Understanding Self: Self-Awareness and Leadership
Mental health nursing is specialized field of nursing where nurses are expected to provide care for the individuals, assess the mental health condition of the patients, develop their care plan, work with other health professionals and educate the families and other people about mental health (Ornellas et al., 2019). In order to do that, certain leadership and people management qualities are essential. I aspire to become a mental health nurse and for that I wanted to develop certain skills to make my transition smoother and prepare myself for my future profession. Through this course, I have been able to develop many of my leaderships skills that will be useful for my future profession as a mental health nurse. In this patchwork, my understanding and development of self-awareness, working with others and personality and leadership was analysed through reflection. Finally, a Personal Development Plan for my gaps in leadership skills has been presented which will help me achieve my goals.
One of the most interesting areas of learning through this year was understanding self. Self-awareness is an essential aspect of leadership and through the module, I have been able to develop this skill. Self-awareness refers to the ability of being aware of the self, understanding the different aspects of one’s own self, their traits, feelings, emotions and behaviours (Azmi et al., 2018). Self-awareness is a psychological state where one has greater degree of knowledge and understanding about themselves. Good leaders are expected to be self-aware. This skill helps them to manage their own behaviour and relationships more effectively. This also helps them to take better decisions.
Through the modules, there has been several activities and opportunities to learn self-awareness. The most useful activity is self-reflection. Self-reflection allowed me to understand my own self and my emotions. Self-awareness is also key to understanding how my words and actions are interpreted by others in the workplace (Lisá et al., 2019). As a self-aware person. I am able to reflect on my behaviour and change it to address the shortcomings in order to lead people more effectively. Through the module, there have been several personality and psychometric tests that have informed me about my own personality and skills as leaders as well as areas that I need to improve on. Through those tests, I have become aware that I have good strategic thinking skills (Scott et al., 2019). Strategic thinking is one of the most essential skills for leaders as it helps them set goals and think of ideas to achieve them along with other team members.
Through the tests and reflecting on those tests, my awareness of my emotions, skills and abilities improved. This has helped in many aspects. It has helped me make better choices as a leader. While working in a group work, due to my strategic thinking skills and planning and organizational skills, I was naturally chosen as a leader for the project. In that experience, I was able to lead my team to successfully complete the project (Fajaryati & Akhyar, 2020). There was a situation at the beginning when we were dividing the work among us where the team members were confused about which part would be best for each of them. There were also issues with understanding each other and responding to the emotions of each other. We were all stressed due to the course work pressure and the impending deadline of the project added to that. My self-awareness helped me understand these emotions and find out ways to reduce that stress.
Developing Self-Awareness through Reflection and Psychometric Tests
I felt that a team building routine was necessary and thus, before any tasks were delegated, I proposed that we meet at least two times in order to get to know each other and develop an idea about the strengths and weaknesses of skills for each of them so that work can be divided more meaningfully (Calvo & García, 2021). This helped us in developing a good communication among the members. Additionally, my self-awareness also helped me in openness and accountability of the work. I was able to communicate openly about the issues of the work and guide other members into modifying the work according to that. I also took responsibility and accountability of everyone in my team. Accountability is one of the most essential skills that can come from self-awareness which also helps the team to run smoothly and reduce stress during critical times. In mental health nursing, these skills are essential (Sarfraz et al., 2018). As a nurse working in mental health ward, I need to be aware of my own emotions, understand the emotions of my colleagues and patients, respond to patients in a mindful and empathetic manner and my self-awareness will help me through that. However, I have faced difficulty in openness and empathy which I need to develop further.
In order to improve my openness and empathy, I need to develop emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is an essential characteristic for the leaders. I will focus on empathetic communication to build therapeutic relationship with my patients, and mindfulness in my service delivery. Emotional intelligence is a skill that can be learnt through onlone tests and can be evaluated through online psychometric tests and feedback from my teachers and supervisors. Currently, I do not have a feedback system which would inform me about my progress. However, using this strategy, I can complete an online course and practice emotional intelligence in my practice environment and receive feedback from my supervisors.
Another significant aspect and skill development through the year has been my ability to work with others (Far?i? et al., 2020). By becoming more self-aware I have developed my ability to work with others more effectively. The module activities and assignments also helped me develop skills that contributed to developing people skills and communication. The most essential skill for working with others include communication skills, influencing others, team work and delegation (Scriven & Strampel, 2020). I have been able to develop communication skills, team work and delegation skills through the course and self-reflection and practice. Communication skill requires both verbal and written communication along with active listening. Active listening skill is an essential aspect in working with others. It is required in communication, team work and influencing others. Through active listening, one can understand what the other person is saying and understand the implied and intended meaning of their words. Communication skills also include non-verbal communication where body language, facial expressions and gestures are read in order to understand the emotions and feelings of a person (Salamonson et al., 2020). Through my group work projects I have been able to develop these skills. During group work, I employed communication skills, asking meaningful and assumption free questions to understand the feelings and emotions of others.
The Importance of Strategic Thinking in Leadership
Team work and delegation are essential skills for working with others. In mental health nursing, I need to work in collaboration with other nurses in the ward. Moreover, multidisciplinary working has become a norm in mental health nursing where experts from different fields and expertise come together to provide an integrated health care experience to the patients. Team work and delegation are key skills that will help me in these professional roles (Williamson et al., 2020). Team work requires communication, problem solving, time management, listening, critical thinking, collaboration and leadership. Through the course and group work and individual activities, I have developed some of these skills which will contribute organizational problem solving. Problem solving and critical thinking are my strengths among these. While I cam communicate effectively, there are always room for improvement in this skill. One of the major areas of concern in this aspect is time management. Time management has been one of the most challenging aspects for me through the course work (Hora et al., 2018). As a working professional as well as a student, I have difficulties in managing time for my work and study. I have made a schedule that I have tried to maintain, however, there have been times, when I have lapsed from that and disrupting it.
