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Developing as a Leader in Nursing Chloe Clark Trent UniversityKaryn PerryDeveloping as a Leader in NursingNursing leadership is a complex entity that involves the cohesion of many traits, behaviours, powers, and influences. Leadership is the ability to successfully lead a group of people through a task by creating a vision that is then shared by the masses. It involves being present, accountable, and trusting. Throughout this paper I will explore Hersey and Blanchard’s (1969) situational leadership theory, my personal strengths and weaknesses in leadership, and set a goal that will help enhance my skills as a leader in nursing. Leadership is an integral part of nursing and involves knowing yourself on a deeper level therefore enabling you to understand how you make an impact on your surroundings. There are many theories that outline what makes a good leader. Aspects that impact a person’s ability to lead include: the ability to act in certain situations, their traits and behaviours, and their source of power (Curtis, de Vries, & Sheerin, 2011). Leadership and management can be confused with one another, Curtis et al. (2011) explains the difference between the two, and believes that it requires more complex skills to be a leader than it does to be a manager. When we look at management, we see it is determined by status. Power comes from the position someone is in, as opposed to being chosen naturally by the group. It involves a decision-making attitude that is fueled by a short-term goal (Graham, Gilmer, & Perry, 2015). Leaders on the other hand, are chosen because they have a vision and the ability to inspire the group to create action towards attaining this vision of change. Leadership looks at decisions with a group outlook involving everyone to collectively make a change (Graham et. al, 2015). This harnesses the ability to create long-term changes as everyone is inspired to move forward with attaining the goals. A combination of both management and leadership skills will be helpful in pursuing my career in nursing. Mind Tools: My leadership skills We understand the definition of leadership, but how do we sift through our personal qualities to decipher whether we are a good leader? The surveys taken from Mind Tools (2015) allowed me to explore my skills as a nursing leader through a number of Likert style quizzes. First we will look at the quiz entitled “How Good are Your Leadership Skills?”, which was designed to look at the different aspects of what makes a good leader and then determine which leadership skills you need to develop and which skills you are successful with (Mind Tools, 2015). The quiz was marked out of a possible 90 points and I received 71 (please refer to appendix A for a further breakdown of the sections). I landed within the category of “excellent”, meaning I am well on my way to becoming a good leader (Mind Tools, 2015). As there is still lots of room for improvement I would like to look at the areas that I scored only 7/10 in order to determine where growth can be made. I would categorize these as my weaknesses according to the quiz as they were the areas in which I scored lowest. Weaknesses.There were 3 areas pointed out on Mind Tools (2015) that I believe I can improve on. First is self-confidence. This really resonates with me as I know I have difficulties being confident in my opinion. I have a fear that if I say something stupid people will think less of me and believe I am incompetent. I believe this stems from the way I catch myself thinking when I hear other’s say something I believe is stupid. I find that I can be very judgmental of people who may be thinking on a different wave length than I am, and I realize this is an area of growth I need to work on. If I want to be a successful leader, I need to act in a way that projects confidence and be open to everyone’s suggestions. My issues with self-confidence also stem from my need to be a high-achiever. I constantly push myself to be better, but I am always worried I will not attain the goals I set for myself. This fear of failure can account for a lower score in self-confidence. I believe this aligns with Hersey and Blanchard’s (1969) M3 type personality, which we will discuss later on. Emotional intelligence was also identified as an area I could improve on. Eason (2009) defines emotional intelligence as the ability to control impulses and delay gratification, the ability to empathize with others, and being able to regulate your mood and maintain motivation in times of frustration. I believe I have the ability to empathize with others because I recognize that I can never fully understand the way a person feels in a situation I have not been in. I can try to relate to their situation and feel I can recognize when people are upset or uneasy. I lack the ability to delay gratification as I feel the need to be noticed when I do something well. I could improve on my ability to regulate my mood as I can become very emotional in difficult situations. When circumstances occur that I have no control over I tend to feel overwhelmed. I then lose my motivation and have difficulties moving forward. This is something I need to work on by recognizing my emotions are something I can control. I can understanding that a situation is out of my control and that becoming emotional will not fix it. Working on maintaining my motivation to complete the task will help me push through my emotional responses. As Eason (2009) explains, communication is essential for the creation of proper relationships and working on containing my emotional state during difficult situations will aid in my ability to communicate