GCU NUR514 Organizational Leadership and Informatics Week 2 Assignment

Leadership Style Reflective Essay

This assignment focuses on the importance of self-assessment and reflection.

Self-Assessment

Self-awareness is essential for developing leadership skills. Recognizing your own strengths, weaknesses, and values, and understanding emotional intelligence and learning styles can help you to be a more effective nurse leader.

Leadership theory continues to evolve time after  time. Throughout the years leading role has been more complex . “Various behavioral theories were developed between 1940 and 1980 describing common leadership styles such as authoritarian, democratic and laissez-fair. Situational and contingency theories between 1950 and 1980 recognized the importance of considering the needs of the worker, the task to be performed, and the situation or environment. Interactional leadership theories focus on influence within the specific organizational environment and the interactive relationship of the ‘leader’ with the ‘follower’”.(Calhoun ,JG 2008) As a leader it’s imperative to develop supportive skills , which states that empower and building relationships with employees . Over the years as a unit supervisor I’ve learned of to teach , empower my staffs to grow and develop your skills to better care for the patients.We’re leaving in a society when you are meeting different people from different  cultures. Therefore if you don’t have a good understanding of your role , believe me or not you’re at the greatest risk to fail . A lots of researchers concluded that people are happier and more satisfied in their work when they have supportive leaders who

empathize and value their performances.

For this assignment, you have the opportunity to take a variety of self-assessments to learn more about yourself and identify your assets and weaknesses as a leader. This will assist you in discovering how you can improve your own self-leadership skills. You will be asked to think critically about your results and submit a reflection as directed below.

Select three of the following self-assessments and complete them. Be sure to document the results of each assessment to assist you in completing the reflection portion of the assignment below.

Emotional Intelligence Assessment: “Emotional Intelligence Test”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/emotional-intelligence-test

Personality Assessment: “Free Personality Test”: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

Learning Styles Assessment: “Values Profile”: http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/

Values Assessment: “Values Profile”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/values-profile

Values Assessment: “Rokeach Values Survey”: http://faculty.wwu.edu/tyrank/Rokeach%20Value%20Survey.pdf

Diversity Assessment: “Cultural Competence Self-Test”: https://www.oregon.gov/DHS/SENIORS-DISABILITIES/DD/PROVIDERS-PARTNERS/SCPAconference/Cultural%20Competence%20Self-Test.pdf

Self-Assessment Reflection

Becoming self-aware is an ongoing process requiring introspection. The more often people practice self-reflection, the more opportunities they have to understand their own behaviors and adapt their approaches to working with other people, which can improve both your own and other’s abilities to meet their professional goals.

In a 750-1,000 word reflective essay, address the following:

Briefly summarize why you selected each self-assessment and the results you obtained on each assessment.

Identify the leadership style that closely aligns to your philosophy of care, and explain what appeals to you about that style.

Reflect on how you might incorporate elements of that particular style as you exercise leadership in a practice or health care organization setting.

Discuss any particular areas for improvement the assessments helped you identify and some steps for improving your leadership capabilities.

You are required to cite three to five sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Sample Answer for GCU NUR514 Organizational Leadership and Informatics Week 2 Assignment

Reflective practice is an important part of the nursing profession and leadership as it allows nurses and their leaders to acquire leadership attributes and understand their style of leadership. Reflection enables nurse leaders and practitioners to learn from their experiences and know weak areas and the need for future improvement (Porter-O’Grady et al., 2019). Reflective practice shows one’s strengths and initiatives that one can take to improve so that one succeeds in their assigned roles, duties, and responsibilities (Barker, 2021). The purpose of this paper is to offer a reflective account of myself based on three different assessment tools that I have taken. The paper also identifies a leadership style that aligns with my care philosophy and highlights elements of the leadership model that I should incorporate as well as areas of improvement. The paper also analyzes the features of an effective professional nurse leader and different leadership theories and styles.

