Leadership Qualities in Nursing

This assignment provides a detailed overview of current valued academic leadership qualities in nursing. It includes a survey of existing research on transformational leadership, servant leadership, and resonant leadership in healthcare organizations. The assignment also discusses the importance of positive organizational cultures in reducing workplace incivility and promoting employee empowerment. Furthermore, it explores the role of leadership in fostering future leadership in quality and safety in health care through systems thinking.

Running head: LEADERSHIP IN HEALTHCARE
Leadership in Healthcare
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

LEADERSHIP IN HEALTHCARE 2
Leadership in Healthcare
Introduction
According to Alligood (2017), leadership is the way individuals behave when
directing the members of a group who have shared goals. There are several types of
leadership. These include transactional, transformational and situational. Transactional
leadership employs use of rewards and punishments. In this kind of leadership, the employees
follow the dictates of leaders. Those employees who perform well and as expected are
rewarded and those that do not meet the expectations are punished. Behaviours that are
rewarded will most likely be repeated while those that are punished will be avoided in future
(Giltinane, 2013). This type of leadership may be very important in emergency situations and
may leave both the hard-working nurses and their patients happy. The nurse will be happy
because of the reward while the patient is happy for effective treatment. Transformational
leadership on the other hand involves a leader with a vision. These leaders have some future
changes that they would want to see in the organizations they lead (Fischer, 2016). In some
cases, the change to be achieved is planned by leaders in conjunction with the subordinates.
The change is described clearly and concisely, and it is regularly communicated to
employees. Each member of the organization is expected to be working in a way that will
lead to the foreseen change. This form of leadership would be of great importance to the
nursing profession. Goals could be set and communicated concisely. Such goals should be
geared towards improved working conditions for nurses and improved clinical outcomes for
patients.
Situational leadership stipulates that there no single best way of leading. The leader
will be most effective if they adapt to the current needs of the organization (Carsten, Uhl-
Bien, West, Patera, and McGregor, 2010). This leadership style is flexible and is ready to

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accommodate any outcomes of the future. No one knows what the future holds. A leadership
style that gives room for any developments of the future seem to be a wiser one. In the
nursing profession and the medical one in general, discoveries continue to be made. This
style of leadership seems to be the best suited for the profession. As indicated by Wong
(2015), effective leadership has been shown to bring about positive transformation in almost
all areas where it was applied. This essay will discuss the importance of strong leadership in
health care. This will be covered under the following topics: important nursing leadership
qualities, leadership and workplace culture, leadership staff turnover and job satisfaction and
leadership and quality care.
Important Nursing Leadership Qualities
Nurses in leadership deal less with patients and their responsibilities shift more to
managing other nurses and keeping their eye on the aim and vision care provision. A nurse in
a leadership position can influence the operations of not only the other nurses but also of the
whole system of care provision. Leadership is pivotal and significantly affects the nature of
care provision including the workplace culture of employees. As Grossman and Valiga
(2016) argues, the goal of effective nursing is ensuring highest quality of care is offered in an
environment where ethical principles are observed and where both the work force and the
patient/clients feel valued. Discussed next are some important nursing leadership qualities.
First is strong communication. As a leader, the nurse should be sure to master the art of
communication. Daily, the leader will interact with a numerous number of people be it other
nurses, doctors and other healthcare staff. Having good skills of communication will enable
the leader to effectively communicate strategies, needs and instructions in a clear, concise
and easily understandable manner.

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The other important quality is delegation. The leader should have an in-depth
understanding of the other members of the healthcare team. In addition to that understanding,
the leader should ensure that they trust other members. Such a move would help the leader be
able to delegate roles since it is practically impossible to expect to accomplish all roles by
themselves. Different members of the team have different strengths and weaknesses. This
will help in identifying who to delegate certain roles. By delegating role based on such
knowledge, there is a high likelihood that others will be more efficient. Overall, the process
of care improved, and the employees are more motivated.
The third important leadership quality is being business-mindedness. The
administrative side of leadership will require that the nurse have a business mind. This is
because there will be a lot of dealing with budgets, scheduling, inventory management and
other issues that may require business knowledge (Nieswiadomy and Bailey, 2017). Though
these will be done by an expert in the area, it is important that the leader know what is
happening and be able to guide the procedures well. The fourth quality is empathy. Empathy
is the ability of being able to understand the other person (fitting in their shoes) but remaining
to be yourself. The leader should be able to empathise with fellow nurses. In this case, the
nurse has been there before and should listen to the issues presented by others empathetically.
The final quality to be discussed is conflict resolution. Problems and challenges arise
in our every day life. How we respond to these challenges is important to our progress. A
leader should have effective ways to resolve any challenges or conflicts that might arise in
the workplace (Delgado and Mitchell, 2016). This could involve constructive criticism to
nurses while still maintaining respect for them.

