Understanding Empathy as the Leadership Skill - Essay Example

Leadership Commentary Leadership Commentary Introduction Leadership is the ability to motivate a group of people towards a common goal. It is one of the critical skills of management. The most important leadership skills include decision making, problem solving, effective speaking, and personal appearance among others. Leadership role mainly involves being visionary to the goal to be achieved, influential, trustworthy and managerial to ensure all goes well. It is necessary to have powerful leadership skills in all professions and fields. Having good leadership skills improves performance from workers and creates a suitable working environment (Cohen & Cesta, 2005). In this essay, I will discuss on understanding empathy, which is the leadership skill that I have obtained during my practice. In this discussion, I will use a reflective model to show how understanding empathy is achieved during my practice. Gibbs reflective model is what I will use (Gibbs, 1988). This reflection model has six stages: description of the events, expressing feelings, evaluating the value and ability, analysis of how bad or good the situation is, conclusion on the findings, and lastly making an action plan (Gibbs, 1988). In this essay, I will apply Gibbs reflective model to help in relating theory and critical thought to nursing practice as it may allow. Leadership role and the evidence base for the leadership skill will be included in the discussion. I will then give a conclusion to the essay that will talk about my reflection skills, recognize my qualification and present both my personal and professional development (Fradd, 2004). Understanding empathy is the skill of leadership which I have chosen to deal with in this essay. I have chosen this as it is one of the quality that is needed in this field. In my first placement, I got myself to a situation where empathy was really needed. Understanding others in the personal level that is ‘being in their shoes’ was really needed in my first placement. This gave me a sense of curiosity and I wanted to learn and know more about empathy. At this point, I started researching on the skill and my knowledge developed. Power, influence and authority are basic for leadership. However, competent leaders ought to use less power and authority and rather use more influence.  Furthermore, motivation, appreciation and persuasion are more important than a simple show of power. Nurse leaders should employ three main influence categories in creating a supportive care environment. These include mentoring by instruction, modeling by example and building caring relationships (Chin, 2008). Description of events is the initial stage of Gibbs (1988) model. I had to look after a 60 year old male patient with primary diagnosis Cancer Rectum day 14 post-op in a surgical ward. The patient had difficulties with his speaking but could understand little English. I have learned that even when under pressure, l don’t have to rush through the patient (l had to look after 3 other patients). Misunderstanding and miscommunication result in not giving effective care to patients. I used eye contact and body language in order to meet his needs. The patient was friendly and responded well, which boosted my confidence especially on mobilizing him using therapeutic communication skills. In order to communicate effectively with the patient, I had to be patient and learn new communication skills that are; gestures and body language (DAntonio, 2010; Marquis & Huston, 2009). The second stage of Gibbs (1988) model of reflection involves discussion about feelings and thoughts. I was aware that I had to do a good job and that the patients were my responsibility. Therefore, the difficulty in communication got me nervous and worried. This made me feel a lot of pressure, as I did not want the patient to know that I had difficulties in communicating with him. This got me worried about how the nursing training programme can incorporate such lessons. The friendly and responsive nature of the patients encouraged me to overcome my fears. This led me to evaluating the entire process. The model of reflection’s third stage is evaluation. It requires a reflection of the situation that is, what was good and bad about the event. According to Mahoney, a nurse is a leader, as he/she has an authority, which is a nurse taking care of a patient. From this, it should be purely professional but in my case, I have to incorporate interpersonal skills so as to understand the patient effectively. This leaves a lot of questions on how far professionalism goes and if getting close to a patient for effective understanding can be unethically (Levsey, Campbell, & Green, 2007). I will research the issue and look at evidence supporting it as stage four of Gibbs (1988) involves analysis of the event. In this stage, Gibbs recommends the reflector to logically analyze the situation. A nurse’s role is to take care of patients. These include making sure patients are comfortable with their nurses and can feel free to communicate with them no matter the form of communication. This experience helped me develop my interpersonal skills, which include understanding empathy and decision making skills. In literature, leadership has been defined in many ways. However, some features are common to most definitions of leadership (Martindale, 2011). In one of the definitions, leadership involves influence, the achievement of a goal, usually occurs in a group setting, and it is a process that exists at all stages. There are various styles of leadership. The most recognized include autocratic leadership. This is when the decision making process involves only the leader; he sets an end goal without allowing others to participate. It is mostly used when leaders direct their employees on their expectations, without getting their follower’s advice. The appropriate condition to use it is when all the information to work out the problem is present, there is limited time, and the employees are well motivated. An example of this type of leadership style is when a supervisor instructs a subordinate on how to handle a patient. Another leadership style is bureaucratic leadership. This occurs when a leader rigidly adheres to regulations, rules and policies. The leader follows the rules as they are when making any adjustments (Moiden, 2003). Participative leadership is also another leadership style which allows participation of all those actively involved and staff in the decision-making. The decision making process in this style involves the leader and one or more employees. However, the leader has the final order. He/she maintains the final decision making authority. Often, this style is misguided as a sign of weakness, though it’s a sign of strength that employees will respect. Using this leadership style allows members of a team to feel more committed to and part of the goals they were participated in formulating (Faugier & Woolnough, 2002). Another leadership style, laissez faire, which is a highly risky sort of leadership, leaves employees to their personal desires in achieving goals. A leader assigns the projects to their follower while giving little or no direction to them. It can sometime result to low productivity.   