effectively. When a situation arises that my style of leadership is not working with someone, instead of becoming frustrated I should try changing the style of leadership to better suit the person I am helping (Hersey and Blanchard, 1969). Finally, managing performance effectively is an area I could improve on. This focuses on the ability to clearly communicate my expectations of others (Mind Tools, 2015). Although I feel like I do this fairly well, I believe I can work on making sure that my expectations are congruent with the rest of the group. I find that sometimes I may have expectations that are higher than some people can commit to. An example of this comes to mind from my experience as team leader during clinical this term. I was given the chance to act as charge nurse for our group and help out each student as they went through their daily routine on the unit. This was an amazing experience but I believe my expectations were set a little high for some people in the group. A few people found it difficult to complete their assessments by the required break time. I found that by having my expectations too high, the people who were unable to meet these expectations would also choose not to come to me for help, no matter how present I made myself. This was frustrating because I would also try to communicate to them that I was there and willing to help in any way possible. Thankfully we had the opportunity to discuss this during our post-clinical meeting and as a group we decided how we would go about our next day. We scheduled ways that I could help them meet their personal expectations and my expectations as well. By communicating our issues as a group, we were able to solve the problem. This connects with the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario’s (RNAO) HWE Best Practice Guideline: Developing and sustaining nursing leadership (2013) suggestion of increasing communication for effective leadership. I think this experience made for a great combination of management and leadership skills. Our second day went much smoother, and every clinical day since then has flowed at a much faster pace thanks to our abilities to communicate effectively when we recognized something needed to change. I believe this experience resonates with Hersey and Blanchard’s (1969) theory of situational leadership. Hersey and Blanchard (1969) focused on the need for leaders to change the way they lead depending on the person they are working with. They defined four types of followers based on their maturity and skill level. M1 people are those with low maturity and low skill. They lack the drive and ability to accomplish tasks. These types of followers need a leader to tell them what to do and how to do it. M2 followers are people who have a little more motivation to complete a task however they still lack some of the skills required to do so. These people need a leader who will coach them. M3 followers are defined as people who have the skills to accomplish a task however, they lack the motivation or confidence to do it. Supportive leaders will help M3 followers best by encouraging them to push past their confidence issues. Finally, M4 followers are best described as having the skill and motivation to complete the tasks given to them. The job of the leader in this situation is to delegate tasks because they know the job will be completed without their supervision (Hersey and Blanchard, 1969). Different people will have different skill levels at this point in time during clinical practice. Some students are more motivated than others, while some may be struggling with building their skills. It is up to me as a leader to be able to understand who has the skills to complete a specific task, and who is motivated to complete the task. If my expectations are high for everyone then I may be causing strain on people who are having a difficult time keeping up. On the other hand, I may lose the motivation of others if they feel the task is too simple for them. Understanding how to lead different people is an important part of becoming a leader. I think this skill will be important in my future career as a nurse. This coincides with Lunenburg’s (2011) explanation of Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation. It is important to keep a balance between my expectations of others and help motivate and encourage people to complete their assigned tasks. Strengths.The survey from Mind Tools (2015) also pointed out some of my strengths. I am a very positive and optimistic person. With the challenges I have faced in my past, I believe that I have grown to become an outgoing, truthful person. Getting here has not been easy, but it has been worth every pain-staking event. Providing an inspiring vision was also pointed out as a strength of mine. Leadership involves having the ability to understanding what can be possible if you only try hard enough. To have the ability to push through struggles and show people what we could accomplish together is an ability I believe I have. I like to push people to the limit and urge people to move out of their comfort zone in order to help them see their true capabilities. This is important to me as a nursing leader because I feel that as long as I can help show people an inspiring vision of what things could be like, I feel I can work on motiving people to achieve that. This will be especially important with my future goals of working in the birthing suites at PRHC. Many first time mothers may feel discouraged during the labour process and I believe I can help them through this situation and motivate them to push harder. Mind Tools: Motivation to leadWe will now look at the second Mind Tools (2015) quiz entitled “The Leadership Motivation”. I score 58 out of a possible 70. This score was on the low end of the category: strongly motivated to lead (please refer to appendix B for a further breakdown of the quiz). I believe I got this score because in some aspects of my life, I am definitely a motivated leader. I aim to include everyone in decision-making, I organize a lot of functions, I encourage people to achieve their goals, and I enjoy doing things that will help boost morale. The reason I am at the lower end of the spectrum is because I do not take on a leadership role in every aspect of my life. I like the times where I can sit back and watch someone else run the show. These times allow me to see groups from another role and really break down what it means to be the leader motivating everyone. I understand what it feels like to be delegated, supported, and told what to do. Although I very much enjoy being a leader, I also enjoy playing a smaller role. I know that when someone else is more equipped to lead the group, then I will whole-heartedly follow them. I think this is part of understanding leadership because I know I do not always have to be the one running the show. Setting a goalIn order to increase my potential as a leader, my goal inspired by the RNAO (2013) is to build relationships and trust. Based on my strengths, I believe that building better relationships and trust will allow me to better my ability to inspire the people around me. This is an important part of leadership as pointed out in the RNAO (2013) and requires some time spent working at this. The importance of trust plays a large role in leadership; if you cannot trust someone then you will not follow them or respect their ideas. If I want to inspire people with my vision of what nursing can be, then building trusting relationships is the first step. Groups work because they rely on each other to accomplish individual tasks that are a part of a complete picture. A team will fall apart if you cannot trust a team member to complete their assigned task. My strategies to complete this goal involve being accountable for my actions, following through with what I say I will do, and allowing myself to trust my team members. I plan to complete this goal by the end of my group preferred vision project completing March 3rd, 2015. Being accountable for my actions involves having my group members able to trust that I will complete assigned tasks. This is an important part of nursing and involves respecting and being fair with the people I work with (RNAO, 2013). In order to be accountable I plan on being punctual for our meetings on Wednesday’s from 3:00-5:00pm and I will ask for help when I feel I need it. Accountability also involves understanding when you have made a mistake, and owning up to this. Follow through is a part of keeping the commitments that I have made. If I say I will accomplish something for the group, I need to do it. The RNAO (2013) states this is an integral part of building trust. This resonates with Hersey and Blanchard’s (1969) situational leadership theory. I have the ability to do the task and I am willing to do it. I will complete my assigned work prior to our meetings and I will complete it to the best of my ability. Lastly, in order to create a trusting environment within my group I have to be willing to trust my team members. Part of this involves the norms that we made as a group. We made it clear how we would like the group to act and what was appropriate. I believe this coincides with the RNAO’s (2013) behaviour for reflecting on our values and goals collectively and openly. The RNAO (2013) states that outcomes from trusting relationships include decreased emotional exhaustion, the ability to lead in a diverse workforce, and an increased perception of my abilities as a leader. This would create an overall successful experience in doing the preferred vision assignment. By creating a plan to increase my capabilities as a leader in the area of building relationships and trust, I will be accomplishing one of the course objectives, to “synthesize and evaluate strategies to enhance and further develop [my] own personal and professional growth” (Trent University, pg 3). I will know that I have created a trusting relationship with my team when they allow me to do my section of the assignment without feeling they need to do it themselves. I will also feel accomplished when they feel they can come to me for help if it is needed. I truly believe this group assignment will be accomplished very effectively. I think overall I have many qualities that make a good leader, in both management and leadership aspects. I am motivated to lead, I like to push people to act to their fullest potential, I am organized, and I am comfortable being strict but also open to people making mistakes and leaning from them. The thing about leadership is that it is a skill you have to continuously work on. I think that being a good leader involves a cohesion of management and leadership characteristics in order to be successful. Progressing in the field of leadership and working on my leadership skills is pertinent for my future career in nursing. I hope accomplishing my goal will allow me to understand better where I stand as a leader and increase my ability to create better working relations with people. ReferencesCurtis, E. A., de Vries, J., & Sheerin, F. K. (2011). Developing leadership in nursing: exploring core factors. British Journal of Nursing, 20(5), 306. Retrieved from , T. (2009). Emotional intelligence and nursing leadership: A successful combination. Creative nursing, 15(4), 184-185. doi: 10.1891/1078-4535.15.4.184Graham, C., Gilmer, C., Perry, K. (2015). Notes from a lecture on Contemporary Leadership Practice and Development: Theories, Approaches and Frameworks. Course NURS 3004, Trent University, Peterborough, ON. Hersey, P.,?