Nursing Leadership Self Assessment Essay

Leadership is critical and central to the enhancement of delivery of quality and speedy healthcare. Any person working in the healthcare sector regardless of their place of work, qualification, grade or position may be an agent or leader of improvement and change (Grimm, 2010). As a Nursing administrator, my individual vision of headship is to be a transformational manager. This kind of leader has the skills to gain commitment, motivate their team, and share their vision (Armstrong, 2001). This will consequently inspire performance. I am keen to motivate my personnel by offering them with objectives that I feel are appropriate and within their abilities. This offers them an inspiring and varied work life and will increase and broaden their interests (Beers, 2010). I believe this is how the policies of the health sector envision how their leaders will carry forward their enhancement plans. Nonetheless, this is not always possible and in more challenging times I become more of a transactional leader. I feel at times when I have to pass on goals that individuals resist, then, reward and punishment, which is characteristic of transactional leadership, comes into force. A good example of this was when the competencies of a member of staff were questioned as a result of consistently generating clinically inadequate care (Grimm, 2010).

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My philosophy of leadership is to be a manager who is credible and possesses inspirational qualities. This has to engross being hardworking, supportive, trustworthy, approachable, and competent (Armstrong, 2001). If I am able to meet this criterion then I feel that I will be a credible manager or leader. This is what followers expect of their head. The rationale for this is because a competent and confident leader will possess the capacity and capabilities that will be apparent to their followers. They will have the ability to share their ambitions which will inspire the staff to emulate them (Grimm, 2010).

It is crucial to self assess and have an understanding of self-knowledge if one has to be a successful leader. If a person is able to recognize his or her strengths and any sectors for improvement, he or she is able to put up realistic parameters and have the capability to capitalize on their capabilities, interests, and strengths (Grimm, 2010).

As such, I have completed an assessment of myself by utilizing the NHS Leadership Qualities Framework 360 Feedback assessment tool (LQF). The LQF is founded on research with more than three thousand, three hundred and twenty eight participants and is proof grounded research with one hundred and fifty NHS Directors and Executives of all disciplines. This makes it a vigorous type of evaluation.

My criticism of the LQF is that persons have to carefully choose the people who they feel are able to fill it out in a critical but positive way. If this is not done it has the capability to skew the percentage scales particularly if there are only small numbers of participants in every grouping. This generates statistically inconsequential outcomes. Lastly, the questions and language are quite technical and require some kind of management knowledge and political astuteness, therefore making it hard to fill it out fully correctly (Grimm, 2010).

I have been able to discover key qualities from the LQF that not only fit in with my philosophy of leadership but with my responsibility as a leader. I had no idea I possessed some of these ideas. I appear to be a good communicator, determined, focused, motivated, supportive, and approachable (Armstrong, 2001). I also have the will to witness service developments. These attributes have been spotted out by direct reports, my peers, and my superiors. Some of these attributes fit in with being a transformational leader who is recognized as crucial for improvement of delivery of healthcare. Interestingly, some of my needs for development have been recognized as not dealing with disciplinary requirements, not being self confident, and identifying slipping standards. All these development needs point to a more transactional type of leadership or the more management oriented tasks. Therefore, so as to become a more effective leader I will have to come up with strategies to address my development needs (Grimm, 2010).

To improve my time management skills, I am going to explore numerous methods of enhancing personal effectiveness. I will have to decrease the potential unessential digressions and interruptions. I will also have to enhance clarity; this is the most critical concept in individual efficiency (Armstrong, 2001). If I have absolutely clear objectives and goals I will enhance my productivity and hinder me from procrastinating. To enhance on my capability to confront colleagues in a self managed way, I will concentrate on conflict resolution. My responsibility as a leader is to spot out, investigate and resolve problems that may be causing conflict. This may be uncomfortable but can only be attained with perseverance and some extent of risk. To enhance my self confidence, I will begin by creating task sheets and organizational plans. When I accomplish a goal, I will cross it off the list and highlight it as an accomplished small victory. This establishes momentum and a sense of attainment resulting in enhanced self confidence (Grimm, 2010).

Finally, in order to be a transformational leader in healthcare, I will have to be ethical. Ethical leaders ensure that ethical practices are undertaken all through their organizations. Leaders are naturally in a position of power both off and on the job (Shale, 2012). Therefore, ethical leadership has to focus on how leaders leverage this power in the decisions they make, actions that they engage in and the ways that they influence others. Leaders have the duty of influencing followers to complete tasks, behave in particular manners, and undertake actions. Efficient leaders also influence processes, stimulate transformation in values and attitudes, and amplify self-efficacy and empowerment of their followers as they internalization of the vision of their organization. The nurturing element of leadership can also raise the culture of an organization and the values of the staff to lofty levels of moral conduct (Shale, 2012).

Conclusion

As a Nursing Administrator, I will be people-oriented, and be aware of how my decisions impact others. Therefore, I will use my authority and power to serve the greater good as opposed to self-serving interests; a win-win for the patients and the staff (Shale, 2012). This model will serve as a motivator and guide for my staff to put needs and interests of the patients ahead of theirs. This engagement will create an emotional and intellectual commitment between me as the leader and my staff as my followers. This will make both me and my staff equally responsible in the pursuit of mutual goals (Beers, 2010). As an ethical leader, I will be inspiring, visionary, and stimulating; I will have the attributes of an ethical leader. Lastly, as an ethical leader, I will coach cohorts on attaining a sense of professional and personal competence that will let them excel while being more profitable, loyal, and resilient (Armstrong, 2001).

References

Armstrong, B. (2001). Nurses taking the lead - personal qualities of effective leadership. Accident and Emergency Nursing, 9(4), 275. doi: 10.1054/aaen.2001.0276

Beers, L. (2010). Good leaders build good teams. Hospitalist News, 3(3), 8-9. doi: 10.1016/s1875-9122(10)70065-1

Grimm, J. (2010). Effective leadership: Making the difference. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 36(1), 74-77. doi: 10.1016/j.jen.2008.07.012

Shale, S. (2012). Moral leadership in medicine - building ethical healthcare organizations. Leadership in Health Services, 25(3). doi: 10.1108/lhs.2012.21125caa.008