Personal Leadership Philosophies in Nursing - Essay Example

Introduction

Many of us can have great thoughts about leaders we have come to admire, including pillars of the industry we work, on historical figures, or leaders we know personally. There exist multiple research and discussions about phenomenal leaders, like Margaret Thatcher and Abraham Lincoln. Despite this, people interact with leaders who demonstrate equally competent leadership without ever having a book about their approaches. Even though leaders portray different attributes, leadership philosophy is an area of commonality that highly valued leaders develop and practice. Leadership philosophy entails a leader's attitudes that serve as behavior guiding principle (Pidgeon, 2017). Besides, the frequent evolving nature of leadership formal theories, the great leaders continue to exhibit overarching philosophy that drives their actions. I believe that leadership is not in-born but made through a sequential learning process in one's life. Therefore, leadership acquisition is either though emulation from other leaders or individual experience. Leader shuns titles and powers attached to their authority to help other people achieve their goals. Being a leader does integrate boss elements but showcasing servant virtues to the people by encouraging them and solving impending conflicts.

Personal mission, vision, core values, and strengths

My parents, being nurses, continuously told me. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." It is essential not to waste time in self-pity when times get rough; instead, a person should take charge and control the situations (Duggan et al., 2015). Therefore I build my mission, "to be a knowledgeable and compassionate professional nurse that genuinely makes a difference in patient's lives by providing holistic nursing care." I believe that being a great leader involves changing things around positively. My vision statement is, "I aspire to achieve the faith and of those I serve and to be their first choice when they need healthcare services for themselves, friends, and families." The statements have made me acquire five unique core values in my nursing career as a leader. Firstly, my compassion consists of caring, empathy, and the enhancement of individual dignity. Treating patients with equality is an essential nursing value despite burn-outs and suffering from compassionate fatigue (CSS, 2020). Besides, I possess a trustworthiness value that maintains my integrity and ethical behavior. Nurses need to showcase faithfulness, confidentiality, and responsibility to the patients. Despite that, I have humility values for the knowledge and skills expansion of my career. The accountability value helps me in addressing judgment error and communication errors. Accountability removes stabling blocks, like developing conflicts with colleagues. Also, the curiosity to learn from others and experiences makes me a great leader.

The Clifton Assessment revealed that I have the following strengths or personality traits – deliberative, harmony, consistency, responsibility, and restorative. I feel that these traits describe me accurately, and these personality traits come from my culture, upbringing, and personal beliefs. Over time, some of those characters were shaped by my experience as a nurse as well. Both my parents were ambitious and successful professionals. They instilled many good qualities in my siblings, such as our sense of morals, being humbled, being generous, and treating people equally. I am a deliberate person meaning that I am careful, vigilant, and confidential. Therefore, I develop a risk assessment plan to counterattack the unpredictable uncertainties. Individual risk identification and assessment reduces possibilities immensely. For example, I like to plan to anticipate what might go wrong. More so, I analyze my conversations carefully to avoid future conflicts with friends. Life is not a popularity contest; life is something of a minefield (CSS, 2020). Therefore, I take my approaches without following the directives of the masses.

To maintain harmony, I look for areas of agreement—communication conflicts and friction results in harm and not benefits. Thus, in cases of holding different views with friends, I try to steer conversations away from confrontations and towards harmony. Harmony serves a guiding principle for reducing time-wastage on instilling ideologies to other people. Many opinions in checks result in more productive results rather than focusing on consensus and support (Duggan et al., 2015). Self-reliance is crucial in maintaining harmony objectives. Besides, I focus on being consistent in my daily routines. I treat people with equality despite their age, sexuality, ethnicity, gender, and occupation. I believe in pluralism approaches rather than in individualistic frameworks. In the multicultural community, nurses need to portray guardian attributes to eliminate the discriminative environment (CSS, 2020). I believe in upholding psychological developments to people through emotional integration. Ethics sustainability improves individual reputation. I am willing to undertake duties willingly and execute them appropriately. I am restorative, that is, eagerness in solving problems. In times of storms, I become energized in analyzing and solving challenges. It is a beautiful feeling to identify the undermining factor(s), eradicate them, and restore something to its true glory.

Key Behaviours to Strengthen

A large part of a leader's job is to build a team. A nursing team usually consists of diverse team members from different social backgrounds, across generations (MN, 2020). Various team members bring perspectives that vary. The team leader must ensure each team member understands their roles and have resources to achieve their goals. I believe people function the best in a consistent work environment where the rules are clear and are applied equally. I treat people with respect and dignity they deserve, no matter the color, race, gender, or what their stations in life. I'm not too fond of favoritism. I believe in teamwork. I think the harmony, consistency, and responsibility of my personality traits will bring out my positive leadership quality to bring balance to the team.

I am not confrontational. I do not like conflicts, and I have communication challenges. However, with a work environment laden with high-risk situations, with differences in perspectives and competencies, conflict is inevitable. Marshall and Broome (2017) stated that many great social and political leaders were made by conflicts, such as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and Winston Churchill. As conflict resolution, it is critical for a team leader to set the tone and culture of the organization, such as providing safe space, engaging team members in open, transparent discussions, and making mutual decisions and solutions. It is a talent I need to hone in. As Marshal and Broome (2017) stated, leadership skills are learned. Rath (2007) also said that we must invest time and knowledge to refine our skills and develop them into strength. If we have a talent, such as being good at communication, good at language, and charisma, our strength will multiply. The transformative leadership style eliminates conflict and communication challenges (Lahana et al., 2019).

Development Plan

Behavior

Strategies

Intended results

Communication

• Being flexible
• Engaging in conversations
• Value yourself and not your experience (Duggan et al., 2015)
• Active listening
• Being confident and clear in responses

• Escalated productivity
• Higher levels of trust and commitment
• Elevated engagement and higher levels of creativity

Conflict

• Talking together
• Finding agreement grounds
• Effective listening

• Higher productivity in the workplace (Pidgeon, 2017)
• Higher levels of trust and commitment