Assignment: Leadership Styles Reflection Essay

Sample Answer for Assignment: Leadership Styles Reflection Essay Included After Question

This assignment focuses on the importance of self-assessment and reflection.

Self-Assessment

Self-awareness is essential for developing leadership skills. Recognizing your own strengths, weaknesses, and values, and understanding emotional intelligence and learning styles can help you to be a more effective nurse leader.

For this assignment, you have the opportunity to take a variety of self-assessments to learn more about yourself and identify your assets and weaknesses as a leader. This will assist you in discovering how you can improve your own self-leadership skills. You will be asked to think critically about your results and submit a reflection as directed below.

Select three of the following self-assessments and complete them. Be sure to document the results of each assessment to assist you in completing the reflection portion of the assignment below.

Emotional Intelligence Assessment: “Emotional Intelligence Test”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/tests/personality/emotional-intelligence-test

Personality Assessment: “Free Personality Test”: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

Learning Styles Assessment: “Values Profile”: http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/

Values Assessment: “Values Profile”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/tests/personality/values-profile

Values Assessment: “Rokeach Values Survey”: http://faculty.wwu.edu/tyrank/Rokeach%20Value%20Survey.pdf

Diversity Assessment: “Cultural Competence Self-Test”: http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/SENIORS-DISABILITIES/DD/PROVIDERS-PARTNERS/SCPAconference/Cultural%20Competence%20Self-Test.pdf

Self-Assessment Reflection

Becoming self-aware is an ongoing process requiring introspection. The more often people practice self-reflection, the more opportunities they have to understand their own behaviors and adapt their approaches to working with other people, which can improve both your own and other’s abilities to meet their professional goals.

In a 750-1,000 word reflective essay, address the following:

Briefly summarize why you selected each self-assessment and the results you obtained on each assessment.

Identify the leadership style that closely aligns to your philosophy of care, and explain what appeals to you about that style.

Reflect on how you might incorporate elements of that particular style as you exercise leadership in a practice or health care organization setting.

Discuss any particular areas for improvement the assessments helped you identify and some steps for improving your leadership capabilities.

You are required to cite three to five sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Rubric

Attempt Start Date: 

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: Assignment: Leadership Styles Reflection Essay

Title: Assignment: Leadership Styles Reflection Essay

Formulating a high quality and performance-oriented nursing team is now the desire of majority of healthcare facilities. Nurse leaders are making efforts to ensure that they maintain a committed and motivated workforce that will aim at going beyond the basic requirements of their work (Fischer, 2016). It is worth mentioning that the success of any employee is based on their efforts and the influence of their leader (Nguyen, Mia, Winata & Chong, 2017). Therefore, any emerging nurse leader should develop the basic principles of the transformational leadership style. This paper will focus on the assessment of my personality, cultural competence and emotional intelligence as well as discuss the transformational leadership styles.

Assessment Summary and Results

I selected the tests of emotional intelligence, personality and cultural competence to find out about myself and the abilities I have in relating with people that are not like me or whom I have differences with both emotionally, culturally and in terms of personality. In relation to the emotional intelligence test, I scored 70% which means that I am reasonably skilled in reference to my core capacity to identify, perceive and express emotions. However, I believe that I can improve my emotional intelligence in order to perceive, identify and express myself to my patients and members of my healthcare team. Despite having a high score in relation to the cultural competence, I have a problem of assuming that people of who do not communicate in the language of the dominant culture cannot express themselves fully, which means there is need for them to learn the language. Consequently, when communicating to clients I will try as much as possible to use language interpreters who are well versed with the language of the local population. In relation to personality assessment I realized that I am not neither exclusively an introvert nor a perfect extrovert.

Leadership Style that Closely Aligns to My philosophy of Care

The most appealing style of leadership to me is the transformational leadership style. I prefer it to such styles as autocratic and transactional since it focuses on improving the perception of people on the essence of work as well as the activities carried out in an organization. In this manner, people will effectively take part in the cause of the organization and work towards attaining both the common and individual goals (Echevarria, Patterson & Krouse, 2017). The style makes it possible for a leader to identify the needs of other employees and help them build their moral profile while following a certain set of ethics and skills (Fischer, 2016). The most recent studies show that organizations that empower their transformational leaders increase the job satisfaction of the healthcare team which translates to a high quality of healthcare delivery.

On top of that, healthcare organizations are faced with a broad spectrum of challenges with the major one being transforming the manner in which patients receive high quality of care that is “pocket-friendly at the same time. It is worth noting that having on board those who offer hands-on care is an essential part of this paradigm shift. Transformational leadership unlike the transactional one that punishes mistakes, views errors as learning opportunities (Fischer, 2016). It also encourages innovation which collectively ensure that workers contribute significantly towards the improvement of care delivery to the patients (Echevarria, Patterson & Krouse, 2017). Consequently, transformational leadership has the capacity to revitalize from the point of care. Notably, transformational leadership style ensures low turnover rates of the nurses which is key to the provision of high quality of care to the patients.

