Leadership Assessment
What personal strengths do you have that would make you an effective nurse leader? What potential gaps might you need to address to improve your ability to be an effective nurse leader?
As a future DNP-prepared nurse, you will be called upon as a leader in your field, a leader in your practice, and a leader in your organization. Throughout your program of study, you will develop the skills, strategies, and knowledge to not only harness this role successfully but to do so at a high level of achievement and performance.
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However, everyone must acknowledge both their own strengths and weaknesses, as a leader, and identify potential areas of improve to enhance these capabilities.
For this Assignment, you will explore your strengths and potential gaps based on the nurse leadership competencies provided. After assessing your performance, reflect on potential goals you might set to improve as a nurse leader. You will also reflect on how this goal setting and self-examination will not only improve your nursing practice but also your healthcare organization.
To Prepare:
Review the nurse leadership competencies presented in the Learning Resources for this week.
Reflect on these competencies, and consider your own personal strengths and potential gaps in relation to these competencies.
Consider potential goals for your leadership development in relation to the nurse leadership competencies presented.
The Assignment: (4–5 pages)
Explain your self-assessment in relation to the nurse leadership competencies. Be sure to identify your strengths and potential gaps in relation to these competencies.
Describe at least four goals for nurse leadership development that you would like to pursue, given the results of your self-assessment. Be specific.
Explain why these goals are pertinent to your development as a nurse leader. How will developing these leadership competencies support your healthcare organization or nursing practice? Be specific.
Leadership Assessment
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Leadership Assessment
Nurse executives do not only strive to improve the health of patients in the hospital setting but they also ensure that the communities they serve receive quality and safe healthcare. Their primary role is to strengthen healthcare systems to empower them to provide quality and safe care that will not only improve the health of patients but also of the public (AONE, AONL, 2015). The constant rise in the complexities of the healthcare needs of both patients and populations call for the need to improve healthcare delivery processes. This can be achieved when nurse executives possess relevant competencies that they can apply to drive the strategic efforts of healthcare systems (American Hospital Association, 2021). Through self-reflection, nurse executives can understand the leadership strengths that they can build further as well as weaknesses that they need to improve to effectively lead healthcare systems. When they are formulating goals to improve their areas of weaknesses, nurse leaders should ensure that they create leadership development that will support their organizations as well as nursing practice (Rowitz, 2018). The purpose of this paper is to analyze personal leadership strengths and weaknesses including the goals that I will implement to improve leadership competencies.
Nurse Executive Competencies
Self-assessment results have revealed a number of strengths in relation to Nurse Executive Competencies. The American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) and the American Organization for Nurse Executives (AONE) developed five categories of competencies that nurse executives are required to possess to be able to effectively steer health systems that will provide quality and safe healthcare to patients and populations. The competencies include; communication-related competencies, leadership-related competencies, knowledge-related competencies, professionalism-related competencies, and competencies related to business skills (AONE, AONL, 2015). Out of the five competency areas, I have tremendous strengths in communication-related, professionalism-related, and knowledge-related competencies. However, I need to improve leadership knowledge and skills in relation to some business skills and leadership competencies.
Leadership Strengths
I possess sufficient knowledge and skills in relation to professionalism competencies. For example, I often work collaboratively with stakeholders across the care continuum to develop goals with measurable patient outcomes. Besides, I normally foster an environment that encourages performance transparency that is focused on patient outcomes and organizational culture. In this manner, I am able to demonstrate professionalism and personal accountability (AONE, AONL, 2015). According to Ledlow and Stephens (2018), today’s nurse leaders should possess effective data management skills for enhanced application of evidence-based practice. I possess evidence-based clinical and management practice competencies as evidenced by my increased ability to utilize technology to analyze large datasets across the care continuum and create platforms for disseminating findings and communicating recommendations for action.
I also have strong leadership competencies aligned with knowledge of the healthcare environment. For example, I have an adequate understanding of the variation between medical care models and population health models. With this clinical practice knowledge, I can reorganize health systems to enhance the delivery of safe and quality health care to both patients and populations (AONE, AONL, 2015). Shirey (2017) emphasizes that effective nurse leaders should ensure that nursing practice in their organizations is informed by current research-based evidence. I possess these competencies as I am able to maintain knowledge of current nursing practice and the roles and functions of patient care team members. According to Marshall and Broome (2017), contemporary nurse executives are required to be in a position to assess their organizations, identify patient care issues that require improvement, and implement appropriate leadership styles to bring about quality improvement. I possess sufficient skills which I can apply to articulate the safety and quality programs that are aimed at improving patient and population health (AONE, AONL, 2015). These competencies serve as the sources of success in my role as a nurse executive.
