Leadership Type

The role of nurses evolves constantly to conform better to the changing demands in the field. Nurses are now encouraged to take advanced roles previously out of their scope of responsibilities since they play a proactive role in changing the direction of nursing (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady, 2014). One of such roles is leadership where nurses now specialize into leadership positions, a phenomenon aimed at ensuring that nurses are actively involved in the decision touching the field of nursing and the general health sector (Persily, 2014). Therefore, there is the need for nurses to familiarize themselves with leadership styles that enhance collaborating and improved levels of decision making needed in realigning the nursing field to provide better patient-centered help, as envisaged by the Affordable Care Act 2010 (Thompson, 2015). Consequently, this paper presents a self-evaluation exercise on leadership type, shedding light on personal leadership traits and the type of leadership that they are affiliated with in addition to analyzing the importance of leadership in advanced nursing roles.

Type of Leadership from Results of Leadership Evaluation

Having answered the assigned leadership analysis questions, I obtained the results, showing my belonging to the school of democratic leadership. This was a good indication since the result was a pictorial representation of my beliefs in good leadership. I believe that leadership should not revolve around the leader but should be about a team headed by a leader. In other words, a leader should be a part of the team, whereby he or she offers transformational help to other employees for the growth of the team. Moreover, a good leader is the one who appreciates the input from other employees since this helps in improving the final decision taken since it is a result of divergent views (Persily, 2014). Furthermore, due to the increased workload experienced by nurses that most of the time is not accompanied by an improved pay, there is the need to ensure that nurses are always highly motivated (Hamric et al., 2014). Under democratic leadership, employees feel respected and needed by an organization – a feeling that highly motivates them.

Leadership Attributes Helpful to Graduate Nurses

Nursing has grown to be a field where collaboration is the norm of the practice, in which caregivers and patients have a constructive engagement aimed at improving the final services offered to the patients. Therefore, one of the crucial leadership traits for graduate nurses is the ability to create and uphold team-based action (cooperation). Moreover, integrity is another trait helpful in ensuring that the decisions made reflect the needs of the health care facility and not any other interest (Persily, 2014). To ensure that the concerned health care center, which a graduate nurse will head, follows the guidelines of efficiency set by the Affordable Care Act, assertiveness is also a crucial attribute. This trait will be helpful when setting the tough final decisions and demanding certain standards to be upheld in the line of duty. Therefore, being self-driven is another trait that will be helpful for graduate nurses in setting the standards when it comes to meeting assigned responsibilities.

Personal Helpful Leadership Attributes for a Nursing Role

One of my greatest leadership traits is the ability to cooperate with other people in the decision-making process. I believe that when one respects other people’s viewpoints, one improves their decision-making ability by being more informed. I am also a self-driven person where I believe that one does not need to be forced to meet his or her responsibility. Having self-drive is not only a good personal trait but also a vital one in a leader since it helps him or her set an example to the followers (Hamric et al., 2014). I am also a welcoming person, which makes it easier for people to approach me and share their ideas with me. An approachable leader is a huge asset to an organization since he or she provides an environment where employees feel free to correct, compliment the leader, thus helping in improving the nature of the final decision made.

Personal Leadership Areas to Improve

My shortcoming in the leadership front is emotional immaturity, whereby I do not tolerate those people who constantly make mistakes despite frequent corrections. Moreover, I have the same problem when a person seems to intentionally avoid keeping his or her promise regarding an assigned responsibility. To be a good leader, one needs to be able to master how to control his or her emotions, as most of the time, this may lead to the leader making clouded decisions (Persily, 2014). More to say, it may also influence the leader to discriminate some of the employees who exhibit unlikeable behaviors. Another area to improve is delegation, where due to my deep belief in teamwork, I find myself over supporting people, a phenomenon that is not quite helpful if the intention is to empower people. A good delegation ability helps a leader ensure that responsibilities are assigned based on team members’ strengths; thus, there is no need for a huge leadership engagement.

Quotation

Being qualified in an advanced nursing role is not enough to make one a good leader in that discipline since one needs to be qualified on both medical and leadership grounds (Naidoo, Lowies, & Pillay, 2015). This assertion was seconded by the literature review that had found that Emergency Medical Service (EMS) managers who were appointed as managers solely based on their medical qualification performed poorly as leaders than those who had both medical and leadership skills (Naidoo, Lowies, & Pillay, 2015).

Conclusion

It is evident that leadership in nursing has become a crucial component in the advanced roles where nurses are now heavily involved in decision-making process. Moreover, it is clear that the in nursing leadership, there the need to adopt a form of leadership that creates an environment that enables teamwork necessary in improving the care given to the patients. It is also clear that for a leader, there is the need to identify the where consultation should be encouraged.

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