**8. Strategic leadership process**

The healthcare industry has expanded its understanding of the significance and impact of strong leadership [12]. The healthcare system's complexity necessitates the skills of a capable leader who can bring together medical and clinical practice while also recognizing the needs of patients and establishing a wide range of health services [13]. The primary goal of the healthcare sector is to provide preventive, rehabilitative, and palliative care to a community [14]. The strategic leadership process has four stages: competence, vision, communication, and service.

Step 1—The capacity to meet a specific demand, an honest appraisal of one's skills, shortcomings, goals, and motivating factors, the development of a competency that others respect, and the competency must be recognized by the organization, are all components of competence. Developing exceptional competence requires 10–18 years, and early development of core competence should be prioritized through investment.

Step 2—To guide the organization in the right direction and create a vision that serves as a guidepost. This creates a motivational focus, giving employees a specific goal to work toward. The following are characteristics of a vision: To be imaginable is to have a vision of the future. Long-term interest appeals to stakeholders are desirable. Clear: able to serve as a compass for making decisions. Adaptable: allowing for a wide range of reactions and allowing for individual initiative. The term "communicable" refers to the ability to communicate effectively within five minutes.

#### *Strategic Leadership in Nursing DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104512*

Step 3—Included in the list of questions to inquire about the effectiveness of communication is: The vision statement will be communicated to whom? What are all the possible means of communication? We must consider how we can best convey the organization's long-term strategy to our stakeholders. What are the best means of contacting you in the future? What measures can be used to assess whether or not the vision statement is known and understood by the target audience? A vision statement without proper communication is like hosting a party without sending out invitations.

Step 4—Empathy, healing, listening, awareness, foresight, persuasion, stewardship, dedication to the growth of people, developing community, and conceptualizing are among the 10 characteristics of servant leaders highlighted by Spears [15]. The leader-follower relationship should be built on open and reciprocal exchanges of information. Being able to listen and be open to what others have to say is a learned skill. Through good listening, servant leaders recognize and validate the thoughts of their subordinates. Servant leaders that are empathic show that they truly understand the thoughts and feelings of their subordinates. It's all about the help a servant leader gives their followers to overcome their own personal struggles. Servants who are aware of their social, physical, and political surroundings are better able to respond to the needs of their organizations. Persuasion is the ability to communicate in a way that persuades others to change their minds. Focus on the person's capacity to be a visionary for the organization by providing a rich sense of objectives and direction. Servant leadership requires foresight and accountability, while stewardship requires accountability for one's leadership role. For those who want to learn more about servant leadership, these ten traits are an excellent starting point.