Rationale and Brief Summary of Self-Assessment

Nurse leaders must be self-aware to improve overall care provision as they deal with patients in different areas. consequently, I took three tests that include a personality test, an emotional intelligence test, and a learning style assessment. The rationale for the personality test allows one to ascertain the effect of their personality on the perception of nursing situations and the environment. I wanted to know if my personality has an impact on the decisions that I make in care provision. The personality test revealed that I have a significant percentage of extraversion at about 68% and introversion at 32%. The personality test also showed that my energy is 57% observant and 43% intuitive. The test also showed that I rely on feelings at 68% compared to 32% prospection. The test also showed that my identity is 62% assertive and 38% turbulent.

The emotional intelligence test is critical as it allows nurses and nurse leaders to understand their ability to deal with a host of situations. I wanted to gain insight into my ability to respond to critical moments that require the use of critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. Emotionally intelligent nurse leaders and nurses are effective in their work as they understand the implementation of better interventions to attain quality outcomes and accomplish their tasks. The emotional intelligence test showed that I had 69% implying that I am soundly skilled in the identification, perception, and expression of emotions in others and even myself.

The learning style test was essential as it allows one to understand their ability to learn in a host of environments. Studies show the need for nurses to embrace lifelong learning to transform the healthcare industry by adopting best practices from research and clinical experience as well as patient preferences (Porter-O’Grady et al., 2019). The assessment of my learning style revealed that I had ten in kinesthetic, two in reading and writing, five in aural, and one in zero. The implication is that I learn mainly through observation.

Leadership Style Aligning with my Care Philosophy

Through intense analysis and self-reflection, I have realized that the servant leadership and transformation leadership models are the ones that align with my philosophy of care. Servant leadership means seeking the good of others at the expense of self. Servant leaders focus on improving the welfare of their followers and serving them. Transformational leaders focus on changing the status quo and improving care delivery (Barker, 2021). Therefore, these styles are essential for nurse leaders to impact their subordinates and inspire them to offer quality care.

My philosophy of care entails serving others using the best possible interventions to meet their preferences and conditions. servant and transformational leaders have a strong sense to serve and change their followers while ensuring the best interactions and relationships among members of their teams. These leaders listen, empathize, and uphold integrity as well as values and ethics to attain better patient outcomes. Therefore, these styles are essential in ensuring that I attain the expected patient care outcomes.

Incorporation of Elements of the Leadership Style

One needs to understand their strengths and weaknesses to make an effective leader. The use of these assessments allowed me to understand that I lacked self-reflection, and emotional intelligence and was not aware of my actions and decisions. As an effective leader, the lack of these aspects impairs my ability to offer remedies and solutions to issues in the practice environment and among the team members (Kibbe & Chen, 2019). Therefore, enhancing listening, building communities and effective learning from all members and other stakeholders would be critical in improving my leadership attributes and hence effective delivery of quality care to patients.

Areas of Self-Improvement and Steps to Enhance Leadership Capabilities

Self-awareness requires one to have a better understanding of leadership abilities and capacities. The assessment helped identify certain areas that need improvement. These include communication, the development of the relationship with team members and all stakeholders, as well as being empathetic to situations. The assessments also showed the need to incorporate emotional intelligence in situations that patients and other providers can face in care provision and delivery (Thomas, 2018). The assessment also showed the need for me to improve my personality by developing a more assertive identity through confidence-building, particularly when making decisions that support a patient’s life. I should also improve on how I handle colleagues and avoid being judgmental. More specifically, I should avoid using intuition when making a judgment in health situations. Situations require contingent approaches as opposed to being rigid in decision-making.

Characteristics of Effect Professional Nurse Leader

An effective nurse leader assists in the development of a common or convergent approach to care provision through the use of systems and employees. The nurse coordinates, integrates, and facilitates different services and applications to help patients. Individuals seek meaning in their lives and purpose at work. Effective nurse leader has to constantly reflect on their character and quality of work (Kibbe & Chen, 2019). The sustainability and success of an organization arise from individual and collective responsibility and the performance of all people. The leader must demonstrate openness and transparency to be a valued leader. The leader must be a role model to inspire and motivate their team to perform and be productive. They must show their commitment and engagement with their employees, be transformative, and be observant to avoid any situations that may affect the overall care delivery among the nursing staff members (Barker, 2021). An effective leader should also be reflective, serve the followers, and be transformative to improve the quality of care offered to patients. More importantly, an effective leader must bear the vision and mission of their organization and strategize while advancing the meaning and purpose as well as better welfare of the employees.

