The Concept of Leadership and My Personal Leadership Philosophy

What is leadership? Leadership is a process of establishing a clear vision and leading a group of people to attain a common goal within an organization. What is a leader? A leader is a person who provides the information, knowledge and methods to realize a vision. He also coordinates and balances the conflicting interests of all the members of an organization. Leadership involves the leader to step up in time of crisis and is able to think and act creatively in difficult situations. In the article “to inspire you” John Maxwell, 2010 says Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal. In the article Leadership in Organisation, Garry Yukl (2011) defines leadership as a process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives. Viewing leadership as a process means that leaders affect and are affected by their employees, positively or negatively. Therefore, leadership is a two way process, interactive event between leaders and followers rather than a linear process.

My Leadership Experience

Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for reaching to that point. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction, and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there. I was not a born leader, but somehow I discovered leadership qualities in me. I would like to tell an incident of my nursing college when I became a leader. We had a Cancer Awareness day in our hospital. Being a B. Sc Nursing Intern my best friend was given the responsibility of arranging Cancer Awareness Day in the hospital premises. But she handed over to me as she was busy in those days. I had no faith in me and even refused her for taking over the responsibility. Due to her hope on me and encouraging words, I decided to become a leader. Firstly, I had to make separate teams so that they can work collaboratively. I made different teams such as prayer song team, catering team, maintenance team and most important the presenters.

All the team members worked very hard and there were some clashes between team members which I solved on my level. It was an exciting time for all of us as we were not only loving the work but also learning many new things. I managed to organize and lead the team for that wonderful function. Everyone was amazed at the efforts of my whole team. At the end our Chief Guest really appreciated our work and gave us a token of love as a reward.

This incident helped me to reveal my leadership qualities and to strengthen my character. Now I am very sure that if I enhance my skills by practicing, I will surely become an effective leader. Leadership qualities are very necessary in professional as well as for a bright future. Leadership not only mean to give orders to do something, but also, to inspire them to do the work and to help them to work in collaboration with each other. This is the conclusion I have come across in this case. In the article “what leaders really do” John Kotter describes qualities of a professional leader. He also lays emphasis on the challenges faced by a leader while performing his work.

Nursing Leadership is a vital component in the delivery of patient care. It shapes the profession, facilitates policies on mentoring and evidence based practice and helps navigate change in challenging times.

RNAO intends to assist nurses and others performing both formal and informal roles in leadership. It identifies and describes leadership practices that help in healthy outcomes for patient, client and organizations. It provides knowledge, competencies and behavior of leaders in all kinds of leadership roles. It also explains educational standards and strategies that can help the upcoming leaders to become effective in playing their roles as a leader.

According to CNA, leadership is a shared responsibility. With the collective energy of shared leadership, nurses can form strong relationship that contributes to high quality nursing care. Therefore, CNA had an impact on my leadership philosophy that leaders at every level and position must develop organizational and managerial skills where they manage human and material resources. It also tells that leadership does not happen all at once, it requires continuous efforts and practices. Therefore, I would continue to practice my leadership skills to become an effective leader.

Professional standards document of CNO provides an overall framework of nursing practice and links with the college’s other practice standard, guideline and competencies. Leadership is considered to be one of the professional standards. Each nurse as a leader shows leadership by facilitating, providing and promoting best possible care to the public. This has taught me that leader requires self-knowledge. True leaders behave in a way that exhibits love and trust towards his employees. As well as, they should take action to resolve conflicts and advocate for the client, workplace and profession.

Conclusion

Leadership is not an easy task. It involves a lot of responsibilities on a single person. He is held responsible for all work in the organization. The overall impact of these professional organizations on my Leadership Philosophy is:

1. To be confident enough to take over the responsibility.
2. Show more professionalism and sincerity towards my work.
3. Enhance leadership qualities.
4. To practice more and more.
5. To motivate my employees to have a healthy professional relationship with each other.
6. To have positive attitude towards my work.
7. To manage the conflicts in the work environment.

References

1. Canadian nurses association. (2008). cod eof ethics for registered nurses. Ottawa:Author
2. Griffiths, P., Renz, A., Hughes, J., & Rafferty, A. M. (2009). Impact of organization and management factors on infection control in hospitals: a scoping review. Journal of hospital infection, 73(1), 1-14.
3. Kotter, J. P. (1998). What leaders really do. In Harvard Business Review on Leadership (p. 37-60). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
4. Registered Nurses Association of Ontario-Nursing Best Practice Guidelines Program Developing and Sustaining Nursing Leadership, Second Edition-June 2013.
5. Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in Organisations (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Perason-Prentice Hall.