by visualizing to them a joint picture of the future. Because I believe that to develop respect for one’s own self, one must touch people at an emotional level, yet again one of the competencies of a charismatic leader. I now believe that you can become a manager by ignoring the needs of the followers and following a strict emotionless plan of achieving goals but you can never gain the true respect of the followers if you are not personally involved with them. And for me now I have realized and learned that it is not only the charismatic leader that makes himself/herself prominent but it is his/her followers whose extreme motivation, dedication and skills makes them a successful leader.
The final step in the process of charismatic leadership is empowerment and implementation of the vision. Empowerment is about generating and creating trusts in people that they are equally competent to perform any given desired task by delegating power to them. Perhaps the most unique quality of a charismatic leader is that he/she transfers the power to his subordinates, showing extreme faith and confidence in them. A charismatic leader first sets the example by performing the task him/herself and then motivates his/her followers to deliver for him/her. This not only boosts the self confidence and sense of ownership towards the task but I believe is the start of the formation of a new charismatic leader. The sense of self efficacy resulting from empowerment by the charismatic leader makes the follower to start and continue the work with complete dedication even in the absence of the leader.
It is not just the step of empowerment that results in increased self confidence, sense of ownership and responsibility but the whole process of charismatic leadership contributes to it. The of ownership results in increased job satisfaction and satisfied staff becomes more intellectually creative. This creativity then further propels the staff towards increased interest in their job and acts as an initiator towards learning of new skills and gaining knowledge. According to Tichy and DeVanna (1986) the followers of a charismatic leader can be differentiated from those of a non-charismatic leader by their self-confidence, creativity, devotion resulting from empowerment by their charismatic leader that makes them more powerful and capable.
I now realize that I never empowered by team members, rather I was trying to act more as a manager or a boss, and if I know something about my personality is the fact that I cannot be bossy with people. Keeping this trait of my personality and adding traits and skills of charismatic leadership would have definitely made me successful in leading the department. As discussed above the whole process and ideology of charismatic leadership is logical and liaise closely with human nature and feelings which are of prime importance in any relationship building process such as leadership.
DISCUSSION
In my opinion Charismatic leadership is a style that includes all the traits and skills that are described by earlier authors (Bass, Burns, Goleman, Mayer and Salovey etc) to be an effective leader. A charismatic leader includes the essence of a transformational leader through his vision and the charm of his personality that could be most useful in initiating any type of change in any type of organization. However, I believe that a charismatic leader holds an edge over a transformational leader in a sense that a transformational leader is associated with bringing about change in an organization, whereas it is not precisely the case with a charismatic leader. A transformational leader can be easily frustrated if the organization does not require a change and the employees are happy the way they are and how the things are going. A charismatic leader can easily get adjusted into such environments and make his place in the mind and heart of his team members or followers, through his vision which do not have to be transformational in nature being supported by the charm of his personality. Skill of emotional intelligence in rated very high in today’s world. Empathy as discussed above is the understanding of other people’s emotions and feelings. Building of a vision and the urge and will to accomplish it requires very strong character and emotional status. In my opinion a charismatic leader possesses a very strong emotional level both for the leader and for the followers. As highlighted earlier a charismatic leader interacts with the followers at a very high emotional level, and I personally believe that to involve someone emotionally is half the success in the struggle towards the goal achievement and this requires to set the example from front and be a role model for the followers to follow. I believe only those people can become role model who are well aware of their self and their emotional values. Dye (2000) expressed the view point that only those healthcare leaders can be effective that possess a good understanding of their personal emotions and that of others. Empowerment the final process in the process of charismatic leadership is about transferring the power at the lower levels to increase the efficiency of work by using the self confidence and examples set by the leader himself/herself. As described by Fiol et al (1999) the whole process of charismatic leadership shows its effect in the stage of empowerment and the success of a charismatic leader can be best assessed at this stage.
I now believe that along with being scientifically strong in the area of pharmacy it requires the traits of charismatic leader to be successful and effective in the field of pharmacy in the long run. If pharmacists in Pakistan can understand this concept they can progress to the next level like the pharmacists in UK (involvement in direct patient care) and can establish themselves as co-therapists rather than just dispensers or doing drug policing.
What I have written down in this paper about charismatic leadership representing it as a comprehensive style of leadership, if I can implement this approach and this skill that I have learned the next time I am granted the opportunity of leading a pharmacy department, I am sure I will not resign out of frustration rather will resign leaving my department in hands of yet another charismatic leader brought up from my own ranks.
MY REFLECTION
It takes more than a good pharmacist to become successful and grow in the field of healthcare just like any other profession. A pharmacist with good knowledge of pharmacy and skills of a charismatic leader can really flourish in the profession regardless of the country of practice. I may not be able to change how every pharmacist and pharmacy works in Pakistan but I am sure that the application of skill and knowledge of charismatic leadership will make me successful and prominent among other pharmacists in Pakistan or at least in my city of residence and I may be able to influence other pharmacists.
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