Assignment task: Respond to each discussion post below by explaining how the leadership skills they described may impact your organization or your personal leadership, or by identifying challenges you see in applying the skills described. 150 words APA 2 references 2 in text citation (each)
Lauren discussion post:
Throughout my experience in nursing, I have found that certain types of leadership skills are more useful in different clinical settings. In perspective of my policy, of promoting safe staffing for all nurses nationally, the most influential issue is job satisfaction. I f people do not feel like they are satisfied or happy in their job, they will work at that facility less. The key to safe staffing is job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is heavily reliant on leadership technique and experience. In some settings, such as long term care or nursing home, many employers use strategies to entice workers to come and work for them but not for the existing staff to stay equally satisfied and compensated. To maintain satisfaction in the nursing career, it has been found that nurses need to feel supported, have access to current research and best practices, have trust in the nursing leadership team and feel accepted or understood by their community (Sabbah, et al, 2020). For a nurse to feel supported by leadership, they must feel as if their opinions and expertise is valued and respected. I have found that in most clinical settings that transformational leadership is the most effective and can expand job satisfaction significantly. Nurses should be encouraged to improve their clinical practice along with current research. When nurses are functioning at their full potential and supported with education, resources and respect by management, then the patient will have better out comes (Specchia, et al, 2021). When staff is encouraged to improve themselves and the company, health care staff can ve significantly ore motivated to provide better care (Al-Thawabiya, et al, 2023). Staff is frequently unmotivated to make money for a major cooperation. When staff realizes that their work has real monetary value, they are empowered to perform better. Care givers perform better when they know that their patients' progress is being linked directly to them. Encouraging and leading workers to learn better for their own practice and for the benefit of the company, patients have better outcomes and the company can reduce general overhead operational cost. A good example of this practice would be a clinical practice that does not take punitive action against its' employees, but encourages them to be better.
Ashley discussion Post
Key Insights
One common theme in the scholarly articles I reviewed for this discussion is that transformational leadership is a preferred leadership model in healthcare but rarely adhered to. There are many contributing factors to making this leadership style work, including environment, resources, and the style preference of the leader. Although transformational leadership is the ideal leadership style, most leaders practice a transactional leadership style (Gebreheat et al., 2023). Transactional leadership can potentially lead to more teamwork and increased work performance because of the corrective action taken by leaders who choose this style.
Another common theme is that transformational leadership emphasizes the individual. Leading a group of colleagues can be difficult when it is assumed that they are ultimately the same because they all work in the same environment. The ability to see and speak to a person's individuality to help them contribute to the organization's vision within their own abilities is the mark of a good leader (Marshall & Broome, 2021, p. 17). Transformational leaders can see the organization's greater vision and tailor their guidance to their individual colleagues to benefit the entire organization (Chan et al., 2023).
Leading by example
After reading the numerous articles for this discussion, I found that my previous unit manager was an excellent example of transformational leadership. She came into our unit during a time when the climate was extremely toxic. She saw the hospital's desire to improve its reputation in caring for the laboring woman, and she revamped our entire unit. She made our temporary educator the permanent educator and encouraged her to rebuild the orientation process for our unit. She implemented an open-door policy that allowed us nurses to come to her with concerns, but she also encouraged us to come up with solutions for those concerns. It made interactions with upper-level management feel like more of a conversation rather than constant complaining. She was very good at remembering details about us, which felt more endearing and made us want to work harder and better because we felt like she truly cared about us and our well-being on the unit. She was only our unit manager for 2.5 years, but she made major changes that are still implemented on our unit today by our current unit manager. One major repercussion of her leadership style is that our unit has seen less turnover since she came in 5 years ago. Staffing shortages are still an issue for us, but retention has improved, which is a major win for our unit.