An interview was conducted with a nurse at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The respondent was asked to describe her vision of leadership features in nursing. She noted that a manager in healthcare, in order to fulfill managerial functions successfully, must be able to lead subordinates. Leadership actions in modern management prevail in all areas of professional activity of a manager of any level. The labor process takes place in some social (work) groups. In turn, in each such group (including the nursing team), there is a person to whom other people listen and look up to and who has an influence on others, mainly through two socio-psychological channels:
- Through the channel of authority (members of the group recognize the leader’s advantage over others because of his/her position, experience, skill, education, etc.).
- Through the channel of charismatic properties – humanity, courtesy, morality (that is, the influence based on the personality traits of the leader or his ability to attract supporters).
According to the respondent, ideally, these two areas should be combined so that there is a synergy effect, and then the manager, becoming a leader, exercises managerial functions through the prism of an informal leader. One cannot disagree with this, since in this case, conditions are created under which subordinates consider their manager a transformational leader. The transformational leader raises the morale and consciousness of subordinates, offers challenges to them, and inspires them for achievements beyond expectations (Renjith, Renu, & George, 2015). It is about stimulating the beyond-the-role behavior of employees. All this requires subtler, more advanced methods of influencing staff, in addition to the traditional “carrot and stick.” Problem-solving techniques of the interviewed transformational leader suggest making a decision on any problem based on a systematic approach, taking into account long-term prospects on all organizational subsystems, including human resources.
In the second question, the respondent was asked to characterize her leadership style. She noticed her trying to adhere to a transformational leadership style; however, due to the exceptional turbulence of the work environment, she often has to resort to situational leadership. The process of motivating employees by a transformational leader is based on such interaction with subordinates in which the needs of employees in personal self-actualization and professional self-fulfillment are satisfied by the leader in exchange for achieving organizational goals. The very ability to interact with an extraordinary leader focused on meeting the needs of a higher order is often a central motive for subordinates for their effective work. As a transformational leader, the respondent, for motivating the activities of subordinates, uses the setting of non-trivial goals that are interesting to employees because they require creative solutions.
My Own Leadership Philosophy
I believe that often, the success of an activity is determined by the ability to find an original solution to any atypical problem in an unusual situation. The ability to think creatively and act outside the pattern for achieving an elusive goal is, at the same time, an effective mechanism for employees to self-validate their own professionalism level (Chatterjee, Suy, Yen, & Chhay, 2018). Thus, a highly successful combination of the transformational and situational leadership styles of the respondent can be noted. I plan to use this combination in my own leadership practice. The search for non-trivial solutions has the potential to achieve success even in the most difficult and non-standard situations while, at the same time, contributing to the development of creativity and innovative thinking among employees.
Cultural competence in healthcare as the objective necessity of today’s leadership, which I plan to rely on, lies in a situational and diversified approach to patients and colleagues with different values, beliefs, and behaviors, according to Nair and Adetayo (2019). It requires an active process of studying and developing cross-cultural skills in order to effectively participate in situations of intercultural interaction. As a leader, I will try to develop cross-cultural skills among subordinates both with the help of a personal example and through special training on cross-cultural competence. For the best assimilation and development of the practical application of cross-cultural skills, I will build a series of training courses based on the Kolb cycle. This is a kind of cycle of accumulating personal experience, in the future – reflecting and thinking, and in the end – action.
Based on modern leadership concepts, it is possible to formulate my overall own leadership concept. I believe that healthcare has become an extremely complex industry: the balance of quality and price, technology, and the human factor place increasingly high demands on physicians. It should be noted that the rapid changes taking place in the business environment require a shift in the rationalistic approach towards the use of the humanistic one (Asif, Jameel, Hussain, Hwang, & Sahito, 2019). I think that it is because the rationalistic approach no longer allows the full use of the potential of the company’s employees to achieve maximum results. The necessity for new tools is apparent for me, and these tasks require outstanding leaders. As a future leader in a healthcare facility, I must have emotional intelligence – the ability to recognize and control my emotions, as well as those of others. This is important because interactions in healthcare organizations often occur from an emotional point of view rather than an intellectual one. Moreover, I must be able to adapt to changes and implement them while competently managing the process of their introduction. I should also see the long-term goals of the team and individual employees at the same time, facilitate the development of both the whole team and each individual employee based on the concept of talent management, internal relationship marketing, and co-creation of values in the organization.
References
Asif, M., Jameel, A., Hussain, A., Hwang, J., & Sahito, N. (2019). Linking transformational leadership with nurse-assessed adverse patient outcomes and the quality of care: Assessing the role of job satisfaction and structural empowerment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16, 1-15.
Chatterjee, R., Suy, R., Yen, Y., & Chhay, L. (2018). Literature review on leadership in healthcare management. Journal of Social Science Studies, 5(1), 39-47.
Nair, L., & Adetayo, O. (2019). Cultural competence and ethnic diversity in healthcare.Plastic Reconstructive Surgery-Global Open, 7(5), 1-3. Web.
Renjith, V., Renu, G., & George, A. (2015). Transformational leadership in nursing. International Journal of Scientific Research & Management Studies, 2(2), 112-118.