Nursing Transformational leadership Essay Paper

Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Transformational leadership offers an approach that enables nurses to explore their strengths and to motivate with inherent values and beliefs (Doody & Doody, 2012). Nurses must work towards the greater good for their patients and must put these ideas above all else in order to achieve optimal quality care and work performance (Doody & Doody, 2012). This reflects the importance of understanding how nursing transforms patient care in different ways and how it supports healing and recovery at a high level for patients across many population groups (Doody & Doody, 2012). Nurses must be supportive of each other within a team environment in order to be effective leaders and communicators of this vision to support the mission of providing excellence in patient care at all times. This leadership approach also requires nurses to understand their roles and responsibilities not only to patients, but also to each other in supporting a framework that emphasizes communication and collaboration on a continuous basis.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

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The roles of the transformational leader in the healthcare setting include promoting teamwork among staff, encouraging positive self-esteem, motivating staff to function at a high level of performance, and empowe ring staff to become more involved in the development and implementation of policies and procedures. The transformational leader portrays trustworthiness and serves as an inspiration to others, possessing an optimistic, positive, and encouraging outlook. A transformational leadership presence is vital, especially in clinical areas where new graduate nurses are present. Transformational leadership qualities promote a healthy environment for employees and staff, which will produce improved staff satisfaction, retention, and patient satisfaction Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Transformational leadership comprises charisma, inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration.⁵ Charismatic leaders possess self-confidence, self-direction, and an absence of internal conflict. They have insight into their followers’ needs and utilize this to positively influence their followers. An inspirational leader is motivational, sensitive, determined, and able to convey the organization’s vision and encourage pride within the organization. Transformational nursing leaders in the clinical setting intellectually stimulate other nurses by encouraging the use of evidence-based practice and addressing the “why” and “how” of specific clinical actions. Four important characteristics of the transformational leader include being an effective communicator, possessing inspirational traits, having a trustworthy character, and promoting teamwork. (See Characteristics of a transformational leader.)Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

The exemplary leadership model offers a clear path for anyone wishing to cultivate a transformational leadership style. The following summaries of the five exemplary leadership practices incorporate select criteria from the transformational leadership component of the 2019 Magnet^® Application Manual.

Modeling the way

You model the way by setting the example for others to follow, demonstrating open communication and enthusiasm for nursing excellence and patient care. Experienced nurse leaders interviewed about this practice provide visibility on the units with daily rounding,timely multidisciplinary huddles for significant events, and consistent follow-up with staff about concerns so that they know their leaders care. In addition, these leaders are transparent with staff in positive and difficult situations, resulting intrust, respect, and collaboration.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Leading by example: When a nurse leader wanted his staff to “commit to sit” with patients for a few minutes to increase engagement, he purposely sat with patients when he rounded and modeled behaviors that he wanted his staff to learn and adopt.

Encouraging the heart

You encourage the heart by enabling input into key decisions from all levels of the organization, appreciating individual contributions, and celebrating accomplishments. You can use this practice to improve patient care and the practice environment by consistently rewarding staff (use a mix of strategies when recognizing individual accomplishments; some may not want to be publicly acknowledged), making eye contact, establishing personal connections through shared interests, sharing family pictures, and connecting with staff during good and bad times.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Leading by example: When one of her nurses achieved national certification, a nurse leader recognized this accomplishment by sending a congratulatory global email to her direct reports and posting the individual’s picture within the department. This motivated others to achieve similar accomplishments and has contributed to 12 other nurses achieving national certification within a 3-year period.

Inspiring a shared vision

You inspire a shared vision for the future when you can effectively envision it yourself and describe it to others in a way that elicits excitement. Your passion for making a difference is evident, and you enlist others in seeing exciting possibilities for the future so that everyone is aligned in purpose and action.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Leading by example: One nurse leader exemplified this behavior when three of her clinical units were consolidated into one service line. She solicited staff input on what this new structure should entail, generated excitement about the new competencies they would gain by caring for patients both on and off of the intensive care unit, and explained how the patients and organization would benefit overall. In 1 month, 100 RNs eagerly cross-trained for all three clinical units.

Enabling others to act

You enable others to act when you enlist them to participate in new opportunities and engage them in collaborative activities, creating a sense of trust and empowerment. You’re dedicated to the concept of structural empowerment and professional governance, and you emphasize professional obligation, accountability, interprofessional collaboration, and shared decision-making. Examples of this leadership practice include advocating for resources to support unit and organizational goals, leadership development, mentoring, and succession planning. The unit culture should be open and supportive to employee input on new initiative implementation.

Leading by example: When one nurse leader allowed her staff to schedule themselves, she noticed that sick calls decreased dramatically. Self-scheduling enabled her staff to assume accountability and responsibility for their unit staffing.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Challenging the process

When you challenge the process, you’re not always satisfied with the status quo. You take risks and experiment with new ideas, and you learn from mistakes in away that identifies new opportunities and supports positive change. You identify your ability to influence organizational policy, using data to make decisions and lead strategic organizational changes.

Leading by example: When two clinical units were experiencing communication challenges, a nurse leader helped improve the relationship between the two clinical specialties when she encouraged nurses from one specialty to conduct mobile rounds in the other. Being physically present and engaging in conversations with their colleagues provided key insights into each specialty’s roles, which led to mutual feedback and cooperation. After two nurses became engaged in earnest transparency to engage and improve communication, their efforts became contagious, motivating everyone to foster more collaborative relationships.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

TRANSFORMATIONAL leaders inspire followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes and, in the process, develop their own leadership capacity. They foster employees’ confidence to produce creative outcomes and sustain a competitive edge in an ever-changing healthcare environment.

