Reflection on Leadership (ANSWERED)

Based on the results you obtained from the Foundation of Nursing Leadership self-assessment in Week 1 Lesson, reflect on the questions below and share in a post.

• What is your current leadership style?
• How does your leadership style impact your decision making in nursing care?
• How will you further develop your leadership skills?

ANSWER

Leadership Self-Assessment

What is your current leadership style?

I possess traits associated with transformational leadership, such as individualized consideration, idealized influence, and inspirational motivation. I advise and coach staff through personal or professional challenges. My coaching or training is often tailored to the staff’s individual needs to help them reach their full potential. Additionally, I have always strived to create a supportive environment by listening and responding to employees’ individual needs. This trait is associated with individualized consideration, a core characteristic of transformational leadership (Farnsworth et al., 2020).

I believe leaders should always lead by being role models to their followers. Therefore, I always uphold the highest professional and ethical standards during practice to motivate my staff to do the same (idealized influence). Inspirational motivation involves motivating employees to commit to the organization’s vision (Farnsworth et al., 2020). I inspire my followers to become part of the organization’s vision by communicating my expectations to them, using emotional appeals, and nurturing the team spirit, demonstrating my skills in inspirational motivation.

How does your leadership style impact your decision-making in nursing care?

My leadership style determines whether I consider other people’s input and opinions in my decision-making. Transformational leadership mandates power-sharing between the leader and followers, meaning followers have as much decision-making power as the leader (Meurling et al., 2013). Therefore, my final decisions will be a product of my objective analysis of the problem and followers’ opinions and input.

How will you further develop your leadership skills?

I will further develop my leadership skills through professional development courses or training. These courses can help build my leadership competencies, especially skills for working in multi-cultural settings with diverse populations. My work experience can also help me refine my leadership skills. According to Al-Dossary (2017), clinical leadership differs from formal leadership because the former focuses on enhancing patient safety and high-quality care. Exposure to an environment with actual problems will also help me exercise and improve my leadership skills. I can also develop these skills through on-job training or mentorship programs.

References

Al-Dossary, R. N. (2017). Leadership in Nursing. Contemporary Leadership Challenges. Intechopen. https://doi.org/10.5772/65308

Farnsworth, D., Clark, J. L., Hall, J., Johnson, S., Wysocki, A., & Kepner, K. (2020, August 10). Transformational Leadership. The University of Florida. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/hr020

Meurling, L., Hedman, L., Felländer-Tsai, L., & Wallin, C.-J. (2013). An exploratory study of leaders’ and followers’ individual experiences during the early phase of simulation-based team training. BMJ Quality & Safety, 22(6), 459–467. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3711359/