I have had difficulty in developing influencing skills. There are few skills that are required to develop this transferrable skill such as assertiveness, endurance and intuition where I have certain difficulties. My psychometric tests showed that assertiveness and intuition are some of my weakness areas. I do not follow my instinct in most matters and I am likely to follow the set rules rather than trying new paths (Yates et al., 2020). This could be one area which could prove challenging to me in mental health nursing. In mental health nursing, each patient is different and innovation and intuition while working with them opens new paths for recovery. Considering each patient individually, and creating plans for their recovery from a person-centred approach improves their service quality and experience. The skill of influencing others is essential in team working and leadership too. Leaders need to influence the people that they work with and channelize their motivation towards organizational goals and objectives (Mango, 2018). Influential skills also help building relationships with people, which could be the key in working with multidisciplinary teams. In order to enhance my skill of working with others, this is an area that I need to develop further through the course.
Communication skills and influencing others are two skills in this area that I need to develop for leadership development. In order to develop communication skills, using a focused online course which will build my communication skill is essential. Communication skills can also be built by participating in class discussions and presentations. Public speaking is one of my major areas of concern. Class presentations can help in developing this skill. Additionally, this can help me develop my feedback system where my peers and teachers can provide me with feedback and develop me further. Taking an online course will also provide me with a certificate that could be useful. In order to develop my skills of influencing others, I would practice active listening and focusing innovation and intuition in my every day work. Feedback from teachers and supervisors would help me evaluate my progress. This will help me in my profession as I would be able to influence people that work with me, communicate my plan and vision effectively and ensure that the plans are carried out effectively. This skill will also help in team work and multidisciplinary work scenarios in my practical scenario where experts from different fields work together.
Working with Others: Developing People Skills and Communication
One of the most interesting concepts this module was the relationship between personality and leadership. Leadership is a vast area of study and it is underpinned by many theories. One of the major theories that was used extensively for understanding and observing leaders was trait theory of leadership and great man leadership theory (Schyns et al., 2020). These theories essentially believe that leaders are mostly born with certain traits and characteristics that makes them great. Not everyone can become a leader as they do not posses these qualities. The great man leadership theory believes that leaders possess characteristics like courage, bravery and divine inspiration which makes them stand out from others. They have an innate ability to become leaders (Seidel et al., 2019). The trait theory too, came up with certain leadership traits such as extroversion, openness, agreeableness, neuroticism and conscientiousness. Most of the psychometric tests and leadership tests are based on these theories. Additionally, there is a contesting theory of behavioural theory of leadership which focuses on the behavioural aspects of leadership (Kirkham, 2020). This theory does not give importance to natural abilities of a leader but their behaviour with their followers. Most of the leaders in recent times gives more importance to this theory rather than the trait theories.
There have been other theories that have come up with alternative explanation to leadership. These theories state that leadership qualities are also transferrable skills and be developed within a person (Chen & Chen, 2018). There are theories like transformational leadership, situational leadership and servant leadership which focus on these transferrable skills to develop leadership qualities among people. In nursing discipline, personality and leadership are essential aspects. The roles and responsibilities of nurses dictate that they have an ability to lead a situation, take responsibility and ownership of their work, show decision-making skills, innovation skills and have the ability to think innovatively according to the situation (Lui & Johnston, 2019). All of these skills are essential qualities of a good leader. Situational leadership and transformational leadership are the most used leadership theories that are used in Mental health nursing.
However, there are certain traits identified in the personality, traits and leadership theories that nurses need to develop in order to become successful in their discipline. These skills are emotional intelligence, critical thinking, integrity, communication skills, mentorship and respecting others. Among these skills, while I have critical thinking, integrity and communication skills, mentorship and emotional intelligence skills needs more honing (Rudolph et al., 2018). As a mental health nurse, emotional intelligence will help me in becoming more empathetic towards my patients and practice in an inclusive and judgment free environment. Mentorship will also instil leadership skills in me and will help me influence others while working within a team in the mental health nursing discipline for my future profession.
One of the major areas of concern through my course has been time management. It is one of the key skills that can ensure that a leader is effective in completing their work in time and in an organized way. One of the barriers of time management is lack of organizational skills and not taking timely break. I am also a late riser which also affects my use of time. In order to improve my time management skills, I will use a daily planner and practice early rising. I will also practice organizational skills to keep my workspaces neat so that I do not have to spend time in cleaning and organization every time I work. I would also include breaks in my daily schedule so that I have time to relax. This way, there are less chances of deviation and it will be possible for me manage time effectively.
Essential Skills for Working with Others: Communication, Active Listening, Teamwork, and Delegation
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the course work has been helpful in developing the essential leadership skills. The most essential skills and leadership abilities are self-awareness, working with others and personality and leadership. Self-awareness is an essential quality of leaders working in the mental health units. As leaders, they need to be aware of their strengths, weaknesses, their emotions and feelings. This helps them develop meaningful relationships with people and ensure better service delivery. The skills of working with other people such as team work, influencing others, delegating and communication are essential in professional work. As a nurse, I need to communicate with my patients and their family, my colleagues and any other team members that I work with. There are certain areas for further improvement such as influencing others, emotional intelligence and time management. Following the PDP for the next few moths will help me reach my goals successfully.
References
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