Application of Leadership Theory and Style

Different leadership models continue to emerge since the 1930s. However, the transformational leadership style is the most appropriate in modern health settings. The style is the most effective in a health care setting since it is founded on teamwork and focuses on the attainment of a common goal irrespective of individual concepts that may arise. The leadership model embeds honest, open, and effective communication to build positive interpersonal relationships among team members. The style entails team leaders communicating the team vision in a manner to motivate and empower the followers or subordinates (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). The team leader inspires better loyalty and confidence resulting in increased levels of engagement, achievement, and performance.

The theory shapes the nurse leader to develop a collaborative approach to care delivery and seek consensus when a conflict arises to attain a resolution. It also helps nurse leaders develop better ways to decide on engagement and involvement. The model ensures that leaders can negotiate by inspiring and motivating the team members to be effective and perform better to deliver quality care.

Conclusion

Understanding one’s attributes based on their strengths and weak areas is essential for nurses and nurse leaders. The paper shows that personal assessments based on three different tests are essential for one to develop better leadership attributes and improve on areas that have weaknesses. The implication is that these tests ensure that one can adopt a leadership style and attributes to be better nurses and nurse leaders to offer quality care to patients.

References

Barker, A. M. (2021). Influencing and leading change in the complex healthcare environment:

The role of the advanced practice nurse. In S. M. Denisco (Ed.), Advanced practice

nursing: Essential knowledge for the profession (4th ed., pp. 149–163). Jones & Bartlett

Learning

Gandolfi, F., & Stone, S. (2018). Leadership, Leadership Styles, and Servant Leadership.

Journal of Management Research, 18(4), 261-269. https://search-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=132968632&site=eds-live&scope=site

Kibbe, M. R., & Chen, H. (Eds.). (2019). Leadership in surgery. Springer International

Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19854-1

Mansel, B., & Einion, A. (2019). ‘It’s the relationship you develop with them’: emotional

intelligence in nurse leadership. A qualitative study. British Journal of Nursing.

https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2019.28.21.1400

Thomas, J.S. (2018). Applying servant leadership in practice. Nursing Leadership and

Management: Leading and Serving. 1, Ch. 3. https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs451vn/nursing-leadership-and-mangement-leading-and-serving/v1.1/#/chapter/3

Porter-O’Grady, T., Weberg, D. R., Mangold, K. & Malloch, K. (2019). Leadership in Nursing

Practice: Changing the landscape of health care. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

PsychTests AIM Inc. (2022a). Big five personality test [Measurement instrument].

https://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/4059

PsychTests AIM Inc. (2022b). Emotional intelligence test [Measurement instrument].

https://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/3979

Sample Answer 2 for GCU NUR514 Organizational Leadership and Informatics Week 2 Assignment

Leadership skills are considered important in management as it helps individuals achieve personal and professional success in an organization. Even though people tend to have different leadership skills, it is important to take into account leadership styles that befit a given set of an organization to improve the quality of management (Parush & Koivunen, 2014). Often, inculcating effective leadership styles requires one to undertake self-reflection to learn about different approaches that will guide in making decisions. However, based on the trait theory of leadership, the ability to lead a team is a concept that one can acquire and develop throughout time. Guided by this argument, I will use self-assessment tools to assess my leadership strengths. I will avail results of the self-assessment tests and provide a brief explanation of areas for improvement to develop my future leadership styles.

