Leadership styles in Professional Nursing

Running head: Leadership styles in Professional Nursing Name: University: Course: Tutor: Date:  Leadership styles in Professional Nursing A leader is a person who takes responsibility of initiating and directing others towards a given target or even goals. Leadership on its own is believed to be a personality that not everyone possesses. In the nursing profession, there is numerous leadership styles applied on a normal running environment. These styles can either enhance or even diminish the standards of practice of a leader in the profession. A nursing leader should be a person who is able to coordinate others and work for the best management of the patients. There are a number of leadership styles which a nursing leader may employ (Lindholm, Sivberg & Uden, 2000). This may include the following styles: democratic, authoritarian and laissez-faire amongst others. In this essay, I will embark on democratic and authoritarian leadership skills as employed in nursing profession. Let’s start by discussing democratic leadership style. This is well known as a very open, straightforward and transparent style of managing a team. Ideas, suggestions and opinions move freely amongst the team and are discussed transparently. Everyone in the team is treated equally and discussions are freely flowing amongst the entire team. This style is most relevant in a dynamic setting where old ideas are phased off rapidly (Timmins, 2001). This is healthy to the survival of the team as it can easily run out of date. As a leader in this style there are a number of given duties to perform. This may include the following issues: initiating the conversations amongst the team participants and also encouraging members to freely share their ideas and opinions. In addition to that, it is the duty of the leader to synthesize all the views raised and derive the best possible decision concerning the matter. This means that the leader should be able to be impartial and yield a conclusion which does not take sides. It is the duty of the democratic leader to communicate the decision achieved back to the brainstorming team. The leader must be technical enough to ensure that every group member is left satisfied (Lindholm, Sivberg & Uden, 2000). This style may be best applicable at certain occasions. For instance, in a profession like nursing where conditions and situations change frequently democratic leadership style may be best suited. This on its own provides an appropriate environment to guarantee flexibility in adapting better mechanisms of operating things. A major shot coming is mentioned in the sense that this is a slow way of raising an idea. This is because the discussion process is not ruled over but members are free to contribute their opinions (Rogers, 2004). Despite the fact that, the realized idea is believed to be concrete and complete, it may take quite a good deal of time. This leadership style once embraced in an appropriate environment, it is believed to yield the best of all possible results. This is because; the wild and diverse professional team is left to share their ideas freely. The favorable environment provided makes the group members to bring forth the best out of their experience. The main idea behind this style is to capitalize on the varied skills, talents and experiences of the group members (Lindholm, Sivberg & Uden, 2000). In order to earnest this, the leader allows members to discuss their ideas rather than conform to set doctrines and ideologies. The main strength of this leadership style is the combination of varied expertise in the team. The leader may choose to allow members who have given expertise and experience on some subjects to handle them. These specialized team members stand to handle the complex and technical areas relevant to their fields. The informed technical input is brought forth by the expertise involved in the team. This can be counted as the main area where a democratic leader stands to shine (Rogers, 2004). There are some effective principles that should be put into practice by this kind of a leader. To start with, the leader should always keep communication open and transparent. If the relevant ideas raised are openly addressed in front of all, then other members are encouraged to contribute their own. The transparent process of collection and display of ideas stands chances for calling more. This is because each member views himself recognized in the solution finding process involved (Lindholm, Sivberg & Uden, 2000). This kind of leadership goes through when everything is laid out for everyone to examine. Secondly, the leader is expected to focus the discussion proceedings. It is a complicated and difficult process to keep unstructured discussions unto the point. It is a key responsibility of the leader to ensure balanced discussions openly and ensuring operations are within the topic. When the discussions start to digress, the leader should assume his roles and remind the team on the specific goals (Rogers, 2004). It is his duty to ensure that irrelevant points are corrected to make them on point Moreover, the leader should be in a position to respect all ideas raised by the team members. In many cases during group discussion, all raised ideas are not generally accepted amongst the members. This is a normal thing and it is always expected and accepted. It is then the role of the leader to develop an appropriate environment where all those ideas are considered. At the event when some of these ideas are sidelined, marks the beginning of discouraging some members from their effective participation (Lindholm, Sivberg & Uden, 2000). Furthermore, the leader should be in a position to explain. However, this does not mean that he apologizes for anything. The leader should be at a capacity to elaborate to the members who were not part of the research team. He or she should explain that views of members were fully considered. The appropriate communication should be done on the reasons behind the move considered (Rogers, 2004). However, this does not mean that the leader goes around apologizing for the actions and moves once taken. Lastly but not the least, the democratic leader should always be ready to commit. In this kind of a style an individual is provided with numerous possibilities and alternatives. The end result may be difficult to determine because every member is defending his or her views. As a leader in this occasion, deserves to understand the best time to commit the group. However at the committing point he should ensure that everything is very clear to all members and interested parties (Adadevoh, 2003). The other style of leadership that I want to explore is the autocratic style. Many scholars term this leadership style as the classical approach. In this kind of style, the manager makes all necessary effort to retain the greatest authority and command in decision making. The manager does not need to make any consultations from the employees or even allow the...