Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Leadership Style Reflective Essay

 Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Nurses need to develop leadership skills as an essential component of providing direction and motivation to subordinates and enhancing the provision of quality care. Effective leadership requires one to engage in self-assessment and evaluation to improve their self-awareness and understand their style of leading (Alloubani et al., 2019). Nurses can use various assessment tools to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and values. These tests and tools allow leaders to know their emotional intelligence, develop a suitable leadership style that aligns with their attributes, and improve interactions with other providers in the facility. Self-awareness and reflection offer opportunities for one, especially leaders, to understand their behaviors and adapt their approaches to working with other individuals; and improve their own and other people’s abilities to meet professional development goals. The purpose of this reflective essay is to discuss my leadership style, its application in practice, and areas that need improvement based on the self-assessment results.

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Self-Assessment Results: Rationale and Summary

The transforming healthcare sector requires leaders who are self-aware and focused on attaining quality outcomes. Leaders must understand their level of emotional intelligence so that they appreciate others and focus on quality care delivery. By performing self-assessment tests, leaders recognize their leadership style and how they can relate to it in care provision and association with others. The most effective leadership is one founded on a robust ethical foundation. Great leaders must focus on influencing others around them to reform the health care system to ensure optimal performance and use of resources in an organization to attain quality outcomes.

In determining my leadership style, abilities, and areas that need improvement, I conducted three self-assessment tests that included the accident proneness test, the big 5 personality test, and the DISC personality test. While presenting various outcomes, the essence of all these tools was to highlight my exceptional nursing leadership skills. The rationale behind using these instruments was to be sure of the various leadership traits that I possess and the best way to improve them to lead effectively in nursing practice (Warshawsky & Cramer, 2019). My first test was the accident proneness test where I got 65% implying recklessness based on the tendency to engage in impulsive, rash, and careless behavior. While it shows that one is impulsive which increased the possibilities of engaging in risky actions and decisions, it also demonstrates the courage that any leader should possess when pursuing a certain course or when leading a team to attain the expected outcomes.

On the big five personality test, my score was 74 meaning that I am more organized and self-disciplined. The score also demonstrates that I have increased levels of agreeableness. The DISC test results showed that I have an increased level of conscientiousness which implies the ability to analyze and solve problems. The element also assesses the ability to measure individuals who aim for quality, accuracy, precision, and detailed-oriented. The implication is that these tools show that I have diverse leadership abilities and can influence those under my supervision.

Leadership Style Aligning with Philosophy of Care

Nurses are patient advocates and work to serve their needs in different care settings. My philosophy of care is based on the aspect that as advocates, a nurse’s main duty is to serve their facilities and communities by working together with others through inter-professional and multidisciplinary collaboration (Prezerakos, 2018). This implies that the leadership style that aligns with care philosophy is servant leadership. Servant leaders prioritize the interests and priorities of others at their expense. As a servant leader, one must listen, demonstrate empathy, and have increased levels of self-awareness and persuasion. They must show and foster an environment that supports the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of those that they lead by emphasizing healing and wholeness. Servant leaders should also have foresight of things to come and show their commitment to the growth of the people that they lead.

What appeals to me about the servant leadership style is that it focuses on leaders who are self-sacrificing and willing to offer others the best despite their situations. Servant leadership implores leaders to serve without expecting anything in return. It is important for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) to show an increased focus on patients and colleagues as a way of making their contributions to reforms in healthcare (Warshawsky & Cramer, 2019). Servant leaders do not seek to maintain the status quo and are keen on ensuring that their followers get the best by focusing on their interests first.

Application of Servant Leadership in Practice

Servant leadership is the best model for health care organizations and providers since it focuses on the strength of a team, developing trust, and serving patient needs. Servant leadership is the most appropriate model in a health care practice since the sector is already all about patient care and advocating for them. As a servant leader, a nurse focuses on issues that impact patients, colleagues, and healthy populations. The nurse engages all stakeholders with a view of transforming healthcare through a collaborative approach (Prezerakos, 2018). As a servant leader, the nurse may be best positioned to make changes in the organization and in the provider-patient interactions to enhance the value of care for patients. Using the servant leadership approach will help me as a nurse to work with all stakeholders in decision-making processes by allowing diversity of ideas and necessary changes to enhance the quality of care. I will gather the ideas and opinions of all players and seek effective ways to implement them in practical ways to improve the quality of patient care.

Areas of Improvement

The three tests showed me the need to improve certain aspects of leadership, especially increased interaction and the necessity to enhance communication. For instance, the big five personality test shows the need for a leader to have effective skills in interacting with people, just like the servant leadership model. Therefore, there is a need to improve this area to enhance the collaborative approach to care providers to enhance care quality for patients. Secondly, having more time with patients requires a collaborative approach where all providers work as a team to improve the quality of care. This means creating effective channels of communication to develop better teamwork.

Characteristics of Effective Professional Nurse Leader

Good leadership in nursing is both a science and an art. The importance of leadership in nursing implores one to cultivate attributes and skills that will allow them to influence others in the facility. Effective nurse leaders should possess emotional intelligence, have higher levels of self-awareness, possess integrity, have critical thinking and analytical skills as well as be dedicated to providing excellent care, and have communication skills (Barkhordari-Sharifabad et al., 2018). They should also be mentors and be confident with proficiency in technology.

Transformational Leadership Style & Professional Nurse Leader

Servant leadership style and transformational nurse leadership model are critical to professional nurse leaders. Transformational leaders focus on changing the status quos, increasing delegation, and use of teamwork to attain quality care outcomes. As servant leaders, transformational leaders are goal-focused and believe in harnessing synergies to develop winning teams. Transformational and servant leadership styles support an effective professional nurse leader by demonstrating the need to work through teams to attain quality outcomes (Boamah, 2018). Effective professional nurse leader needs to gather views from all stakeholders and focus on compassionate care while embracing empathy as well as effective listening to those under him or them.

The transformational leadership theory shapes an effective professional nurse leader in different aspects that include collaboration, conflict resolution, negotiation, and making decisions. For instance, nurse leaders must collaborate with other healthcare providers and professionals through interdisciplinary and inter-professional collaborations to deliver quality care. As a leader, one must have the ability to solve conflicts and problems that arise in their care practice which requires effective communication (Lamb et al., 2018). As a negotiator, the nurse leader pleads on behalf of colleagues for better work conditions and welfare as well as increased access to care for patients. The implication is that these theories shape the attributes of a professional nurse leader.

Conclusion

Self-awareness through different personality tests allows nurses and nurse leaders to understand different aspects of their practice, from their leadership styles to attributes and the kind of personalities that they possess. As demonstrated, effective professional nurse leaders possess a host of features and appealing leadership styles that endure them to others. These leaders have increased levels of self-awareness and are keen on transforming their practice environment for quality care delivery.

References

Alloubani, A., Akhu-Zaheya, L., Abdelhafiz, I.M, & Almatari, M. (2019). Leadership styles’

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Barkhordari-Sharifabad, M., Ashktorab, T., & Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, F. (2018). Ethical

leadership outcomes in nursing: A qualitative study. Nursing Ethics, 25(8), 1051-1063. DOI: 10.1177/0969733016687157

Boamah, S. (2018). Linking nurses’ clinical leadership to patient care quality: The role of

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Lamb, A., Martin‐Misener, R., Bryant‐Lukosius, D., & Latimer, M. (2018). Describing the

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Prezerakos, P. E. (2018). Nurse managers’ emotional intelligence and effective leadership: A

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