The American Nurses Association’s (ANA’s) Nursing Administration: Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice list the characteristics of transformational leaders as open communication, inspiration, enthusiasm, supporting positive change, and empowering others through shared decision-making. Closely aligned with transformational leadership is exemplary leadership, which is described by Kouzes and Posner as including these five practices: modeling the way, encouraging the heart, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and challenging the process.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Transformational leadership, a core component of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program^®, supports practices and behaviors that improve nursing and organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, productivity, and turnover. As a nurse leader, you can be intentional in cultivating your personal leadership style, leading by example and creating a positive and empowering esprit de corps that supports nursing excellence.

This article will help you become intentional in cultivating your transformational leadership skills and practices. And we recommend using Kouzes and Posner’s theoretical framework and assessment tool to support your professional development.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Effective communication. A leader who communicates effectively focuses closely on what other individuals are attempting to convey and what points are important to those individuals. Effective communicators adapt their communication style based on each individual person’s ability to process and comprehend the interaction. This is important because each individual person possesses a different style of communication, and these styles vary greatly in the way incoming information is processed and perceived. It’s also important to understand and have respect for diversity among various cultures. This will allow for adaptation of communication styles when interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds.

An effective communicator learns from previous experiences and applies these experiences to future interactions with others. This is also true for mistakes that have been made and realizing where a certain action should be done differently the next time around. Effective communication leads to a flourishing and vigorous atmosphere for employees and patients alike Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Characteristics of an effective communicator include empathy, avoiding sarcasm, asking and not commanding, and avoiding talking down or up to individuals. Effective communication consists of having respect for what others have to say. This respect can be displayed by taking the time to be an attentive listener and giving others the opportunity to express their opinions, thoughts, and concerns. The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that 20% of people take up 80% of our time that involves some aspect of communication. Therefore, effective communication is vital for successful outcomes to be produced.⁶

Nurse managers who are effective communicators will routinely meet with the nursing staff so that complaints, concerns, recommendations, or general comments may be discussed. The nurse manager who communicates effectively will allow staff members to voice their concerns and have respect for their employees by taking the time to carefully listen to them. The nurse manager utilizing effective communication will avoid responding to staff in a sarcastic and defensive manner. This might require that you actively monitor yourself and the reactions of your staff to ensure no defensive behavior exists. Effective communication and the absence of defensive behavior will allow for the nursing staff to be more receptive to criticism and change.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Inspirational persona. During this time of healthcare reform, in addition to a strained economy, it’s more important than ever for leaders to display an inspirational attitude. A survey of over 1,000 managers conducted by the British Department for Business Innovation and Skills revealed that 55% of individuals desired their leaders to possess an inspirational persona. In this same survey, only 11% of respondents said their current leader was inspiring.⁷

An inspirational persona consists of optimism, respect, passion, charisma, and honesty. These characteristics allow the inspirational leader to gain the confidence and trust of others, and this is crucial if a leader desires commitment and responsibility of their followers. The inspirational nursing leader possesses a very solid, patient-focused vision of where the organization or unit should be going in the future, which is clearly communicated to the staff. Commitment to a strong vision fuels and attracts winning individuals to strive to reach and maintain the vision.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Inspiring leaders regularly reflect upon themselves and have an insatiable desire for continued learning. They encourage their followers to do the same. Inspirational leaders are actively involved in the organization or unit from an actual “hands-on” perspective. They regularly make informal and personal contact with others throughout the organization or unit by talking with them, asking their opinion, encouraging feedback, and working with them directly.

Nurse managers who display inspirational leadership qualities will spend time actually working with the nursing staff. This will allow for the nurse manager to have more personal contact with staff members and encourage them to develop a sense of confidence and trust.

Trustworthy traits. Trustworthiness is a crucial trait of the transformational leader. Trust is the foundation of every healthy relationship whether it’s personal or work-related. Broken trust leads to disorganization, chaos, and fear among one’s followers. This is why it’s imperative for transformational leaders to gain the trust of their staff. Developing and maintaining trust should be a top priority for the transformational leader. There are distinct and concrete principle elements that make up the basic foundation of trust, including integrity, courage, and stability Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Integrity refers to having high principles, being reliable, and possessing honesty. Leaders who display integrity are consistent when it comes to their actions, values, and expectations. Courageous leaders face problems head on and don’t allow fear to prevent them from doing so.⁹ They also protect their followers from malicious actions and are loyal to them. The principle of stability allows for the development of unquestionable confidence among staff. Stability is imperative in this constantly changing world of healthcare. The principles of integrity, courage, and stability will further encourage the evolution of trust between leaders and their followers.

A nurse manager can gain the trust of the nursing staff by avoiding dishonest actions and displays of favoritism when communicating. The nurse manager can also gain the trust of the staff by possessing honesty and sincerity. Nurse managers who demonstrate traits of trustworthiness are up front, realistic, and fair when it comes to addressing their expectations of the nursing staff. Nurse managers who possess trustworthy traits are more likely to gain the confidence of their employees.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Engagement of stakeholders. An extremely influential characteristic of transformational leadership in nursing is the act of engaging stakeholders in the leadership process. Stakeholders in healthcare include, but aren’t necessarily limited to, healthcare providers, organizations, and institutions; state government representatives; healthcare industries; healthcare academia; and patients. Other stakeholders within the community who should also be engaged during times of transformation include individuals involved in healthcare administration, policy makers, media professionals, law enforcement, religious organizations, patient family members, and caregivers.

