Interviewing Health Care Leader - Essay Example

? Leadership in Healthcare s of Introduction Every organization is defined by unique procedures that dictate the quality of services it offers. It is, therefore, a duty of organizational leaders to identify potentials of their workforces and utilize them appropriately. Bishop (2009), however, observes that success of the utilization process depends on the type of and effectiveness of leadership system an organization adopts. Leadership, according to Gunderman (2008), describes ability of an individual to get others to willingly follow him/her. In healthcare institutions, for instance, leadership plays important roles at any management level. That is, effectiveness of healthcare providers depends on how leaders within the institutions perform their leadership roles. While assessing efficiency of a leader, Gunderman (2008) recommends that it is important to, first, understand true leadership qualities. This paper presents a report of an interview of a healthcare leader about leadership-related issues. The report is given using various subheadings. General Description of a Leader As noted by Mason et al. (2011), leadership styles adopted by various organizations vary from one organization to another. Ledlow & Coppola (2010), nevertheless, observe that certain traits are universally possessed by leaders in all organizations. One universal trait is ability to have a clear vision. A leader has a clear and vivid picture of where his/her firm is and where it is moving towards. That is, a leader not only has a firm grip on firm’s success, but also focuses on implementing suitable ways of achieving a success. Good communication skills also, collectively, form a general description of a leader. In heath centers, all leaders invoke others to follow them through a clear language intertwined with passion. Self discipline and discipline towards others is also an important aspect of leadership. All healthcare leaders have discipline while solving various issues, either single-mindedly or with his/her colleague. Specific Leadership Qualities Integrity is one quality that leaders in health centers posses. Integrity, according to Finkelman (2006), entails matching inner values and outward actions. In other words, an individual of high integrity possess firm principles, which results to consistency in the inner or outer personalities. Dedication and commitment are also essential leadership qualities. A dedicated leader exhausts all available resource and sometimes takes risks just to accomplish a task. Magnanimity, which requires leaders to give credit where it is due, is a leadership quality that improves morale of workers. However, while recognizing efforts of colleagues and junior workers, health institution leaders should be humble. A humble leader, as explained by Finkelman (2006), does not self-efface but tries to elevate all workers. Openness, as another quality, enables leaders to learn new ideas and methods of executing various roles. Openness and humility, therefore, makes leaders to be fair, which is another quality. Fairness, as a quality, compels leaders to humbly accept ideas, criticisms, and equally treat his/her colleagues. While giving others room to air out their views, leaders should be creative. Creativity enables leaders to think outside a box that hamper apt solutions. Other qualities include assertiveness, having a sense of humor, and being honest in all dealings. Personal Philosophy of Leadership Leadership is a quality that is best understood by supervisors, administrators, or generally, an overseer (Yoder-Wise, 2010). A leader, in any organization, leads a crowd to a right path where organizational goals are easily accomplished. While walking in this path, a leader acknowledges problems and finds suitable solutions. Finding suitable solutions involves discussions and sharing of ideas, especially with individuals with whom they share common goals. During discussion sessions, a leader organizes a large crowd into small groups and allocates them specific tasks. In these groups, a leader ensures that allocated tasks meet any set standards. Through the supervisory role, a leader ensures that all people actively participate in accomplishing a vision. Leadership is, thus, a process where an individual, through delegation and consultation, comes up with suitable methods of accomplishing a task. A leader also ensures that all concerned members are actively involved in finishing an assigned task. Learning Experiences Influencing Development of Person as a Leader Leadership is a concept that is recognized and embraced in various learning environments. Leadership skills are created and nurtured through various learning experiences. All learners are encouraged and assigned various leadership responsibilities, both at high and at low management levels. For instance, classroom environment is a small unit where individuals are trained to be future leaders. By given a small group to lead in performing various classroom tasks, an individual acquires essential leadership skills various problems. As another practice, various appraisal and motivational practices used learning environments also influence development of a person as a leader. Using suitable reward schemes, for instance, not only compels an individual to be a leader, but also sharpens leadership skills in an already-appointed leader. Successive leadership, as another practice, enables newly appointed leaders to learn, from senior leaders, effective leadership skills. Through successive leadership, there is a continuous generation of effective leaders with true leadership qualities. How Leadership Evolves Nursing Today With evolution of various leadership styles, management systems of nursing institutions have significantly changed. Bishop (2009) observes that changes in leadership styles in hospitals have both positive and negative effects on nurses. Mason et al. (2011), nevertheless, affirms