Example of leadership that I have experienced in myself
Discuss about the leadership in healthcare and professional nursing.
Leadership is found to be an important component of any organization that seeks to drive improvements in the quality of the healthcare as well as in the safety of the patients. In the present generations, healthcare delivery systems are seen to shift from their volume-based systems to that of value-based systems and therefore leaders are facing new as well as different challenges that require new behaviors, ideas as well as actions (Kouzes et al. 2014). Effective leadership is mainly comprising of ensuring direction, alignment as well as commitment within the teams as well as within the organizations. Direction mainly helps in ensuring agreement as well as pride among the people in relation to which the organization is trying to achieve and helps to be consistent with vision, values as well as strategy. Alignment mainly refers to the establishment of effective coordination as well as integration of the work. Leaders also need to ensure commitment from the staffs in the healthcare that is manifested by every healthcare professional in the organization taking the responsibility and therefore making it a personal priority for ensuring the success of the organization as a whole (Kelly et al. 2014). Effective leaders in the nursing profession and in other healthcare services are mainly seen to emphasize continually on the safe, high quality as well as compassionate care making it the topmost priorities. Leaders are mainly seen to ensure that the voice of the patient is constantly heard at every level. They also make sure that patient experiences, needs, concerns as well as feedbacks are consistently attended to (ross et al. 2014). They are also seen to be supportive, empathic, available, fair, respectful as well as compassionate and empowering leaderships. They are also seen to promote participation as well as involvement in eth care as the core leadership strategy. They make sure that the voice of their staffs are heard, they are encouraged to show their best potential, providing practical support to staff and also to innovate with safe boundaries. Therefore, leaders play an important role in the nursing profession taking the responsibility of not only teams serving the patients but also the responsibility of the patients’ welfare (Kouzes et al. 2017). This assignment will thereby show how the important five exemplary leadership practices could be developed along with the ten leadership commitments so that the leadership trait exhibited helps the team members of nursing to exhibit their best skills and help in meeting the organizational goals and missions.
First Practice
During the times of clinical placement, I got the opportunity to become a leader of about 10 fresher nursing professionals who were very new to the healthcare system and had no prior experiences beforehand. Although they had good theoretical knowledge, they did not have the proper experience to attend patients and care for them effectively. However, I was also new to the role of leadership and could not understand how to initiate the system of leading. I assigned them with tasks and asked them to start attending to their roles. They seemed to be confused but could not state their concerns to me. I developed the idea that though gradual experiences, they would be able to learn. When one of them came back with a complaint, that she is unable to understand how to approach with the tasks. I blamed her stating that she had not completed her academics properly and so she is facing issues. When a crisis arrived as more than ten children had been admitted for cholera from a school, I grew nervous and could not understand how to tackle so many children at the same time. Seeing me nervous, the team members also got scared and nervous and one of them was on the verge of crying as she got scared of failing to face the children. I could not help them gather courage at that instance and my mentor in turn handled it effectively. I have also failed to provide any innovative ways of development and therefore the team members got easily burned out. I have always tried playing safe in my leadership roles and had never taken any risks. Therefore, my mentor had criticized my approach stating that failure to take risks never results any leaders to the zenith of success. Moreover, one of the most important mistakes that I had made in my leadership roles is that I have failed to establish a sense of bonding among the team members. The team members were seen to not communicate among each other and therefore different types of issues were noticed in the healthcare centre. It was seen that there were many cases of medication errors and were long waiting times for the patient. Moreover, it was seen that patients were not satisfied with the work of the nurses stating that the professionals argues among themselves in front of the patients only. Power struggles were observed between them and they were seen to not interact with each other for discussion of the health of the patients. Another mistake that I had also made was that I had failed to motivate the members of the team and never provided importance to their dedication and good quality work. I always had the idea that it was the duty of professionals to care for patients and therefore never felt the need to acknowledge the help provided by the fresher in taking care of the patients in an exceptionally evidence based manner. Moreover, many of the members of team wanted to resign from the organization as they felt that I was pressurizing them to an extent that was becoming unbearable for them. They believed that they were not getting any additional guidance that they require to learn the work for and hence they are feeling helpless in many situations. They stated that they were not able to develop any kind of learning and were very concerned, as they were not leaning any new skills or knowledge by being on the floor. They believed that they have very few scope of development under my leadership.