The CDC recommends the engagement of stakeholders as the first step in any type of program evaluation or potential change.¹⁰ According to the CDC, the identification and engagement of key stakeholders is vital when performing an initial program evaluation or considering reorganization because they’ll ensure pivotal points are identified and addressed. This, in turn, ensures a greater likelihood of success.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

A vital aspect of engaging leadership includes the promotion of teamwork and collaboration. This will create an environment in which communication is open and alternative ways of delivering healthcare services are encouraged, acknowledged, and welcomed.^11,12 Engaging all members of the healthcare team fosters participation in the organization’s vision, which will increase the likelihood of achieving the organization’s goals. Teamwork is at the core of success.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

It’s important for nurse managers to be familiar with the various nursing leadership theories that are currently discussed in the literature and determine which leadership style best reflects their own values. The leadership style utilized by nursing leaders in the clinical setting has a direct effect on nursing staff satisfaction, which ultimately has an effect on patient satisfaction.⁴ The presence of increased satisfaction among nursing staff leads to an overall reduction in staff turnover, improved retention, and an increase in patient satisfaction.⁴

With the current challenges healthcare is facing, it’s vital for the nursing profession to be on the forefront of healthcare reform and fully engaged in the implementation of the changes that are expected to take place in our healthcare system.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

On the contrary, an authoritarian leadership approach is not based upon a shared vision and does not reflect the core values and beliefs of a group of team members; rather, it is based upon the desires of the sole leader in charge of decision-making (The American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination, 2013). This leadership approach does not support individual decision-making, nor does it recognize the ideas and creativity of others that impact nursing practice as a whole; therefore, it is often dismissive of employees and may have a significant impact on employee morale and motivation (AANAC, 2013). This approach is often viewed in a negative manner by employees and is not always the preferred method, particularly when employees have great potential to contribute to the organization at a high level and to make a significant difference in the lives of team members and most importantly, the lives of their patients.

As a leader you must be committed to your passion and purpose, and have the type of commitment that turns into perseverance. Many nursing leaders are committed patient advocates, clinicians, or employee advocates but the true test of commitment comes when it’s difficult to get out of bed and go to work with a smile, yet you do because you know you are there to serve a purpose.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

To get through these challenging times and make a difference, establish three priorities every 90 days and commit to seeing them through. Obtain your staff’s insights on the priorities so the team will stay focused and have a stake into the strategic plan.

Commitment to excellence starts with the leader, so know in your heart that where you are is where you were placed to serve and share your skills and talents. If you question or have doubts about where you are, you may want to reevaluate your next move because eventually it will show through in your performance. This will allow you to fulfill your purpose, thereby increasing satisfaction for you.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Service. Patient satisfaction parallels staff satisfaction, so measuring employee satisfaction benefits the unit, department, and team. Develop realistic action plans to build employee satisfaction, involve all staff levels, and reassess every year. Become familiar and well versed with your patient satisfaction measurement tool. Share and explain data to your employees often.

Quality. Become familiar with and incorporate core measures into daily practice and communication. Make them breathe in your department. Convey to your team, staff, and other employees that patient safety and maintaining quality standards are a way of life. Develop unit- and department-specific performance improvement processes that the staff can articulate and implement in daily practices.

People. Be the resident role model; who you are is whom you will attract. Take notice of the employees who require a lot of cheerleading and motivating to do their jobs. They have a tendency to become negative when they don’t receive feedback on a consistent basis and can infect the entire staff.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Growth. Develop unit-based and departmental volume projections and business plans. If you have a unit where you are not meeting your department average daily census or productivity, look for and measure potential growth opportunities. For example, if your unit is a 30-bed monitored surgical unit, develop a plan to add another service line similar to your existing clinical services. You may want to think about combining cardiac transplantation services with nephrology services and open beds for patients who receive kidney transplants.

Finance. Too often clinicians focus on improving people, quality, and service and leave finance far behind. However, your follow-through of your business plan for your unit or department will likely realize a financial savings, which can be reinvested into your clinical services. Build your unit-based financial plan for the year, based on your annual budget that includes salary, expenses, supplies, and capital requests.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Use your biweekly and monthly financial reports to keep on target. When you are off target, develop a variance report with a specific and detailed action plan to get back on line for the next month. Share the report with your staff in monthly staff meetings, post it on a bulletin board for staff to see, and develop a staff financial newsletter to help staff understand how they play an important part in financial management on a unit level.

If you have a problem with meeting the standard for admissions, transfers, and discharges on your unit or in your department, create a bulletin board and display the number of delayed admissions, transfers, and discharges and how much it costs the organization to hold patients in the emergency department, intensive care unit, and other areas.

A good nurse leader is someone who can inspire others to work together in pursuit of a common goal, such as enhanced patient care.

An effective leader has a distinctive set of personal qualities: integrity, courage, initiative and an ability to handle stress. This individual is often admired in their efforts to think critically, set goals and skillfully communicate and collaborate.

Nurses “may hold the key to transforming healthcare and dragging it into the 21st century in terms of work practices and reform, Genevieve L. Thyer, Dip Ed, MN, BSN, RN, writes in the Journal of Nursing Management. “This is because nurses are visionary, creative, involved in decision making at patient level and have gender-based qualities, and communication strategies the healthcare sector needs,” she says.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

In today’s quickly evolving environment of healthcare, it’s time to develop creative leadership, i.e., the capacity to think and act beyond the boundaries limiting your potential and avoid professional derailment or faltering career moves.

Leaders should be able to influence and inspire others, develop strategies, organise resources and empower people [17]. The leader is in a position with multiple dimensions, such as being a clinical expert in their field as well as being a manager in a hospital. In the nursing setting, change management, negotiating ability and conflict management are essential skills that nurses should develop to become effective leaders [18]. There is no optimal leadership style, as the personality of the leader, subordinates, and the situation can all influence leadership effectiveness [19]. The perceptions of leaders and subordinates are also inconsistent, with subordinates often preferring leaders with more clearly expressed leadership behaviour than leaders themselves prefer to demonstrate [20]. Leadership style may affect the performance of nurses directly and may have positive or negative effects. It is also associated with staff turnover [21, 22]. Leadership/management style is one of the main sources of distress for nurses [23]. It is also suggested that occupational stress has an adverse influence on the quality of working life for nurses [24].Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Taken together, leadership may affect both nurses’ work performance and their quality of the working life. Developing a transformational nursing leadership style is an alternative organisational strategy to improve nurse performance and promote better patient care outcomes [25]. It may further enhance the quality of the working life of nurses.

