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Klinisk Biokemi i Norden · 1 2018
Leadership and communication
in a dynamic organization
Anna-Marie Bloch Münster
This was the headline for a lecture
I was asked to give at the Nordic
Course in specialist training for
young doctors within the field of
biochemistry. The overall head-
lines for this session were com-
munication, dialogue, teaching
and leadership. They are all very
important topics to gain knowledge about, as a specia-
list, within the field of biochemistry as I believe that
we as clinical biochemists are very central players in
the modern healthcare system. We are frontrunners
in the technical development of diagnostics and IT-
systems for use in clinical practice. We are innovative
in our thinking with respect to the healthcare sys-
tem of tomorrow interacting with a lot of colleagues
within all specialties and a lot of different groups of
staff (doctors, technicians, nurses, administrators
and scientists) encouraging teamwork and process
development. To play our roles well we need to mas-
ter leadership and communication equally well in
the different contexts we are entering. In this paper,
I have tried to address some theoretical and practical
issues regarding leadership and communication in
the types of organizations that most of us enter. It
was a privilege to be asked to give the lecture and to
write this article. However, I must admit that I am
not quite sure why I was given the task other than I
have been the head of a laboratory for eight years now
and have a genuine interest in people, leadership and
followership. I am not quite sure either why I accepted
since I do not have an MBA in leadership, it must have
been in a moment of insanity, loss of self-knowledge
and lack of insight – speaking of that.
Even 600 years before Christ, the ancient Greeks
knew the importance of “Gnothi Seauton” – know
thyself, was the inscription at the entrance to the
Temple of Apollo at Delphi. If you don’t know your-
self, how can you possibly understand others? If you
know yourself, you know your strengths, limitations,
what you are capable of (and not) and fundamental
believes. All ingredients that, in my point of view, are
necessary for a steady foundation taking on leader-
ship that anyone would want to follow, but what does
the literature say?
What defines a good leader and creates
followership?
Several authors and explorative studies have tried to
answer this question. Not one single answer remains.
On the contrary, in the literature, the top 10 qualities,
the 9 traits, “the five factor theory”, the 7 competen-
ces that make leaders succeed or the 22 qualities that
make a great leader are described. This might reflect
the fact that different organizations and different situ-
ations require different competences from the leader.
Despite the differences, all these theories and
explorative studies have a lot in common. They all
describe specific personal skills and qualifications.
Education and knowledge about the profession is
acknowledged as being important, but the personal
skills are the means by which the person can trans-
form the educational skills/qualifications into being
a good or excellent leader (figure 1).
Which personal skills are needed then? The
Five-Factor Theory of personality used to test leaders
is based on five distinctive characteristic of person-
ality: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreea-
bleness and conscientiousness. These characteristics
are mainly based on biology and therefore very stable
during life, however, they can undergo adaptation
under external influences (1). Other authors claim
that personal qualities such as: honesty, delegate,
communication, confidence, commitment, positive
attitude, creativity, intuition, inspiration and cus-
tomized approach make the perfect combination of
characteristics to be a good leader (2)
Recently (2016), a study, “Leaders that succeed 2”,
was published by “Væksthus for ledelse” (3). The most
interesting aspect of this study was the focus on the