After thorough analysis of the leadership style that was followed, I developed an understanding that I had not been able to properly follow a number of important aspects that every leaders need to follow to be effective leaders. One of the five important practices of exemplary leadership style states that every leader should know how to model the ways effectively. The two of the leadership commitments that every leader would follow under this practice is firstly to find the voice of him or her by effectively clarifying the personal values (Strozzi-Heckler 2011). It also instructs leaders to set an example by effectively aligning with the actions and the shared values. While trying to compare with this practices, I realized that from the very beginning of the team management and leading, I did not follow the correct attempt. Researchers are of the idea that leaders should model the ways that is leaders should take the responsibility of establishing the principles that concern the ways by which members should be treated and helps in fixing the goals that the entire team should pursue. The leaders are mainly seen to create the standards of excellence and then set an example for the others to follow. They are also of the opinion that prospect of complex change can overwhelm people and have the capability to stifle action. Therefore, they are mainly seen to set interim goals so that the people can achieve small wins as they work together towards larger objectives (Amer et al. 2016). They are mainly seen to unravel bureaucracy when actions are impeded. They are also seen to put up signposts when people become unsure of where to go and how to achieve the pathways to go there and in this manner; they are seen to create opportunities for victory. I had failed to perform the above-mentioned activities. I should have set an example with proper values myself which should have been followed by the professionals to develop ideas and knowledge. In the times of crisis, I myself got nervous and this made the situation worse as the other nurses also grew quite concerned about their own capability seeing their leaders to get nervous. Moreover, when I blamed them of not completing their work properly, they felt that I criticized them without even trying help them or trying to solve their issues (Phillips and Agar 2016). Therefore, I could not follow the first practice of modeling their ways effectively and therefore it lead to failed teamwork.
The second practice is that the leaders should inspire a shared vision. The main commitments that they should make to follow this practice are that they should envision the future by the proper imagination of the exciting as well as ennobling activities. They should enlist others in a common vision mainly by appealing to shared aspirations (Franco 2016). Researchers are of the opinion that every leaders should believe that they can make a huge difference to the organization, to the team as well as the service that they are providing to the service users. They should envision the future mainly by creating an ideal as well as unique image of what the organization can become (Kouzes and Posner 2017). With the help of their magnetism and their ability of quiet persuasion, they can enlist others in their own dreams (Prosser 2018). They should have the capability to breathing life into the visions and thereby getting the people to see exciting possibilities for their future. After analyzing the practice information in details, I could develop the ideas where I made the mistakes. I realized that I had failed to develop a vision for the nursing professionals that made them feel objective less. I could not help them to develop an excitement for developing knowledge that would help them to make a successful career. I was mostly trying to manage the immediate situations and I never cared for the development of skills and knowledge of the nurses (Jackson 2017). As a leader, I should have motivated them to work beyond their potential, should have individually handled their issues, and helped them to understand the skills required for caring the patients under different situations. I failed to become a guide for my subordinates and therefore they felt helpless as I could not be available to them in their times of need.
The third practice is mainly challenging the process. The main commitments that should be developed are that the leaders should search for the opportunities mainly by the seeking of the innovative ways for change, growth and improvement (Ng and Foo 2016). They should also experiment and thereby take risks by effectively generating small wins and learning from different mistakes. Researchers are of the opinion that leaders should search for the opportunities for changing the status quo. They should mainly look for the innovative ways for improvement of the organization. They should mainly experiments and take up risks. Such rich taking may involve different types of mistakes as well as failures (Priest and Gass 2017). These should not demotivate the leaders and they should accept the inevitable disappointments as well as the learning opportunities. One of the best ways of dealing with different types of potential risks as well as the failures of experimentation is the proper approaching of the changes through the incremental steps as well as the small wins (McAuley 2016). When I analyzed the situation, I realized that i had also failed to meet up these criteria. I realized that I had always tried to be safe with my every approach and never adopted anything that would include any risks. I always tried to look for bigger goals to achieve and therefore never considered on the small wins that the teams were making. I should not have scared for making mistakes and should have take risks that might have resulted in bringing out some of the best ways of healthcare activities (Miller 2016). These activities could have helped me in gaining the cope to learn from my mistakes and to establish innovative ways by which I could have challenged the status quo and developed innovative ways of handling the various issues that arose and manage them effectively.
