Nursing Leadership Styles

Nursing Leadership Styles

Nursing is a human-centered profession and holds the key to patient safety with Leadership being a core competence for nurses at all levels (Cope & Murray,2017). Nursing Leadership styles  like autocratic, laissez-faire, democratic, transformational, transactional, situational, and servant leadership abound among nurse leaders and nurse managers. Nurses must work together and in collaboration with other health personnel in healthcare facilities hence the need for effective leadership(Durmus & Kirca, 2019). Every nurse professional should be aware of their leadership style to be successful in their leadership roles.

Therefore, this post purposes to identify democratic/ participative leadership as my leadership style,  and compare it with the personal leadership styles of other group members. It concludes by highlighting the importance of nurses to be aware of their leadership style, traits, and practices

Cornell (2020), discusses those in nursing leadership and management roles have a variety of leadership types to pick from. Few models are more successful than others, so think about which one would work better on the squad. The most successful nurse management models recognize that working as a team benefits both the nursing staff and the patients.

Transformational Leadership styles

Transformational leadership supports nursing and workplace benefits such as job satisfaction, organizational engagement, efficiency, and turnover by activities and habits (Cornell, 2020).

A transformational leader

• Motivates employees to take ownership
• Mobilizes people to get work done
• Develops excellent rapport
• Clear communication •
• Promotes overall vision and mission of the organization to team
• Provides healthy environment for staffs
• Improves staff satisfaction, patient satisfaction and staff retention

Leadership Traits for Effective Communication Nursing Leadership Styles

1. Accountability – Its leader’s responsibility to step up for ownership
2. Integrity –  healthy leader possesses a healthy conscience.
3. Expertise – knowledge, and attributes to perform successfully
4. It is a powerful component of a heal-Empathizethy organizational culture
5. Transparency – Willingness to be open

According to Devenport (2021), Both internal and external listeners are affected by how the leader expresses his or her vision. In other words, the level of leadership decides the overall quality of the company. Leaders and their success can be influenced significantly by strategic communicators. It is becoming particularly necessary for health care providers and patients to apply advanced expertise and skills to interprofessional health care teams in order to solve emerging health care issues. Team participants, on the other hand, must be made aware of the coordination requirements of serving on a healthcare team. Members of the team should be able to use strategic collaboration to provide valuable insight on complex healthcare decisions, contribute to team-based care management, and improve health outcomes. Each member of the healthcare team should bring to the table specific expertise, information, and skills that will aid in the successful delivery of care and the improvement of health.

Democratic Leadership Style.

Democratic leadership entails including all members in the decision-making process (Al Khajeh, 2018). Participative leadership is another name for it. When you lead a team with a democratic leadership style, you allow others to participate in debates, voice their opinions, and engage in open conversations. Then you combine all of their feedback to arrive at a consensus, which you then describe to the audience. As a political official, you assist your subordinates in setting targets, assessing their efficiency, and motivating them to advance. Democratic leaders encourage thoughts to circulate openly while maintaining power and direction. They recognize members of the team who will contribute to the decision-making process. They also instill in their peers a sense of respect and confidence. The traits of a democratic leader include courage, creativity, intelligence, and fairness.

• Democratic leadership entails including all members in the decision-making process.
• When you lead a team with a democratic leadership style, you allow others to participate in debates, voice their opinions, and engage in open conversations.
• Democratic leaders encourage thoughts to circulate openly while maintaining power and direction.

Servant Leadership.

The concept of leadership is an essential function in management, crucial to achieving efficiency and set goals. The definition of leadership has changed over time from concentrating on the top management to considering the lower management levels. This essay discusses the principles of servant leadership, qualities, and their support for inter-professional communication in the context of patient care.

Characteristics of Servant Leadership

• The desire of a leader to listen to the followers is one of the distinguishing characteristics of servant leadership.
• Listening, rather than communicating, is more critical to servant leaders
• They then consider how they would support the followers in reaching their total capacity at work.

The desire of a leader to listen to the followers is one of the distinguishing characteristics of servant leadership. Listening, rather than communicating, is more critical to servant leaders (Ingram, 2016). They listen intently to what the followers want to say. They then consider how they would support the followers in reaching their total capacity at work. Listening helps leaders form bonds with their colleagues, which improves organizational coordination. Servant leaders are aware of their strengths, weaknesses, biases, feelings, and values. This experience motivates them to serve their fans best. Leaders should make use of their skills to enlist everyone’s help in making decisions. They must also be aware of their shortcomings and biases such that they may not hinder their ability to serve the followers.

Servant leadership refers to leaders as those who see themselves as servants, being under the will of others. In the modern context, servant leadership constitutes ten principles first developed by Greenleaf and later distilled by Larry Spears. These principles include; listening, empathy, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to people’s development, and building community (Waterman, 2011). Contextually, this type of leadership focuses on meeting the need of the subordinates. In this sense, subordinates are seen as ends rather than means to realize their ability and perform optimally. Therefore, the servant leadership approach is found when leaders foster respect, value, and motivate followers.

Servant Leadership Qualities

Two servant leadership qualities that are consistent with inter-professional communication in healthcare delivery include active listening and empathy. Active listening is crucial for communication in hospital management (Jahromi et al., 2016). Appropriate listening facilitates fast and quick solutions to arising clinical issues presented by the patient or medical personnel. On the other hand, empathy enables a nurse leader to understand the patients or medical personnel and their concerns by paying personal attention to feelings and emotions (Moudatsou et al., 2020). Therefore, empathy is crucial for managing patient-physician-managers relationships in a clinical setting.