The following hypotheses examined the main effects of transformational leadership styles on nursing mental health outcomes:

Hypothesis 1: Transformational leadership styles are related to nursing mental health outcomes.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Transformational leadership style is associated with subordinates’ working conditions [26]. Training managers in transformational leadership style may have a positive influence on health care workers’ mental health over time [27], although it may present an incomplete picture of the impact of work and the relationship on well-being without considering working conditions [28]. Job content is also included as one of the variables in the proposed model.

Hypothesis 2: The higher the level of transformational leadership the higher the level of perceived supervisor support.

Follower work attitudes
Work attitudes have a strong influence on the quality of nurses’ working lives. Job satisfaction and organisational commitment are outcome variables of nurses’ work attitudes. Job satisfaction concerns how an employee feels about his or her job and is related to organisational commitment. These are important to the quality of an employee’s working life. Factors such as job content, job satisfaction and organisational commitment are presented in the proposed model. Job satisfaction is a predictor of the quality of nursing working life. In contrast, job dissatisfaction can be the main predictor of intention to leave nursing [29].Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Leadership, particularly the transformational leadership style, is associated with higher levels of job satisfaction [30]. Transformational leaders may help ensure employees’ job satisfaction and psychological well-being [31, 32]. In Taiwan, nursing directors display transformational leadership more frequently in their workplaces and nursing faculty staff exposed to this leadership style are moderately satisfied in their jobs [33]. Nurses with supervisors employing a transformational leadership style were less likely to experience decreased job satisfaction than nurses with supervisors employing other styles [34]. Therefore, supervisors presenting a transformational leadership style can be perceived as providing supervisor support in the organisation. Job satisfaction and organisational commitment are two factors which moderate the effects of general health well-being and transformational leadership style. We aimed to test the relationship among supervisor support, job satisfaction, and organisational commitment.

Hypothesis 3: The higher the level of supervisor support will indicate a higher level of job satisfaction.

Hypothesis 4: There will be a positive correlation between supervisor support and organisational commitment.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Organisational commitment is highly associated with the quality of nurses’ working lives. One of the most important perspectives is to define a proper methodology for an overall assessment of the quality of the working life of nurses. The aim of the present study was to explore nursing leadership style and its relationship between mental health outcomes of nurses.

Hypothesis 5a: The higher the level of job satisfaction, the higher the level of organisational commitment.

Hypothesis 5b: The higher the level of job satisfaction, the lower the level of poor general health well-being.

Hypothesis 5c: The higher the level of organisational commitment, the lower the level of poor general health well-being.

According to Karasek’s theoretical model [35], job demands and work control are two important work environment elements. In this approach, high job strain is viewed as the consequence of an individual’s ability to cope with high job demands under conditions of low control. Payne and Fletcher [36] stated that less effort is needed to cope with high job strain if support is available in the organisational system. Karasek’s model was reconceptualized to include social support and was used widely to measure work characteristics and job strain. High levels of support from supervisors and co-workers play a moderating role against the negative effects of high strain jobs on levels of work performance [37], so supervisors will have a major influence on employees’ mental health. In addition, supervisor support might play a mediator role in raising the positive effects of the quality of the working life of nurses. Thus, it might be possible to improve organisational health by enhancing the leadership styles of supervisors.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

As stated before, the general aim of the present study was to explore nursing leadership style and its relationship between the mental health outcomes of nurses. The results are presented in two parts: data analysis and model development. In the first part, a basic background of the quantitative phase of the study is described. The second part of the study describes the utility of structure equation modelling (SEM).

Nursing is facing an increasing shortage of employees worldwide and Taiwan is no exception. [1, 2]. Numerous studies have demonstrated that nursing is a stressful occupation [3–5]. Organisational factors such as leadership style, social support, and work climate are contributing factors to well-being of nurses [6–8]. Regarding ownership, hospitals in Taiwan can be briefly classified into three types. These types of hospitals might be similar in their environment in terms of location, the structure of the building, the number of beds, facilities and organisational structure. The management system and environmental climate might be different in these hospitals due to the ownership. The hospital management system is unlikely to be the same in the different types of hospital. Although, how management systems impact on their employees, in terms of their job performance and the quality of their working lives, needs consideration. Recently, a growing body of research which demonstrates that subordinates’ perceptions of their working conditions are related to leadership behaviour [9].Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Nursing is often defined as the kind of job with long working hours and high job stress [10]. Such factors as low job control, high job demands and low supportive work relationships are correlated with stress in nurses [11] and high rate of staff turnover [12]. Research has showed that nursing transformational leadership style is associated with employees’ job satisfaction [13] and general health well-being [14], though the mechanism between nursing transformational leadership style and the quality of nurses’ working lives is not clear. There is a need to understand the mechanism between transformational leadership style and quality of working life in health care professions. Therefore, we propose a theory-driven model to examine this mechanism by using structural equation modelling.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Developing a high quality, performance oriented nursing workforce has become the need for the hour and every nurse leader strive to inspire the followers in order to create committed, enthusiastic team which work beyond the requirements of the job. The concept of leadership is also changing with the emergence of various theories and frameworks. As a result, many nurse leaders have adopted various emerging leadership styles, Transformational leadership is one among them. The word transformational leadership was coined by James Victor Downton in the year 1973.James Mac Gregor Burns, an authority on leadership studies defined transformational leadership as “a process by which leaders raise the aspirations and motivations of others to higher levels by appealing to higher ideals and values. The transformational leadership which is grounded on moral foundations has got mainly 4 components, essentially known as the 4I’s of Transformational Leadership. They are Idealized Influence (II), Inspirational Motivation (IM), Intellectual Stimulation (IS), and Individual Consideration (IC). These four components of transformational leadership are schematically represented by the model of transformational leadership. The model suggests that even though these four components are interdependent, they must harmonize to yield a performance which is beyond expectations. The effective use of a transformational leadership will result in a performance that exceeds the organizational expectations. This is often referred as the “additive effect” of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership has got wide implications in nursing leadership and is a powerful management strategy for nurse leaders. It enables nurse leaders to implement change effectively and is an essential medium to develop an effective nursing workforce. Even though transformational leadership is considered as an effective leadership strategy, one major criticism is the use of impression management in transformational leadership. Healthcare system is dynamic and is on continuous metamorphosis, hence it is imperative for nurse leaders to embrace a leadership style that enable followers to adapt the changes and works towards the organizational vision. Transformational leadership is considered as one of the most effective leadership strategy to achieve this. As a result of transformational leadership nurses at all levels in the organization perceive that their voices are heard, their inputs are valued and their practices are being supported.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Transformational leaders are leaders who employ a distinct management style. The style is just as the title suggests – the leader seeks to transform a workplace to promote success. In other words, the leader goes above and beyond daily operations, motivates staff, and sets goals for the workplace. Transformational leaders should:

