APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay
Leadership Style Reflective Essay
Leadership is among the responsibilities that require excellent and quality skills to effectively lead a team towards the desired common goal. It involves a leader portraying professionalism towards their followers to encourage them to execute their roles. All leaders have their strengths and weaknesses. However, a determined leader uses their strengths while at the same time using the strength of others to cover their weaknesses. This paper aims to review and perform self-assessment and look at the strengths of personal leadership styles and how they relate to various leadership philosophies.
Rationale and a summary for selecting each self-assessment
There were various reasons and aims for selecting each assessment. To start with, determining whether a leader has the capability of impacting an agreement among differing opinions in a discussion is the first self-assessment that was selected. It is a vital self-assessment as it allows one to determine their decision-making capabilities in critical organizational discussions (Kiwanuka et al., 2021). Understanding this vital component can help one to become a successful leader with good skills in team leadership. Based on the results from this assessment, a score of 2 was obtained, a good indicator that a person’s reflective supervision might be familiar to them. It hence may require more effort to achieve better results.
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The second self-assessment involved determining whether leaders practice teamwork with their subordinates during major decision-making. This is an assessment that was done to determine whether a leader utilizes their skills of leadership while at the same time nurturing others to leadership. In this assessment, a scale score of three was obtained, a good indicator that the leader is always willing to help others. The third self-assessment is determining whether a leader is always willing to address the needs and issues of other people positively. It is important since it makes subordinates feel valued, thus working hard and smart toward achieving the set targets (Kiwanuka et al., 2021). The obtained results, in this case, were three, which was a good indicator that the leader is always willing to address the needs and issues of their followers.
Leadership Style
The philosophy of care is vital when upheld by a leader. Transformational leadership is the leadership style that aligns with this philosophy. Transformational leadership is a style that emphasizes openness at work, thus enabling the leader to seek new ideas from their subordinates. Transformational leadership encourages innovative thinking in a team by exploring new growth opportunities and experiences, thus promoting intellectual stimulation among team members (Wang et al., 2018). In this case, transformational leadership allows sharing of ideas among team members concerning emerging elements and concepts that improve results. Transformational leadership also has the aspect of encouraging leaders to be active listeners. It is an aspect that allows leaders to listen more to their followers, thus helping them to make an informed decision.
How Transformational Leadership Elements will be Incorporated while Exercising Leadership in a Healthcare Setting
Transformational leadership in a healthcare setting can impact the leader and the healthcare organization, especially when it is 4 I’s aspect is followed. For instance, inspirational motivation is crucial to a nurse leader since it encourages team confidence. However, this can only be achieved through developing a clear vision, communicating all the expectations to the team, and demonstrating a commitment to the set goals. Effective communication will be vital for the leader to convey the important message to their team with power, precision, and authority. Another aspect of transformational leadership that will be applied in a healthcare setting is idealized influence. It is a situation whereby a leader will be required to lead an exemplary life in leadership, expressing their charismatic nature while executing duties. This can only be proved when a leader proves their willingness to take risks and act in line with the set of ethical principles and core values in every action taken.
The third important aspect of this leadership style is individual consideration, which is important for creating a good relationship between team members and their leader. It is an aspect that can be achieved by observing each team member’s needs. For instance, a leader can explore the things that motivate every team member and conduct a one-to-one coaching session to motivate them to do their work (Boamah et al., 2018). Finally, intellectual stimulation that triggers innovative thinking is the last aspect of transformational leadership that can be applied in a healthcare setting. It is an aspect that will be incorporated when a nurse leader involves their team members in critical decision-making. It will also be effective when the leader encourages their team on the need of always remain innovative and creative.
Areas for Improvement
From the assessment, the various areas of improvement are the ability to make critical decisions during a discussion, and meetings with staff, and retaining some ideologies from team members as a leader. A transformational leader are some main aspects of improvement that should be done to ensure they work together with their team to achieve the desired goals. Moreover, a leader can opt to find a mentor to help them make these improvements. According to Liukka et al. (2018), transformational nursing leaders find mentors to improve the quality of services provided. Finding a mentor is usually essential as one is able to identify their areas of strength and weaknesses.
Another strategy/step for improving one’s leadership capabilities is conducting regular personal reflections. These reflections facilitate one to understand the weakness and strengths that they should dwell on. Learning some hard skills is also a technique for improving one’s capabilities in leadership (Boamah et al., 2018). For instance, team members will always look upon the leader when all their means fail. Having these complex and hard skills as a leader will therefore help solve some of these problems.