Selected Self-Assessments and the Results

Emotional intelligence assessment is the first option to gauge my ability to lead. The self-awareness test is based on the analysis of emotions and how they influence our interactions with people. Emotions determine how a leader manages anger issues and also helps one to solve conflicts among subjects (Presbitero, 2017). Emotional intelligence also explores the ability of a person to communicate effectively with members of a team and therefore is considered one of the vital skills in leadership. Based on the test undertaken, my emotional intelligence results are 120 and this reveals that I am flawless. In other words, I follow perfection in achieving the outcomes of a given task. I also strive to ensure that activities are done as per the plan and also try as much as possible to avoid mistakes in doing my work.

The second self-assessment test taken involves a personality assessment. This assessment focuses on the analysis of traits of an individual to ascertain whether a person is fit for leadership or can settle as a subject to be led by others. According to leadership theories, people can have inherent traits that give them a competitive edge of others (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). Personality traits like confidence can make one stand out to be a good leader especially in situations where tough decisions are to be made. As per the test undertaken, my personality assessment tests indicate that I am an advocate. In essence, I tend to evaluate the circumstances before making a judgment. I also use intuition to direct mental energy in solving pertinent issues that arise in the current place of work. My identity reveals that I am confident when making decisions in the organization.

The third self-awareness test selected was a value assessment. The evaluation approach provides a brief description of the motivation of a person. The assessment is vital as it determines the behavior of a person based on what one considers as more important in life (Sutherland & Jelinek, 2015). As per the tests on value assessment, my results indicate a high score for instrumental values. The premise means that I use logic, intellect, and self-control when making a judgment in the health facility. I am also ambitions, honest, courageous and forgiving when working with colleagues.

Leadership Style that aligns to Philosophy of Care

Flawless as a result of my emotional intelligence test closely aligns with my philosophy of care. The approach focuses on perfection and yielding positive results. Flawless trait encourages people to do good by following the clearly developed standards of procedure in an organization (Tuleja, 2014). With this, limited conflicts related to insubordination and neglect of duties are avoided. Besides, flawless trait strengthens the working of a given system as it requires people to work as per the stipulated protocols.

Incorporating Elements of Flawless Trait during Practice of Leadership

Even though human beings may not achieve 100% perfection, the flawless trait will enable me to motivate my team to achieve the best as per their abilities. Often, clinical practice requires utmost accuracy by using the available clinical guidelines to optimize quality care to patients (Sutherland & Jelinek, 2015). With the flawless trait, I will motivate my team to be accurate in using the recommended practice of care to avoid errors in clinical procedures related to negligence (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). The style will also help me to organize shift hours among the health care team. Through this approach, shift hours will be equitably distributed to limit burnout due to unbalanced distribution of duties. I believe this will foster positive interactions among the healthcare staff and enhance cooperation among the team as they strive to provide quality services to patients (Parush & Koivunen, 2014).

Areas for Improvement

Through the self-assessment tests, I realize that I need to improve my personality. Particularly, I need to develop an identity of being assertive and confident, especially when making tough decisions that support the life of patients (Tuleja, 2014). Besides, I need to improve my tactics in dealing with colleagues at work. I tend to use negative judgment towards health staff who are not perfect in their work and this often compromises the effectiveness of my leadership (Presbitero, 2017). I also have the challenge of using intuition to make a judgment in all situations within the health setting. I believe that some situations require observation rather than intuition to solve and therefore I purpose to be more observant when dealing with health staff.

Conclusion

The effectiveness of a leader depends on the personality traits that they possess. The assessment revealed the personality traits that I possess while also showing the areas that need improvements. The assessment conducted herein therefore allows me to know that kind of a leader that I am and what I can do to improve.

References

Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. S., & Swamy, D. R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances in management, 7(2), 57.

Parush, T., & Koivunen, N. (2014). Paradoxes, double binds, and the construction of ‘creative’managerial selves in art-based leadership development. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 30(1), 104-113.

Presbitero, A. (2017). It’s not all about language ability: motivational cultural intelligence matters in call center performance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(11), 1547-1562.

Sutherland, I., & Jelinek, J. (2015). From experiential learning to aesthetic knowing: The arts in leadership development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 17(3), 289-306.

Tuleja, E. A. (2014). Developing cultural intelligence for global leadership through mindfulness. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 25(1), 5-24.