Leadership Development Review

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Introduction

In this essay I will be discussing different aspects and strategies of my leadership development plan. I will be providing a self-assessment of my leadership skills and review for further development of my leadership skills. Self-assessment and feedbacks help me to identify and correct my leadership strategy and help me improve or change my leadership style in the future to become an effective leader. I acknowledge the importance of leadership in an organization and strongly believe that managers and leaders who start as individuals who work and deal with others and learn their leadership skills from the everyday situations they come across at work place. Based on the self-assessment as a leader and having analysed my organisations requirement I will also be providing a leadership development plan which will further help me understand my leadership orientation. Having understood the importance of leadership I consider myself as a leader in the making. I still have to develop certain characteristics that are necessary for effective leadership in certain areas such as interactive relationship, seeing different perspectives and lead by influence. At this stage of my development as a leader,  I consider myself to be in the middle of the follower-leader spectrum.

Leadership Theories

Although it is difficult to suggest that a particular style of leadership theory have more advantage than that of the other, the leadership theory I most closely align with is the transformational leadership theory. I would also be choosing shared leadership as it also suited in a multi-disciplinary team work approach as in the healthcare setting. It is essential to understand the importance of leadership in a department as it helps to promotes positive work place environment, staff retention and patient safety (Aiken et al 2002). Therefore it is important to acknowledge and understand the importance of effective leadership within the department for the everyday management.

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I believe that transformational leadership style and shared leadership style focus on people and relationship within the team. These leadership styles if applied in the right manner can increase staff satisfaction, job satisfaction as well as increase in productivity. Another reason for choosing transformational leadership theory  as my favourite is that it helps to motivate, empower and inspire others to pursue their long term vison for the department and for the organisation, which is essential in team building within the nursing management role. The transformational leader always supportive of the team members in more than just doing it for self-gain but provide them with an inspiring mission and vision. It is important to encourage the team to challenge the norms and come up with new ideas and a transformational leader support the team to successfully achieve their final goal.

Importance of Leadership Development

Perhaps more than at any other time in past, people are experiencing a leadership predicament. Due to numerous conditions, the turnover level for leaders has become remarkably great. But leadership is nevertheless required and needed. In fact, work places cannot effectively function without it. Leadership gives human beings guidelines, momentums, and eventually, optimisms.

Leadership is in any organisation is vital as it increase its efficiency and affects productivity. The success of any organisation is to an extend is greatly relied upon its leaders. The leader’s positive influence on employees drive staff participation in quality improvement projects and increase staff moral in general. So, it is fair to say that the leaders carry a significant weight on their shoulder when it comes to the overall success of an organisation. A leadership development review helps leaders to analyse their strategy and help them focus on areas where changes and improvements are required.

The other purpose why leaders are central today is to do with the remarkable extent of change that has taken place in modern times. The on-going intensification of change has left workers with compound and tremendous choices. Leaders provide people the aim, determination, and direction that are profoundly missing during turbulent periods. The ultimate cause why leaders are so fundamental today is the continuing concern people has over truthfulness. There is common cynicism with many leaders.

In some situations individuals are frightful of the horrible power that unkind leaders appear to retain. In other instances, irritation has appeared when trust has been out-of-place in people who’ve dodged their responsibilities and let their organisation down. At periods like these, leadership is required to bring people to their origins. People want motivation from people who are prepared to risk defeat, whilst still following their principles and values. In other words, individuals require leaders who can manage and lead. In such unpredictable work places, resilient leaders are far more important than ever before. It is exactly at periods as these, phases of such change, confusion, and questionable truthfulness, that organizations require leaders and not just managers.

My Leadership Qualities

Having recognised the significance of leadership, I understand that leaders commence as ordinary individuals who work and deal with the day to day problems encountered in society. They advance themselves into prosperous leaders by the things that they do every day. As I continually attempt to develop myself into an effective leader, I identify the four general features that are essential to be a successful leader, which are: fostering ongoing and shared interactions, being in touch with innermost feelings, and values, and be a role model and leading by inspiration.

The first distinctive quality that all leaders must acquire is the capability to foster ongoing and shared interactions. To further advance my leadership skills, I have developed some strategies that I need to follow to be an effective leader. I recognise that I should allow equal exchange of ideas from employees and by allowing this, the people I work with will be more happy to speak up with confidence. This will help me to build and develop an effective and a confident team who will work together to achieve the common goals set by the department.

I should also be attending to the needs and requests of the employees as this shows that I listen to them and considerate and caring. I believe that being indifferent and uncaring of employees’ requirements puts my attainment as a successful leader at risk and the employees will be de-motivated which affects the staff morale in the department.

By attending to the needs of the employees I will also be able to express to them that necessary actions are taken when required and further earning the respect of my employees and boosting their confidence.

I address the staff concerns directly and I take the time to listen to their concerns and complaints and ensure that it is addressed to their satisfaction. I need to take time to listen to the issues raised and if required a formal responds should be sent to them and if it warrants a formal investigation I should let the employee know of the line and scope of the investigation to find out what resulted their concern. This will allow me to develop a much stronger and solid relationship with the employees and they will have more confidence and trust in my leadership.

Leading by Inspiration

I understand that in order to obtain support and inspire the employees, effective leaders use inspiration as opposed to power. To inspire others, leaders need to show their enthusiasm and have an optimistic attitude. When I lead by inspiration, I am not using power as a persuader. I also learned that using power as a persuader will risk long-term commitment of our employees. There are several examples of leaders who led by influence. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi are some of the names that still influence people at this day. They demonstrated their deep understanding of the issues, strong devotion to a cause and they were successful leaders in effectively communicating their dream.

