Explain why it is important to understand leadership styles and traits as a future public health professional. Include discussion of some of the unique challenges faced by public health leaders, and how knowledge of personal leadership style and skills can help one navigate and lead in the public health system. In replies to peers, provide additional examples to support the ideas presented or justify whether you agree or disagree with the ideas presented by others.
Sample Expert Answer
Why Leadership Knowledge Matters in Public Health
Knowing your own leadership style — whether you tend toward transformational, servant, transactional, or adaptive leadership — helps you understand how you naturally approach problems, how you communicate, and how others are likely to perceive you. Recognising this can inspire confidence in public health professionals and emphasise their vital role in navigating complex systems effectively. Effective healthcare leaders must possess a diverse range of personal and professional traits to navigate the complexities of the modern healthcare landscape, and the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for leaders who can manage stress effectively, communicate with empathy and transparency, and adapt to rapidly changing situations (Singh et al., 2024).
Self-awareness is, therefore, the foundation of effective leadership — without it, even well-intentioned leaders can undermine trust, create silos, or fail to mobilise the community support that public health initiatives depend on.
Unique Challenges Faced by Public Health Leaders
Political and policy complexity. Public health decisions rarely happen in a vacuum. Funding, program priorities, and even basic health messaging are frequently subject to political scrutiny. Rising levels of political polarisation and incidents of harassment directed at public health professionals have further complicated the landscape, making intentional, structured leadership development more urgent than ever (Burke et al., 2025).
Resource scarcity and workforce attrition. Public health agencies are chronically underfunded relative to the scope of their mission. The COVID-19 pandemic placed tremendous strain on government public health systems and leaders, inviting scrutiny of both those systems and those who lead them, and accelerating calls to build a new generation of public health leaders (Helm-Murtagh & Erwin, 2024). This generational shift underscores the urgency of preparing future leaders now, offering hope that proactive leadership development can help shape a stronger, more resilient public health system.
Health equity and social determinants. Addressing the root causes of poor health outcomes means grappling with systemic racism, poverty, housing instability, and other deeply entrenched social forces. A new generation of public health leaders must be able to centre equity and inclusivity and to understand structural racism as a fundamental driver of health inequities (Helm-Murtagh & Erwin, 2024). This requires humility, cultural competence, and the willingness to challenge systems that perpetuate harm — often in the face of institutional resistance.
Crisis and emergency response. The COVID-19 pandemic made visible what public health professionals have long known: leaders in this field must be capable of making consequential decisions under uncertainty, communicating clearly during chaos, and sustaining workforce resilience over extended periods of stress.
Public health interventions only work if communities adopt them. Leaders must build authentic relationships with the communities they serve, particularly those with historical reasons to distrust public institutions. The ability to communicate, build and maintain trust and accountability, and forge and facilitate partnerships is among the most critical competencies for the next generation of public health leaders (Helm-Murtagh & Erwin, 2024).
How Knowledge of Personal Leadership Style Helps Navigate the System
When you understand your own leadership tendencies, you can be intentional rather than reactive. Leadership interventions in healthcare have been shown to improve performance and guideline adherence, underscoring that leadership is not innate but can be developed through structured training, mentorship, and self-reflection tailored for public health contexts (Restivo et al., 2022). For example, engaging in targeted workshops or peer coaching can effectively enhance your leadership skills.
- A leader who recognises they default to a directive style can consciously step back in community engagement settings and adopt more participatory approaches.
- A leader with a transformational style who excels at inspiring vision may recognise the need to pair their big-picture thinking with detail-oriented team members who can manage implementation.
- A leader who leans toward servant leadership — prioritising the needs of their team and community — is well-suited for public health’s equity mission, but must also be mindful of setting boundaries to avoid burnout.
References
Burke, E. M., Fox, J. A., Tager, K., McDowell, S., Phelps, F., &Koh, H. (2025). Toward a public health leadership national training agenda: A review of conceptual frameworks and core competencies. Frontiers in Public Health, 13, Article 1630046. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1630046
Helm-Murtagh, S. C., & Erwin, P. C. (2024). Building a new generation of public health leaders forged in a public health crisis. American Journal of Public Health, 114(6), 626–632. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307633
Restivo, V., Minutolo, G., Battaglini, A., Carli, A., Capraro, M., Gaeta, M., & Odone, A. (2022). Leadership effectiveness in healthcare settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-sectional and before–and–after studies. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(17), Article 10995. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710995
Singh, P. K., Singh, S., Kumari, V., & Tiwari, M. (2024). Navigating healthcare leadership: Theories, challenges, and practical insights for the future. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, 70(4), 232–241. https://doi.org/10.4103/jpgm.jpgm_533_24
Using what you know about your personal leadership style and the tenets of servant leadership, explain why it is important to be able to meld these principles together as a public health professional and leader. Provide two suggestions for doing so. In replies to peers, discuss whether you agree or disagree with the ideas presented, and justify your response using the topic Resources.
