1 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership Dr. Steven M. Hays, MSHA, CMPE Dr. Steven M. Hays, MSHA, CMPE Associate Professor, Health Administration Roberts Wesleyan College

2 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership GROWING –Open to the challenges and struggles, the joys and victories that are necessary for people and businesses/organizations to mature in grace and effective service.

3 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership RESPECTFUL –Healthy leaders do not attack others out of their own insecurities. Individuals are respected for who and where they are in life and faith.

4 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership FREE TO SERVE –The healthy leader is free to be moved to service others, rather than locked into a confining role. Healthy leadership focuses on loving service, rather than merely “things” or goals.

5 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership VALUES SELF AND OTHERS –Money, possessions, position, prestige, physical attractiveness, or intellectual ability are not barometers of value. – Healthy leaders see the innate worth of an individual “created in the image of God” honoring and celebrating that image in all interactions.

6 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership VULNERABLE –Being vulnerable means being real. –It is the ability to risk rejection by laying before others all that we are and are not.

7 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership TRUSTING –The healthy leader trusts God in every situation. He or she is free to allow God to be in control and is free to live without being “driven.” –Faith not anchored in God looks to self, to others and to material things as objects of truth.

8 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership INDIVIDUALIZED –Rigid conformity depletes a person’s identity. – When rules and roles are priorities over the worth and development of each individual, then uniqueness and individual creativity for service are suppressed.

9 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership RELATIONSHIP ORIENTED –Toxic leadership focuses on what people do and how well they conform to rules. In healthy leadership the focus shifts from rules to relationships. –Healthy relationships contribute to creativity, innovation, excellence, stewardship of resources and loving service.

10 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership BALANCED –Healthy leadership is not so preoccupied with work that other aspects of life (worship, family, relaxation) and faith are destroyed.

11 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership NONDEFENSIVE –Takes a nondefensive position against those who challenge the leader’s beliefs and plans. –The healthy leader welcomes critical evaluation and tough questions as opportunities to learn, to relate and to “do the job better.” –Toxic leaders fear perceived “threats to the system” because they, not God are in control.

12 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership NONJUDGMENTAL –Healthy leaders stop judging people and start listening to them. –Rather than a system of conditional acceptance, healthy leadership allows honest evaluation based on establishing good working relationships.

13 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership REALITY BASED –The toxic leader denies reality. The healthy leader meets every challenge –Such leaders see the problems before them, do what they can to resolve them and trust God to do the rest.

14 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership ABLE TO EMBRACE EMOTIONS –The healthy leader recognizes hidden anger, fear, etc., in her or himself, acknowledges them, confesses self-centered emotions and expresses them in appropriate ways as they develop.

15 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership ABLE TO EMBRACE HIS/HER HUMANITY –The healthy leader has no illusion of perfection, need to drive to be perfect or hide when she/he is not.

16 Characteristics of Healthy Leadership LOVING –Free spiritually and emotionally to love God, self and others: 1 Cor. 13. –Patient with themselves/ others, allowing God to correct character defects. –Kind to themselves/others when they “miss the mark.” –Love; self-sacrificing service based on faith in God, is the most prominent characteristic of healthy leadership.