Introduction
In health care and nursing, leadership remains one of the most crucial concepts for discussions. It is not enough to organize people or make them believe in developed leadership skills. It is necessary to know what to do even in the most unpredictable and unplanned situations. Sometimes, people are not ready to define what leaders they actually are or may become. Therefore, they make numerous attempts, improve their skills, and investigate different approaches. In this paper, I will discuss my personal leadership style defined as a result of a simple online quiz and combine my beliefs with the results.
Quiz Results and Personal Beliefs
After taking the quiz, the results show that I am one of those democratic leaders, who believe in the power of cooperation between employees and their leaders (Cherry, 2016). This type of leadership is characterized by active participation in discussions and the necessity to accept inputs offered by different colleagues, solve problems, make decisions, and promote improvements in an organization. However, at the same time, Democratic leaders have to retain their final say and investigate the results independently. Sometimes, it is not easy for democratic leaders to combine the opinions of employees with personal opinions. Still, experience and knowledge usually help to make the right decision. Finally, the peculiar feature of this style is the possibility to encourage a team and motivate them properly in order to achieve effective decisions and choose the correct directions.
I believe that nursing and health care should be based on effective leadership. Medical workers and nurses have to know how to organize different projects, cooperate with people, and make fast and appropriate decisions. At the same time, leaders should not focus on giving orders and controlling people only. It is important to know how to listen, how to give some pieces of advice, and how to support and guide people in case of emergency. Leaders may be great because of different reasons: great knowledge, cooperation, respect, or the ability to convince. However, it is necessary to remember that leaders cannot be experts in all at the same time. Some kind of extra help may be required (Cherry, 2016). Therefore, the democratic leadership style is the best and the most suitable for my beliefs example.
Graduate Level Nurses in Leadership
Graduate-level nurses have to be ready to perform different types of work and develop their skills accordingly. It is not always easy for a graduate nurse to become a leader as soon as a special degree is received. Professional leadership is the goal that has to be achieved as a result of numerous training and activities because all nurses and practitioners have to be taught and develop new educational modules at local and national levels (Begley et al., 2013).
Leaders have to develop their vision of the future, improve their communicative skills, and demonstrate their self-confidence in work. It is expected to build trustful and professional relationships with all team workers and create the boundaries to work in. Finally, graduate-level nurses should find a balance between their professional life and interests and their personal life and preferences.
Personal Leadership Attributes
I think that the development of leadership attributes is what makes any nurse a true professional. Nowadays, it is possible to find many research articles and forums with the help of which nurses could improve their skills independently. To become a good nurse and an excellent leader, I would like to focus on the development of such qualities as confidence in each decision made and each idea offered, passion for innovation, and patience in order to listen and hear what other people say.
Quotation to Depict the Chosen Leadership Style
There are many different approaches and research that aim at discussing the peculiarities of leadership in nursing and implementing the strategies with the help of which ordinary nurses could become great leaders in the field of medicine. I like the idea offered by Ryan et al. (2015) that “both clinical and organizational leadership is needed to sustain the collaborative environment” (p. 232). It is important for all medical workers to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and communication that happens between physicians and nurses. It is wrong to believe that the role of physicians is more significant than the role of nurses or that the collaboration between nurses should be defined by the positions obtained.
Nurses, medical workers, physicians, and leaders are united with the same goal – high-quality health care and support offered to patients. There is no need to focus on hierarchies only in order to give orders. What is required is to find a consensus with the help of which learners, workers, and leaders could co-exist and cooperate for their patient’s sake and safety. Leadership is a competency that can be developed or ignored, and it is an independent decision that has to be made by every leader when the time to choose a style, an approach, and a team comes. Sometimes, this task is complicated. Still, if certain attempts are made, and knowledge is used, positive outcomes may be expected.
References
Begley, C., Elliott, N., Lalor, J., Coyne, I., Higgins, A., & Comiskey, C. M. (2013). Differences between clinical specialist and advanced practitioner clinical practice, leadership, and research roles, responsibilities, and perceived outcomes. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69(6), 1323-1337.
Cherry, K. (2016). What’s your leadership style? Learn more about your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Web.
Ryan, R. W., Harris, K. K., Mattox, L., Singh, O., Camp, M., & Shirey, M. R. (2015). Nursing leader collaboration to drive quality improvement and implementation science. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 39(3), 229-238.