Another important category of nurse executive competencies that I possess are those related to communication and relationship building. A nurse executive must be in a position to communicate effectively with others, manage relations, influence behaviors, and manage diversity (AONE, AONL, 2015). I can effectively resolve and manage conflict in an organization with direct reports and colleagues. I also possess excellent negotiation skills which I can effectively apply to win contracts and health care improvement programs (AONE, AONL, 2015). Again, building trusting and collaborative relationships with stakeholders is part of my nurse executive competencies. For instance, I often demonstrate interprofessional partnerships across the continuum of care in hospitals with patients and in the community with populations. I can also create a healthcare environment where employees recognize and value cultural diversity among themselves, patients, their families, and the community. I encourage diversity inclusion by assessing the practice environment and developing indicators that support cultural competency and non-discrimination.
Weaknesses
Despite my leadership strengths described above, I must admit that I have some leadership competency deficits that I am planning to improve in the coming months. Although I currently possess some leadership-related competencies, I feel that I still have limited succession planning skills. Healthcare systems are constantly undergoing reforms based on changes in industry trends. A nurse executive should be able to prepare an organization in advance to face reforms (Marshall & Broome, 2017; Ledlow and Stephens, 2018). Unfortunately, I am still facing challenges in addressing an organization’s need for succession planning at all levels of the system. Moreover, I still need to learn how to extend mentoring opportunities to the community at large, especially with professional organizations and academic institutions (AONE, AONL, 2015). Improving in this area will greatly improve my leadership competencies.
While I adequately understand that nurse executives should possess business skills, I want to admit that I am still lagging behind in this area. As Rowitz (2018) explains, business management skills are fundamental competencies that nurse executives should possess. The American Hospital Association (2021) has also reported the relevance of business management skills for nurse executives. During personal leadership assessment, I discovered that I need to improve my financial management skills and learn to apply them with organizational and population-based systems (AONE, AONL, 2015). Financial management is the cornerstone of organizational success and the healthcare industry is not an exception.
Goals
From the results of my nurse executive competencies assessment, it is evident that I still have competency deficits in a number of areas that I need to improve. Goals serve to give direction and they will guide initiatives that I will implement to improve my competencies. Besides, goals will act as measures for evaluating the effectiveness of the chosen improvement initiatives and to establish whether the desired outcomes have been met (Shirey, 2017). The following goals will direct my leadership improvement plan;
- To work closely with successful nurse executives in the next three months with the aim of learning financial management skills.
- To seek help from my supervisor in the next two weeks to obtain guidance on how to conduct successful succession planning.
- To engage my colleagues during practice in the next one week to learn how to plan and manage change in the organization and in the community.
- To enroll in a nurse leadership academic programme in the next six months to improve my overall leadership skills, knowledge, and performance.
Implications
The goals named above are pertinent to my development as a nurse executive. Precisely, they will enable me to develop important leadership competencies that support organizational performance and enhance nursing practice. Succession planning helps both the organization and healthcare professionals to transition from a lower level to greater heights. Therefore, working with my supervisor to help me improve my succession planning skills with enable me to contribute to organizational and professional success (AONE, AONL, 2015). Moreover, the success of healthcare organizations depends on effective financial management. Therefore, learning financial management skills through benchmarking and by advancing my education will prepare me to be a nurse executive who will oversee effective financial management across health systems for enhanced organizational performance and patients’/populations’ health.
Conclusion
Nurse executives should engage in self-reflection to be able to understand their leadership strengths and weaknesses. In this paper, the author has analyzed personal leadership strengths and weaknesses including the goals that will be implemented to improve leadership competencies. The named goals are pertinent to the nurse’s development because they will direct the development of important leadership competencies that support organizational performance and enhance nursing practice.
References
American Hospital Association. (2021). American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL). Retrieved from https://www.aonl.org/about/overview
AONE, AONL. (2015). AONL nurse manager competencies. Chicago, IL: AONE, AON
Ledlow, G. & Stephens, J. (2018). Leadership for health professionals: Theory, skills, and applications (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning
Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Rowitz, L. (2018). Essentials of leadership in public health. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Shirey, M. (2017). Leadership practices for healthy work environments. Nursing Management (Springhouse), 48(5), 42–50. doi: 10.1097/01.numa.0000515796.79720.e6.