that changes in leadership styles adopted in various health institutions are sources of salvation to nurses who are poorly led by their directors of nursing. As a significant outcome, changes in the leadership systems have created in nurses, the spirit of courage. By being courageous, nurses boldly voice their thoughts, opinions, and issues related to current leadership in their profession. Through openness, as another consequence of changes in leadership systems, nurses are able to have constructive criticism towards current leadership. Various adjustments in leadership systems in nursing profession have generated, within nurses, a positive urge to also lead others. There is, therefore, creation of good relationship with colleagues through modification of leadership styles. Challenging Issues in Nurse Management Leaders in nursing profession have a responsibility of linking hospital administration and nursing staff. The individuals are responsible for achievement of hospital’s goals by ensuring that all nurses perform their tasks perfectly. Certain challenges, however, thwart this role of nurse management. Leading the way is one challenge that nurse managers face. The leaders are expected to give guidance in team building, provide suitable decisions, and devise efficient ways of meeting hospital goals. Any failure in the institutions is, thus, attributed to poor nurse management. Knowing when and where to delegate is another challenge that faces nurse managers. Wrongful delegation of responsibilities does not only have negative effects on performance of a hospital, but also portrays failure of the overall nurse management. Staying up-to-date is another challenge that forces nurse leaders to modernize and constantly upkeep all logistical concerns of a hospital. Conflict management, as a challenge, involves using negotiation and conflict management skills to ensure that good relation exists among hospital management, nurses, and patients. Other challenges include swift satisfaction of patients’ needs and balancing between work hours and resting times (Mason et al., 2011). Mentoring and Leadership Styles Mentoring involves giving advice, guidance, support, and training to a junior colleague. Through mentoring, hospital leaders have recognized and embraced the value of networking and maintaining healthy relationships in the profession (Finkelman, 2006). Mentoring has resulted to formation of four leadership styles in hospitals. The styles include transformational, servant, situational, and transactional leaderships. Transformational leadership focuses on motivation, empowerment, increasing of esteem, and development of followers through inspirational and creative language. A servant leadership style involves prioritizing needs of your subjects. A servant leader humbly helps his/her subjects to be strong, healthy, wise, and more autonomous. Situational leaders tailor their leadership skills to abilities and for motivations of their junior colleagues. Situational leader, therefore, tell, sell, direct and delegate duties. Transactional leadership, on the other hand, involves investing on short-term changes. The investment entails provision of immediate and tangible solutions to various problems in hospitals. Advice to Individuals Aspiring to be Leaders All individuals aspiring to be leaders must first understand the distinction between leadership development and a leader development. Leadership development, according to Finkelman, (2006), describes activities that create and nurture leadership qualities in an organization or within an individual. A leader development, on the other hand, focuses on actual maturity of a leader. That is, development of a leader involves specifying desirable personal attributes that a leader should have and appropriate ways of feeling and thinking. Aspirants of any leadership post must also know personal characteristics that are linked to successful leadership development. Ability and willingness, in addition, forms integral part of leadership development. A quality leader must not only have the ability to lead a crowd, but must demonstrate interest in performing any leadership role. Ability and willingness to lead go in hand with possession of appropriate skills for solving various leadership challenges. Thus, any person willing to be a leader must be ready to face and handle various challenges. Conclusion In sum, leadership development focuses on creating, in an individual, leadership abilities and attitudes. The abilities include, among others, being result oriented, high achievement driver, motivator of various job aspects, self-monitor, and having internal focus of control and openness to experience. Leadership qualities are acquired and nurtured through various learning experiences. Mentors also play important roles in enhancing leadership development in an individual. Mentoring has, therefore, contributed to modification of leadership styles adopted in different work environment. In nursing profession, mentoring has yielded transformational, servant, situational and transactional leadership styles. Effectiveness of any leadership style adopted in nursing profession, nevertheless, depends on how nurse leaders handle various challenges. Therefore, before becoming a leader, an individual should understand all that it takes to be a leader. References Bishop, V. (2009). Leadership for nursing and allied health care professions. Open University Press. Finkelman, A. (2006). Leadership and management in nursing. Prentice Hall. Gunderman, R. B. (2008).Leadership in healthcare. 2nd Edition. Springer. Ledlow, G. R., & Coppola, M. N. (2010). Leadership for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Mason, D. J., Isaacs, S. L., & Colby, D. eds. (2011). The nursing profession: Development, challenges, and opportunities. Jossey-Bass Press. Yoder-Wise, P. S. (2010). Leading and managing in nursing. 5th Edition. Mosby Press. Read More