This essay, originally written as a class assignment, articulates my personal leadership philosophy as it has taken shape through my work in healthcare, professional advocacy, and graduate studies. It reflects how I think about ethical decision-making, inclusion, and the responsibility leaders hold to support both people and systems. While written in an academic context, the ideas presented here directly inform how I lead in practice.
A Personal Leadership Philosophy Focused on Ethical, Inclusive, and Empowering Leadership
By: Jennifer Butler
I consider myself a leader within my professional community and whether it’s through my job as a pharmacist, my position as a manager, or my role as a board director for my provincial advocacy body, I believe that being a leader means I have both the opportunity and the responsibility to influence and inspire others for the betterment of healthcare. The current literature provides a wide range of theories and approaches to leadership; my personal leadership philosophy is informed not only by theory but also by my core values of integrity and excellence. As such, I strive to lead ethically and inclusively all the while effectively coaching others. As a healthcare provider, my purpose in leadership is creating high functioning and psychologically safe organizations that strive the highest standards of patient care and ultimately improve the lives of the communities they serve.
The first principle that informs my leadership philosophy is ethical leadership that promotes kindness, respect and psychological safety. Ethical leaders value integrity, trustworthiness, honesty, respect, and care for others. Furthermore, ethical leaders promote ethical practice of all team members through demonstration and by communicating the expectation of ethical behaviour by others, providing appropriate incentives, and supporting professional development in ethics (Lesandrini & Leclerc, 2024; Singh & Vashist, 2025). In healthcare, ethical leadership not only increases employee satisfaction and staff retention, but it also improves patient care and safety (Bryden, 2024; Singh & Vashist, 2025). In my practice, I demonstrate ethical leadership by providing transparency to my colleagues and patients, effectively communicating decisions, as well as the rationales for those decisions. I encourage open communication by frequently asking others for feedback and encouraging patients to ask questions. Additionally, I have intentionally strengthened my emotional maturity and resilience in order to contribute to a psychologically safe environment for my colleagues, as I’ve learned through experience that poorly managed emotions can significantly undermine and even nullify previous goodwill efforts. Finally, I foster a professional environment by discouraging gossip and setting the expectation that concerns about others are raised with ethical intent and a willingness to engage constructively, rather than expressed through venting that undermines trust and accountability.
The second principle that informs my leadership philosophy is adopting an inclusive leadership style that seeks collaboration and perspectives from all team members. An inclusive leader is one who supports team members in order to feel respected, valued, treated fairly, and fosters a sense of belongingness and acceptance of their unique selves. This support is achieved through a leader’s visibility, accessibility and availability to their team members, as well as their dedication to equity and justice (Veli Korkmaz et al., 2022; Vilokkinen et al., 2025). Similarly to ethical leadership, inclusive leadership increases employee engagement, employee retention, improves teamwork practices as well as patient safety (Vilokkinen et al., 2025). As someone in a position of privilege, I strive to create an inclusive environment by building relationships with team members, seeking input from diverse perspectives, promoting shared decision-making, and creating environments where people feel empowered to contribute to the organization’s mission. To provide an example, while strategizing to increase membership for my profession’s provincial advocacy organization, my committee solicited feedback from our committee members. An internationally trained pharmacist brought to light the lack of awareness of the organization within the internationally trained pharmacy community. As such, I advocated that we engage with this community and as a result, at our upcoming conference, we will be hosting a complementary networking event for international pharmacy graduates.
Finally, the third principle of my leadership philosophy is coaching others in order to develop their skills, build their confidence and ultimately empower them to become leaders themselves. Coaching leadership involves providing people with direction, investing in their development, holding them accountable and building connections (Hwang et al., 2023; Min & Park, 2025; Wei et al., 2025). This style uses a partnership framework, which allows leaders to align their goals (or the goals of their organization) with the goals of the people they are leading. This shared responsibility for growth psychologically empowers individuals to take ownership of their work and strengthens team relationships. Furthermore it simultaneously increases the resilience of the organization by increasing the competency of its members and avoiding single points of failure (Hwang et al., 2023). In my practice, I implement a coaching leadership style by intentionally delegating tasks and training individuals to complete said tasks through a combination of one-on-one training and providing appropriate resources and references for independent learning. Furthermore, as a manager, I intentionally schedule regular check-ins with my staff in order to goal-set and provide feedback on their work. And finally, I build positive, professional relationships with individuals by giving attention to their experiences and well-being.
As a leader and healthcare provider, my purpose is to leave organizations stronger, healthier and more resilient than they were when I arrived; achieving these goals will result in improved well-being for both the individuals within the organization as well as the patients served by it. My philosophy of leading ethically and inclusively while investing in others guides me and provides me with the clarity necessary to discern what is right, even when it’s hard to accept.
References
Bryden, D. C. (2024). Ethical leadership in healthcare. Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine, 25(11), 792–795. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mpaic.2024.08.013
Hwang, C. Y., Kang, S.-W., & Choi, S. B. (2023). Coaching leadership and creative performance: A serial mediation model of psychological empowerment and constructive voice behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1077594. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1077594
Lesandrini, J., & Leclerc, L. (2024). Fostering Excellence in Health Care. Nurse Leader, 22(3), 273–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2024.01.006
Min, J., & Park, J.-W. (2025). A Study on the Effect of Coaching Leadership and Psychological Empowerment on Job Performance. 2025 IEEE/ACIS 23rd International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management and Applications (SERA), 521–526. https://doi.org/10.1109/SERA65747.2025.11154493
Singh, A., & Vashist, H. (2025). Ethical leadership in health-care organizations – a scoping review. Leadership in Health Services, 38(1), 136–152. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS-04-2024-0035
Veli Korkmaz, A., Van Engen, M. L., Knappert, L., & Schalk, R. (2022). About and beyond leading uniqueness and belongingness: A systematic review of inclusive leadership research. Human Resource Management Review, 32(4), 100894. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2022.100894
Vilokkinen, V., Kuha, S., Vuorivirta-Vuoti, E., Miettunen, J., & Kanste, O. (2025). Exploring Individual and Organisational Factors Related to Inclusive Leadership Among Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.70431
Wei, H., Leising, B., Greenwood, S., Opton, L., Sullivan, L. K., Veesart, A., Cherry, B., Weber, J. R., & Randall, J. C. (2025). Coaching Leadership in Nursing. Nurse Leader, 102633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2025.102633
Jennifer Butler, B.Sc.(Pharm) 
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