A more effective shape of leadership is situational leadership, which allows the leader to decide from the other styles, the best to use depending on factors such as the present situation, the competence and motivation of the workers and followers (Faugier & Woolnough, 2002). Situational leadership being the most effective I used in my leadership, I ensured that I analyzed the situation and engaged the patients. Factors that influence the style to be used in leadership include how much time is available, how well the employees are trained, relationship based on respect, internal conflict, stress levels which have the information and the type of tasks to be done. All these factors contribute in decision making on which type of leadership skill to use. In all situations, leaders should analyze these aspects and select the best style to use. In my case, I put all these factors into consideration and that’s why I choose the situational leadership style (Mahoney, 2001). There is a difference between style and theory of leadership. Theory constitutes reality; while style of leadership shows the various ways that theory of leadership can be implemented.  Leaders should aim for leadership styles that take into account high levels of work productivity, with limited disruptions, and can be used in an effective manner in a wide scope of situational consideration (Moiden, 2002). Leadership and management are commonly mistaken. Managers’ plan, coordinate and control, as leaders create organizational accomplishments and change through communicating vision, motivating, inspiring and empowering members (Faugier & Woolnough, 2002). Therefore, leadership and management should be incorporated so as to get better performance and productivity in any field (Outhwaite, 2003). Motivating followers to perform to their full ability and potential by providing a sense of direction and influencing change is the main focus in transformational leadership, while transactional leadership focuses on providing day-to-day care (Cook, 2001). Being able to demonstrate shared vision as a leader in transformational leadership is important (Faugier & Woolnough, 2002). A transactional leader is mostly concerned with handling order and predictability. On the other end, transformational leaders accept the importance of facing challenging conditions (Faugier & Woolnough, 2002). Leadership theory and styles are different things.  A magnet hospital is used by one group of authors to describe transformational leadership.  This style of leadership allows for instilling faith and respect, handling of employees as individuals, values transmission, coming up with new problem solving skills, and provision of challenging goals and ethical principles whereas passing on a vision for time to come (De Geest et al., 2006). In today’s rapidly-changing health care environment, transformational leadership is highly significant as adaptation is key. Several findings indicate that this leadership style is highly associated with higher employee contentment and better performance.  These in turn result to high patient satisfaction (Hyett, 2005).  Transformational leadership mainly concentrates on the social interpersonal processes between leaders and their followers. It is highly recommended because nurses who are given powers are able to deliver well. When team leadership approach is used, setting limits, accountability, goal and support for team members is significant. Transformational leadership is often seen as empowering, thereby, the nurse managers who are empowered must equalize the usage of authority and avoid incidences that show misuse of power (Hyett, 2005).  Moreover, use of this type of leadership allows nurses in teams to heighten activities assigned to them as teachers or advocates. This helped me in handling the patients (Rycroft-Malone et al., 2004).   Leadership involves enabling and allowing people to make extraordinary things while being confronted with change and challenge. In the conclusion phrase, I will first start by stating that the constant changes in the health care environment and the frequent challenges coming up are quite demanding. The nurse leaders should always be moving with the change so as to ensure they give quality services (Jooste, 2004). While in the past managements took a hierarchical approach, which is top to bottom leadership, the current times are for improved leadership styles that will take into account listening, facilitating and encouragement (Hyett, 2005). This leadership in needed, as many things are changing, and a leadership style that incorporates this change is what is really needed. Black (2008) defines leadership as the quality of being able to create new systems and methods to attain a desired vision.  Today, it is believed that anyone can be a leader since leadership is a set of skills and practices that can be learnt (Hyett, 2005). Nurses in all sectors demonstrate leadership skills which include effective communication, interpersonal skills that understand empathy, decision making and problem solving, self-confidence and judgment in the health care provision. The expectation is that nurses extend their services to move between leading and following frequently. I am aware that all nurses do not communicate in the same way, and may use different communicating methods but as long as the communication is effective and without misunderstandings, then I can practice effectively. My practice in future will depend on the area in which I am working in, and I aim to find out the most effective way to communicate to all types of patients. I will also make sure to work where there are no such strains and misunderstandings, so as to allow proper nurse- patient communication. Within my action plan, my intention is to research further into the theory of leadership and leadership styles. I am also preparing to have a discussion with the other qualified nurses on leadership skills issues, so as to identify on how they all help in ensuring better services in the nursing field (Scott & Caress, 2005). Finally, my reflection skills have developed through this essay production. Gibbs model of reflection has assisted me to organize my feelings and thoughts appropriately. My position on evidence based practice awareness and its importance has also been made better with the use of critical reflection in Gibbs model. My competence within leadership role has been further developed, and I now feel progress in my personal and professional development. Using this reflective model has helped me to realize that my learning is something which I must be active in. Furthermore, as a student nurse, I have understood that reflection is a significant learning tool in practice (Thomas, Billington, & Getliffe, 2004). References Black, J. R., 2008. Lean production: implementing a world-class system. New York, NY: Industrial Press. Chin, P. L., 2008. Integrated theory and knowledge development in nursing. St. Louis, MO: Mosby. Cohen, E. L., & Cesta, T. G., 2005. Nursing case management: from essentials to advanced practice applications (4th ed.). St. Louis: Elsevier Mosby. Cook, M., 2001.  The renaissance of clinical leadership.  International nursing review, 48, 38- 46. DAntonio, P., 2010. American Nursing: A History of Knowledge, Authority, and the Meaning of Work. St. Louis, MO: Mosby. 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Thomas, S., Billington, A., and Getliffe, K., 2004.  Nursing. Journal of Nursing Management, 12, 252- 57. Read More