Values based leaders are individuals whose leadership style is tailored around their core values and whose values are easily observed through their leadership.

Values based leaders are individuals whose leadership style is tailored around their core values and whose values are easily observed through their leadership. This type of leader often imparts their values on the organization they are leading and can be a force for change. Characteristics of this type of leader include courage, accountability, justice, temperance, integrity, humility, humanity, collaboration, drive, transcendence, and judgement (Gandz et al., 2013). 

One example of a value-based leader comes from this week’s case study, “Boldly Go: Character Drives Leadership at Providence Healthcare.” In this case study, Josie Walsh is the president and CEO of Providence Healthcare who, through values-based leadership, leads her organization through a turnaround, ultimately taking it from the brink of financial collapse to financial health and innovation in just four years (Reddin, 2017). Throughout the case study, Walsh exhibits several characteristics of values-based leadership including courage, collaboration, accountability, and communication. 

She demonstrated courage by being unafraid to think big and take calculated risks (Reddin, 2017). This characteristic helped her to implement Transformation by Design, which was a new model of patient flow and care at providence that was used to redesign every aspect of the patient’s journey (Reddin, 2017). Next, she demonstrated collaboration by making allies, seeking out input from others, and engaging with stakeholders to help shape, lead, and implement her Transformation by Design initiative (Reddin, 2017). Throughout the implementation of Transformation by Design, Walsh was mindful of the scope and impact of the change she was leading and sought to make herself visibly accountable (Reddin, 2017). She exhibited accountability by holding monthly face to face town hall meetings, scheduling “walk-arounds” with staff, regularly consulted with stakeholders, and providing her contact information on a screen at the entrance of the hospital so that anyone with questions about the changes she was leading at Providence would have the ability to reach out to her (Reddin, 2017). Finally, she demonstrated communication by working with her chief communications officer to create, sustain, and measure a communications and engagement strategy for informing multiple stakeholders about the transformation happening at Providence because of the Transformation by Design initiative (Reddin, 2017). 

Works Cited

Gandz, J., Crossan, M., Seijts, G., Reno, M., (2013, June). Leadership character and corporate governance.https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/leadership-character-and-corporate-governance/

Reddin, C. (2017, January 20). Boldly Go: Character Drives Leadership at Providence Healthcare. Ivey Publishing.