Characteristics of an Effective Professional Nurse Leader
There are various qualities and characteristics that justify one as an effective nurse leader. For instance, a nurse leader works with a team of nurses and nurse trainees with different personalities and with whom they engage in major decision-making, hence the need to have emotional intelligence as a characteristic (Alghamdi, Topp & AlYami, 2018). This is an important characteristic as it allows leaders to intervene, especially when these trainees experience unusual stressors. Excellent communication skills are also a characteristic of an effective professional nurse leader. Communication skills are essential as they enable these nurse leaders to execute their roles, especially when delegating duties.
Analysis of Leadership Theories and Styles
The selected theory based on this assessment is a behavioral theory inspired by the belief that leaders are made. Therefore, a professional nurse leader can align with this theory since it emphasizes teaching and observation as a step toward becoming a great leader. Through the theory, leaders, therefore, observe and learn more skills from mentors, hence steering their leadership skills. It is also a theory that shapes the decision-making, conflict resolutions, and negotiation techniques of a nurse leader (Al Khajeh, 2018). In contrast to this, the selected leadership style chosen is democratic leadership. It is a style that emphasizes a nurse leader towards good communication skills during major decision-making (Liukka et al., 2018). Democratic leadership, therefore, aims at shaping collaboration, conflict resolution, and decision-making skills, thus strengthening the relationship between a leader and their team. It also shapes a leader’s conflict resolution skills and maintains good relationships among the team members.
References
Alghamdi, M. G., Topp, R., & AlYami, M. S. (2018). The effect of gender on transformational
leadership and job satisfaction among Saudi nurses. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(1),
119-127. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13385
Al Khajeh, E. H. (2018). Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of
Human Resources Management Research, 2018, 1-10. DOI: 10.5171/2018.687849
Boamah, S. A., Laschinger, H. K. S., Wong, C., & Clarke, S. (2018). Effect of transformational
leadership on job satisfaction and patient safety outcomes. Nursing outlook, 66(2), 180-\
Kiwanuka, F., Nanyonga, R. C., Sak‐Dankosky, N., Muwanguzi, P. A., & Kvist, T. (2021).
Nursing leadership styles and their impact on intensive care unit quality measures: An
integrative review. Journal of Nursing Management, 29(2), 133-142.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13151
Liukka, M., Hupli, M., & Turunen, H. (2018). How transformational leadership appears in action
with adverse events? A study for Finnish nurse manager. Journal of Nursing
Management, 26(6), 639-646. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12592
Wang, L., Tao, H., Bowers, B. J., Brown, R., & Zhang, Y. (2018). When nurse emotional
intelligence matters: How transformational leadership influences intent to stay. Journal of
nursing management, 26(4), 358-365.https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12509
Assessment Description
The purpose of this assignment is to assist learners in developing effective communication by emphasizing the proper application of APA style. APA style is required for the graduate program.
Refer to the resources in the Class Resources and Student Success Center for assistance with APA. Use the APA Style Guide resource, located in the Student Success Center, to complete this assignment.
For this assignment, complete the following:
Self-Assessment
Self-awareness is essential for developing leadership skills. Recognizing your own strengths, weaknesses, and values, and understanding emotional intelligence and learning styles can help you to be a more effective nurse leader.
For this assignment, you have the opportunity to take a variety of self-assessments to learn more about yourself and identify your assets and weaknesses as a leader. This will assist you in discovering how you can improve your own self-leadership skills. You will be asked to think critically about your results and submit a reflection as directed below.
Refer to the topic Resources. Select and complete three self-assessments. Be sure to document the results of each assessment to assist you in completing the reflection portion of the assignment below.
Self-Assessment Reflection
Becoming self-aware is an ongoing process requiring introspection. The more often people practice self-reflection, the more opportunities they have to understand their own behaviors and adapt their approaches to working with other people, which can improve both your own and other’s abilities to meet their professional goals.
In a 1,000-1,250 word reflective essay, address the following:
- Provide a rationale and brief summary for selecting each self-assessment. Summarize the results you obtained on each assessment.
- Identify the leadership style that closely aligns to your philosophy of care and explain what appeals to you about that style.
- Reflect on how you might incorporate elements of that particular style as you exercise leadership in a practice or health care organization setting.
- Discuss any particular areas for improvement the assessments helped you identify and some steps for improving your leadership capabilities.
- Analyze the characteristics of an effective professional nurse leader, or individuals in nursing leadership. Discuss the characteristics and explain why they are effective for leadership in nursing.
- Analyze different leadership theories and leadership styles. Select one theory and leadership style, different from your own, and explain how they each support a professional nurse leader or individual in nursing leadership. Consider how the theory shapes the nurse leader in such things as collaboration, conflict resolution, decision making, and negotiation.
You are required to cite three to five sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.
Complete the “APA Writing Checklist” to ensure that your paper adheres to APA style and formatting criteria and general guidelines for academic writing. Include the completed checklist as an appendix at the end of your paper.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