There is no conclusive way to establish what makes success as an effective leader. Nevertheless, if I pledge to these techniques mentioned above, I am sure that I can become a successful leader.

My Leadership Alignments

Leadership is the capability to impact others and collaborate actively in the successful completion of a common goal either set by the department or by the organisation as a whole. My organization’s success is dependent upon my ability in setting a realistic target, recognising what needs to be prepared to achieve the set target, generating motivation and willingness of the employees to participate, and bringing out3the best in my3employees.

Evaluating My Leadership Styles

As a leader I understand that different circumstances will demand different set of leadership skills. Irrespective of my particular leadership style, it is possible that issues will rise due to my approach to the problems I present with. Although we try to prevent this happening, it sometimes become unavoidable. Nevertheless, effective and positive leaders are able to address those issues arises from such leadership styles. It is important that I understand my strengths and weaknesses as a leader and adapt to the appropriate leadership style that suit the situation to lead the team and inspire them at the same time.

I used the Dynamic Culture Leadership Model and Alignment Assessment Instrument to analyse my leadership style. Below given charts are the results of the assessment. Potential areas for improvement and development in my leadership style is explained in the chart. It is identified that there are three main areas of my individual leadership style that require a significant level of improvement where I scored 50 or below. In this assessment instrument the potential score that I could have achieved is 100, and each score give an insight into my leadership style and help me evaluate and improve, where necessary.

The second chart provided below offer an overview of my organisations process of leadership and identifies areas of improvement.

Performance Against Organisation

It is essential that the organisation has a clear job description for their employees to make it clear what the organisation is expected of them. I as an employee understand where I fit in the organisation and how my job responsibilities and performance affect the organisations objectives. As a team leader I communicate well to my team to help set goals and provide guidance and methods required to achieve them. Setting goal and objectives encourage me and the team members to constantly improve departmental efficiency.

I help the team attain balance by using team members more effectively, stressing teamwork, and acknowledging and appreciating their group effort. Problems may arise within the team when individual efforts are not recognised and respected. When that happens, I want to balance my leadership alignment by shifting towards the idealist style. This will require stressing individual excellence and identifying and reassuring individual workers in following their vision.

Identifying my weakness as a leader is as important as acknowledging my strengths. When evaluating my usual leadership style and working on the orientation that is least comfortable, I may have entered my vital state of leadership which will make me a more sensible and successful leader.

Leadership can be described as a complex process of identifying a common goal or a target and motivating others to act, and by providing support and motivation to the team to achieve the set goals (Porter-O’Grady, 2003). As a senior nurse I could relate this to coordinating the day/shift with the team of nurses and other staff under my direction and leadership. As a team leader it is my responsibility to manage the challenging situations in that shift and help the team to focus on the task and complete the task successfully in that shift.

As Stephen Covey (1999) suggests that the leadership roles and management functions are different. This suggests that management is about tasks, whereas leadership is about perception, judgement, skill and philosophy. We could infer from this that it is much more difficult to be an effective leader than an effective manager.

A successful leader will see each person as an individual, recognising their unique set of needs, as not everyone will perform at the same level or respond in the same way to environmental stressors or workplace pressure. Leaders need to support staff in ways in which individuals recognise as being useful. In the same way, staff will be motivated by different factors. Leaders must focus on the needs of individual staff and use motivational strategies appropriate to each person and situation. They must seek to inspire demotivated staff and maintain the motivation of those who are already motivated. Leadership seeks to produce necessary changes in demotivated staff by developing a vision of the future and inspiring staff to attain this. Leadership is the driving force of the work environment and directly affects staff motivation and morale. West-Burnham (1997) argued that leaders should seek to expand on current tradition, and use their leadership impact to achieve this. This may include working within your team to cultivate goals and make a feeling of collective ownership to attain excellence in team work development.

Work places are diverse and people are inspired in different ways. It is essential that team leaders have plans that suit individuals to inspire and empower them and highlight the importance of different roles they play in a team. Having a structured mentorship programme may be one way to achieve this, which further supported by ongoing development programme to master their newly developed skill.

Peer Coaching Review

Peer coaching sessions I attended was very helpful. It was a great opportunity for us to exchange our workplace experiences in different dimensions. One particular aspect of this session that I found helpful was the discussion on how we overcame the challenges when introducing a change in the department. We were able to share varied perceptions and points of view regarding leadership roles in nursing.

Peer coaching brought me an opportunity to discuss some of the challenges in nursing leadership development plan in the work place. We discussed on how a lack of effective leadership will lead to increased stress on staff and the disarray that may cause in the department. It was also an opportunity for us to discuss how the rapid changes in private and public healthcare affecting the work place training programmes and as a result there are fewer opportunities for nurses access any leadership training programme.

We discussed on different leadership styles that we use at workplace and its effects based on scenario and individuals in the team that we deal with. We also discussed some of the limitations we had at our work place to implement or to introduce a change to the existing practice.

Conclusion

Leadership is vital for any organisation. Effective leadership promotes a positive workplace environment and thus improve customer satisfaction and productivity. In healthcare setting, effective leadership can contribute to increased staff morale, staff retention and improved patient safety. Leadership development to generate new leaders is important to transform the modern healthcare setting. It is therefore important to emphasise professional development of staff to improve their leadership knowledge and skills to suit the organisation’s vision.

Individual Skills for Leading and Managing

  • Communication Improvement Strategic Planning Decision – Making Alignment Employee Enhancement Knowledge Management & Learning Leadership Alignment 75 50 25 75 75 50
  • Organization Process Scores for Leading and Managing
  • Communication Improvement Strategic Planning Decision – Making Alignment Employee Enhancement Knowledge Management & Learning 50 52.5 45 55 47.5

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