• Serve as role models
• Motivate the team
• Demonstrate concern for individual follower’s needs
• Challenge followers to be creative

Nurse leaders can also demonstrate this style of leadership. They motivate staff to reach goals that align with a healthcare organization or facility’s vision or mission. An example would be a facility’s goal to increase patient satisfaction. The nurse leader would set goals to improve customer service, collaboratively develop an initiative or initiatives, and measure results (i.e., a patient survey) – engaging staff along the way.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Keeping this example in mind, we can break it down further to illustrate the transformational model of leadership. Beginning with goal setting in the example above, the nurse leader could hold a staff meeting and include all staff in a department. He or she would then identify the reason for the goal; for example, patient satisfaction has dropped as evidenced by an increase in patient complaints. The nurse leader may provide specific examples, such as in the increased number of complaints from patients that state they are waiting too long after they press the call light to receive assistance from staff.

The nurse leader may then engage the staff and brainstorm ways to respond to call lights faster, thereby increasing patient satisfaction. He or she must encourage ideas, listen to staff, and acknowledge their concerns. They should interact respectfully with staff and remain positive throughout the brainstorming session.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Once the group develops a goal and an initiative, the nurse leader may choose to pilot it. Using the prior example, let’s say the group came up with an initiative to have staff spread out around the nursing unit as opposed to them being assembled at the nursing station. Being spread out may reduce the time it takes to respond. The nurse leader may choose to pilot for a few weeks or a few months and see if the number of patient complaints drops. He or she may call a follow-up meeting to present results and engage staff in their thoughts about the pilot, including how it worked and what may not have worked as well as expected.

One of the benefits of transformational-style leadership is that it builds a professional, respectful relationship between a leader and staff. Staff are motivated to perform and bring their ideas to the table to improve their workplace, and leaders can meet their individual departmental goals. In the ever-changing world of healthcare, transformational nurse leaders are essential in a department (or facility’s) success.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

The concept of leadership and trait may vary from one to other. The term “leadership” has been used in various human effort for example businesses, politics, academics, social works etc. where previous views about leadership show it as personal skill. Messick and Kramer [1] explore that the on which level of leadership traits it depends not only on his characteristics and personal abilities, but also it may affect characteristics of the circumstances and culture of organization. So the purpose of human beings to become members of an organization to achieve specific tasks, the degree to which they are active members depends upon how he is influenced that his membership will facilitate him to accomplish his predestined objectives.

That is why, a personality will sustain an organization if he thinks that all the way through his personal task and objectives may be achieve; if he did not, then his interest will be down. Leadership technique in an organization is the main foundations that affect it in very significant way in attraction or retard of the interest and his commitment with the organization. So, Glantz [2] emphasizes on the need for a manager to find his leadership trait.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Among the objectives of any health care organization are primarily to serve humanity, increase health level and secondly is the profit making and to maintain its status. To achieve it health care organization allocates insufficient resources to challenging ends. During this process they maintain humans’ health and provide employment, provide services, purchase equipment, drugs and other goods and services and, therefore, contribute to in increasing health status and the growth of the society and economy at large. Unamaka observes that in most hospitals settings, the effectiveness of this process is greatly determined by the patient satisfaction and availability of access to employees, operation departments, equipment, supplies to their immediate community and the nation at large.

The research support the concept of leadership as defined by Taffinder and, therefore, reflect on leadership within the context of a hospitals as the action of managers of hospitals to contribute their best to the purpose for the organization. This study was conducted in three large health care organizations of Karachi and ten employees from each hospital.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

From this point of view, this paper is proposed to estimate the effect of leadership trait on the performance of health care organization, contribute to observed researches on leadership traits and organization performance, and will suggest the policies and procedures through quantitative approach for the hospitals in order to contribute in society and nations economic growth.

In the field of organizational literature, leadership is recognized as a vital subject when considering literature. During individual and organizational interaction, leadership has the most dynamic effects where the ability of the management to execute “collaborated efforts” depends on leadership capability. Leadership can be explained as the behavior of an individual to guide a group to achieve the common target.

“Excellent leader does not only inspire potential of subordinates to increase their efficiency but also fulfill their requirements in a process of obtaining and achieving organizational goals” [3].Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

There are many reasons that leadership approaches and organizational performance must have relationship. Foremost because today, the market is dynamic and demanding and features novelty based struggle, price/performance competition, diminishing revenues, and inventive demolition of modern competencies.

Organizational performance mean the ability of an organization to achieve the objectives of increased profits, enhanced quality product, greater market share, financial results, and survival using relevant strategy for action.

