Nursing Leadership: Styles, Strategies, and Competencies

This report discusses the importance of leadership skills in nursing, including leadership philosophy, styles, and strategies. It also covers leadership competencies and the value of teamwork to leadership.

Running head: NURSING LEADERSHIP
Nursing Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NURSING LEADERSHIP
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Leadership Philosophy.................................................................................................................2
Leadership Styles and Strategies.................................................................................................4
Leadership Styles.....................................................................................................................4
Leadership Strategies...............................................................................................................5
Leadership Competencies............................................................................................................6
Leadership Skills and Behaviour.............................................................................................6
Engaging Culture and Environment........................................................................................6
Leading Change.......................................................................................................................7
Driving Innovation...................................................................................................................7
Reflection on Working with and Leading Teams........................................................................8
Key competencies as an effective team leader........................................................................8
Reaction and behaviour within a team.....................................................................................9
Value of teamwork to leadership.............................................................................................9
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................11

2NURSING LEADERSHIP
Introduction
For nursing at all levels leadership is a primary skill that needs to be adopted by
professional nurses and the nurses who are under training. It can be said that managerial
responsibility holders has the most authority and scope to showcase the managerial skills, but the
recently qualified practitioners in nursing also need to have the confidence and skills that would
make them be able to offer leadership for either the fellow students, colleagues for other health
care assistants. There are many policies and initiatives generated for the nursing professionals
and this has been a growing influence on every aspect for the delivery of healthcare. The
practitioners of nursing do needs to be able to exit the leadership quality and influence it much
confidently.
The following report will thus present the idea of leadership skills in nursing with the
delivery of the leadership philosophy nursing, the styles and strategies that needs to be developed
for the leadership in nursing profession and the leadership competencies that a nurse should
possess both in practitioner and professional life. Lastly there would be a reflection on working
with leading teams and the individual discretion provided on the leadership skills in nursing. The
following report welders give a detailed idea about the leadership skills of nurses and would
most probably change the perception about the professional life of nurses. Mostly, leadership
skills are associated with managerial professionals, how about the importance of leadership
styles and strategies for the nursing professionals will also be described in details with this
report.

3NURSING LEADERSHIP
Leadership Philosophy
When it comes to the context of delivering leadership it is mostly associated with
managerial skills. However, leadership is a much more organic and authentic. It can be
associated with all the professional levels and skills given the choice of profession. Leadership
philosophy can be a simply propounded idea that can be developed by a person's own discretion.
Nursing as a profession where leadership styles needs to be adopted naturally with an effective
concept of leadership. Viewing oneself as a leader is somewhat difficult to understand. Effective
leadership is primary for developing a high quality care that would ensure the safety of the
patients and a facilitation of positive staff development. Leadership as a concept is what is
believed to be making a person share and consistent to a person's on principles that would guide
to a decision. There would always be people who would be disagreeing on a leader's decision.
However, it is understandable that if a person is consistent in taking his or her decisions they
would be respected by even the people who would we disagree into their decisions.
A leader is not someone who has the higher authority and it displays it so. Instead of
leader would be one who spends more time working between the employees and listening to
them. A leader would be more like a man or woman in the crowd to make sure that just not the
delivery of services but the people associated with the organisation who are housing the services
are also listened to and the requirements and needs from the organisation are met. The
philosophy of a leadership quality in a person does not depend upon the profession but it is a
unified idea of making the subordinates follows the ideals that the person possesses without the
display of following orders. A leader would not order the fellow employees but would lead to the
similar ideals that the person possesses including the requirements of the employees and the
grievances they have over the organisation. Leader prospects the point of view of an employee

