Personal Development for Leadership and Management - Research Paper Example

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT – REFLECTIVE ESSAY Introduction Over the years, I have developed reliable leadership and management skills in order to prosper in a world full of uncertainties. Such skills have helped me both in the social and business realms. Through proper leadership, I have managed resources effectively in all the organizations that I have interacted with at various levels. In addition, I have learnt that successful people have the necessary people skills and ability to manage non-human resources in an efficient and effective way. I have come into terms with the fact that successful people understand the significance of people in business and social systems. In this regard, I have organized social and business systems effectively to achieve set goals and objectives in particular organizations (Marquis & Huston 2009, 23). This paper describes my personal reflection about the development process that I undertook towards my leadership and management during my work placement time in the medical field, where I worked in the surgical ward, helping patients in various ways. Over the months, I have appreciated the fact that leadership is not necessarily a positional affair. Personal leadership has to be understood and adopted by people in order to enable them manage their lives effectively. Often, people always want to associate with those that understand themselves and take steps to improve their lives in the right way. In order to be a successful leader, I have polished my qualities and skills in people management, besides knowing how to manage their lives. I undertook the work placement exercise at the time I was in third year in my undergraduate nursing course. During this time, I was in charge of a team that ensured that we discharged our duties effectively towards achievement our departmental targets. Reflective practice In most cases, the reflective process is taken to describe the action of reflecting on certain actions in a process that often leads to persistent learning (Wolfensberger, 2010, 715). In this definition, the actions in the reflective practice involve giving focus to practical values as well as various theories that inform daily actions. This is through the process of doing the reflection in a reflexive process, thus leading to development of proper insight (Copley 2011, 17). Main learning objective of the reflective paper In making this analysis, the main objective in the learning plan was to demonstrate an effective understanding of delegation in leadership and management. During my placement time, being a team leader meant that have to direct a team and give instructions about how certain tasks were to be done (Cartwright & Scisco 2004, 64). In some instances, I was supposed to ensure that team responsibilities had to be undertaken even without my physical presence. In leadership, teamwork is an essential process; management teams are often known to complement each individual in the teams effectively. People have varied knowledge and skills endowment, the formation of work and management ensures that these differences can be complimented effectively, while maximum results are achieved in the end (Wallace & Murray 2009, 49). These were the specific responsibilities that I was bestowed during my work placement, which included organizing and managing my team to ensure that the hospital’s goals and objectives were achieved effectively. The reflective model In making this reflective paper, I had to choose a reflective method that would make it easy for me to have a comprehensive look into my work place experience and derive the best lessons from the practice at that time. The Gibbs reflective model was the best reflective method because of its ability to explore many issues when used. This was the main reason why I had to choose it in this reflective exercise. The Gibbs Reflective Model This reflective is mostly used by learners as a structure in their coursework assignments, requiring aspects of reflective writing. One of the greatest scholars, by the name Prof. Gibbs Graham invented the model in 1988, which operates as follows. The Gibbs Model (Gibbs, 2004) Description I did my work placement in the medical field, where I work in the surgical word. Working in this ward exposed to practical aspect of surgery and real life interaction with people suffering from various problems that required surgery (Taylor 2010, 53). I had to interact with different surgeons, helping them undertake their life saving responsibilities in different ways (Bulman 2004, 9). I learnt many things while working with surgeons and other specialists in the surgical word. I also got the chance to diagnoses various cases and give directions about certain situations were to be handled. I was later given a team to lead, following my understanding of the field and ability to manage people. Feelings Getting the responsibility to manage the surgical team that comprised of other students and specialists in the surgical word was quite an enormous responsibility. At first, I did not seem to like it, considering the fact that I was still very nervous about my capacity to manage and lead people effectively. I thought that being a nursing student in the surgical ward would give me challenges dealing with people that had experience in the surgical practice. However, I later composed myself, calmed my nerves and planned how I would undertake my new responsibilities. I realized that judging from my feelings was rather impulsive and would not help me in my duties. In this I had to sit down and think critically, knowing that if I did my responsibilities well, I would get a good recommendation to seek employment in the same hospital or any other after my graduation from the nursing school. Evaluation Working in functional is a very interesting experience; leadership, I came to realize depends on the way an individual understand and believes in himself. Many leadership and management resources exist that people can depend on in creating resourceful and reliable work teams in organisations. This understanding gave me the strength and strategy in crafting the best approaches towards having reliable teams in my work placement. Among the first things, that I did in the process of creating successful teams was having to understand the capabilities of all the people that had been slotted in my team. I would create time after the work in the evening to create teamwork bonding sessions, from which we got to understand each other in terms of our different skills endowments and abilities. I managed to establish a got accountability system by