Introduction
A person who claims to be a leader needs to have certain leadership qualities, so it is crucial to know what traits still need to be nurtured. Understanding self, own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses is essential in self-development and is particularly important to leaders. Seeing self as a democratic leader of several medical clinics, one can analyze the shortcomings of this style to prevent errors and use its strengths. An individual can expand their understanding of one’s style by studying their own personality type. In particular, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) questionnaire is an excellent tool for introspection and further development. Combining the knowledge gained from MBTI and research on democratic style will help find areas for improvement, set goals for self-development, and find ways for their achievement.
Democratic Style
The democratic leadership style implies the distribution of powers, initiatives, and responsibilities between the leader and subordinates. The leader can delegate part of the authority to subordinates, including the independent solution of some tasks without approval. This style is based on the principles of collegiality – the leader of the democratic style always considers the team’s opinion on important issues and makes joint decisions. Regular and timely information is provided to team members about the company’s current affairs, development prospects, and upcoming tasks. Communication with subordinates takes the form of requests, wishes, recommendations, and advice, friendly and polite, but orders can be applied as necessary. The leader stimulates a favorable psychological climate in the team and defends the employees’ interests.
The democratic leadership style features suggest some advantages and disadvantages. With this type of leader, employees feel more involved in work processes, demonstrating trust in them, motivating them, and increasing job satisfaction (Ariani et al., 2022). In a clinical setting, employees have significant responsibility for caring for patients; therefore, their autonomy and trust can save lives. According to Kibbe (2019), this leadership style emphasizes quality, not efficiency or productivity. The disadvantage of the type may be the duration of making executive decisions, but it will not be so influential with high team professionalism.
MBTI Types
The MBTI personality type is determined using a specific questionnaire. The results showed that I have ISFJ-A and ISFP-A traits, sometimes called Defender and Adventurer, respectively (“Personality types,” 2022). Letter designations correspond to such indicators: I – introversion, S – sensing, F – feeling, J and P on one scale are judging and perceiving, and A – assertive (Cherry, 2021). The strengths of ISFJ are empathy, hard work, and caring for others, which is extremely important in healthcare, and the weakness is the difficulty in making changes (Giovanis, 2021). ISFP is also sensitive to people, creative, and enthusiastic but has problems accepting criticism and can be unpredictable (“ISFP personality,” 2021). Both personality types are relatively modest as leaders and help their subordinates in work, which correlates with the democratic style. Understanding all these personality aspects makes it possible to create a plan for self-development and improvement.
Areas for Improvement
As a result of considering the characteristics of the democratic leadership style and personality types, it is possible to identify several areas for improvement. In democratic leadership, employees must be experts in their field and make decisions if necessary. Therefore, the leader needs to carefully manage human resources to find the best employees to train and support healthcare workers. Rejection of criticism, resistance to change, and unpredictability are also potential challenges. To prevent them, one needs to develop such essential qualities for the leader as self-confidence, self-awareness, resistance, self-control, and vision (Iordanoglou, 2018). Self-confidence and control will facilitate the acceptance of criticism, making conclusions from it, and using it for self-development. Resistance will help to accept changes and difficulties better and vision to build a plan to avoid unpredictability. Achieving these goals is possible through continuous training, gaining experience, and tracking and analyzing modern trends.
Conclusion
Most leaders do not have all the qualities necessary for success and must develop them. An essential step in this process is understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses and finding areas for improvement. Leaders must correspond to the high position, responsibilities, and trust that staff gives them, emphasizing the need for constant self-development. This paper examines the personal characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses inherent in the democratic leadership style and personality types of ISFJ-A and ISFP-A defined with the help of MBTI. Tools for determining leadership style and personality type provide a reasonable basis for self-knowledge and further development.
Features characteristic of the democratic style and identified personality types are suitable for a leader in health care, but some potential problems need to be addressed. The strengths of such a leader are trust in employees and strong support for their autonomy. Moreover, ISFJ-A and ISFP-A personality types are prone to manifestations of empathy and concern for others. Given the weaknesses identified, self-development requires self-confidence support to accept criticism better, develop a vision, and be open to change. Such goals can be achieved through learning, developing strategic thinking and analysis, and gaining practical experience. The traits determined as crucial for future development are also important in health care, and therefore the analysis performed is valuable and useful.
References
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Giovanis, N. (2021). ISFJ: The guardian | Personality description. Getting People Right. Web.
Iordanoglou, D. (2018). Future trends in leadership development practices and the crucial leadership skills.Journal of Leadership, Accountability & Ethics, 15(2), 118-129. Web.
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Kibbe, M. R. (2019). Leadership theories and styles. In M. R. Kibbe & H. Chen (Eds.), Leadership in surgery. Success in academic surgery (pp. 27-36). Springer, Cham. Web.
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