Table of Contents
1. What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership in my opinion is having a vision and mastering the art of directing, guiding and inspiring a group of people towards the achievement of a common goal. It is the privilege of having to serve people by holding up the trust they have in you and acting in their best interest towards meeting a common goal. Leadership encompasses inspiring, motivating, influencing and empowering the very people you lead with you as the leader having an appreciable level of emotional intelligence. In summary, leadership is GIVING.
2. What are the essential clinical leadership qualities and characteristics gleaned from your readings?
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- Professionalism- A leader in the clinical field must be one who exudes absolute professionalism, which reflects in his/her interaction with colleagues, patients and especially in the administration of advice on health matters. Professionalism here involves timeliness, accurateness, smartness and above all knowledgeable in the required field.
- Empathy- A leader without empathy will not be successful in the clinical field as that is a basic necessity to ensure the needs of staff, patients and the general public are met as it reflects having a feel of what they need
- Emotional Intelligence- A leader should have the capacity to be aware of, control, and express his/her emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically without which chaos is most likely to prevail at all times.
- Integrity- Anyone lacking integrity will not fit into any clinical leadership role as the foundation of the job in itself is founded on integrity at all times. People need to trust you for what you do and say
- Effective communication skills- A leader who is unable to communicate effectively is most likely to fail as getting the buy in of followers may be difficult. Decisions and review of goals and vision need to be effectively communicated at all times for proper execution.
- Respect- Respect is earned and that is what is expected of every clinical leader to have by first respecting the people he/she superintend over. Where there is mutual respect, it becomes easier for the expected goals to be achieved as you get your followers to tow your vision line easily.
- Innovative- A clinical leader should be an outside-the-box thinker who should be able to proffer solutions and ideas when needed especially with the constant changing scope of our world today
- Ability to mentor others- The greatest impact a leader could have is the ability to churn out other leaders. Being able to mentor gives confidence to subordinates in their own abilities which ensures that even in your absence the same excellent delivery would be administered.
3. What are your current leadership strengths and weaknesses? What strategies do you see yourself using to foster strengths and transform weaknesses?
Strengths
Strategies to Foster
- Self-awareness
- Ensuring focused approach to meeting set objectives and not deviating from the set vision
- Trustworthiness
- Continuously employ open-mindedness in all work matters
- Effective negotiation skills
- Ensuring the ‘Team first” mentality is kept at all times to ensure the interest of team members is secured
- Conflict resolution skills
- Continuous reading on conflict resolution literature
- Collaboration skills
- Encouraging interdependency with assigned tasks
- Team work
- Approaching every task with the ‘WE’ mindset instead of ‘I’
Weaknesses
Strategy to Transform
- Failing to set clear expectations
- Develop a sub-expectation plan out of the omnibus plan of work with clearly defined expectations and a work around plan in execution to achieve the expectations
- Not providing prompt feedback
- Employing a shorter feedback approach to information dissemination as opposed to a longer or no feedback approach
Time management
Set up a priority timetable to ensure each task has clear timelines for completion with periodic updates to them
4. Identify someone who is a clinical leader role model for you. What leadership style does this person emulate? What leadership qualities and characteristics does this person have that demonstrates his/her identified leadership style? Give specific examples of this person’s leadership in action.
Being the founder of modern day nursing, Florence Nightingale is my clinical leader role model. She is known for her work as a nurse leader during the Crimean War when she led a group of 38 women to Ottoman, Turkey to care for wounded soldiers.
Nightingale throughout her working life as a nurse was an advocate for change and exhibited leadership qualities as dedication, vision centered, commitment, compassion and a great mentor. Above all, she was a diligent and thoughtful hospital administrator
A transformational leader as Nightingale was, Stephen Paget in the Dictionary of National Biography asserts that ‘’Nightingale reduced the death rate from 42% to 2% either by making improvements in hygiene herself, or by calling for the Sanitary Commission. For example, Nightingale implemented handwashing and other hygiene practices in the war hospital in which she worked’’.
In the 1870s for instance, Nightingale mentored Linda Richards, ‘America’s first trained nurse’, and enabled her to return to the United States with adequate training and knowledge to establish high-quality nursing schools. Richards went on to become a nursing pioneer in the US and Japan.
Again by 1882, several Nightingale nurses had become matrons at several leading hospitals, including, in London (St Mary’s Hospital, Westminster Hospital, St Marylebone Workhouse Infirmary and the Hospital for Incurables at Putney) and throughout Britain (Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley; Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; Cumberland Infirmary and Liverpool Royal Infirmary), as well as at Sydney Hospital in New South Wales, Australia, as evidence to her mentorship skills and abilities.
Bibliograpghy
- Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). ‘Nightingale, Florence’ . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Linda Richards (1915) Reminiscences of Linda Richards, Whitcomb & Barrows, Boston OCLC 1350705
- Role Development for Doctoral Advanced Nursing Practice. Springer Publishing Company. 15 December 2010. p. 325.
- ‘The Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing’. globalhandwashing.org. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
- ‘Bicentenary of a hospital built from a rum deal’. Sydney Morning Herald. 26 October 2017.
