Foundational Leadership Practices
Post I
The clinical environment is complex that foundational leadership skills can help an individual to manage. What has remained misunderstood and confusing is leadership because it supersedes an individual or a position. Based on the interview, it is evident that foundational leadership is founded on servant leadership theory. The servant leadership requires an individual to be a servant by developing a feeling and compassion for others. With this conscious choice, one finds it possible to aspire and lead. The nurses can only succeed in their practices by being full partners. This implies that partnering with different health professionals including physician guarantees nurses success. Healthcare sector needs strong leadership which can ensure healthcare system is transformed. This defines the significance of servant and transformational leadership system. However, many nurses rarely begin their profession in anticipation of becoming leaders.
Strong leadership is good for an organization and it can be used to redesign the healthcare system; hence, allowing the nursing profession to produce strong leaders to allow them to serve as partners and become accountable for their actions in delivering services. This shows that leadership is more than directing, dictating, and delegating duties but to help others to realize their potential (Neese, 2015). Collaboration and teamwork are important in achieving quality patient care. The foundational leadership focuses on collaboration which entails directing, problem-solving, and structuring. They anticipate that a leader should be an individual with interpersonal attributes including critical thinking, process skills, self-confidence, and cooperation (Germano, 2010). Communication and conflict resolutions are among the foundational skills expected from a healthcare professional.
To them, a well-managed healthcare worker results in quality patient care. This is because the nurse leader is knowledgeable and skillful in meeting goals of advanced healthcare and led the required changes (Neese, 2015). Without a doubt, the nursing shortage is an issue affecting healthcare industry. This calls for hiring more nurses to enhance service delivery and oversee nursing staff. The nurse leader should mentor and support the nursing staff; therefore, allowing them to deliver the expected patient care. Evans (2015) argued that the nurse leaders can support nurses to achieve their career growth. With the changing healthcare environment, the leaders are focusing on critical issues and initiatives affecting optimal patient care including patient safety, quality, healthcare reforms, value-based purchasing, and pay-for-performance. As a leader, it is important to build strong personal networks and become proactive (Asrar-ul-Haq & Kuchinke, 2016). A proactive leader will have to focus on teamwork, knowledge building, patient advocacy, patient assessments, and effective communication.
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Leaders use different leadership strategies to achieve the organizational goals. Depending on the leadership styles, the transformational leader embraces teamwork while the autocratic leader focuses on individual performance (Evans, 2015). This makes the difference because a servant or transformational leader values the interests of the followers instead of giving orders to the followers.
Post II
Organizations play a crucial role in shaping the practices and desires of a leader. This is based on the goals, culture, and values of an organization. The organizational culture can be the stumbling block for the development of a leader. However, the leader can overcome this barrier by adjusting their leadership behaviors to conform to the organizational mission (Tsai, 2011). Indeed, by creating a positive relationship between leadership behavior, organizational culture, and employee’s job satisfaction is important. The organizational culture should create a healthy and happy environment by influencing the work attitudes and behaviors (Asrar-ul-Haq & Kuchinke, 2016). Therefore, the interaction between employees and leaders must be good to enhance collaboration and team communication.
In conclusion, transformational and servant leadership theories have defined the success of many organizations. Based on this article, it is evident that the nursing environment is complex and nurses need leaders who embrace teamwork and collaboration. This makes it possible for nurse leaders to motivate, mentor, and support workers leading quality patient care.
