Introduction
Leadership is often confused with management, but there is a critical difference between them. While a manager works with resources and deals with planning and organization, a leader acts like a visionary, whose primary goal lies in the team’s inspiration. Transformational leadership means pushing for changes necessary for effective management and the ultimate achievement of goals. Bass provided four typical behaviors displayed by transformational leaders (as cited in Buil et al., 2019):
- Idealized influence — ability to demonstrate ethical conduct and high moral standards;
- Inspirational motivation — ability to articulate motivational, exciting goals and fill the followers with energy;
- Intellectual stimulation — ability to encourage followers’ creativity and make them present new ideas and solutions to problems;
- Individualized consideration — ability to pay attention to followers’ needs and provide mentoring
In nursing, transformational leadership is valuable since modern health care organizations have to constantly evolve and adapt to provide a better quality of services. According to Green, Miller & Aarons (2013), transformational leaders in healthcare can instill the concept of teamwork and reduce emotional exhaustion (as cited in McCafrey & Reinoso, 2016). Therefore, the skills of transformational leaders would help immensely in the introduction of new healthcare-related initiatives.
Transformational Leadership in Disease Prevention
The concept of transformational leadership is not tied to a particular style of leadership. Giampietro-Meyer et al. (1998) stated that transformational leaders could inspire the followers while being self-centered and even unethical in their leadership methods (as cited in Korzynski et al., 2021). However, Melissa, a former elementary school teacher who has become a CNL (Clinical Nurse Leader), would probably select a democratic style (Cherry, 2020). She would be likely to understand the importance of teamwork and the value of her team members’ impact while maintaining a certain level of discipline. Melissa would also be more interested in fighting for the noble goal of childhood obesity prevention instead of achieving personal accomplishments. According to Vaismoradi et al. (2016), neither autocratic nor overly democratic leadership styles provide benefits for nursing. In that regard, Melissa would be holding the middle ground and keeping the working process democratic yet focused and structured.
AP roles
Implementation of the community disease prevention program would require gathering a dedicated team. As the project manager, Melissa would be able to recruit several AP (Assistant Practitioners) for her cause. They would assist her by generating ideas for the project implementation, conducting the relevant research, and implementing practical solutions. Therefore, the following AP roles could be assigned to team members of the childhood obesity prevention project. Research assistant, for gathering expert and research data related to the problem. Clinical assistant, for additional analysis of medical aspects and implications. Community management assistant, responsible for information delivery and motivation of community members. Lastly, resource management assistant would be in charge of smart project resources use. As a democratic leader, Melissa would encourage every team member to express their opinions on actual matters, not limiting them to their respective fields of expertise.
Core Competencies and Skills
Implementation of disease-prevention community projects would require certain core competencies and skills from the staff members. Disease prevention, since the whole project would be built around that competence. Lifelong learning: staff members will have to research new information and improve throughout the project constantly. Teamwork: the project outcome depends on how the team would work together — the leader has to set an example for everyone. Communication: team members would have to communicate not only with each other but the community members as well. Digital fluency: the project would likely involve digital channels of information, so all team members should be proficient in it.
Necessary Support
Melissa’s project would likely require active support for its proper implementation. It would be her test as a leader to get assistance from various sources. Possible targets would be community elementary schools, medical institutions, local authorities, businesses, and media. Their help seems to be vital from the financial, educational and informational perspectives. Overall, creating and leading the team and gathering necessary support would be a task demanding a transformational nursing leader.
References
Buil, I., Martínez, E., & Matute, J. (2019). Transformational leadership and employee performance: The role of identification, engagement and proactive personality. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, 64-75. Web.
Cherry, K. (2020). What’s your leadership style? Learn more about your strengths and weaknesses as a leader.
Korzynski, P., Kozminski, A. K., Baczynska, A., & Haenlein, M. (2021). Bounded leadership: An empirical study of leadership competencies, constraints, and effectiveness. European Management Journal, 39(2), 226-235. Web.
McCaffrey, R., & Reinoso, H. (2017). Transformational leadership: A model for advanced practice holistic nurses. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 35(4), 397-404. Web.
Vaismoradi, M., Griffiths, P., Turunen, H., & Jordan, S. (2016). Transformational leadership in nursing and medication safety education: a discussion paper. Journal of Nursing Management, 24(7), 970-980.