Leadership Style
Leadership and its attributes are extremely important for many spheres of human activity and nursing is no exception. Within the frame of the assignment, we were supposed to complete a short quiz in order to define our leadership styles and know more about merits and flaws of our approaches to leading the group (Cherry, 2016,). According to the answers that I gave, I was classified as a leader using democratic style. If we have a look at the classification proposed by the author, it becomes clear that democratic leadership acts like the golden mean between being more authoritative and giving too much freedom to all the members of the team. Nevertheless, these approaches can also be effective when there is a great gap between the leader’s proficiency level and the level of other members of a team. As for the approach to leading the group that I use, it can be classified as one letting to take more effective and balanced decisions. This style is supposed to be the most appropriate as all members of the group have an opportunity to state their opinions on the problem and the ways to solve it.
Nevertheless, the right to say the final word rests with the leader of the team. Such leadership style is also effective as it helps to keep all the members of the team motivated and active: they know that their ideas are always taken into consideration, and this is why their self-esteem is likely to be high. Due to that, the members of the team tend to work better and do everything they can for the good of their working group. Personally, I believe that this description fully corresponds to my beliefs concerning the most effective way to lead the team. As for me, it is very important to defer to other people’s opinions if you are a leader. To be more precise, I believe that the best decisions are made when different people voice their opinions. At the same time, an effective leadership involves the leader’s higher degree of responsibility. Due to that, the leader should be given a right to take the final decision. At the same time, I think that the elements of delegative style can be also implemented in the working process as there are a lot of decisions that are not fateful for the team, and other members can take them using their own experience.
The Attributes of Leadership
If we speak about leadership, there are certain traits of character that graduate nurses should possess in order to be able to lead the team to success. First of all, it is very important for any nurse to be good at foreseeing the results of the actions taken by the team. Nurses work with such precious thing as human health, and every mistake can lead to grave problems. To continue, it is very hard to imagine effective leaders who do not love their jobs. As for the nurses, their activity is specific as they are supposed to work both with patients and with other specialists. Due to that, nurses are not able to become successful members or leaders of the teams unless they possess a sincere love for humankind and see their mission in helping the patients to recover and become happier. Besides, graduate level nurses should be developed both emotionally and intellectually in order to become effective leaders. According to many opinions, it is essential when the leaders possess emotional empathy (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2013, p. 253). Due to that, they become able to establish a good fellowship within the team that always makes it work more effectively. As for intelligence abilities, graduate level nurses should be good at analysing the causes and the effects of any actions; as a result, they become able to earn the loyalty of other members of the team.
Considering these numerous requirements that nurses have to meet in order to become skilled practitioners and effective leaders, almost every graduate nurse has a few weak points that need more attention; therefore, self-improvement is very important for them. As for me, I believe that I have some personality traits that will help me in my future work. For instance, other people often see me as a person of wide sympathies, and I believe that this very feature is very important for a nurse. To be more precise, emotional generosity lets nurses be more attentive towards their patients and co-workers. What is more, I consider myself as a cautious person and I believe that to be important as headlong decisions made by the leader can jeopardize the interests of the entire team. Nevertheless, I do not appreciate it when people pay much attention to their strong points and ignore their weaknesses. As for me, I guess that I have to work hard on my professional knowledge as its absence can threaten an authority of any leader. What is more, I may need to become more enthusiastic as good leader has to be able to create a positive mood during the work. Overall, many aspects should be paid attention to because “the profession must evaluate current strategies in both education and practice to address the potential shortage of nurse leaders” (Scott & Miles, 2013, p. 77).
References
Cherry, K. (2016). What’s your leadership style? Web.
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2013). Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Scott, E. S., & Miles, J. (2013). Advancing leadership capacity in nursing. Nursing administration quarterly, 37(1), 77-82.