Benefits of Integrating Tenets of Servant Leadership

• Those in positions of leadership should think about the servant leadership model.
• It encourages nurses to strive for greater heights in the area of nursing.
• To inspire workers, servant leaders focus on persuasion rather than power and authority. •

Those in positions of leadership should think about the servant leadership model. Employee empowerment will be influenced by servant leadership. It encourages nurses to strive for greater heights in the area of nursing. To inspire workers, servant leaders focus on persuasion rather than power and authority. Employees can complete assignments because they want to, thanks to the power of persuasion. When leaders utilize their position of authority to manipulate subordinates to do something, it often destroys their friendship and leads to employee revolt. The leader who abuses power to sway staff is unlikely to earn the loyalty of his or her subordinates. Once they lose confidence, they will ultimately lose control of their team. Employees would regard anyone who utilizes persuasion with confidence and view them as trustworthy.

How servant leaders can lead others to address unique healthcare challenges

Servant leaders prioritize their followers’ needs. They focus on developing individuals because they understand that empowering the employees is critical in solving emerging complex healthcare challenges. They believe in servitude and making their followers feel heard and valued. Their decisiveness, good communication skills, and active listening make their followers want to engage more in helping the organization (Cottey & McKimm, 2019). They invite diverse perspectives, which are key in addressing healthcare issues. They understand that different points of view lead to the best-integrated solution to a problem. Servant leaders are situationally aware of how individual actions affect others. They understand individuals’ strengths and weaknesses and seek how they can make people successful. Employees under servant leadership are more likely to perform better because of the nurturing and encouragement they receive. Acknowledgment and encouragement are more effective than punishment and negative feedback and make employees more willing to make meaningful contributions towards problem-solving. A historical example of a servant leader is Nelson Mandela. Humble and passionate for his people and their problems, he often put himself at risk by taking to the streets, enduring harsh conditions to speak up for the people. He was determined and selfless, the core attributes of a servant leader.

Servant leaders are all about others. Those who understand their personal leadership traits can effectively empower health care teams to address emerging issues and challenges.

Servant leadership traits include:

Active listening •Empathy •Awareness •Persuasion •Conceptualization •Stewardship •Foresight

Charismatic leadership

Charismatic leaders tend to have a clear vision, expressed ideologically to create a better future. They have an extraordinary convincing power to make people believe in their vision and its importance. These leaders take high personal risk and ready to succeed at any cost in self-sacrifice (Veiss, 2016). They make realistic assessments of the constraints and resources available to address a challenge or crisis. Charismatic leaders respect other people’s abilities and are aware and responsive to other people’s needs and feelings. They engage in novel behaviors and counter the norms to achieve the vision. Their strategies are accustomed, and they hold shared assumptions with their followers. These leaders use consistent communication strategies to engage unconventionally with their followers to focus on the solution rather than the status quo. These unconventional strategies enable the leaders to connect emotionally, intellectually, and physically with the employees.

Characteristics of Charismatic leadership

• Vision and articulation
• Sensitive to employees’ needs
• Sensitive to the environment
• Risk-oriented
• Unconventional behavior
• Associated with high level of satisfaction and performance among employees
• Ideological components, highly influential in times of crisis

Charismatic leadership traits

• Role modeling
• Image building
• Showing confidence
• Goal articulation
• Arouse motives

Conclusion In sum, servant leaders play crucial roles in the development and growth of an organization. In healthcare, servant leaders understand the feeling and concerns of others, including patients and medical staff. Therefore, servant leaders in healthcare can create a suitable clinical environment through listening and empathy, thus, quality care delivery.

Regardless of one’s leadership style, every nurse leader should also display integrity, critical thinking, communication, and professionalism.

Democratic /participative leadership has its strengths that like servant leadership inspires individual nurses to endeavor to deliver quality services at optimal capacity.

Awareness of one’s leadership style, traits, and practices generates positive energy that promotes dynamism, passion, and effective communication between patients, nurses, and healthcare staff in general.

References

Al Khajeh, E. H. (2018). Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of   Human Resources Management Research, 2018, 1-10. nursing leadership styles

Ingram, O. C. (2016). Servant leadership as a leadership model. Journal of Management Science and   Business Intelligence, 1(1), 21-26.

Cornell. A (2020), 5 leadership Styles in Nursing. Retrieved from https://www.relias.com/blog/5-leadership-styles-in-nursing

Devenport. D (2021), Five Traits of Effective Leadership; A Guide for Communication Professional.   Retrieved from https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/communication/graduate/online/five-traits-of-effective-leadership-for-communication-professionals.html

Veiss, S. D. (2016). Charismatic, Transformational, and Servant Leadership in the United States,   Mexico, and Croatia. International Journal of Business and Social Research, 6(12), 25-34.

Cottey, L., & McKimm, J. (2019). Putting service back into health care through servant leadership.   British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 80(4), 220-224.

Seto, S., & Sarros, J. C. (2016). Servant Leadership Influence on Trust and Quality Relationship in   Organizational Settings. International Leadership Journal, 8(3).