Organizational performance also explains the role of enterprise in terms of level of profit, market share and product quality as compared to other enterprises in same industry. Basically it is a reflection of efficiency of members of an enterprise measured in terms of revenue, profit, development and growth of the organization. To identify and realize the effects of leadership on performance is important because leadership is observed by some scholars as one of the dynamic forces for improving the performance of a firm.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Effective leadership is seen as a potent source of management development and sustained competitive advantage for organizational performance improvement [4,5]. Transactional leadership helps organizations achieve their current objectives more efficiently by linking job performance to valued rewards and by ensuring that employees have the resources needed to get the job done.

Visionary leaders create a strategic vision of some future state, communicate that vision through framing and use of metaphor, model the vision by acting consistently, and build commitment towards the vision. Visionary leadership will result in high levels of cohesion, commitment, trust, motivation, and hence performance in the new organizational environments.

Team leaders are understood to play a vital role in determining collective standards, helping teams manage with their situations, and organizing collective accomplishment. A longstanding approach for an effective organization is to focus on the effects of their leadership. This leader-centered approach has provided cherished understandings into the association between leadership and team performance.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

The planned role of leadership can be used to examine on how to engage leadership models and use leadership behavior to progress organizational performance. The intangible assets such as leadership styles, culture, skill and competence, and motivation are key sources of strength in firms that can combine people and processes and organizational performance. The missing liaison in understanding the connection between leadership and organizational functioning conclude that despite a theorized leadership-performance relationship proposed by some scholars, current findings are unconvincing and hard to understand.

From the above discussion, it is clear that although some scholars propose that leadership augments organizational performance while others contradict this, different ideas of leadership have been employed in different studies, making direct judgments almost impossible. Consequently, the current study is envisioned to again inspect the proposed leadership-performance relationship.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

The most prominent among the various theories of leadership and motivation relating to effective organizational change management is the “transformational-transactional” theory of leadership. As per the theory, there are two factors to differentiate “ordinary” from “extraordinary” leadership: transactional and transformational leadership.

Transactional leadership is based on conventional exchange relationship in which follower’s attitude; his efforts, productivity, and loyalty are exchanged for anticipated rewards, whereas transformational (extraordinary) leaders raise follower’s awareness levels about the status and worth of designated results and ways of accomplishing them. They also motivate followers to exceed their own immediate self-interest for the sake of the goal and vision of the organization. Such engagement (emotional, intellectual and moral) boosts followers to progress and perform beyond expectations.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Transformational leadership implicates the process of manipulating major changes in organizational attitudes in order to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives. While Transactional leaders work their organizational cultures following prevailing rules and procedures, transformational leaders modify their cultures based on a new vision and a revision of shared expectations, values and norms. A leadership of an organization is a critical factor in determining its successful change when it must adapt to changes in technology.

A transformational leader’s behavior instigates in the personal values and beliefs of the leader and motivates people to do more than expect. Transformational leadership is a process where, “one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality”.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

In transformational leadership, the devotee feels faith, respect, loyalty and admiration towards the leader, and is motivated to do more than what was actually expected of him to do. The transformational leader motivates by making follower more aware of the importance of task consequences, encouraging them to exceed their own self-interest for the sake of the organization or tea. He encourages followers to think critically and seek new ways to approach their jobs, resulting in intellectual stimulation. Consequently, their level of performance, satisfaction, and commitment to the goals of their organization is increased.

Charismatic behavior also persuades followers to go beyond selfinterest for the good of the group, providing reassurance that problems will overcome. Followers place an inordinate amount of confidence and trust in charismatic leaders. Due to their charismatic attributes, the leader is characterized by vision and a sense of mission, gaining respect and trust from their followers.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Inspirational motivation is concerned with a leader defining higher standards. Followers look up to their inspirational leader to increase awareness and understanding of mutually desirable goals. It is characterized by the communication of high expectations, using signs to focus on struggle, and expressing central purpose in much simpler ways. The leader always talks optimistically about the future; he articulates a compelling vision for the future and provides an exciting image of organizational change. The motivation occurs by providing meaning and challenge to the followers work; individual and team spirit are aroused and enthusiasm and optimism are displayed. The leader encourages followers to envision attractive future states, for the organization and themselves.

Intellectual stimulation delivers followers with challenging new concepts and encourages them to break away from obsolete ways of intellectual. The leader is characterized as one promoting intelligence, wisdom, cogent, and cautious problem solving. The leader encourages the followers to be pioneering and creative by questioning assumptions, reframing problems, and approaching obsolete situations in new ways.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Individual consideration is another dimension of transformational leadership which is concerned with developing followers by training and mentoring. The leader pays understands inter-individual differences among his followers and acts as a mentor to his follower. He preaches and assists his followers to develop their strengths, and pays close attention to their concerns. Followers are treated individually in order to increase their stages of maturity and to improve effective ways of addressing their goals and trials.

Transactional leadership

An exchange procedure in which follower agree with leader’s request but is not likely to make enthusiasm and commitment to task goal can be defined as Transactional leadership. The purpose of the transactional leader is to make sure that the path to accomplishment of objective is clearly understood by the people, to eradicate potential hindrance within the system, and to inspire the people to achieve the scheduled goals.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

The leader focuses on having internal actors perform the tasks required for the organization to reach its desired goals [6]. Both constructive behavior and corrective behaviors are exhibited by transactional leadership. Constructive behavior involves conditional reward, and corrective dimension includes management by exception. Conditional reward involves the clarification of the work required to obtain rewards and the use of incentives and empirical reward to employ influence. Followers expectations and offers recognition when goals are achieved are considered in conditional rewards.

The clarification of goals and objectives and providing of recognition once goals are achieved should result in individuals and groups achieving expected levels of performance [7]. Active management by exception refers to the leader setting the criteria for deference as well as for what constitutes ineffective performance, and may include punishing followers for non-compliance with those standards. This style of leadership implies monitoring for eccentricities, mistakes, and faults and then taking remedial action as quickly as possible when they happen.

