Leadership is critical in every aspect of life. By definition, leadership is about a social influence where a leader achieves objectives by using the efforts from followers ( Porter-O'Grady & Malloch, 2015). It implies that being a leader means having influence over others and not power. Leaders are born, but other people develop leadership with time. Developing leadership skills is critical in enhancing leadership talent as it is about creating an environment that enhances leadership skills, ability, and confidence. It is about having resources in an organization that is enough to facilitate leadership training and the development process ( Porter-O'Grady & Malloch, 2015). The process may take longer, but it can be achieved through patience and creating a culture of a specific leadership style that an organization desire for its success. Nursing, like any other sector in the world, needs leaders for its proper functioning. In the current world, nurses need to look up to their nurse leaders to create for them an environment that enhances success. A nurse needs a leader must come up with a cohesive team not only among nurses but between nurse and other staffs in the medical institution for them to achieve their goal. Porter-O'Grady & Malloch (2015) also discuss that in this essence, leadership is critical for nurses as it encourages growth, positive outcome, and teamwork, which translate to success in their career.
Leadership Theories
Various theories try to explain the foundation and development of leadership. For instance, the excellent man leadership theory postulates that leaders are born. Further, this theory sees men as the only people with leadership tenets. The grand man theory of leadership development is similar in some way to trait theory, which also considers some inborn traits of a leader. However, the difference comes in where the trait theory of leadership also agrees that to some extent, leaders have certain qualities that make them excel in leadership roles ( Nawaz & Khan, 2016). In this case, the traits theory postulate that some traits such as intelligence, sense of responsibility, creativity, and other values put anyone in the shoes of a good leader. In some ways, trait theory paves the way for behavioral leadership theory, which brings in a new aspect of leadership.
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The behavioural theory sees some unique behaviours among leaders. It differs with trait and great man theories in that it isolates leadership behavior from social, mental, and physical characteristics, to behaviors. It thus claims that there are leaders who are task-oriented, and others are human-oriented. The difference in behaviors creates some variation between such leaders and the style they use to achieve their results ( Nawaz & Khan, 2016). On the other hand, contingency and trait speak theories speak a similar language in regards to leadership development. Contingency also sees no formulae for creating a leader except that they need some specific characteristics to excel. Transaction theory takes some section from behavioral theory as it focuses on a mutual relationship between a leader and the followers. Lastly, transformational, to some extent, is similar to transitional and behavioral as it focuses on how a leader interacts with employees and transforms them to achieve their best. According to Nawaz & Khan (2016), u nderstanding these theories is critical in developing leaders because each of them has a unique aspect of leader that could be critical in defining the type of a leader that an organization desires as they strive to develop a leader.
Leadership is an integral part of advanced general nursing. Currently, the healthcare structure is changing with advance nurses taking the roles of leaders in the hospitals. In this essence, it is becoming a necessity for advance nurses training institution to integrate leadership course for such nurses. Such nurses need leadership skills that would make them relate beneficially and positively with other nurses as they step up for advanced roles in the clinical setting ( Choi et al., 2016). They also need to understand leadership tenets that are critical in creating goals and working with people to achieve their best. They need to empower and inspire another nurse to form a strong team to deliver quality care. All these are possible if the leadership training course embeds in advance nursing learning.
Empowerment in Leadership
Empowerment is a powerful tool for nurse leaders. By definition, empowerment is "based on the idea that giving employees skills, resources, authority, opportunity, motivation, as well holding them responsible and accountable for outcomes of their actions, will contribute to their competence and satisfaction” ( Choi et al., 2016). As a nurse leader, the focus should be on delegating duties to other nurses with confidence that they will deliver their best. In this sense, a nurse leader needs to develop transformational leader skills majorly inspiring nurses to take responsibilities ( Choi et al., 2016). Nurse leaders also need to empower nurses to use resources within their capacity to the unit and form a team which can work with no supervision. In this essence, a nurse leader needs to encourage their followers to make decisions and be accountable for their result. Choi et al. (2016) also discuss that this is the path towards empowering nurses to be leaders within their unit to achieve a uniform goal. Empowering is, thus, a critical tool for a nurse leader.
Mentoring in leadership development
Besides empowering, mentoring is currently gaining milestones among healthcare leaders and other leaders in different sectors. As a nurse leader, a person needs to visualize an organization where there is a specific culture of leadership. In that sense, a leader needs to mentor other nurses within the organization to step for the current and future challenges in the organization ( Hafsteinsdóttir et al., 2017). Mentoring can be part of the succession plan. It may include mixing up the generation and creating a culture where people work together with their leaders so that they can learn some critical tips of successful leadership. Through a culture of interaction, duties delegation, and responsibilities, the young leaders and workers are mentored and developed to become passionate leaders who can care for others. Mentoring can be used to motivate healthcare nurses by providing direction and developing specific leadership competencies, which are critical for the current and future care provision.
Interdisciplinary Communication
Another aspect of leadership that a nurse leader must have is communication skills. Healthcare institution is an environment which houses people from different disciplines. Communication is, thus, a critical aspect of their working together to achieve a uniform goal. In this case, a nurse leader must install a safe way to communicate so that people are in an identical route of success. Establishing a secure communication pathway is critical. Also, enhancing the technology-based communication system is effective for a clinical setting to reduce time wastage ( Hafsteinsdóttir et al., 2017). Also important is feedback culture within the healthcare setting, which includes both the caregivers and the patients. The listening culture and minimal destruction should be the emphasis for a safe and secure interdisciplinary team in a care setting.
Caring in Nursing
Dr. Jean Watson’s caring theory defines caring as "feeling or showing concern for or kindness to others”( Watson & Woodward, 2010). Patients usually are helpless and believe that a nurse is the only option for their better life in future. Patients see nurses as their only hope, and this is the reason why at any level of nursing, caring should be the priority. Nurses need to cultivate caring at all level because caring shortens hospital stays, Alleviation pain, decreased anxiety, and also enhances Optimistic outlook about recovery.
My Leadership Perspective
In my opinion, leadership is about quality interaction with followers and empowering them to step up for a challenge. In my view, a leader needs people so that they can work together to achieve an objective. The relationship between a leader and follows must be mutually beneficial. In this sense, a leader must also create a progressive environment for the workers so that they work together to achieve the best for the company or an organization.
References
Choi, S. L., Goh, C. F., Adam, M. B. H., & Tan, O. K. (2016). Transformational leadership, empowerment, and job satisfaction: the mediating role of employee empowerment. Human resources for health , 14 (1), 73.
Hafsteinsdóttir, T. B., van der Zwaag, A. M., &Schuurmans, M. J. (2017). Leadership mentoring in nursing research, career development, and scholarly productivity: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies , 75 , 21-34.
Nawaz, Z. A. K. D. A., & Khan_ Ph.D., I. (2016). Leadership theories and styles: A literature review. Leadership , 16 , 1-7.
Porter-O'Grady, T., &Malloch, K., (2015). Leadership in nursing practice .Jones& Bartlett Publishers.
Watson, J., & Woodward, T. K., (2010).Jean Watson’s theory of human caring. Nursing theories and nursing practice , 3 , 351-369.
