NURS 6053 PERSONAL LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHIES Personal Leadership Philosophies
Leadership effectiveness is essential to any and all industries that offer services critical to the well-being of others. In this case, the healthcare industry benefits from having effective and impactful leadership. According to Vidman and Stromberg (2020), the quality of leadership in the healthcare setting influences employees’ job satisfaction, job turnover, perception of empowerment and health (p. 2). However, healthcare leadership is not uniform. Each leader, whether effective or ineffective, has personal leadership philosophies which they believe contain the characteristics of a good leader.
In this reflective essay, I will develop and submit a personal leadership philosophy that reflects what I believe are the characteristics of a good leader. In doing so, I will reference multiple scholarly resources that I researched in order to support my philosophy statement. My core values, personal mission and vision statement, summary of my CliftonStrengths Assessment, two key behaviors that I wish to strengthen, and a development plan will be provided as well. The CliftonStrengths Assessment summary is based on my findings in this Module’s Discussion 2, as well as feedback from my colleagues.
Core Values
Two core values that I identified regarding my personal leadership philosophy are based on the results of my CliftonStrengths Assessment. These core values are responsibility and command. According to Shirey (2017), responsibility and command of evidence-based principles can assist healthcare leaders in supporting and maintaining better work settings for their employees (p. 43). As a futuristic, it is my responsibility to lead people to the future I perceive. In order to achieve this goal effectively while also maintaining leadership effectiveness, I will have to utilize my command core value as well.
Mission & Vision
As a leader, my personal mission is to facilitate a harmonious healthcare work setting that utilizes evidence-based practice to deliver the best form of empathic patient-care. In achieving these goals, I will be able to set an example for the future of healthcare that I would like to see. My vision for the healthcare environment is one that prioritizes empathy and harmony, work-life balance, and comprehension of patient care and discretion that serves to redirect the current trends that healthcare has toward profit-driven goals.
CliftonStrengths Assessment
Using Gallup’s StrengthsFinder assessment, I learned that my top five themes are Discipline, Futuristic, Empathy, Achiever and Harmony. I lead with influencing in my StrengthsFinder assessment. Being talented in the Discipline theme, I like to keep my environment neat and orderly. However, my profile also states that there are pros and cons to the Discipline theme. While the Discipline theme sets an example to others that their leader values structure and order, it may lead to constantly double-checking the work of others. This can have a negative impact on employee motivation. However, I make up with it by utilizing my themes of Empathy and Harmony.
People who are especially talented in the Harmony theme look for consensus and areas of agreement rather than favoring conflict. Having empathy for colleagues can improve their satisfaction at work. Accountability, transparency, and advocacy for patients, families, and nursing staff are crucial leadership competencies, all of which involve empathy (Dans & Lundmark, 2019). These competencies also lead me to the goal of achieving my vision for the healthcare work setting, which directly relates to my themes of Futuristic and Achiever. I have a great deal of stamina, I work hard, and inspire others with my visions of the future.
Behaviors To Improve
Two characteristics that I would like to strengthen are my ideation and analytical characteristics. Ideation is essentially the foundation of strategic thinking. In a situation where a leader must make quick, risky and successful decisions, ideation is certainly necessary. However, ideation cannot function without the strategic thinking characteristics of analytical behavior. It is imperative that these behaviors are honed within specific leadership perspectives in order to sequentially develop my colleagues into effective leaders. This requires leading by example.
Development Plan
Based on the results of my CliftonStrengths Assessment, my development plan will consist of putting myself in situations in which I will need to hone my personal leadership themes. For example, I want to improve my responsibility and command values under the Discipline theme. Using a transformational leadership style in an environment that is less disciplined presents me as a role model who can add meaning and challeng