Sample Expert Answer
My Personal Leadership Style and Its Intersection with Servant Leadership
Reflectively, my leadership tendencies align most closely with a transformational style — I am drawn to building shared vision, inspiring teams toward meaningful goals, and fostering growth in the people around me. Transformational leadership already shares significant philosophical overlap with servant leadership: both emphasise elevating others, fostering intrinsic motivation, and driving change that extends beyond individual self-interest (Singh et al., 2024).
However, transformational leadership can sometimes become so vision-driven that it overlooks the immediate, expressed needs of communities and staff. Servant leadership corrects for this by keeping the focus anchored in listening, empathy, and stewardship — ensuring that the vision being pursued is one that communities themselves have helped shape, not one imposed upon them from above.
Why Melding These Principles Is Essential in Public Health. Emphasising trust and equity will help public health leaders feel a shared moral responsibility, inspiring commitment to inclusive practices.
Public health operates at the intersection of science, policy, community, and equity. Leaders in this space rarely have formal authority over all the stakeholders they must influence — they must earn trust, build coalitions, and cultivate shared ownership of health goals. Servant leadership provides the relational and ethical foundation for doing exactly this.
As Burke et al. (2025) argue, effective public health leadership must be responsive to multiple levels simultaneously — individual, organisational, and community — and prioritise equity-centred decision-making and cultural humility. A leader who integrates their personal strengths with servant leadership principles is better equipped to navigate these demands because they are not leading for communities but with them.
Moreover, the public health workforce is under enormous strain. Helm-Murtagh and Erwin (2024) note that the pandemic accelerated workforce attrition and exposed critical leadership gaps, particularly in trust-building and relational competencies. A servant leader who genuinely listens, supports staff growth, and prioritises team well-being is more likely to retain talented professionals and sustain organisational resilience in the face of these pressures.
Finally, health equity — arguably the defining challenge of contemporary public health — cannot be advanced through top-down, authority-driven leadership. It requires leaders who are willing to share power, amplify marginalised voices, and challenge systems that perpetuate harm. Servant leadership, by its very nature, demands this kind of accountability and humility (Restivo et al., 2022).
You can begin by explicitly stating the importance of integrating servant leadership principles to encourage public health leaders to adopt these practices for organisational effectiveness.
Practice Active Listening and Community-Centred Decision Making
One of the most concrete ways to integrate servant leadership into any personal leadership style is to institutionalise listening — not as a courtesy, but as a structured practice that genuinely shapes decisions. This means engaging communities as true partners in identifying health priorities, designing interventions, and evaluating outcomes, rather than simply consulting them after decisions have already been made. This approach helps communities feel respected and validated, strengthening trust and collaboration.
For a transformational leader, this may feel counterintuitive — the instinct is often to mobilise people around a compelling vision. But servant leadership first asks: Whose vision is this? Who was in the room when it was created? Building in regular community listening sessions, staff feedback forums, and participatory needs assessments ensures that leadership decisions reflect the lived experiences and expressed priorities of those most affected.
This is particularly vital when serving communities that have historically been excluded from or harmed by public health systems. Singh et al. (2024) emphasise that adaptive leadership in healthcare requires leaders to tailor their approach to the needs of those they serve — a principle that begins with genuinely hearing those needs before acting on them.
Invest in the Growth and Well-Being of Your Team
Servant leadership’s commitment to developing others translates directly into one of the most impactful things a public health leader can do: building their team’s capacity. This focus on growth helps staff feel valued and motivated, encouraging proactive engagement and a sense of shared purpose within the organisation.
In the context of public health’s chronic workforce challenges, this is both an ethical imperative and a practical strategy. Burke et al. (2025) note that leadership development must occur at the individual and organisational levels, and that applied learning modalities — peer mentoring, problem-based workshops, and cohort learning — are among the most effective approaches. A leader who actively cultivates the next generation of public health professionals is embodying servant leadership in one of its most enduring forms: ensuring that the capacity to serve communities extends far beyond any one individual’s tenure.
- References
- Burke, E. M., Fox, J. A., Tager, K., McDowell, S., Phelps, F., &Koh, H. (2025). Toward a public health leadership national training agenda: A review of conceptual frameworks and core competencies.
- Frontiers in Public Health, 13, Article 1630046. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1630046
- Helm-Murtagh, S. C., & Erwin, P. C. (2024). Building a new generation of public health leaders forged in a public health crisis. American Journal of Public Health, 114(6), 626–632. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307633
- Restivo, V., Minutolo, G., Battaglini, A., Carli, A., Capraro, M., Gaeta, M., & Odone before–after, A. (2022). Leadership effectiveness in healthcare settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-sectional and before–after studies. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(17), Article 10995. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710995
- Singh, P. K., Singh, S., Kumari, V., & Tiwari, M. (2024). Navigating healthcare leadership: Theories, challenges, and practical insights for the future. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, 70(4), 232–241. https://doi.org/10.4103/jpgm.jpgm_533_24
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