Introduction:

Research about leadership has developed theories that, for the most part, coincide with the fact that it is a professional competence through which it is feasible to guide and drive teams and/or followers towards a goal, through motivating and energetic relationships. The leader influence guarantees a meaning to this mission, catalyzing the potential of the followers and triggering self-motivational processes in the collective.

Objective:

To identify leadership styles through self-perception evaluated in university students of health sciences.

Methods:

The “Multifactorial Leadership Questionnaire” was applied to 109 students. The predominant leadership style was identified, according to the theory of Bass and Avolio (transformational, transactional, and passive-evasive leadership), using a multiple and mediational regression analysis.

Results:

In medical students, a beta coefficient of 0.50 was reached with R2 of 63% between transformational leadership and the outcome variables. Transformational leadership had a greater direct effect on extra effort (coefficient=0.85). In the female gender, the direct effect towards the outcome variables was higher than in the male gender.

Conclusions:

The study allowed to try the tool “Multifactorial Leadership Questionnaire” for evaluating leadership profiles in undergraduate students and to know their predominant characteristics.

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