“Nurse Manager Skills Inventory” provides nurses with a good opportunity to evaluate their leadership skills in such areas as personal and professional accountability; career planning; skills assisting in developing a leader; and preferable practices and behaviors (Nurse Manager Skills Inventory, 2006).
Focusing on personal strengths and weaknesses in developing mentioned skills, a nurse can determine the areas for improvement and for the professional growth. Thus, the analysis of strengths and weaknesses referred to personal and professional accountability, career planning, leadership, and preferable practices and behaviors is important in order to conclude about the ability in promoting the change in the workplace, to determine the goals for the leadership development, and to propose an effective development plan.
Personal Strengths and Weaknesses
Referring to the sphere of personal and professional accountability, it is possible to note that the personal strengths include the focus on the personal growth and continuing education. Much attention is paid to following the ethical behavior standards (Nurse Manager Skills Inventory, 2006).
However, the professional association involvement and certification areas require the additional work in order to achieve a status of an expert. Nevertheless, the sphere of career planning can be discussed as my strength because I focus on performing my job tasks efficiently; I demonstrate high level of competence in understanding my future in the health care industry; and I am ready to adapt to the proposed career scenarios while focusing on my main career goal.
Focusing on the area of personal journey disciplines, I should state that I demonstrate my competence in action learning, and I act as an expert while referring to the reflective practice, but I need to improve my skills in the area of shared leadership in order to behave as a professional in the sphere (Nurse Manager Skills Inventory, 2006).
Focusing on the leadership behaviors, I found that my strengths are in declaring the idea of integrity, in abilities to work in ambiguous environments, in the respect for diversity, in evaluating the situation from many perspectives, and in the constant pursuit of knowledge. These skills are important for the professional growth (Marshall, 2010, p. 12; Sullivan & Garland, 2010, p. 112).
However, I should state that my weak abilities are the areas where it is necessary to discover the potential, to balance my work and rest, and to nurture my emotional self.
Leadership Skills to Promote Change in the Workplace
At the current stage of developing my leadership skills, I can plan to promote the change in my workplace which is related to the improvement of principles of collaboration. Working in teams, nurses can improve their performance as a result of effective collaboration (Milstead, 2008, p. 54).
However, many nurses do not know strategies contributing to the effective communication and cooperation. Changes are necessary because the effective collaboration and understanding of the personnel’s tasks and motives is important to work in the diverse environment of health care facilities.
While having developed skills in action learning, respecting diversity, and finding new information and ideas, I can promote the idea of improving the on-job training sessions while organizing seminars to improve collaboration and team work.
Goals for the Leadership Growth and the Implementation Plan
The main personal goal for the leadership growth is associated with my weak experience in nurturing my emotional and intellectual self. The problem is in the fact that I did not realize the importance of the emotional development for improving my leadership skills and my professional abilities (Nurse Manager Skills Inventory, 2006).
Thus, my personal goal to achieve during the next four months is the following one: To develop the emotional self in order to contribute to following the ethical practices and to building effective relationships with colleagues and clients.
The proposed implementation strategy addresses the necessity to work in such areas as the development of the emotional self and improvement of personal and professional relationships.
Conclusion
“Nurse Manager Skills Inventory” is an effective tool to assess the nurse’s leadership skills with references to multiple areas. While focusing on the weaknesses and strengths in developing this or that skill, nurses determine the areas where they can improve their experience and abilities in order to contribute to the personal and professional growth. From this point, having determined the areas to work at, it is important to identify the goal to achieve and develop the implementation plan which includes strategies to reach the set goal.
References
Marshall, E. (2010). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Milstead, J. (2008). Handbook of nursing leadership: Creative skills for a culture of safety. Boston, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Nurse Manager Skills Inventory. (2006).
Sullivan, E., & Garland, G. (2010). Practical leadership and management in nursing. New York, NY: Pearson Education.