The fourth practice that should be also considered by leaders of the present generation is enabling others to act. The leaders should develop commitments that would include fostering of the collaboration by effective promotion of the cooperative goals as well as in building trust. It also involves the strengthening of the others by sharing of the power as well as discretion. Researchers are of the opinion that leaders have the responsibility for fostering the collaboration and thereby build spirited rooms (Brown et al. 2016). They should try their best to actively involve others in the team. The leaders should be such that they should understand that mutual respect is an important thing that should sustain extraordinary reports. They should strive for creating an atmosphere of trust as well as human dignity. They have the duty for strengthening others and should make each of the person feel capable as well as powerful. When I try to analyze my leadership style, I see that I have never paid importance in the development of effective bonding among the team members. I realized that I always remain concerned about the output of the team but I was never bothered with the development of bonding among the members (Herd et al. 2016). Due to lack of relationships, effective emotional and mental attachment did not grow among the team members and therefore they could not trust each other. Therefore, there was always blame games when any issue arose because of ineffective teamwork (Hodge et al. 2017). I never arranged for feedback exchange sessions among the members and did not try to develop the communication among them. Therefore, it resulted in failure of the teamwork.
The fifth aspect was encouragement of the heart. The main commitments that the leaders should follow here is proper recognition of the contributions by showing appreciation for the individual excellence. The leaders should celebrate the values as well as victories by creation of a spirit of community. The leaders should always try to keep up the hope and determination alive and should therefore recognize the contributions that each of the nursing professionals make in the healthcare of the patients (Park 2017). The leaders should acknowledge the contributions of each of the members irrespective of how big or small outcome it had in meeting the overall goal. These make the members feel that their dedications and contributions are respected and these motivate the employees largely. I have failed miserably in meeting these criteria. I never paid importance to acknowledging of people, as I believed that everyone has the duty to fulfill and therefore their dedication to healthcare of people is obvious (Rao 2015). It was after reading the articles, that I understood the importance of this practice to develop effective teams and increase productivity.
Conclusion:
From the entire discussion, it becomes clear that leadership in healthcare and professional nursing is an important aspect in order to help the huge number of population with their health care needs to stay healthy. Every leader have the responsibility to not only maintain their teams but also to care for patients and meet the organizational goals. Therefore, in order to lead effective teams, every leader need to follow the five important practices of exemplary leadership model but also follow the ten underpinning commitments associated with it. With the effective following of the practices and commitments, leaders can develop traits that help them not only to lead by examples but also guide their employees in ways by which the best output in achieved in healthcare.
References:
Amer, H., 2016. Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leader. Human Resource Development Quarterly.
Brown, A., Crookes, P. and Dewing, J., 2016. Clinical leadership development in a pre-registration nursing curriculum: what the profession has to say about it. Nurse education today, 36, pp.105-111.
Franco, S.D., 2016. The Interior Lives of Exemplary Leaders: A Phenomenological Study of Lay Leadership Commitment to Mission and Identity at a Catholic, Marianist University(Doctoral dissertation, University of Dayton).
Herd, A.M., Adams-Pope, B.L., Bowers, A. and Sims, B., 2016. Finding What Works: Leadership Competencies for the Changing Healthcare Environment. Journal of Leadership Education, 15(4).
Hodge, S.K., 2017. Meaning Makers: A Mixed-Methods Case Study of Exemplary Chief Executive Officers of Engineering Technology Organizations (Doctoral dissertation, Brandman University).
Jackson, E., 2017. Meaning-Centered Leadership: How Exemplary Technology Leaders Create Organizational Meaning.
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Priest, S. and Gass, M., 2017. Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming, 3E. Human Kinetics.
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Ross, E.J., Fitzpatrick, J.J., Click, E.R., Krouse, H.J. and Clavelle, J.T., 2014. Transformational leadership practices of nurse leaders in professional nursing associations. Journal of Nursing Administration, 44(4), pp.201-206.
Strozzi-Heckler, R., 2011. The leadership dojo: Build your foundation as an exemplary leader. Blue Snake Books
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