2.6  What is leadership?

Leadership is concerned with influencing the thoughts, attitudes and behaviours of other people. Each Health Extension Practitioner is a leader of Primary Health Care in their village and will set a direction for the community; you help the community see what lies ahead; you help them visualise what they might achieve; you encourage them and inspire all the community members. Leadership is the ability to get other people to do something significant that they might not otherwise do.

To carry out their roles effectively, leaders need a combination of characteristics including: intelligence, initiative, self-confidence and the ‘helicopter trait’, which is the ability to rise above immediate events and try to work out longer term or strategic ways forward.