In the contemporary world, applying conventional leadership approaches is highly not likely to augment employee performance. Workers in an organization must have systematic self-assessments to benchmark themselves with other better counterparts globally to help improve their performance (Zenger & Folkman, 2013; Marshall & Broome, 2017). There is a need to leverage fast growth and profitability regardless of the prevailing global financial crunch. In our healthcare organization, we had to revamp our creativity to have ultimate performance improvement. Though self-evaluations established leadership expertise, strategic, and integrity levels, the lack of adequate prior training on the self-evaluation methods significantly hampered the whole endeavor.
I encouraged the organization to have self-feedback on the leaders based on their performance. Zenger and Folkman’s 8 minutes online self-assessment tool on the leaders’ performance entails scores compared to other 45,000 leaders globally (Zenger & Folkman, 2013). We used Zenger and Folkman’s assessment tool to self-assess leaders’ performance. The feedback gave a face-lift of communication between the management and the workers. Continuous feedback enabled the administration to have timely interventions when an employee was underperforming to minimize negative situations that could spiral out of control. The evaluations helped the leaders to establish their level of satisfaction and engagement in their responsibilities. Some of the competencies evaluated are strategic thinking, integrity, development of others, championing for change, the exhibition of expertise, and focus on results. Some leaders opposed the self-assessment method, arguing that it was disruptive and poised that it was more suitable for employees and not management. Self-assessment helped leaders have a rough idea of how they performed against their counterparts from the global online database to help revamp their performance.
Before implementing the self-assessment by the leaders, there was the essence for ample training on the nature, admissibility, and applicability of Zenger and Folkman’s eight-minute assessment tool. The lack of enough information on how the assessment was essential to leaders caused the resentment. By offering appropriate training, the leaders will learn that they are not exceptional in self-evaluating their competence to identify areas that ought to be improved. Training on the significance of self-assessment could have helped the leaders embrace the strategy to improve their performance.
In the year 2020, I knew that there was an essence for improving the working relationship between the senior and junior staff. Still, due to my busy schedule, I chose not to spearhead the training process. Eventually, there were eminent frustrations and demotivation among some junior staff in our healthcare organization. Following the challenges resulting from the poor relationship between the senior and junior workforce in the organization, I created avenues that augmented training. According to Dreher and Glasgow (2017), there is a need for leadership consciousness through training in an organization. I might have to do adequate planning that best uses my available time to facilitate training sessions. In my diary, I will have to set a specific time for training in the organization. Training will take place for a whole week after every three months in a year. These sessions will be lasting for thirty minutes immediately from 4.30 pm to 5 pm. I also purpose to collect workers’ opinions from all the suggestion boxes and take necessary actions. By establishing an appropriate timeframe for regular workers’ training in my diary, I will eventually improve the working relationship between the junior and senior employees.
In 2017, I successfully spearheaded an initiative that focused on motivating the employees in our healthcare organization. According to Dreher and Glasgow (2017), a leader must be conscious of all the challenges in an organization and formulate appropriate solutions. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation among healthcare workers encourages workers to give their best. I introduced free time and incentives to junior workers who exhibited exemplary performance, making our workforce more devoted to their work. We also identified unique potentials in each employee and ensured that responsibilities were inimitable and exciting to make them more motivated. I also championed a working relationship that respected the individual cultural differences. Suggestion boxes were influential in establishing various employees’ motivation strategies. I backed employees’ motivation in the healthcare organization by introducing incentives, free time, making responsibilities more interesting, respecting cultural differences, and working on employees’ opinions.
Following the successful initiative focusing on enhancing employee motivation, I learned about different insights from experience. Firstly, offering free times and incentives to leaders with exemplary performance significantly motivated junior workers to give their best in the organization. Secondly, suggestion boxes are of significance in getting opinions and complaints from the junior staff. Thirdly, there is a need to formulate strategies that augment the embrace of cultural differences amongst the workers. In the future, I will spearhead the inception of structures that will also give responsibilities to workers from minority ethnicities. It is plausible to bolster incentives and time off to offer more motivation to the employees in the future. Views from the suggestion boxes need immediate action to give more inspiration to the junior staff. The perceptions and wants from the workforce are the primary external expectations that will significantly influence my leadership expectations. Positive perceptions, especially gotten from the suggestion boxes, from the employees will directly translate to the effectiveness of the new strategies. I will have to formulate policies that are in line with the individual and organizational wants to have a unanimous contribution by the employees within the organization.
References
Dreher, H. M., & Glasgow, M. E. S. (2017). Role development for doctoral advanced nursing practice (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
Marshall, E. S. & Broome, M.E. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2013). The eight-minute test that can reveal your effectiveness as a leader. Harvard Business Review. Web.