Derived Benefits of Transformational Leadership

Leadership has an extensive number of definitions that seek to explain what exactly it entails being a leader. In my perspective, leadership refers to the ability to inspire, stimulate, motivate and influence members of a team to set aside individual interests and work towards the greater good to achieve group wellbeing.  Good leadership aims to inspire members of the team to work towards meeting the goals of the team without ceding too much of their individual aims (Bass, 1998). It reconciles the needs of the group to those of the individual. A fundamental part of leading lies in identifying one’s strengths and working with them to define your personal leadership style. My five key strengths are I am an achiever, futuristic and focused. Also, I am a exceptional learner, and I always look towards maintaining harmony in my interactions with other people.

My Strengths

The key quality that characterizes my achievement quality is drive. Achievers express a constant need for achievement, starting every day afresh and working towards preset goals. They derive their sense of achievement from setting their objectives, and working towards their achievement. Every day presents an opportunity to work on and achieve a section of their overall purposes. In this regard, I am typical of the achiever mentality. I have the drive to succeed and have an internal fire to achieve more. Every sense of achievement that results from attaining my goals is only a reprieve, as the drive comes back and even more urgent. My second core strength is the focus. My goals serve as a compass, helping in the determination of priorities from which the opportunity to self-assess and make corrections presents. Focus is a powerful tool as it helps one filter and evaluate the contribution of each action to their overall objective (Rath, 2007). Ultimately, focus translates to efficiency and helps to keep people on point.

Aside from achievement and focus, I am futuristic in nature. Being futuristic enables me to develop a vision of what I am intent on achieving and working towards it. Vision energizes others and gives them hope and aspirations as to what can be (Rath, 2007). I also love to learn. This strength enables me to be drawn to the process of learning, constantly driven to achieve competence. Learning and mastery of skills also enables me to be able to work in dynamic environments especially those that require I learn new subject matter. Also, I am harmonious and constantly look for areas of agreement with others, and in my work environment. The possibility of conflict and friction only serves to take away from the hours that would otherwise have been put to use for productive work effort. In demonstrating my peaceful nature, I can reconcile differing views and help colleagues find common ground. In this way, I help eliminate the time wasted in the useless confrontations.

Reflection on My Strengths

My fortes are particularly significant in my job description. In line with my core strengths, I am constantly looking for ways to improve my service delivery as well as direct concerted effort towards the achievement of preset goals for the team I am in. Being a charge nurse means I can use my drive for sustained success towards taking the jobs that enable me to work hard and measure my productivity. The environment at the hospital is continually challenging and busy. To achieve maximum productivity, I have found that attaching timelines and applying measurement goals enables me to define progress and achieve tangible outcomes (Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2012). Key to my development, and that of the team around me, I have come into the practice of taking advantage of my self-motivation to set goals. Also important, I am regularly finding ways of celebrating my successes as this has the benefit of pushing my drive for achievement even further.

Timelines have the unique quality of being able to direct my focus. In my experience, without direction one cannot derive the benefits of focus. I believe the greatest value I add to any team I am in is that I help others to focus on their goals and serving as source of motivation for them. As a result of my great focus, I can work with minimal supervision. Through scheduling of objectives, and sticking to the said schedules, I find that I can meet all of my objectives. Also, being futuristic enables me to plan and articulate my vision, while inspiring others to subscribe to the same idea. As a result of the expectations that other team members get from my vision, I am motivated and driven to achieve my objectives and work towards those of the team. In this way, I have discovered, I can guide team members in identifying what ideals and objectives are important for the team, and plotting the best way of realizing the same.

Also important to a nurse’s career is an avid interest in learning. Nursing requires that one keeps frequently updated on new methods of patient care and disease management. These require much learning and, therefore, learning as a strength is indispensable. Since I find that I learn best by teaching, I am always presenting to others, and through this can gain intimate knowledge of the subject matter. I also find that I enjoy the process of getting competent at certain skills and maintaining my expertise in the said topic. Moreover, because I can adapt to a constantly changing field, I excel at consulting roles and am energized in taking on new challenging roles. As a naturally harmonious person, I find that this positively influences team dynamics. While encouraging peaceful interaction between team members, and communicating the benefits of the same to the rest of my team, I can inspire the same qualities in them. Harmony, in my experience, constitutes a delicate balance between listening and efficiency, being able to pay attention to other team member’s views and working towards them.

Transformational Leadership

John C Maxwell is on record as having said that “the single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on transformational leadership. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develop them” (Maxwell, 2001). This quote summarizes what it means to be a transformational leader, and the value the said individuals add to an organization. Transformational leadership entails inspiring followers to achieve desired outcomes and in the process advance their leadership capabilities. Transformational leaders present a model of integrity and fairness in their dealings with the team, as well as providing support and recognition for individual efforts in the team. For one to be a transformational leader, they must set clear goals, have high expectations of their team members and inspire his team to deliver whatever goals they aspire to. Transformation belies individual interest and motivates team members to look beyond their self-interest.

