The leadership style is highly dependent on the skills of a leader and the goals to be achieved. There is a variety of leadership strategies that allow for building a proper working environment, integrating people in cohesive groups, and providing the best care possible. This paper focuses on the examination of driving forces that promote skills development in nurse leaders, such as innovation, culture, organizational climate, and required performance change.
The transactional leadership may be noted as one of the most pertinent styles to apply for new leaders who need to learn their staff behaviors, evaluate processes, and develop a long-term strategy. This style implies the orientation to the desired results as well as the creation of incentives for the positive performance of nurses (Dias & Borges, 2017). The key driving force that is characteristic of transactional leadership is the need to engage team members, build productive relationships, and use proven procedures. Accordingly, the leader needs to develop decision-making, persuasion, and evaluation skills to ensure his or her role in charge. Innovation is, as a rule, not considered important since the leader should, first of all, understand the basics of working in a particular setting and team. In turn, the culture and organization climate are two more driving forces that affect how nurse leaders develop their skills. They are pertinent due to the need to pay attention to beliefs, attitudes, motivators, potential conflicts, and other related issues. In order to prepare to meet those factors, creative thinking and conflict resolving skills are critical.
Once the nurse leader achieves mutual trust with his or her team and first positive outcomes of the collaborative work, it is possible to employ the transformational leadership style. Weng, Huang, Chen, and Chang (2015) state that it is based on the inspiration and empowerment of nurses to think critically. The situation in which innovation is expected is another driving force that requires developing communication, motivation, and charisma skills. Modern healthcare promotes the concept of continuous learning that refers to the constant implementation of new evidence-based practices. Therefore, leaders need to have a vision and long-term plans with regard to change to follow innovative thinking and make sure that nurses will also be open to change (Weng et al., 2015). The organizational climate and culture are integral to transformational leadership as they allow for a more detailed comprehension of staff, patients, and trends in the field.
Personally, I would like to align my possible practicum site organizational dynamics with the discussed strategy when one leadership style is replaced by another, as required by the situation and driving forces. For instance, it seems to be appropriate to use transactional leadership to establish relationships between the team and me, and become a transformational leader to advance care practices in the future. In case of conflicts, burnout, or other problems, I will need to develop new skills to resolve them effectively though cooperation, open dialogues, and self-development promotion (Cheng, Bartram, Karimi, & Leggat, 2016). The leader should be flexible to meet the ever-changing needs of patients and staff by adjusting to them and using driving forces as indicators to be able to elaborate on certain skills.
To conclude, an effective nurse leader should be equipped with tools and strategies to guide his or her team, create group cohesion, and cooperativeness. The evidence shows that culture, the organizational climate, innovation, conflicts, and work in charge are the main driving forces. Passion, the ability to motivate, problem-solving, and innovative thinking make the leader successful and customer-oriented, as well as paying attention to team members’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
References
Cheng, C., Bartram, T., Karimi, L., & Leggat, S. (2016). Transformational leadership and social identity as predictors of team climate, perceived quality of care, burnout and turnover intention among nurses. Personnel Review, 45(6), 1200-1216.
Dias, M. A. M. J., & Borges, R. S. G. E. (2017). Performance and leadership style: When do leaders and followers disagree? Mackenzie Management Review, 18(2), 104-129.
Weng, R. H., Huang, C. Y., Chen, L. M., & Chang, L. Y. (2015). Exploring the impact of transformational leadership on nurse innovation behaviour: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Nursing Management, 23(4), 427-439.