To be a successful nursing leader demands a lot. There are certain vital traits and behaviors you need to acquire in order to succeed in the career. You don’t just wake up one morning to be a leader. You must work it out through various processes.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

It has been noted in many nursing forums that with more than 3.3 million professionally active registered nurses in the United States today,¹ we should have more influence in health policy and organizational decision making. Why we don’t is a complex issue. In my work as a Gallup Strengths coach using StrengthsFinder 2.0, ² I have found that very few nurses have strengths in the influencing domain among their top 5. Other colleagues that use the instrument confirm that they, too, have found the same thing in their leadership development programs. This does not mean that nurses don’t have the potential to build skills in this area. It does indicate that influencing may not be a natural go-to strength for many nurses.

Influencing-building skills are critical in nursing leadership. Our involvement in solving many of the important challenges in health care today depends on our effectiveness in influencing outcomes. That is why developing behaviors that help to build influence are so important. Becoming truly influential takes time, dedication, and a strong sense of self. It also involves a willingness to seek and use power when it is strategic to do so. Jeffrey Pfeffer,³ a nationally known leadership scholar, studies power and influence in organizations. He has noted that many of us believe that life is fair, and we will achieve our goals by doing our job and playing by the rules. He contends that this can leave us unprepared for the realities of organizational or political life where power plays are relatively common.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

As the health care system continues to undergo rapid change, the nature of nurses’ roles are changing as well, according to Healthforce faculty research. As the largest licensed health professional group in the US, nurses are four times more prevalent than physicians. They practice in nearly every setting of the health care system and many are poised to take on leadership roles. But plenty of nurses will need to gain new skills, including leadership and management competencies, to meet patient needs in this increasingly value-focused health care environment.

How Our Programs Support Nursing Leadership

To address health care’s most critical challenges, health professionals from various fields and backgrounds must break down silos and work together. Healthforce Center’s leadership development programs take an interdisciplinary approach and train health care professionals across the workforce. The CHCF Health Care Leadership Program, for example, prepares clinically trained professionals to lead California’s health care organizations. Nurses, physicians, case managers and more join together to learn essential leadership and management skills. We believe leadership development is a process of discovery and our programs help participants develop effective leadership styles, facilitate action and lead teams.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

In nursing leadership development, there are vital traits and behaviors the nursing leader ought to have in order to impart her team. Such leadership traits and behaviors open the wide door of success both for the nursing leader and her team. Let’s examine some of the vital traits and behaviors required.

• Problem Solving
Your ability to handle and solve problems effectively as a nursing leader makes you a leader to be cherished. From time to time, diverse kinds of problems will always raise their ugly heads in your nursing team. You need to engage your mind and senses in dealing with such problems without causing harm to any member of your team. One of the best ways to deal with problems is never to rush into dealing with them. You need to take your time to think through a problem in order to find possible solutions to it.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

• Honest Communication
This is another vital trait or behavior a nursing leader must possess. Honesty is indeed the best policy in any endeavor in life. Your ability to remain very candid in your dealings with the members of your team can easily endear you to everyone. You have to be honest when you handle every issue that may be coming up in the course of your leadership. When it comes to finance and accounts, your honesty is highly required if you must remain relevant as a nursing leader.

• Sound Judgment
Any nursing leader who desires to carry her team along must have the trait of sound judgment. This is to be exemplified in the way the leader handles various cases that concerns the members of her team. You must never take sides with any member of your group for whatever reason. You have to make sure that each group member is equally treated on an even platform.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

• Self Confidence
The nursing leader must be self confident at all times. She must be able to show her capacity to carry the team along at every point in time. Her self confidence should be a morale booster to the rest of team members who are always ready to learn one or two things from their leader.

• Hard work
A good nursing leader must also show the traits of hard work all the time. She should act as the goal getter of her team. She takes the lead in every task and also fined time to delegate others to engage in certain tasks.

• Responsibility
The nursing leader must also be very responsible in all her dealings. She must be ready to accept responsibility for whatever happens in her team. She must always be on the alert to handle whatever issues that may arise at any point in time.

In all, nursing leadership traits and behaviors are not automatic. They are acquired with time. If you must succeed well as a nursing leader, you need to cultivate the traits discussed above and put them into daily practice.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

The complex state of 21^st century healthcare has created a growing need for a new description of behaviors expected from nurse leaders. Presently, the academic authors of nurse leadership identify transformational leadership as the model framework of behaviors for nurse leaders to learn, perfect, and demonstrate. Although the components of transformational leadership are foundational, there are additional areas of expertise needed of a modern effective nurse leader. My several years as a nurse leader included participating in nurse leadership professional development workshops, conferences, and on-the-job training. Thinking through my experiences, I’d like to share three impactful nurse leadership behaviors that emerged as best practice recommendations for fellow residing and emerging nurse leaders.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

1. Stay Informed on Innovation in Healthcare Technology

It’s hard to imagine providing care to individuals in our communities without the use of healthcare technology and information systems. Even though you may not have the responsibility of finding technology solutions for your organization’s problems, it is important to understand the products in use at your facility, as well as what’s on the horizon for healthcare technology overall. Autonomously keeping up to date on current healthcare technology helps nurse leaders:

• Earn a better seat at the decision table when technology products are presented or purchased
• Expand your thought process, knowledge and innovative use of the products
• Allow proactive decision making in anticipation of product updates or changes Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

For example, researching the company that developed your organization’s electronic health record (EHR) expands your knowledge in several areas. You could learn current research and evidence-based practice studies using data collected from the EHR, the history and background of the company’s leaders, current developments or enhancements, as well as the opinions of nurses and nurse leaders who currently use the product. In the current business of healthcare, data and technology are powerhouses. Therefore, having a different insight and perspective and an educated voice can be a substantial benefit for nurse leaders.