4NURSING LEADERSHIP
and makes him or her available for the questions that they have. It might be a questionable issue
that why nurses should develop leadership styles, but in various research as it has been found
that leadership is a multifaceted process that helps in the identification of a unified goal order
target that motivates people into acting on the event and provides necessary support and
motivation that helps in achievement of the goals that has been mutually negotiated.
Thus, the philosophy behind the leadership styles that needs to be adopted by the nurses
in the healthcare industry provides benefit to the entire organisation of the working operations
within a healthcare industry. This in turn works as an improved management of the operations in
the healthcare industry binary resulting to the better advantages of hospitality and services
provided to the patients.
Leadership Styles and Strategies
Leadership Styles
When it comes to the management of nurses, tennis manager is required to proceed as a
leader who has the ability to guide every person that is associated with the welfare of the patients
within a nursing unit. Being a leader it is his or her responsibility that regulates all the necessity
is that has been directly all indirectly affecting the performance and the quality of services that is
provided to the patients within any healthcare organisation. As a leader and as a nurse it is the
responsibility of the person to research through the different types of leadership styles that are
involved in the nursing industry. The Leadership styles that are preferred according to personal
discretion can be Affiliative leadership style. The affiliated leadership style is not easy for
achieving. To make this leadership style within a nursing industry or healthcare organisation
successful leader is required to be great at making relationships. It is the best leadership style

5NURSING LEADERSHIP
when there is a need of fixing bitterness or reducing the workload or stress that gives rise to
frustration within the group of people. It is the duty of the leader to motivate the team members
in the best possible way and effective leadership style is extremely effective to induce team
harmony. The augmented moral or rebuilding of broken trust is affected by the effective
leadership style and it increases the introduction and communication between the different
numbers within healthcare organisation. However there are also some disadvantages as it cannot
be used as the only source and if this leadership style feels it can lead to Extreme poor
performances and can also result into a matter not being solved ever.
Leadership Strategies
In my belief, the strategies to implement leadership have become a bit ambiguous as it is
very difficult to say which strategy would have a direct effect on the organisation in the bottom
line. role of The reader is however is to influence and encourage the people for engaging into an
action structured around a unified and common goal. it is to mean that the draconian or authority
of leadership strategies that is a little less understandable in the workforce of the organisations
today I have not been able to understood the particular process of employing the leadership
strategies. Especially in the nursing unit of any healthcare industry it is the ability of influencing
the action only for the betterment of the patients and improving the operations and management
of the healthcare industry. As a leader it is essential that vision and common unified goal is
defined clearly amongst all the work force that is serving the patient as a nurse. The inspirational
leadership strategies create a picture of the future of the organisation and when it comes to the
nursing leadership it creates a future picture about the services that as a nurse a person can
improve in them to provide to the patients. Not just individual improvement of providing
services should be imbibed in the other nurses by the nurse manager, but it is also important that

6NURSING LEADERSHIP
he or she recognise is the efforts that a particular nurse is putting into the services after being
influenced by the leader. This means that teamwork and individual work needs to be encouraged
and recognition must be handed over as a reward.
Leadership Competencies
The ability of a person in the healthcare Industry that inspires organisational and
individual excellence create a shared vision and manages the strategic ends of the organisation so
successful performance. This again comes through the leadership competencies that I possess
and it can be described as below:
Leadership Skills and Behaviour
Deducing what I possess of the leadership competency would be the authority of
articulating and communicating the objectives, the mission and the priorities of an organisation
to both the internal as well as the external entities. I can incorporate the management techniques
as well as the theoretical techniques both into proper leadership activities that can be followed by
the unified management and nursing workforce. I also have the competency of analysing
problems and imbibing out solution from it for the encouraging in the decision making both from
the personal point of you and the point of view of the team.
Engaging Culture and Environment
I have the ability that would help in the creation of an organisational climate that would
be built on a mutual trust and transparency as well as it would focus on improving the services of
the teamwork to support diversity. In addition to that I level of commitment would be
encouraged by me from the aspect of the employees with the help of establishment and
communication that would compel the organisational goals and visions. I would also encourage

