Introduction
Presently, the modern economic environment has changed from what it was in the past. The poor state of the economy impacts nursing practices in several ways from budget cuts to layoffs and service delivery. The success of any organization depends on its ability to adapt to the prevailing economic environment. However, this can only be realized with good leadership. A transformational nursing leadership philosophy is a modern concept that helps healthcare organizations to adapt to present exterior environmental strains. This concept forms my personal nursing philosophy.
History and evolution of transformational theory
The idea of transformational leadership was established by diplomatic writer James Burns in 1978. Burn’s philosophy encourages leaders to create a greater vision to organizational wants, inspires nurses to set high goals, and stimulates mutual relationships through a common governance attitude. A transformational leader acts to exploit the desires of the follower and clearly shows commitment to the dreams and missions of the organization. He also motivates other people to support the group by empowerment, co-operation and enabling participation and production workflow. Bernard Bass further advanced this concept in the 1970s. According to him, there are four aspects of transformational leadership. These are Intellectual Encouragement, Individual Contemplation, Motivating Inspiration, and Perfect Influence. Intellectual Encouragement provokes nurses to be inventive and allows examination of fresh ideas (Marshall, 2011).
According to Marshall (2011), Individual contemplation is the reinforcement and clear communication that leaders need to show to allow their subjects to express and share thoughts in order to be acknowledged for distinctive contributions. On the other hand, motivational inspiration is the transformational leader’s capacity to openly communicate and stimulate followers to have the same wish for attaining the dreams and missions of the organization. Finally, perfect influence is the transformational leader’s personality and connection to nurses, which encourages trust, reverence, and co-ownership in accomplishing goals (Grossman &Valiga, 2013).
The dreams and missions of the organization create the basis for the structure of its administrative leadership. For instance, I have worked in several hospitals for the past four years, and I have seen two managerial approaches.
The present management hired a consultant group to reorganize the organization. The consequence of restructuring over the past two years has encouraged remarkable growth and a consistent alignment at all the management stages to the goals and visions of the organization. Partly, this growth has been achieved by application of transformational leadership. As one of the administrators in the organization, the change I was guided through felt quite natural and was aligned to his individual attitude essential in the foundation of a transformational leader. Dedication to improvement and development of staff calls for transparency in giving information both on the part of a manager and a staff member. Mutual governance nurtures this capacity, which intelligently motivates all the levels of workers in an organization. This brings staff together and builds goals, purposes, and measurable results (Grossman &Valiga, 2013).
Personal experience
Personally, I have been involved in working at hospitals for the past two years. I have witnessed and have been involved in several educational, inspirational, and responsibility programs developed in the organization I have been working for. They can be associated directly with the transformational leadership philosophy. Such initiatives have proved to be quite helpful for the achievement of organizational success and respect. Several respect principles guide the work of nurses within the organization. Some of these principles include responsibility, Client-First, Integrity, Reverence, and Excellence. The philosophies of transformational leadership are naturally acceptable from my perception of leadership and how I view me as a future leader. My governance principles have never changed from the beginning of my studies. Following the experience in the hospitals where I have worked, I have become more conscious of the worldwide effects of good transformational leadership on organizations.
Future envision
In the future, I would exhibit personal consideration by meeting every member of staff personally and confidentially to discuss work progress and changes that need to be incorporated, if there are any. Again, I should know if they have all the necessary requirements to accomplish their work. On top of staff meetings every month, I would uphold honesty and integrity policies. Motivational inspiration grows from free communications during direct meetings. I would be able to seek interesting areas and allocate staff duties that would prove meaningful to them. This would help in steering the organization to achieve both long-term and short-term goals. Also, I would develop online training programs to improve intellectual capacity. Staff members would find this initiative interesting. Additionally, I would bring in a professional to train staff members on how to benefit from online-based training software. Staff members would then be given a chance to respond to such initiatives if it satisfies their learning. Perfect influence would be exhibited in my personal desire for contributing positively towards the organization and stimulating others to the same desire. Events that encourage team spirit would be used to support and strengthen relations and maintain an organized group. In conclusion, the transformational leadership philosophy is the key to success in many modern organizations. Therefore, it is my best nursing philosophy.
References
Grossman, S., & Valiga, M. (2013). The new leadership challenge: Creating the future of nursing. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis.
Marshall, S. (2011). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader. New York, NY: Springer.