which every person regarded each other as an important member in the team. I managed to create proper communication systems through which team members were able to share information and seek clarification where they needed help (Wickham 2004, 37). Analysis Leadership and people management is an important exercise that requires dedication and motivation. I managed to learn many things in the process of creating and leading the management team in the surgical ward. I managed to understand the personalities of the different people in my team, something that assisted me in a great way when dealing with them. Surgery is a very delicate nursing practice the aims at helping people over their delicate health conditions. Surgery needs a lot of concentration and collaboration from all the people charged with working on certain patients and health issues (Kelly 2008, 51; Jarrell 2008, 42). In ensuring achievement of efficiency and maximum results in the surgery process, I made sure that that all the members in the team that was working on certain patient conditions understood the task effectively. The next step was to delegate duties so that everybody engaged in that which he could manage and handle best. All team members respected each other and were always ready to assist each other in times of need. One of the most important aspects of team leadership is creating a culture where everyone is respected. Team members have to understand that the success of the whole team depends on the sum total of everybody’s efforts. In this case, helping each other in times of need is paramount for the success of the whole team. One of the ways that helped us to strengthen our bond and the team was having regular outings when not on duty. In most cases, this used to happen on weekends on special holidays when were not required to report on duty. In the outings, we set on various team building activities, through which were managed to bond and know each other better (Parrish 2010, 63). In addition, these forums were essential in helping us to evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts and in the team and the success, we were achieving at the end. Conclusion The success of my work practices depended heavily on the effectiveness and efficiency of individual people as well as the management teams created at the work place. The success of various teams that I interacted with depends on the kind of leadership that is portrayed by the respective leader (Wu 2013, 35). Leadership that recognizes the different skill endowments of people is essential in helping to create the best in these people enabling them to appreciate themselves and handle their duties diligently. I learnt that people management and leadership are important skills that leaders are expected to have in order to achieve set goals and objectives in the department and the whole organisation as a whole. In this regard, I learnt leadership skills from seeing and learning from what other successful leaders do, as well as the specific requirements in the industry the business organisations exists. Action plans Having had a successful work placement, I look forward to discharging my duties effectively when I finally graduate and get employment in a hospitals surgical work. I will pay attention on understanding peoples different skills and talents in order to create successful and effective teams that will meet the goals and objectives of the organisation. I look forward to helping patients in their different health conditions through successful surgery and other health interventions in my line of experience and training (Bates, C., & Gamble 2011, 34). I will always take time to understand the particular needs of patients, diagnosis them and placing them under the care of specific teams in the hospital for their needs to be well taken care of (Mann 2009, 25). In doing all this, I expect to have a successful work experience, discharging my duties and managing surgical teams effectively.   Bibliography Bates, C., & Gamble, E. 2011. Alternatives to industrial work placement. OECD Publishing, Paris. Bulman, C. 2004. Reflective practice in nursing (3rd Ed). Blackwell, Oxford. Cartwright, T., & Scisco, P. 2004. Developing your intuition a guide to reflective practice. Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, N.C. Copley, S. 2011. Reflective practice for policing students. Learning Matters, Exeter, England. Gibbs, J. 2004. Achievements in nursing. St. George Hospital & Community Health Service Nursing & Midwifery Research Council, Sydney, N.S.W. Jarrell, B. 2008. Surgery (5th ed). Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Wiliams & Wilkins, Philadelphia. Kelly, P. 2008. Nursing leadership & management (2nd ed). Thomson Delmar Learning, Clifton Park, NY. Mann, B. 2009. Surgery. Saunders/Elsevier, Philadelphia, PA. Marquis, B., & Huston, C. 2009. Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (6th ed). Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia: Parrish, M. 2010. Social work perspectives on human behaviour. Open University Press, Maidenhead Taylor, B. 2010. Reflective practice for healthcare professionals a practical guide (3rd Ed). Open University Press, Berkshire, England. Wallace, R., & Murray, R. 2009. Effective practice in industrial work placement. Higher Education Academy Physical Science Centre, Hull. Wickham, P. 2004. Management consulting: Delivering an effective project (2nd Ed). Prentice Hall Financial Times, Harlow, England Wolfensberger, B., et al., 2010. The challenge of involvement in reflective teaching. Three case studies from a teacher education project on conducting classroom discussions on socio-scientific issues. Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol 26. No 3: 714-721. Wu, B. 2013. New theory on leadership management science. Chartridge Books Oxford, Oxford. Appendix Learning plan Learning Goal Objective Timeline Reflection Develop Delegation skills 1. Creating effective surgical teams 2. Identifying particular nursing and surgical responsibilities July 2013 Improving my capacity to create and manage surgical teams has made me an effective leader. I can handle cross cultural teams and delegate duties effectively with maximum results Develop medicine management skills 1. Creating proper working relationship with doctors and nurses 2. Making drug prescription to patients in consultation with other doctors and nurses August 2013 Knowing how to manage medicine and other drugs in the surgical ward has made me to understand how to manage various surgeries and related health conditions. I can give prescriptions to various surgeries and ensure that they are effective in helping patients in the health recovery Read More