7NURSING LEADERSHIP
the others to hold the self and also myself to be accountable for surfacing the goals that the
organisation has already set.
Leading Change
Change in the entire organisational structure can make the professional to adapt to
changes that has not been in their expertise. In this case I would help in the promotion of leading
in the change with ongoing learning and improvement of the organisation gradually with the
learning process. I also have the competency that responds to the need of change and I would
also imbibe in the natural change gradually within the organisation which is required. As a leader
I would look into the matter of the bigger picture where individual improvement can bring in the
operational management and gradual improvement of the entire organisation.
Driving Innovation
There is a drive of innovation within the organisation and I have the ability to accept it to
encourage the driver city that would thoroughly support the innovation process with for the
creativity and improvement. I understand that there is diversity of both culture and linguistics
present within the people working in a single unit and I respect the fact. I would like to advocate
for the professional and social responsibility competencies as well in case of any innovative
procedure or any other operational procedure. It is not just that I would advocate for the
participation of the workforce into the healthcare policy initiative for the betterment of the
patients but I would always advocate for the rights and responsibilities that the patients and their
families deserving of as per the health care policy.
There also aspects of nursing leadership competencies that I am not so strong at. I would
like to develop the aspects that I am not so strong. I cannot reciprocate to the facilitation and

8NURSING LEADERSHIP
negotiation and managing the business competencies behind the health and healthcare
environment. I would like to be more updated to the laws and regulations as well as a general
and financial management in the business competencies of healthcare organisation. The
organisational dynamics and governance which effectively acknowledges the organisational
system theories and behaviour are the aspect that I would like to extend my expertise further
into.
Reflection on Working with and Leading Teams
Key competencies as an effective team leader
As a key team leader I have the leadership competencies that would work for any
organisation and especially working for the leading teams within an organisation. I have the
social intelligence that is just not considered as one of the best predictors of effective leadership
but it is also somewhat poly understood and not researched more. However, this is a skill net is a
broader Idea and cannot be seen in terms of the understanding of dynamics and situation in a
social environment. The ability of the team leader works effectively with various social
situations. Social intelligence is a competency that I possess which helps in the constellation of
social performance including the sensitivity to situations and a role playing skill development
which is very important for effective leadership.
I also possess interpersonal skills that I have developed by becoming an active listener
and working on conversation and speaking skills. This is available more relationship oriented
aspect of social effectiveness but the soft skill of a leader is by far the best way a person can
communicate to their subordinates. I also have emotional intelligence which is a key competency
complimenting to the social intelligence. This makes me handle the emotional situations well at

9NURSING LEADERSHIP
all emotional levels and the understanding of the situation in tune is developed through
nonverbal cues.
Reaction and behaviour within a team
In a team environment I behave as the most prudent cardinal entity and I behave as the
wisest person who has the ability of seeing through the perspective without being opinionated
and considers the point of view of other people as well. I also possess the Cardinal virtue of
fortitude or courage which helps me being rooted into development of my strong personal values
even within a team. I do not lose my individuality even within hundreds of different people
within a team and I have the courage of standing by my principal all alone. I even possess the
higher order of interpersonal skill that help me resolve any kind of interpersonal conflicts and I
can also call upon the adjunction when members within a team are engaged in a conflict.
Value of teamwork to leadership
I believe that teamwork is the stepping stone of a person for increasing to further
leadership skills. A leader who is not able to work with as a team is almost as failure as a person
with no career at all. In today's world most of the jobs that we are engaged in are involved with
the interaction and communication with others who do not even belong in the same line of
profession. This is the way by which effective teamwork becomes critical for any organisation
irrespective of the industry it is working for. It is more effective in the nursing industry since the
patients that get admitted into hospitals do not have their hold over the varied culture they belong
to. The patient can be of multiple linguistic and cultural variations and only a leader working in a
team work would be able to put in a communication mode into the diversified service provision.
Just not the patient but there is also possibilities that the team that a person is working in to has
varied cultural and linguistic differences. The diversified skills possessed by a team member

10NURSING LEADERSHIP
leads to success by making use of every opportunity that the person has in engaging team work
for developing the effective communication skills. Teamwork motivates how unity shall be
implemented in a workplace and it helps in fostering friendship and loyalty. I believe that close
knit relationships can be motivated between employees given that they spend most of the time in
a day together. Every individual has different position of talent weakness communication skills
strengths and habits. Putting these individual positions of diversify talents together would only
imposed benefit to the overall goals and objectives of an organisation and would lead towards
the speedy and seamless achievement of the goals and objectives.

