Leadership within the nursing industry and how to improve it

1. Define 3 types of leadership models (see page 463 in your text book or you may venture out and use other leadership models as well).

Leadership is unique in that it is a discipline that can adapted for a given situation or circumstance. Generally speaking, a “One-Size-Fits-All” approach to leadership does not work well within a given organization or business. It is these diversity of leadership styles that allows different individuals to find motivation and encouragement in varying ways. This is becoming much more important due to globalization and a much more diverse workforce. Here, different cultures, personalities, values and beliefs can influence a given individuals leadership style. Generally speaking, western nations are much more autocratic in their styles of leadership with clear delineation of roles and responsibilities. In other countries is the eastern nations, they are much more collectivistic in nature and often looks to promote the group and avoid individuality. Each of these elements work well with different leadership styles and technique. Being aware of these models and when to apply them is an essential component of leadership in a globalized world (Bellman, 2020).

To begin, the first leadership model that is quickly gaining high adoption rates is that of Servant Leadership. This model is unique in that the goal of the leader is to properly serve the interests of his followers and subordinates. This form of leadership style is heavily adopted in the technology sector as intellectual capital is highly value and sought after. Here, leaders look to serve the needs of his employees instead of commanding them as is customary in traditional leadership settings. Servant leadership looks to provide the encouragement , information, resources and capital necessary to inspire others. This in turn, empowers employees to leverage their skills set in the manner that takes full advantage of their passion and talents. As noted above, technology firms heavily utilize this model to help employees create new products, new processes, and improve efficiencies. The leaders role is to simply provide guidance as to the necessary resources for success within the work environment. This is particularly empowering as employees now have much more freedom to initiate their own ideas with the confines of the servant leaders structure.

The transformational leadership model is also another emerging element within the business community. Here, a compelling vision is the primary factor that the leader leverages to inspire and persuade others. Unfortunately, this leadership model is difficult to use as many roles and companies cannot articulate a compelling value proposition for followers. Jobs and tasks that are routine in nature, for example, do not lend themselves well to transformational leadership. However, companies such as Amazon, Tesla, Google and Apple heavily rely on the transformational leadership model to further substantiate their overall market position and dominance. As noted above, these organizations rely heavily on intellectual capital and compete in markets that can quickly become obsolete due to the rapid advancement of technology. It is therefore critical for these organizations to have a workforce that is highly motivated and empowered to change the status quo within a particular business segment (Albritton, 2019).

Finally, the model that is heavily utilized in the healthcare profession is that of an autocratic system. This is the more traditional leadership model that is used by many healthcare organizations throughout America. This model is characterized by a clear leader who provide directions and followers who complete the direction. The leaders direction is heavy based on the direction given to them in turn by their own boss up the chain. An autocratic leader typically utilizes a rewards-based system to motivate employees. This rewards-based system is heavily predicated on systems of checks and balances designed to encourage certain behaviors within the profession. From a nursing standpoint, these incentives are related to efficiencies in the work environment, customer service, experience, and so forth (Bennis, 2021)

2. Assess the difference between a leader and a manager.

With the nursing profession, the differences between leaders and managers are quite apparent. For one a leader looks to help improve the outcome of both the organization and the individual. They seek win-win situations that allow employees to leverage their talents in a manner that also improves outcomes for the organization. Leaders often have a large amount of charisma that is used to help inspire and motivate others within the workplace. These leaders often look to help employees perform their best and care genuinely about the individual.

Managers however are much more robotic and task oriented. They are primarily concerned with results, irrespective of how the employees are feeling. Managers do not have strong motivational skills and often do little to improve the overall culture of the organization. Instead, they primarily look at the corporate objectives and look to meet them consistently. Within the nursing environment, many managers are often looking to get themselves promoted at the expense of their subordinates. Many simply do not care about the lives of their followers and instead look to focus primarily on work. From my experience, managers often view humans much more like robots or machines and show very little empathy for the individual. Leaders, from my experience, are the opposite. They too are results driven, but they leverage people and inspire them to achieve results (Bennis, 2019).

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the 3 leadership models, efficiency, lack of efficiency, and why or why not.

As discussed above, of the three leadership models, the most effective is that of the transformation leadership model. However, the primary drawback is that this model is heavily reliant on both the leader and the overall company in which he or she operates within. Routine, boring, and antiquated jobs often times can not leverage transformational leadership principles. However, the nursing profession can use these principles to improve patient outcomes, embrace new technologies such as telehealth and telemedicine, and even lower healthcare costs for consumers throughout the country.

Likewise the autocratic leadership model is based on the most evidence of success. Here, the model has be used for decades and has a strong track record of success. The primary negative element with this model is that it may become antiquated due to the rapid rise of technology firms throughout the world. This model is the most efficient as the objectives, task, and evaluation is clearly stated.

Finally, the servant leadership model, within the nursing profession, has the most potential out of all three models. Here, the healthcare profession is defined by servitude to others. As a result this model would seemingly lend itself well to the nursing profession. However, leaders must be aware of the demands imposed by them to maintain costs and service clients promptly. Due to overwhelming job demands and stress, it is difficult of leaders to use the principles espoused in the servant leadership model.