2. Engage in Mental FITness Activities

The intensity of the thought processes needed to develop high-level innovation can be strenuous. As nurse leaders, we spend countless hours researching, investigating, and developing practice changes, improving patient outcomes, and engaging emerging leaders. How many of those hours are dedicated to our own holistic development? The term Focused Intensive Training (FIT) involves time spent without distraction to:

• Develop innovation
• Improve knowledge
• Complete important projects Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

As much as I would love to take credit for this concept, I became familiar with the terminology after reading “Deep Work,” by Cal Newport. In his book, Newport identifies highly intelligent and powerful individuals in business and technology, who eliminate distractions in their lives at intermittent points to spark innovation and creativity. To nurse leaders, this concept may seem unobtainable and nearly impossible to remove one’s self from the day-to-day operations, meetings, and necessary interactions of healthcare. However, through proactive shifts to accommodate these small periods of time, FIT is possible and worthwhile. Around the middle of my career, I began to realize that each night, right before I went to sleep, I thought about all the problems of the day, the committee meeting discussions, brief conversations with staff, patients, and family members. During these “free” moments, my brain developed checklists, opportunities for improvements, revised workflows, and many additional innovative thought processes. Eventually, I began to get out of bed and sit in the spare bedroom of my house with my laptop, a notebook, and a pencil. Listening to the sounds of the night, I developed projects from the chatter in my brain. Recognizing the productivity of these “free” moments, I created a shift in my work style and began scheduling 1 or 2 days of PTO for mental fitness every other month. In those moments, I embraced solidarity and the opportunity to create work that was meaningful to my professional development, as well as the nurses that sought direction from my leadership.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

3. Prioritize Mentoring Opportunities for Emerging Nurse Leaders

There is an unwritten expectation of mentorship within the nurse leadership community. It is a rite of passage to seek and find one or sometimes a few emerging nurse leaders to guide down the winding pathways of professionalism and nurse leadership. But…. buyers beware! As novice nurse leaders seek mentors, mentors must also research and investigate potential nurse leader mentees. The evaluation of a mentoring opportunity should involve informal interview sessions with a potential candidate. This action will help you to decide not only the alignment of personality characteristics and behaviors, but also the candidate’s level of morale and passion for becoming an influential nurse leader. Making informed decisions on who to mentor prevents instances of negative personal feelings attached to work relationships. If you were to quantify the various and brief chats, emails, and impromptu discussions with potential nurse leaders, you would see why it is important to wisely give your time to individuals who seek the same level of enlightenment or engagement. (I’m not speaking of student nurse leaders who are eager to complete their lengthy capstone projects with a recognizable leader within their organization.) Mentorship is a collaborative journey, that involves personal time and energy commitment. Therefore, do not be afraid to help find a better suited mentor, if you believe the mentee is not a right fit for your leadership style.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

As I climbed the arduous clinical ladder, I soon began to realize that although I obtained a formal education in executive nurse leadership, my education was far from complete. During those years, I also spent countless hours researching best practices for nursing, networking with industry leaders, and exploring innovative concepts in business and technology. By recognizing my curiosity for knowledge and then applying the innovative techniques I investigated over the years, I learned new expectations of modern nurse leaders. What additional practice behaviors do you believe describe an effective nurse leader?

Leadership within the healthcare system should be visible at all levels, rather than being dependent solely on the characteristics of those who exert control from the top of the organisation. All nurses can act as leaders, and providing effective leadership requires them to develop specific personal qualities and behaviours. This article explores four ‘leadership intelligences’ – spiritual, emotional, business or practice, and political – and discusses how understanding these can assist nurses to enhance their leadership skills. It also considers the evidence base for the use of these intelligences and how they can be adopted by individual nurses and healthcare organisations.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

Nurse leaders are crucial to the health of any unit, agency or facility, and we’ve all likely heard or experienced horror stories of nurse managers from Hades.

Still, there are stellar nurse leaders in the healthcare ecosystem, and there are certain ubiquitous traits in those leaders who stand above the rest. Here are five traits that can readily identify a progressive nurse leader who’s at the top of his or her game:

There’s a saying that we have two ears and only one mouth for a reason. A stellar nurse leader spends a great deal of time listening to what the nurses on the ground have to say. He or she will actively solicit information, listen deeply and then use that data as part of an ongoing assessment of the organization.
As a thoughtful, conscientious leader, individuals of this caliber use deep listening as a skillful assessment tool, and then consciously employ language that avoids shame and blame. Thus, a style of communication is employed that is an example to all in its fairness and kindness.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

A high-caliber leader may indeed make difficult decisions, and he or she does so with a conscientious sense of equanimity. Decisions aren’t made from a place of reactivity; rather, they are arrived at through the aforementioned process of deep listening and careful deliberation.
Not every decision may seem fair to every team member, but necessary actions are explained using empathic acknowledgement of the potential discomfort that some may feel regarding the outcome. Even so, many team members still may admit the leader is thoughtful and fair, despite disagreement with the overarching decision.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

In order to be an effective leader, the nurse manager demonstrates an affinity for increased self-knowledge. This may conjure images of the nurse Buddha staring at his navel, but it actually implies the nurse manager’s willingness to critically review his or her behavior style, openly admit shortcomings and errors in judgment, and continue to learn and grow in this position of power and influence.

The progressive nurse leader has a flexible nature, avoiding stances and reactions that are inflexible or carved in stone. This type of nurse leader uses deep listening, self-knowledge and fairness as cornerstones of a flexible management style.

Steeped in fairness and flexibility, the strong nurse leader disciplines without shame. Team members may commit errors, but the thoughtful nurse leader never stoops to shame as a means of correction.Transformational Nursing Leaders Essay Paper

To lead into the future, the powerful, progressive 21st-century nurse leader is fair and flexible, using deep listening and excellent communication skills to move the nursing team forward. He or she is always willing to admit mistakes, and leads by example in every aspect of his or her leadership style.