Leadership In A Diverse Society

While assessing my management style through different topics discussed within this week’s lessons it has given me the opportunity to get to know myself better as a potential manager and has given me insight on different topics that has helped me develop my assessment. This will include, the different leadership theories that I feel are pertinent to my assessment, as well as what leadership versus management really means. I will also talk about what leadership nursing organizations can influence in my management style. Finally, I will discuss my “time management assessment” and how it can influence my management style. All these topics will help me develop and apply different concepts in my current position as an ER nurse.

In management, there are different theories, of those a couple pertain to me according to my assessment. Behavioral theory reports “how great leaders are made not born with it” (Porter-O’Grady, Malloch,2016). In this case I believe that the environment that you are exposed to can mold you into who you are today. I don’t believe genes have anything to do with great leaders. For example, a poor young child who is born with awesome “ leadership like genes,” who has not been exposed to any sort of education or any leadership guidance will not develop leadership like characteristics. One is like a rose, born with the capabilities to grow into a beautiful flower, however, it needs water daily to develop into a beautiful flower. I also would like to acknowledge the participative theory, since it encourages input from the other team members. I believe in gathering ideas and brainstorming as a team rather than one person doing everything themselves. Transformational theories talks about picking out the most important tasks that need to be accomplished and then providing guidance. I believe that a leader has to have the ability to keep people in track so that goals are reached. It also describes how this kind of leader should be someone who has good work ethics, and this is extremely important when you have people looking up to you for guidance. These are the few theories that really stood out to me the most and whom I would use as a leader.

A lot of people do not know that leadership and management have two different meanings. According to our readings, it describes “leadership as person who has the capabilities to influence people to be able to reach one’s goal”. (Porter-O’Grady, Malloch,2016) Leaders have associates within their work environment who work together as a team. Managers on the other hand, have people below them that do what they are told to do for their job description. Leaders have the ability to guide associates and create a situation and a goal, compared to managers can guide according to policies and procedures they follow and create end results. I consider myself more in the leadership side since it seems to have more of a meaningful role because it requires one to build relationships and not to just follow systems and processes. I feel that as a leader, one is able to make more of an internal change within partners because of the ability to lead by encouraging partner’s input and therefore making a more meaningful change. Knowing the difference between leadership and management will help develop meaningful changes and goals to be reached.

Professional nursing organizations influence leadership development and also offer mentoring. I believe that being involved in nursing organizations will expand one’s horizon’s and will promote growth and respect within a leader. Organizations such as the (ANA) American Nurses Association and the (ENA) The Emergency Nurses Association could allow me to grow within my ER department, since it allows interaction with other nurses, clinical resources and offer continuing education access that I can look into.

I also believe that as a leader, one must be familiar with our state regulations for different policy and procedures, therefore, States Nurses Organizations can provide such guidance. These points all serve as important resources that a nurse manager should have in order to fall back to for guidance and create growth with other partners in the ED. Time management is everything even in any day to day activity but most importantly it is imperative in nursing. I took the time management assessment and scored a 24, which means I fall into “like most people” category. This to me means, I have room to make time management improvements such as maintaining a more detailed note of my activities and obligations. This will develop my management skills by being able to physically see what is most important and being able to see what has been accomplished within the targeted time. I am proud to say that I did get points for being able to multi task, which is an important skill in nursing. I also feel strongly that being able to budget money is important, because as a leader, if one has a budget for a projected project and goes over the limit it could make goals difficult to reach and can cause everyone in the department to get affected by it. Time management means everything in nursing and therefore one must be very aware of it at all times.

Finally, owning a leadership theory and knowing the difference between leadership and management can in influence one’s work environment. It helps mold you into the person you want to be seen as when it comes to leadership. We should apply our beliefs at work; every time we get stuck in a situation that has to do with patient care, always stop and analyze our beliefs’ and look for recourses that will help us make the best decisions for our patients. Belonging to professional nursing organizations not only educate you but also provides strong resources for networking. Time management is everything when it comes to nursing, so therefore knowing what in “time management” needs improvement will allow for goals to be reached smoothly. All these topics have helped me in my management assessment and has given me insight in what needs improvement.