In today’s dynamic environment of healthcare, a nurse leader must use advanced communication skills to help build relationships. Interpersonal communication methods, emotional intelligence, and self awareness will aid in gaining followership as a nurse leader drives the mission of his or her organization. (Huber, 2014) The purpose of this paper is to provide a reflective experience of my leadership style and discuss future implications to my practice. This paper will include a leadership profile based off of the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid and leadership style questionnaire. A personality profile will be identified. Once the personality profile is completed, I will discuss how I will handle negotiation, conflict, and student selection based off of my personality assessment.
Leadership Profile
Upon completion of the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid and leadership style questionnaire, my leadership style is a team leader. A team leader is an individual that uses motivation to drive his team while managing a balance between being high task oriented and valuing high relationship qualities. In order to be an effective team leader, I have to use my transformational style approach. Transformational leaders possess advanced coaching and mentoring skills, raising expectations for their employees. Effective coaching through interpersonal relationships is essential to driving productivity that is safe for caregivers and patients. Coaching caregivers to reach their maximum potential creates a healthy work environment and fosters a culture of continuous improvement. (Roussel, Thomas, & Harris, 2016)
Examining my personality through the Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test I am an ENTJ (38% Extravert, 47% Intuitive, 31% Thinking, 62% Judging). Analyzing the test results, I have a moderate preference for extraversion traits. As a team leader at my current position, I direct an entire operation of nurses very naturally. I use interpersonal relationships to get the job done in a way that uses finesse and charm rather than authoritative commands. My intuition, thinking, and judging scores are interrelated. Many times, I judge something before I commit to action, I think of my actions and how I will communicate changes, and I often use intuition to help me think of new ways on how to improve myself as well as those around me to reach a common goal. ENTJ’s are very decisive in their decision making process due to their tendency to plan before acting.
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Through combining managerial style with my personality characteristics, I lead in my own, unique way. Of all leadership styles, I emphasized being authentic and transformational in my leadership approach. Transparency is key when communicating changes and new implementations with caregivers. Transformational leaders that lead in an authentic manner possess high level communication skills that facilitate a positive interaction with others. My leadership profile consists of high levels of emotional intelligence which is foundational to be an effective and transformational leader. Through displaying high level of emotional intelligence, I will foster an environment that is highly adaptable to a highly dynamic environment. . (Tyczkowsk et al., 2015)
Negotiation
Negotiation can be used as an effective conflict resolution strategy. During negotiation, each side agrees on a compromise that benefits both parties. There are several small negotiations that take place every day. Schedules, PTO days, floating, and assignments are just a few instances of subjects that are negotiated on a daily basis between the nurse leader and his or her staff. In the negotiation process, knowledge is always power. The more prepared the nurse leader is, the more prepared they will be going into a situation that requires negotiation. (Marquis & Huston, 2017) I’ve had many experiences negotiating, especially when it comes to work schedules.
Many times I will have a meeting 1 on 1 with a nurse if I need a hole filled in the schedule. I will start by greeting them, asking how things are going, and then ask them if they can fill a hole in the schedule. Often times, I will ask them what they want in return and if I can meet that request. Many times, it’s a day off on their weekend to work. Being a manager, I can honor this request. However on one specific encounter my request did not go my way. Facing a staffing crisis, I asked a nurse if she could cover a night shift. No matter what I negotiated with her, she would not budge within reason. Due to this, I had to switch my schedule and work night shift since the unit was so short that night.
Reflecting on my experience, I sometimes can be too lenient with nurses during negotiations on scheduling. I usually bend too much for them because I have a high emphasis on retention and keeping them happy to support a healthy work environment. However I am always prepared in how high and how low I am willing to go for a request. I never go below the set floor of the negotiating process. If a nurse cannot accommodate my request, there is always someone else looking for the opportunity. In this case, I could not find anyone, but I did not lower my negotiation terms. Implications of being too accommodating can create a culture of leniency.
In the future, I have to be self aware of my generosity and willingness to adjust my schedule for others. At times, I need to delegate instead of giving options when needed. I often use finesse and persuasiveness during negotiation situations. In order to increase my success rates, I can improve on my communication techniques and ability to seek out hidden agendas such as schedule manipulation.
Conflict
Conflicts arise no matter how team oriented a work environment may be. It is the manager’s responsibility to handle conflict effectively through advanced communication techniques. Compromising, competing, cooperating, smoothing, and collaborating are all techniques that I have used to manage conflict. I have handled many instances of conflict during my management career, but one instance comes to mind. On one of the units that I manage, I had a unit clerk and a nursing assistant verbally yelling at each other on the nursing unit. I was called by the charge nurse because the charge nurse could not intervene due to the level of the conflict on the unit.
