Personal Leadership Philosophies Questions

Personal Leadership Philosophies Questions

Develop and submit a personal leadership philosophy that reflects what you think are characteristics of a good leader. Use the scholarly resources on leadership you selected to support your philosophy statement. Your personal leadership philosophy should include the following:

A description of your core values
A personal mission/vision statement
An analysis of your CliftonStrengths Assessment summarizing the results of your profile
A description of two key behaviors that you wish to strengthen
A development plan that explains how you plan to improve upon the two key behaviors you selected and an explanation of how you plan to achieve your personal vision. Be specific and provide examples.
Be sure to incorporate your colleagues’ feedback on your CliftonStrengths Assessment from this Module’s Discussion 2.

Several scholarly articles identify characteristics of good nurse leaders but offer only a few means by which such individuals could cultivate them (Scully, 2014). Being able to identify one’s strengths could help a leader improve his leadership traits. In this week’s discussion, the Gallup’s (2019) StrengthsFinder assessment revealed five themes of my strengths as a leader. The five themes were achiever, empathy, includer, connectedness, and learner. As a clinical educator in the emergency department of my facility, the position may not be considered a leadership role, but being able to identify my strengths is vital as an informal leader to the nurses in the department.

Strengths

The two strengths from the CliftonStrengths report that I would like to improve upon are learner and connectedness (Gallup, 2019). Learners, according to Gallup (2019) have a great desire to know more and continuously improve. As an educator, learning is a steady process for me, and is something that I need to continuously work upon. Nursing competencies are based on the knowledge and skills taught to them (Jamshidi, Molazem, Sharif, Torabizadeh, & Kalyani, 2016), thus, to be able to effectively teach the staff nurses, it is crucial that I enhance my skill and trait as a learner. Meanwhile, connectedness, according to Gallup (2019) means having faith in the links among all things. A leader with this strength believes there are only a few coincidences, and that every event has a meaning (Gallup, 2019). By nurturing this strength, I could help individuals realize that teamwork and group efforts are important in accomplishing tasks, which is important in a busy emergency department like ours.

Core Values

Nursing core values are standard components in all clinical and educational nursing settings. The core values guide and motivate the professional behaviors of nurses in their respective work areas (Poorchangizi, Farokhzadian, Abbaszadeh, Mirzaee, & Borhani, 2017). Sherman (2015) enumerated some examples or nursing leadership core values and two that I would like to strengthen are the willingness to tolerate differences in opinions, and a commitment to a caring-based approach to leadership. The two core values will strongly influence the includer and empathy themes identified in the strength assessment report discussed.

Characteristics

Two characteristics that I would like to strengthen are adaptability and individualization. Adaptability is not viewing the future as a fixed destination, but a place to create out of the choices that one makes right now (Gallup, 2019). In the emergency department, it is important that nurses adapt to the stressful situations occurring daily in the department. Being able to show to my clinical staff that I can adapt to the various stressors in our unit as a role model could help them feel that they are not alone. Adaptive leadership is a trait that needs to be cultivated because even stable situations can become unstable when faced with new challenges. Another characteristic that I would like to strengthen is individualization. The individualization theme allows a leader to be intrigued by the unique qualities of each person (Gallup, 2019). As an educator, I tend to see them as a group of individuals. It is necessary that I pay more attention to their individual skills, attitudes, and interests to draw out their uniqueness and bring out their highest potential.

References

Gallup. (2019). Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0. Retrieved from https://walden.gallup.com

Jamshidi, N., Molazem, Z., Sharif, F., Torabizadeh, C., & Kalyani, M. N. (2016). The challenges of nursing students in the clinical learning environment: A qualitative study. Scientific World Journal. doi: 10.1155/2016/1846178

Poorchangizi, B., Farokhzadian, J., Abbaszadeh,, A., Mirzaee, M., & Borhani, F. (2017). The importance of professional values from clinical nurses’ perspective in hospitals of a medical university in Iran. BioMed Central Medical Ethics, 18(20). doi:10.1186/s12910-017-0178-9

Scully, N. J. (2015). Leadership in nursing: The importance of recognizing inherent values and attributes to secure a positive future for the profession. Collegian, 22(4), 239-244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2014.09.004

Sherman, R. O. (2015). Nursing leadership core values. Retrieved from https://www.emergingrnleader.com/nursing-leadership-core-values

Responses to my post

Thank you for your post, it sounds like you have wonderful leadership qualities. I wonder if you have heard or utilize trauma informed care in your nursing practice? I believe that trauma informed care can help develop all your strengths. Personal Leadership Philosophies Questions

Trauma informed care is a treatment framework that focuses on the widespread impact of trauma. Many individuals in the healthcare field are exposed to secondary trauma while working with patients, this treatment framework applies nicely to our interactions with staff as well as patients. Understanding that everyone has a past, and their current behavior or actions are possibly due to a traumatic event that someone was subjected to brings a perspective that allows people to take a step back and see peoples suffering instead of their undesirable behaviors. Trauma has a complex effect on patients and providers, and it is important for leaders to understand the effects of trauma can be unpredictable and long lasting (Menschner & Maul, 2016). Key components to trauma informed care are empowerment, choices, collaboration, safety, and trustworthiness. When our colleagues feel we provide these components to them in their work environment communicating about current opportunities for growth or proactive planning to ensure an optimal learning environment for those who need different accommodations to want to develop themselves.

Studies show that the implementation of these components leads to positive patient outcomes and happier, more productive work environments (Menschner & Maul, 2016). Transformational leaders recognize the importance of these characteristics and encourage colleagues to understand that cultures of empowerment, choices, collaboration, safety, and trustworthiness is essential to a well-run healthcare system (Riggio, 2016).

Understanding trauma informed care helps us better understand ourselves and the reasons for our own behaviors. It has helped me recognize my reactions to situations and their differences depending on the environment or people present. It really helps create a picture of hope and empowerment for colleagues when one focuses on strengths and can help a person recognize and build off them. Respect, support, a manageable amount of conflict, consistency, accountability, and open communication yield positive results in a healthcare system. Organizations tend to focus on implementing trauma informed care for patients, but I think utilizing this concept in every interaction helps one recognize where a person is at and helps adapt the leadership or teaching style to fit the other person’s needs. Personal Leadership Philosophies Questions