A Guide to Leadership Styles in Healthcare

Many aspiring healthcare leaders attend a master of healthcare administration (MHA) program to learn how to effectively run a healthcare organization. In doing so, they gain a strong foundational understanding of accounting, finance, marketing, and operations. But just as critical to the successful management of a healthcare organization is an administrator’s leadership style.

Leadership is distinct from management. Management is related to the strategic division of resources and application of talent, while leadership is more ineffable. You don’t need to be the leader of a healthcare organization in order to have a leadership style: one’s leadership style is an ethos that has applications in team-based roles at every level. Leadership embodies both science and creativity, and it bears much of the responsibility for a healthcare organization’s success or failure.

Today, healthcare is beset by a number of different crises and opportunities: the shift to value-based care, the rise of digital medicine, the protection of patient data, the persistence of health disparities, and the constant struggle to improve patient outcomes while meeting an institutional bottom line. The best leaders will address these challenges head-on, pivoting as the circumstances demand, combining the best parts of different leadership archetypes into novel forms that match well with the tasks ahead.

To learn more about leadership in healthcare, read on.

Dr. Robert Bonar is the Gordon A. Friesen Professor of Healthcare Administration and director of the MHA program in the Department of Health Policy and Management at George Washington University. With more than four decades of experience in healthcare leadership, Dr. Bonar previously served as CEO at Children’s Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota and at Dell Children’s Medical Center, where he oversaw the design and under-budget construction of the nation’s first LEED Platinum–certified hospital.

Known as a connector and visionary educator, Dr. Bonar brings his wide-ranging industry expertise into the classroom, mentoring MHA students to build inclusive, high-performing healthcare organizations. Since assuming directorship of the MHA program, he has leveraged his administrative acumen to elevate the program’s national standing.

Healthcare administrators routinely make decisions that affect budgets in the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, while overseeing workforces that can number thousands of clinicians and staff. Their choices shape access and outcomes for entire communities, which sometimes constitute hundreds of thousands of patients annually. Unlike many other industries, the rules of the game are constrained not only by market forces but also by Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement formulas, federal and state regulations, accreditation standards, and community benefit obligations. It’s a delicate balance.

“The best healthcare leaders are courageous innovators with servant hearts,” Dr. Bonar says. “They’re able to think in systems terms, but with a high level of emotional intelligence.”

The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) identifies six domains of competency as essential for healthcare administrators: communication and relationship management, leadership, professionalism, knowledge of the healthcare environment, business skills, and systems thinking. Unlike traditional business leadership, healthcare leadership requires applying those core competencies within an environment where patient well-being, ethical obligations, and regulatory compliance are as important as financial performance. Decisions are judged not just by profitability, but by their impact on quality of care, access, and community trust.

“You’re expected to operate a hospital or healthcare system like it’s a well-run, well-oiled business,” Dr. Bonar says. “Until something goes wrong, and then you’re expected to operate it like a government-funded social organization. You have to make sound business decisions, but there’s a way that you can make them that shows compassion.”

Dr. Bonar identifies five basic categories of leadership: situational leadership, transformational leadership, authentic leadership, servant leadership, and adaptive leadership.

“Good leaders have the ability to switch among those five leadership styles, depending on the circumstances,” Dr. Bonar says.

Situational leadership is about meeting people where they are, adjusting one’s approach to the readiness and experience of the team. A new unit or program may need close direction and step-by-step support at first, but as staff gain confidence and expertise, the leader shifts toward empowerment and delegation.

“If you’re running a specialty practice, particularly if you’re in cash pay, then situational leadership might be the most effective,” Dr. Bonar says.

Transformational leadership, by contrast, is about inspiring bold change. Leaders who take over a struggling health system often rely on this style to rally physicians, nurses, and administrators around a revitalized mission, creating momentum where morale is low.

Authentic leadership emphasizes transparency and integrity. In healthcare settings, where trust is essential, being consistent in values and actions helps administrators build credibility with both staff and patients. Servant leadership takes this even further by prioritizing the growth and well-being of others.

“If you’re running a federally qualified health center, authentic leadership and servant leadership are probably the most effective, because you’re trying to build trust with the community,” Dr. Bonar says.

Finally, adaptive leadership equips administrators to guide organizations through complex and uncertain challenges, such as the rise of artificial intelligence, shifting reimbursement models, or the transition from sick care to proactive prevention. Adaptive leaders do not offer easy answers but instead mobilize their teams to experiment, learn, and change behaviors over time.

“Building a new culture in healthcare is very difficult,” Dr. Bonar says. “It takes years. You can come up with all kinds of great strategies, but if the culture doesn’t support it, they’ll all fail. As the expression goes: culture eats strategy for lunch.”

Healthcare is one of the most complex environments to lead: multiple stakeholders, shifting regulations, diverse clinical and non-clinical teams, and enormous financial pressures. For new administrators, the challenge is not only setting strategy but also creating the conditions for change to take hold. Where technical solutions aren’t clear and leaders need to mobilize people to shift mindsets and behaviors. This requires patience, transparency, and the ability to align long-term vision with day-to-day realities. And it’s essential to bring about the future of healthcare.

Healthcare today is shaped by numerous challenges, each of which requires effective leadership, including workforce burnout, rural hospital closures, AI disruptions, the shift from sick care to prevention, and ongoing public health threats. Dr. Bonar advises aspiring healthcare leaders to start by digging into industry news from places like Becker’s Healthcare Review, or reading graduate-level texts like Leadership in Practice: Essentials for Public Health and Healthcare Leaders (Helm-Murtagh & Irwin, 2023).

By combining industry awareness and technical knowledge with compassion, transparency, and systems thinking, today’s MHA students will be well-positioned to guide organizations through complexity while keeping patient well-being and community trust at the center of their decisions.

“I’m very optimistic about the next generation of leaders,” Dr. Bonar says. “These students that I have in the MHA program are just exceedingly bright, altruistic, and committed. Our future is in good hands.”