- What does “Nursing Leadership” mean to you, and how did the meaning change (or stay the same) after viewing the Module content?
Throughout my education and career I have believed leadership to be an innate quality or skill that people simply possessed or did not. To some level, I perceived it as an internal drive to initiate and innovate – and the charisma to motivate or inspire others to follow suit. I have always felt that it could be nurtured and developed, but the seed or desire must be present to be a successful leader. This basic construct remained the same through the readings.
I do resonate and appreciate the discussion in the readings about the components of leadership – variations of the task/production and the interpersonal aspects. I agree that leaders find their balance between the two and navigate the continuum with regards to the situation. As stated in our text, “all people need to give both aspects and to receive both aspects in a communication exchange” (Rigolosi, 2005).
2. Describe the Leadership behaviors you have observed in yourself and/or colleagues. Could a behavior be modified to create a more effective leadership strategy?
After reading the materials, I would define my current working situation as High Structure/High Task and High Consideration/High Relationships. As a school nurse and currently a follower, I appreciate the concrete direction and parameters that are provided by district leadership… but we also have ample opportunity for feedback, suggestions and participation in district decision-making – as well as feel supported in developing parameters for my school. This description would be applying Bass and Stogdill’s Ohio State Model of Leadership (1990) as presented in the Rigolosi text (2005).
In my personal and professional experiences I have witnessed transactional and transformational leaders – as well as informal and disconnected leaders. I agree with our readings that different styles of leadership (Democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire) are needed with consideration to the group, project or temperament of the problem or situation. Additionally, leadership has a huge impact on outcomes.
Personally, I believe there is always room for improvement and efficiencies. Typically, within a leadership model – I would consider communication and delegation as areas that can generally be improved.
References:
Bass, B., & Stogdill, R. (1990). Bass & Stogdill’s handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications (3rd ed.). New York: Free Press.
Rigolosi, E. L. M. E. J. (2005). Management and leadership in nursing and health care: An experiential approach. (2nd ed.). Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com on June 4, 2018.
I find leadership is actually hard to define as we all have our own through, views, beliefs and values and therefore we all have a different definition of leadership. I always had though leaders are born, and not made, but I have changed my thinking on this. I do thing like you said above, one must have the desire to be a leader. Many people do not want the responsibility of being a leader and are uncomfortable in being in a leadership position. I personally do not mind being a leader as long as I feel qualified for the the situation. I am thankful for my military experience as early on soldiers are taught leadership skills as they come through the ranks. I do believe leadership skills can be developed though classes and mentoring. Leaders do have to wear different hats at times as the textbook stated depending on what the situation is. For example in a code situation, we can not have a shared or democratic leadership. Someone has to be the designated code leader who directs the code team. There is no time for shared input!
I appreciate your comment and agree that in most emergent situations like a code… there needs to be someone in a leadership role to ‘take charge’ and provide direction in most situations. And previous to the readings, I would assert the same point. However, I would also agree with the Rigolosi text (2005, p. 84) when it gave the scenario of a group of ER nurses that had experience working together for many years – that the process could be more democratic — in that everyone knows what needs to be done and does it without specific leadership.
It is dependent on the situation, people and the resources on hand – and like our text pointed there is a time an place for each type of leadership.
Rigolosi, E. L. M. E. J. (2005). Management and leadership in nursing and health care: An experiential approach. (2nd ed.). Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com on June 4, 2018.