Self-knowledge is important for effective leadership. Self-aware individuals can honestly evaluate their beliefs, actions, and impact others. Being self-aware boosts creativity and confidence among people. Unfortunately, self-awareness eludes most people, and this limits their abilities. Becoming self-aware is an ongoing process that requires introspection. Taking self-assessment tests helps leaders develop their skills, identify their leadership style, and reflect on ways to improve leadership capabilities. The documentation will summarize the results of three self-assessment tests, identify a leadership style that resonates with my philosophy of care, reflect on how I will incorporate elements of the leadership style in my healthcare practice, and discuss an area of improvement.
Out of the six self-assessment tests, I chose to take the learning styles assessment, values assessment, and the personality assessment to gauge my assets and weaknesses as a leader. I chose the learning styles assessment test because I wanted to identify my modalities for learning. Knowing these modalities will help inform me on the best strategies to use when learning. With a score of 7 on my aural strategies, I identify with the mild aural learning style. I also scored five points on both read/write and kinesthetic modalities. I learned that I have no visual learning preference, thus confirming my preference for the aural modality. The test informed me of the best strategies to use when learning.
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I took the value assessment test because I wanted to know which unique values governed my behavior, my perception of life, and values to ensure I live a life in tune with what I value most. The tests revealed that I am skilled in the area of emotional intelligence. My core abilities are perceiving and identifying emotions in others and expressing my feelings. I scored a 72 on emotional identification, perception, and expression. This means that I can understand myself emotionally, read others, and understand their feelings. The test showed the basis of my abilities is formed by the capacity to identify my emotions and that of others.
I took the 16 personalities test because I wanted to know my strengths and increase my self-knowledge. I always knew my personality type, but I needed to confirm the finer details like my nature, energy, and tactics. The results showed my personality type as an advocate. With an INFJ-A personality type, I am 68% introverted, 32% extraverted, 53% intuitive, and 47% observant. I also learned that I mostly make decisions using my feelings. My tactics to decision making, work, and planning, are 88% judging and 12% prospecting. I am 51% assertive and 49% turbulent when showing confidence in my abilities.
My philosophy of care revolves around me, caring for my patients in a manner that I would like to be cared for. I believe that I should be able to get affordable and timely care when in need. I also believe that I should get healthcare services safely and effectively. Consequently, as a healthcare practitioner, I would want to show similar care to my patients. My philosophy of care informs my leadership style. Leadership is a process where people influence their followers to comprehend and approve of what must be done individually and collectively to realize shared organizational goals (Xu, 2017). The leadership style that closely identifies with my philosophy of care is the transformational leadership style. James MacGregor Burns first proposed the style. Transformational leaders and their subordinates motivate each other to higher levels resulting in a value system equivalence (Renjith et al., 2017). Transformational leaders have a strong personality and vision that allows them to motivate their followers towards attaining the desired organizational goals.
This style of leadership is appealing for various reasons. First, it helps organizations meet their goals by creating satisfaction and commitment in the followers (Xu, 2017). Secondly, transformational leadership focusses on bringing change to organizations. Additionally, it also allows leaders to empower their workforce to share their vision after establishing trust and respect with them (Xu). Finally, it facilitates organizational commitment among the employees, which results in achieving organizational success. With this leadership style, I can influence my workforce to aspire to give the best care to their clients through intellectual stimulation, strong motivation, and personal consideration (Renjith et al., 2017). I can, therefore, impart my followers with my philosophy of care to ensure clients get the best possible care.
The elements of transformational leadership can be incorporated in the healthcare setting to achieve organizational success. The essential components of this style are a leader's idealized influence, individualized consideration of their employees, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation (Reza, 2019). Idealized influence in transformational leadership deals with how a leader acts as an exemplar to their subordinates. Within the healthcare setting, I can display desirable qualities like confidence, humility, consideration, and knowledge on various issues of healthcare, thus acting as a role model to my subordinates. Intellectual stimulation deals with inspiring followers to be creative and innovative in their work by questioning expectations and reframing difficult situations to come up with novel solutions (Reza, 2019). I will incorporate this element in the healthcare setting by assigning different employees unique and challenging situations within the healthcare setting to ensure they use their creativity to solve these challenges, thus empowering them to develop their abilities.
Transformational leaders pay special attention to their followers to find out their needs for growth and development within their occupation. Individualized consideration deals with encouraging employees and mentoring them to attain their goals (Reza, 2019). I will incorporate this element in the healthcare setting by identifying my employee's areas of growth, then creating new opportunities for them to develop their abilities in a supportive climate. Inspirational motivation deals with motivating followers to perform beyond their expectations by giving meaning and challenge to them (Reza, 2019). These leaders raise the consciousness of their followers on the organization's vision and mission, which causes their followers to have organizational commitment, which breeds success. I would incorporate inspirational motivation through identifying the workers' individual goals, then create a cooperative vision for the healthcare setting, which encompasses their goals. This helps bring the individual's goals in line with the organizational goals, thus fostering organizational commitment.
Taking the self-assessment tests helped me realize that I have a weakness that I must address. As a leader, I realize that having visual learning strategies is important. Visual aids store more information in a condensed form. Having this modality will help me comprehend information more in a short span. Since I have no visual learning preference, I plan on following three main steps to cultivate my preference for this modality. First, I will choose a mentor whose preferred modality is a strong visual preference learning strategy. Having a mentor will help coach me on how best to cultivate this preference. The mentor will help me research on the strategy and offer insight to the modality.
Second, I plan to incorporate more visual strategies in my daily learning activities. I will incorporate drawings and illustrations when taking down notes. By using drawings and illustrations, I will integrate the learning style to boost my comprehension, concertation, and retention of information I learn through the modality. I will also nurture my ability to retain information found on visual aids. Finally, I will also conduct practice tests to gauge my visual learning style. The test results will inform me on whether there is a need to continue developing the modality.
References
Renjith, V., Renu, G. & George, A. (2015). Transformational leadership in nursing. International Journal of Scientific Research and Management Studies 2(2) 112-118. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277138454_TRANSFORMATIONAL_LEADERSHIP_IN_NURSING
Reza, M. H. (2019). Components of transformational leadership behavior. EPRA International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (IJMR) ISSN (Online): 2455 -3662. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333798276_components_of_transformational_leadership_behavior
Xu, J. (2017). Leadership theory in clinical practice. Chinese Nursing Research 4(4) 155-157. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095771817300944