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Leadership and Workplace Culture
Leaders have an enormous influence on organizational culture. The way the leaders
talk, and act will influence the organizational culture in some way. The behaviour of a leader
inevitably affects the workplace culture. Therefore, a leader who wishes to develop a strong
workplace culture will take a close look at their lives and make sure they are influencing the
workforce towards that. Accountability is a great quality for a leader who wants to create a
work place culture that they would want. Following are some ways through which leaders
influence or could influence the workplace culture.
The first way is through modelling behaviours. According to Hyde, Bresnen,
Hodgson, Bailey and Hassard (2014), it is very hard for a leader to make staff adopt a certain
practice or culture if they have not adopted it themselves. If a leader wants their team to
change in some way, they should serve as an example. When they do this, there is a high
likelihood that other team members will follow suit. In a situation where the leader
encourages the team members to adopt a certain change, but they do not themselves, chances
of achieving the change are very minimal. It seems therefore, that to be effective in achieving
a desired workplace culture, leaders should be the first to demonstrate the culture by their
words and actions.
The second way is establishing a purpose to believe in. Members of the team being
led work better if they know what exactly is expected of them and how it impacts the
organization. Where this is lacking, there is some sort of vacuum and employees may lose a
sense of direction. On the other hand, when the purpose is clearly and precisely provided, the
team members view their employment status as an opportunity to connect with the leader and
head towards a certain direction. Each staff member should be briefed on what is expected of

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them and how that is important to the organization. The commitment and sense of direction
that results leads to a strong workplace culture.
Leaders should also set expectations and come up with mechanisms to help the team
members meet them. As demonstrated by Blais (2015), when these members are provided
with the tools and resources needed to fit within the organizational culture, they are
empowered. A strong workplace culture where staff are committed and dedicated results.
Another way through which leaders can shape the workplace culture is via reinforcing a
culture of accountability (Phillips, Stalter, Dolansky and Lopez, 2016). When leaders hold
people accountable of their action, such people tend to be more dedicated in their jobs. Where
people are not held accountable, instructions may just but fall on deaf ears. Accountability
could be ensured by ways such as having detailed job descriptions where it is clear who
should be doing what, when and how.
Leadership, Staff Turnover and Job Satisfaction
There is a strong correlation between poor leadership and staff turnover. Leaders who
act as dictators and fail to give their employees a listening ear, contribute to staff turnover
(McCann, 2015). It is true that the way an employee is treated by their leaders will greatly
contribute to their willingness to continue with their jobs and be satisfied. When the leader
issues orders without caring the about the opinion of team members, the chances of turnover
of the team members increase and they may eventually leave the job. Leaders therefore have
a key role in ensuring job satisfaction of the staff members.
Another way through which poor leadership could contribute to employee turn over is
through failure to keep promises. In a situation where a leader keeps on failing to deliver their
promises, the employees may become demotivated and quit their jobs (Laschinger et al,
2014). What failure to keep promises does is to make the employee/staff feel lied to and

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consequently lose interest in their jobs. They become unsatisfied with what they do since they
know that any promise made will not be kept (Morton, Fontaine, Hudak and Gallo,
2017). Eventually, this manifests as staff turnover.
If an organization lacks proper communication channels, it is not clear who is
supposed to be doing what, when and how. It is also likely that the efforts of the employees
will neither be noticed nor rewarded. Poor communication is a sign of poor leadership since
good leadership invests in effective communication (Bercaw, 2016). When employee’s
efforts can neither be noticed nor rewarded, their morale diminishes and are no longer
dedicated. They lose satisfaction and eventually leads to quitting. For an organization to
boost the employee morale and keep them satisfied with what they do, leaders should ensure
that there are proper communication channel and that employees who do well in their jobs are
recognized and rewarded (Giger, 2016).
Leadership and Care Quality
There is a significant relationship between leadership and quality of care. For
instance, studies show that substantial associations between leadership and satisfaction of
patients. Good leadership leads to increased quality of care while poor leadership deteriorates
the quality of care (Cherry and Jacob, 2016). Some ways in which leadership influences the
quality of care are going to be discussed next.
Good leadership ensures that nurses and other members of the healthcare team are
satisfied. Satisfaction boosts morale and they become committed to their jobs. They
appreciate their pivotal role in offering care to patients/clients (Spears and Lawrence, 2016).
With this approach, they offer the best quality of care that they can. In this way, the patient
gets the best care that they could receive from healthcare providers. Another way through
which good leadership leads to improved quality of care is through installation of the

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necessary systems (McCann, 2015). Good leadership is concerned with the highest level of
care and therefore endeavours to put in in place as many as necessary systems for offering of
care. This might include ensuring that there are enough wards, healthcare staff and other
necessary factor such as drugs required.
Good leadership focuses on effective procedures and processes. It also ensures proper
communication channels are in place. In addition, it recognizes and awards efforts of the
employees. According to Bayley, Chambers and Donovan (2016), these factors come
together to form close collaboration between the management and the staff. The staff are free
to air any problem or challenges freely. Patients/clients are also given the same opportunity.
The feedback obtained is compiled together and used to address the problems and challenges
accordingly. In this way, the quality of care continuously remains at peak.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are several types of leadership which include transactional,
transformational and situational. Leadership in nursing influences the operations in a
healthcare facility and inevitably affects the quality of care. When leaders possess important
qualities such as strong communication, business mindedness, delegation and conflict
resolution, they relate closely with fellow nurses and bring great positive transformation in
the process of offering care. Leadership is also implicated in workplace culture. Good
leadership leads to a strong workplace culture and satisfied staff. There has been shown to
exist a significant relationship between leadership, staff turnover and job satisfaction. Poor
leadership increases the chances of staff turnover and job satisfaction. Good leadership is
associate with improved quality of care.

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