NURS4020 Leadership Competencies in Nursing |Personal Leadership

Questions:

As a nurse leader, it is important to understand a variety of leadership models and styles. This will help you adapt to different settings and apply strategies to support and inspire others. It may also be necessary to apply models in different professional settings to satisfy certification requirements.

Part I: Graphic Organizer

Answers:

Part I: Personal model of leadership

Leadership

Leadership can be defined as the multifaceted method of identification of the goals and motivating the people to act, or provide support or motivate others to achieve the goal (McCleskey, 2014). Leadership is the critical component that is required to drive any improvement in any kind of organization, especially in order to maintain the health care quality and safety. Leadership is the key skill in nursing (McCleskey, 2014). With the increasing needs for health care in this world the roles and the responsibilities of the nurses have changed drastically and they have a growing influence in every sector of health care delivery. It is to be noted that the leadership roles in nursing is not very similar to the management functions or the managerial function. Leadership in nursing is mainly involved with the successful operating of the shifts, managing the team of nurse or supporting the health care assistant.

In the graphic organizer we have already stated the five types of leadership styles that are found in health care- The transformational leadership, the servant leadership, the laissez-faire leadership, the autocratic leadership and transactional leadership. It should be noted that the type of leadership varies from organization to organizations. A type that is applicable to one might not be suitable for the other. For example in an organization of new nurse leaders having high patient load, it is natural that the leader would try to practice a laissez faire leadership, where the decisions are not generally made, changes rarely occurs and the quality improvement is not that much proactive.

Personal model of leadership in professional setting

With so many leadership styles, one’s personal styles of leadership may find that his/hers kind may embody more than one. While defining the personal model of leadership it has to keep in mind that leadership is not an act or an instance of leading others but more than that. My personal model of leadership will be more inclined towards the situational theory. My personal model of leadership would on change as per the requirement of the team and the nurses. I should be able to adjust myself as a leader to the changes in the organization. In this kind of a leadership the style can change continuously for meeting the needs of the organization depending upon the situation. If the organization or the health care staffs are new and the nurse leader is experienced, then it is better to have a close watch on the employees and give them clear cut instructions to follow (Choudhary et al., 2013). Although this kind of a leadership is quite a top down approach but can be applied in settings that involves too much chaos and corruption. In case of  dealing with the staffs that are inexperienced or are involved in the learning process it is necessary to coach them rather than in a management manner (García-Morales et al., 2012). After the staff nurses gains a bit of experience, a proper leader will pass more responsibilities to the workers with each passing day. Although the leader might guide them but the decision will be given solely on the followers (McCleskey, 2014). It is the development of the follower that determines the leadership styles of a leader. For those followers with little experience and high needs, directing style will be appropriate on the other hand for the one with high competence and low needs, tasks can be easily delegated.

Comparison of the personal leadership model with the conventional leadership models

My personal model of leadership differs from the autocratic style as this kind of a leadership style would bring discord among the nurses and hence would debar the nurses from practicing evidence based nursing. My personal model of nursing also differs from the Laissez faire type of leadership as this kind of a leadership involves total independence to the staffs which differs from my model by the way that it involves delegating independence only to the competent staffs as per the situation. Laissez faire type of leadership may display low accountability (García-Morales et al., 2012).

Transactional leader is the one that values structure and order and mainly suits for managing large corporations or lead any militant operations. It provides motivation by punishment and rewards which differs from my personal model of leadership by the fact that my personal model of leadership seeks to motivate and influence the peers. Whereas transactional leadership can be useful for the self-motivated employees. On the other hand it also differs from the Servant leadership by the focus of the leader. The focus of my model of leadership is mainly focused to the organization as well as the staffs whereas the servant leader’s focus is mainly on the staffs/ followers (Finley, 2012). It also differs from the transformational leadership by the fact that, my model of leadership would rely more on the intuition and analysis of a given situation regardless of the culture of the organization (Doody & Doody, 2012).

Personal leadership model and its relevance to the servant or transformational leadership

Although in Servant leadership it is the need of the people that come at first and it is like an inverted social pyramid (Parris & Peachey, 2013). My leadership model does not really follow the lines of the servant leadership. As this kind of leadership might not be suitable in new settings and generally involves much time. In a chaotic environment with high patient turnover and excessive workload, this style might not be suitable as it involves low level of control over the team and can cause medical errors or breaching of medical standards (Parris & Peachey, 2013). Furthermore the servant leadership has got a paternalistic overtones for which the staffs might feel demotivated or disengaged.

My personal model of leadership follow the transformational leadership pattern. It has to be understood that in today’s world the nurse faces with unprecedented opportunities and challenges and in order to deal with the challenges the nurse have to motivated, by appealing to the augmented ideas and moral values, where the leader has got a deep set of the moral values (Doody & Doody, 2012). This can lead to the followers to sustain for the greater good, rather than thinking about their own interests and provide a supportive environment for sharing the responsibilities (García-Morales et al., 2012). My personal model of theory would follow the transformational style as transformational leadership involves inspirational motivation that is encouraging others for achieving their aims (Choudhary et al., 2013).

References

Antonakis, J., Day, D. V., & Schyns, B. (2012). Leadership and individual differences: At the cusp of a renaissance.

Chaudhry, A. Q., & Javed, H. (2012). Impact of transactional and laissez faire leadership style on motivation. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(7).

Choudhary, A. I., Akhtar, S. A., & Zaheer, A. (2013). Impact of transformational and servant leadership on organizational performance: A comparative analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 116(2), 433-440.

Doody, O., & Doody, C. M. (2012). Transformational leadership in nursing practice. British Journal of Nursing, 21(20), 1212-1218.

Finley, S. (2012). SERVANT LEADERSHIP: A LITERATURE REVIEW. Review of Management Innovation & Creativity, 5(14).

García-Morales, V. J., Jiménez-Barrionuevo, M. M., & Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, L. (2012). Transformational leadership influence on organizational performance through organizational learning and innovation. Journal of business research, 65(7), 1040-1050.

McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.

Parris, D. L., & Peachey, J. W. (2013). A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. Journal of business ethics, 113(3), 377-393.