Upon entering the unit, I separated the two caregivers and had a one on one meeting with each caregiver separately. After I received both sides of the story, I met with the charge nurse and collaborated with the caregivers involved. I educated the two caregivers who were fighting on teamwork and a no tolerance policy to verbal altercations on the nursing unit. I emphasized emotional intelligence and transparent communication with the caregivers and wrote an anecdotal in their employee file. Although I did everything I could have possibly done, the caregivers continued the verbal altercation a few shifts after the first one.
Implications of this situation reflect in how the unit’s behavior is after the incident occurs. As a manager, I emphasize a just culture and treating employees with respect. Just culture fosters a safe environment to analyze situations and how we could have managed them differently. (Douma, 2015) Using constructive conflict management strategies such as educating nurses how to handle conflict is necessary to decrease potential conflict in the workplace. Early identification of the potential of conflict between caregivers is essential to preventing conflict from arising. (Labrague, Hamdan, & McEnroe-Petitte, 2018) I felt that I lost in the situation because I should have recognized tension a lot sooner. Instead of addressing it, I hoped that they would handle like adults. However the situation escalated much farther than it should have.
Student Selection
As a Nursing Operations Manager, I have led many projects that span across the entire interdisciplinary team. As a team leader, I try to lead by positive example while fostering an environment of teamwork and collaboration. A transformational leader pushes individuals to reach their highest potential through leading by example and committing to take action.
This year, I worked on a project that increased patient mobility. By increasing patient mobility at an earlier time during their hospital stay, we aimed at decreasing the length of stay. During this project I had to have many conversations with PT/OT, nursing, my CNO, Director of Nursing, and case management in order to assemble a task force to reach the common goal of increasing patient mobility in efforts to decrease length of stay which would reduce costs for the hospital. Through using motivation as a persuasive tactic, the taskforce increased patient mobility by 28%, 18 % higher than the established goal of 10%.
Reflecting back on the team project that took place over the 12 weeks, it was extremely challenging to get the cooperation from other departments. The resistance was mainly due to the sheer fact that the project required more work that the usual workload we are given on any given day. The project involved extra tasks that needed completed by certain deadlines for hospital administration. Being the team leader of this project, I used a combination of persuasive tactics during 1 on 1 meeting as well as addressing the group during team meetings. The meetings often had me convincing others that the project will work through maintaining consistency of the new process.
Due to this experience, I learned that persuasion may take place over several weeks of multiple interactions. It is important for me to understand that persuasion can lead to positive change in the workplace. However it is essential for me to understand that organizational change does not begin with understanding of the process. On the contrary, change is understood and accepted after the results are seen. (Studer Group, 2010) Due to this understanding, persuasion works in the beginning and middle stages of team collaborated projects. The leader has to establish followership that fosters belief in the mission, vision, and goal of the project. Once belief in the project is established, the results will lead to overall understanding of the change process.
Summary
In conclusion, through combining managerial style with my personality characteristics, I lead in my own unique way. A team leader is an individual that uses motivation to drive his team while managing a balance between being high task oriented and valuing high relationship qualities. In order to be an effective team leader, I have to use my transformational style approach. Reflecting on my experiences, I need to be prepared when arriving into difficult situations. My communication skills are good, but there is always room for improvement. Negotiation, conflict management, and leading group projects have never come easy to me. However through experience and learning advanced communication skills, I will learn to become a team leader who is ready for all challenges.
References
- Douma, C. (2015, June). Designing a quality and safety organizational structure. Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews, 15(2), 53-56. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1053/j.nainr.2015.04.003
- Huber, D. L. (2014) Leadership & Nursing Care Management (5th ed.). The University of Iowa: Elsevier Inc.
- Labrague, L. J., Hamdan, Z. A., & McEnroe-Petitte, D. M. (2018, August 28). An integrative review on conflict management styles among nursing professionals: Implications for nursing management. Journal of Nursing Management, 26(8). https://doi.org/https://doi-org.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/jonm.12626
- Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
- Roussel, L., Thomas, P. L., & Harris, J. L. (2016). Management and Leadership forNurse Administrators (7th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
- Studer Group. (2010). The nurse leader handbook: The art and science of nurse leadership. Gulf Breeze, FL: Fire Starter Publishing.
- Tyczkowsk, B., Vandenhouten, C., Reilly, J., Bansal, G., Kubsch, S., & Jakkola, R. (2015, April/June). Emotional intelligence (EI) and nursing leadership styles among nurse managers. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 39(39), 172-180. https://doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.000000000