&?Blanchard,. H. Life cycle theory of leadership.?Training and Development Journal,?1969, 23 (2), 26-34.Lunenburg, F. C. (2011). Expectancy theory of motivation: motivating by altering expectations. International Journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), 1-6. Retrieved from Mind Tools. (2015). Leadership Skills: becoming a good leader. [Online quiz]. Retrieved fromMind Tools: Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (2013) HWE Best Practice Guideline: Developing and sustaining nursing leadership. Retrieved from Trent University. (2015, January 6). NURS 3004H: The Nurse as leader and advocate. Retrieved from Trent University Appendix AResults from the online quiz from Mind Tools (2015) entitled “How Good Are Your Leadership Skills?” I received a score of 71. Results and analysis below.53-90Excellent! You're well on your way to becoming a good leader. However, you can never be too good at leadership or too experienced – so look at the areas where you didn't score maximum points, and figure out what you can do to improve your performance. (Read?belowto start.)There are many leadership skills and competencies that, when combined and applied, go toward making you an effective leader. You have the ability to develop each of these skills within yourself. Read on for specific ideas on how you can improve your leadership skills!Personal CharacteristicsSuccessful leaders tend to have certain traits. Two keys areas of personal growth and development are fundamental to leadership success: self-confidence, and a positive attitude.Self-confident people are usually inspiring, and people like to be around individuals who believe in themselves and in what they're doing. Likewise, if you're a positive and optimistic person who tries to make the best of any situation, you'll find it much easier to motivate people to do their best.Self-Confidence(Questions 2, 8)Your score is 7 out of 10 ??Self-confidence is built by mastering significant skills and situations, and by knowing that you can add real value by the work you do. One of the best ways to improve your confidence is to become aware of all of the things you've already achieved.Our article on?Building Self-Confidence???explains what you can do to understand yourself better and build your self-confidence. From there, you'll begin to make the most of your strengths and improve your weaknesses. Explore this further with our Bite-Sized Training session on?Personal SWOT Analysis.Positive Attitude and Outlook(Questions 10, 17)Your score is 8 out of 10 ??A positive mindset is also associated with strong leadership. However, being positive is much more than presenting a happy face to the world: you need to develop a strong sense of balance, and recognize that setbacks and problems happen – it's how you deal with those problems that makes the difference.Positive people approach situations realistically, prepared to make the changes necessary to overcome a problem. Negative people, on the other hand, often give in to the stress and pressure of the situation. This can lead to fear, worry, distress, anger and failure.Stress management techniques??, including getting enough?Rest, Relaxation and Sleep???as well as physical exercise, are great ways of getting rid of negative thoughts and feelings. Understanding your thinking patterns, and learning to identify and eliminate negative thinking are key. You can learn how to do this in our article onThought Awareness, Rational Thinking and Positive Thinking??, and you can find out how to become more optimistic in our Book Insight on?Learned Optimism.Emotional Intelligence(Questions 5, 15)Your score is 7 out of 10 ??The concept of emotional intelligence used to be referred to as "soft skills," "character", or even "communication skills". The more recent idea of?Emotional Intelligence???(EQ) offers a more precise understanding of a specific kind of human talent. EQ is the ability to recognize feelings – your own and those of others – and manage those emotions to create strong relationships.Learning to develop?Empathy???is essential for emotional intelligence, as is communicating effectively, and practicing?Empathic Listening??. These all help you really understand the other person's perspective.The Leadership menu has a section on?emotional intelligence in leadership.Transformational LeadershipTransformational leadership is a leadership style where leaders create an inspiring vision of the future, motivate their followers to achieve it, manage implementation successfully, and develop the members of their teams to be even more effective in the future. We explore these dimensions below.Providing a Compelling Vision of the Future(Questions 6, 14)Your score is 9 out of 10 ??This is your ability to create a robust and compelling?vision of the future??, and to present this vision in a way that inspires the people you lead.The first part of being able to do this is to have a thorough knowledge of the area you're operating in. See our Bite-Sized Training session on?Building Expert Powerto find out how to develop this.From there, good use of strategic analysis techniques can help you gain the key insights you need into the environment you're operating in, and into the needs of your clients. See our?Strategy Menu?for more than 50 powerful techniques that give you these insights.With these tools, you can explore the challenges you face and identify the options available to you. You can identify the best of these with good use of?prioritization skills???and appropriate?decision-making techniques??.Finally, to sell your vision, you need to be able to craft a compelling and interesting story. Our article, "Powers of Persuasion??," can help you open closed minds, so that people consider your ideas fairly. Another great way of inspiring people is to use vivid stories to explain your vision: find out more about this in our Expert Interview with Annette Simmons, titled?Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins.Motivating People to Deliver the Vision(Questions 9, 12)Your score is 8 out of 10 ??This is closely related to creating and selling a vision. You must be able to convince others to accept the objectives you've set. Emphasize teamwork, and recognize that when people work together, they can achieve great things. To provide effective leadership by linking performance and team goals, use?Management by Objectives???(MBO) and?Key Performance Indicators???(KPIs).Ultimately, you need to motivate people to deliver your vision. To better understand your ability to motivate, complete our quiz?How Good Are Your Motivation Skills???, and explore our articles on?Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors???andSirota's Three Factor Theory??.Being a Good Role Model(Questions 4, 11)Your score is 9 out of 10 ??Good leaders?lead by example??. They do what they say, and say what they do. These types of leaders are trustworthy, and show integrity. They get involved in daily work where needed, and they stay in touch with what's happening throughout the organization. Great leaders don't just sit in their offices and give orders; they demonstrate the actions and values that they expect from the team.As with building vision, above, a key part of being a good role model is leading from the front by developing?expert power??. A leader can't rely on position alone: by keeping current, and staying relevant within the organization, you'll inspire people because you're worthy of your power and authority, not just because you're the boss.Managing Performance Effectively(Questions 3, 13)Your score is 7 out of 10 ??Effective leaders manage performance by setting their expectations clearly and concisely. When everyone knows what's expected, it's much easier to get high performance. There's little uncertainty, therefore you can deal with performance issues quickly. And if things have already started to slide, our article on?Re-Engaging Team Members???offers some excellent tips for turning a negative situation back to a positive one.As you create rules, help the team understand?why the rules are there??. Involve them in the rule-making process, and make sure that your expectations align with the resources and support available. Apply rules fairly and consistently.Providing Support and Stimulation(Questions 1, 7, 16, 18)Your score is 16 out of 20 ??to be highly motivated at work, people need more than a list of tasks to be completed each day. They need challenges and interesting work. They need to develop their skills, and to feel supported in their efforts to do a good job.Think about your approach to?Task Allocation??, and look for opportunities to match people with jobs and responsibilities that will help them grow and develop. UseHeron's Six Categories of Intervention???to decide when and how to help team members to shine. Perform?Training Needs Assessments???on a regular basis to determine what your team needs to be successful.Remember that emotional support is also important. The?Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid???is a great tool for thinking about the right balance between concern for people, and productivity.Key PointsTo be successful in your career, regardless of your title or position, focus on developing your leadership skills.Effective leaders can add value simply by being present on teams. They are inspirational and motivating. They know the right things to say to people to help them understand what's needed, and they can convince people to support a cause.When you have talented and effective leaders in your organization, you're well on your way to success. Develop these leadership skills in yourself and in your team members – and you'll see the performance and productivity of your entire team improve.Appendix BResults from the online quiz from Mind Tools (2015) entitled “The Leadership Motivation Assessment”. I received a score of 58. Results and analysis below.56 – 70This implies a strong motivation to lead.Source: This set of questions was constructed for this self-assessment and for illustrative purposes only. No prior validation work has been conducted that enables us to address the construct validity of this assessment. This self-assessment was patterned after that of A. J. DuBrin in Leadership: Research Findings, Practice and Skills (2nd edition) (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998). Pp. 10-11.Armed with the results from this self-test, your next step depends on your situation.If you have found that you're?strongly motivated to lead,?and you're already a leader - great! And if you're not already a leader, this is definitely an area you should investigate as you plan your?career development.On the other hand, if your score indicates that you?don't have a strong motivation to lead, and you're considering moving into this area, you may want to look at other career options before you make a decision. Our article on?Finding Career?Direction???will help you identify the type of work that?does?motivate you.But if you're already a leader and you're just going through a low patch in the role, explore our?leadership motivation tools??, and see if you can regain your enthusiasm for the job! ................
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