11NURSING LEADERSHIP
Bibliography
Blair, K. A., & Jansen, M. P. (Eds.). (2015). Advanced practice nursing: Core concepts for
professional role development. Springer Publishing Company.
Cantu, A. G. (2017). Impacting Practice: Using a Poverty Simulation to Develop Leadership
Skills in Baccalaureate Nursing Students.
Dahlin, C. (2018). Palliative Nursing Leadership Intensive (P03). Journal of Pain and Symptom
Management, 55(2), 548-549.
Démeh, W., & Rosengren, K. (2015). The visualisation of clinical leadership in the content of
nursing education—a qualitative study of nursing students' experiences. Nurse education
today, 35(7), 888-893.
Endacott, R., Bogossian, F. E., Cooper, S. J., Forbes, H., Kain, V. J., Young, S. C., ... &
First2Act Team. (2015). Leadership and teamwork in medical emergencies: performance
of nursing students and registered nurses in simulated patient scenarios. Journal of
clinical nursing, 24(1-2), 90-100.
Felton, A., & Royal, J. (2015). Skills for nursing practice: Development of clinical skills in pre-
registration nurse education. Nurse education in practice, 15(1), 38-43.
Foli, K. J., Braswell, M., Kirkpatrick, J., & Lim, E. (2014). Development of leadership behaviors
in undergraduate nursing students: A service-learning approach. Nursing education
perspectives, 35(2), 76-82.
Grossman, S., & Valiga, T. M. (2016). The new leadership challenge: Creating the future of
nursing. FA Davis.

12NURSING LEADERSHIP
Huber, D. (2017). Leadership and Nursing Care Management-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Johnson, C. S., & Smith, C. M. (2018). Preparing Nursing Professional Development
Practitioners in Their Leadership Role: Management and Leadership Skills. Journal for
nurses in professional development, 34(2), 99-100.
Lee, M. R. (2016). A study on the variables associated with leadership life skills in nursing
students. Journal of Digital Convergence, 14(1), 65-73.
Lynch, B. M., McCance, T., McCormack, B., & Brown, D. (2018). The development of the
Person‐centred Situational Leadership Framework: Revealing the being of person‐
centredness in nursing homes. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(1-2), 427-440.
Moorley, C., & Chinn, T. (2016). Developing nursing leadership in social media. Journal of
advanced nursing, 72(3), 514-520.
Reem, A. D., Kitsantas, P., & Maddox, P. J. (2014). The impact of residency programs on new
nurse graduates' clinical decision-making and leadership skills: A systematic
review. Nurse Education Today, 34(6), 1024-1028.
Roche, M. R., Duffield, C. M., Dimitrelis, S., & Frew, B. (2015). Leadership skills for nursing
unit managers to decrease intention to leave.
Thompson, S. A., & Miller, K. L. (2018). Disruptive trends in higher education: Leadership
skills for successful leaders. Journal of Professional Nursing, 34(2), 92-96.
Won, H. J. (2015). Effects of self-leadership and stress coping on college life adjustment in
nursing students. The Korean Journal of Health Service Management, 9(1), 123-131.

13NURSING LEADERSHIP
Young, L., & Choi, T. (2015). Reflections on the innovative use of storytelling to develop
students' leadership skills, Pt 4: Faculty Perspectives. Canadian Journal of Nursing
Informatics, 10(3).