Transformational leadership is arguably the most important business idea of the last few decades. What has come to be known as transformational leadership owes its beginnings to the works of researcher Bernard M. Bass, and the theory is referred to as the Bass’ Transformational Leadership Theory. Burns identified transformational leadership as a situation where leaders and followers alike make each other advance to a greater level of moral and motivation (Bass, 1985). The strength of vision and personality enables leaders to inspire others and empower them to change their perceptions, motivations, and expectations. Bass also identified four components of transformational leadership. Intellectual stimulation entailed challenging the status quo and being able to inspire one’s followers. The individualized consideration involves giving support and motivation to followers. Inspirational motivation involves having concise vision and being able to coherently explain it to one’s followers. An idealized influence on the other hand in which the leaders serve as role models to members of their team (Bass, 1985).

A nurse leader could adopt transformational leadership to bolster further the achievement of the institution at which she works. Through intellectual stimulation, a leader can listen to and refine the ideas of individual team members so that they are in line with those of the organization. In addition, the can employ communication to assist his team in reaching better decisions. As part of their inspirational motivation routine, a nurse leader can effectively communicate a vision that his followers can understand and implement (Crowell, 2011). In being individually considerate to each of the members of their team, a leader can guide and direct all the nurses working under them. Also, the leader can demonstrate idealized influence by letting his character guide the interaction with his team, and showing himself to be moral and thus assure himself of support from his followers (McBride, 2011).

Comparison of My Strength with Transformational Leadership

As previously stated, my five core strengths are that I am an achiever, am focused and futuristic. I have also had the opportunity of working as a Charge nurse at my organization, a position that put several nurses under my leadership. I am also an avid learner and value harmony within the group. These strengths work well with my ability to be a transformational leader. Firstly, since I am an achiever and have a high propensity to learning, I can stimulate the nurses working under me intellectually so that they achieve their individual goals as well as work towards those of the organization (Avolio, Bass & Jung, 1999). Since I like learning and developing competency in a wide number of areas, I can serve a consultative role to the nurses in my ward, sharing ideas and shaping them so that they conform to expectation. In addition, I constantly seek to challenge them to be resourceful, and try to solve any problems arising in the ward individually before they approach me.

Secondly, one of my key strengths is harmony. Through the pursuit of this, I can exercise individual consideration to those working with me. In pursuit of this, I try to solve any differences between team members amicably and quickly. In this way, personal differences do not interfere with the work ethic of the ward team (Avolio, Bass & Jung, 1999). Third, as part of the inspirational motivation for team members, I delegate roles and supervise its execution to ensure that the team members complete them as expected, and in time. In so doing, I can monitor individual performance and ensure the nurses working in the wards grow into their roles. Through being focused and being able to advance a vision and plans, nurses under me are inspired and can work towards common group ideals.

How Leadership Style Has Evolved As I Develop and Practice Nursing

Nursing has provided me the opportunity to work towards improving my leadership skills. The first step to achieving this entailed identifying my strengths. Secondly, I had to find a way to relate my strengths to my leadership style. As an achiever, I have the potential to influence positively the nurses under me to work towards their goals. Serving as a charge nurse enables me to interact with people and inspire them towards greater heights. In being focused and futuristic, I can develop visions and inspire members of my team work towards the plans we set. Being a learner, my job presents the opportunity to share ideas with other as well as serve as a consultant on issues that elude the lesser experienced members of staff. In practicing harmony, I can foster peaceful coexistence between the members of my team and in this way improve the productivity of the team.

In addition to the ways outlined above, being the charge nurse has enabled me to create and inspire vision for my team. The continued interaction with members of the team enables me to understand their values and capabilities, and in this way be able to motivate them. As a result of this, it becomes a realistic possibility to have the nurses working under me to buy into and deliver the vision the team has identified through concerted efforts. My role has thus been shifted from managing people, to managing the delivery of the collective vision of the team. Also, being in a position of leader has presented to the opportunity to build trust-based relationships with workmates and members of my team. Working with people and interacting with them on a daily basis has also made it possible for me to develop appreciation for individual values and the different cultures. In all, working as a charge nurse has helped, and continues to help me become a better leader.

To conclude, good leadership consists of identifying one’s strengths and working with them to identify the best way to achieve the individual goals and aspirations, as well as those of a group of which one is a part. Good leadership is best demonstrated by adopting transformational leadership, which entails having the ability to inspire, stimulate, motivate and influence members of a group towards achieving a common ideal. Through the application of one’s individual strengths to the components of transformational leadership, it is entirely possible to push a drive for change and achievement of mutual ideals. In this way, the whole organizational unit enjoys the benefits of good leadership and can meet its objectives.

References

Avolio, B. J., Bass, B. M., & Jung, D. I. (1999). Re‐examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the Multifactor Leadership. Journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 72(4), 441-462.

Bass, B. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York: Free Press.

Bass, B. (1998). Transformational leadership. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Crowell, D. (2011). Complexity leadership. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis.

Maxwell, J. (2001). The 17 indisputable laws of teamwork. Nashville: T. Nelson.

McBride, A. (2011). The growth and development of nurse leaders. New York: Springer Pub. Co.

Rath, T. (2007). Strengths finder 2.0. New York: Gallup Press.

Sherwood, G., & Barnsteiner, J. (2012). Quality and safety in nursing. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.