Incorporating Leadership Style

I believe that any professional nurse leader should be equipped with transformational leadership skills in order to foster the much-needed changes in a bid to lead the rest of the healthcare team. I will implement the transformational leadership through setting goals that are aimed at enhancing customer service, come up with initiatives and track development through the use of a patient surveys in which case I will ensure the members of my team are fully engaged (Fischer, 2016). I will hold a staff meeting and ensure that everybody attends in which I will communicate to them our goal of improving customer satisfaction and explain to the them that the quality of care has dropped as evidenced by the significant number of complaints (Fischer, 2016). I will be more specific to them about the major complains of patients such taking too long to respond to patient’s press of the call light.

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I will then have a conversation with them to find ways of reducing the response time when the call light is pressed which will be

key in enhancing customer satisfaction. I will also encourage my colleagues to air their views and put into consideration their concerns such as burnout and fatigue after long working hours (Cheng, Bartram, Karimi & Leggat, 2016). I will interact with them with high regard and decorum and I will ensure to be positive throughout the brainstorming session (Fischer, 2016). Once as a group we develop a goal and an initiative, I will then choose to pilot it. Going by the example of improving the quality of care the group might suggest to have the nurses spread out in the entire facility rather than having them assembled at the office which will shorten the response time (Cheng, Bartram, Karimi & Leggat, 2016). The initiative will be a success if the number of patient complaints drops after a couple of weeks or months. I will then call a follow up meeting to discuss the outcomes of the initiative to find out what might have worked out and what went against the expectations.

Areas for Improvement

In order to become the best transformational nurse leader which will bring positive changes to the future of nursing, I need to focus on increasing my nature of being extroverted. I need to carry out my duties without waiting for other people’s approval or validation. Additionally, I need to walk the talk by leading as an example of other members of the healthcare team. On top of that, I need to be more intuitive but make decisions that are evidence based.

Assignment: Leadership Styles Reflection Essay Conclusion

Cultural competence, emotional intelligence and development of a good personality will be key in fostering my nursing leadership skills. The transformational style of leadership plays an essential role in reducing nurses’ turnover rates through enhancing their job satisfaction. The staff is motivated to make major contributions which improves their workplace which translates to leaders reaching their departmental goals. Consequently, in the ever-evolving world of healthcare transformational leadership is part and parcel of modern healthcare delivery.

This assignment focuses on the importance of self-assessment and reflection.

Self-Assessment

Select three of the following self-assessments and complete them. Be sure to document the results of each assessment to assist you in completing the reflection portion of the assignment below.
1.Emotional Intelligence Assessment: \”Emotional Intelligence Test\”: ttps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/emotional-intelligence-test
2.Personality Assessment: \”Free Personality Test\”: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
3.Learning Styles Assessment: \”Values Profile\”: http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/
4.Values Assessment: \”Values Profile\”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/values-profile
5.Values Assessment: \”Rokeach Values Survey\”: http://faculty.wwu.edu/tyrank/Rokeach%20Value%20Survey.pdf
6.Diversity Assessment: \”Cultural Competence Self-Test\”: https://www.oregon.gov/DHS/SENIORS-DISABILITIES/DD/PROVIDERS-PARTNERS/SCPAconference/Cultural%20Competence%20Self-Test.pdf

Self-Assessment Reflection

In a 750-1,000 word reflective essay, address the following:
1.Briefly summarize why you selected each self-assessment and the results you obtained on each assessment.
2.Identify the leadership style that closely aligns to your philosophy of care, and explain what appeals to you about that style.
3.Reflect on how you might incorporate elements of that particular style as you exercise leadership in a practice or health care organization setting.
4.Discuss any particular areas for improvement the assessments helped you identify and some steps for improving your leadership capabilities.

You are required to cite three to five sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Lopes Write Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
Include in-text citations in your response
Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
Follow APA-7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
Follow APA 7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
Here are some helpful links
Student paper example
Citing Sources
The Writing Center is a great resource

A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: Assignment: Leadership Styles Reflection Essay

Title: Assignment: Leadership Styles Reflection Essay

Leadership is an important trait in nursing. Nurse leaders utilize their skills to influence others. Nurses can undertake self-analysis to identify the type of leaders they are as well as areas of improvement needed to achieve their desired leadership competencies. An effective nurse leader should possess knowledge and skills to influence others to act in ways that underpin the realization of the set institutional mission and vision (Wei & Horton-Deutsch, 2022). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze my leadership style, theories, incorporation into practice, and comparison with other leadership styles.

Summary of Self-Assessment

I undertook my leadership and personality assessment using the Big 5 personality test and VARK questionnaire, and values assessment test. The assessments showed that I am an effective leader. I am an extrovert, judgmental, and thinker. I also consider others’ values in making decisions. I consider the positive and negative aspects of the alternatives before making a decision. I utilized the above tools to understand my leadership and personality type better. The tools also provided insights into the ways in which I can improve my leadership abilities and personality better in my practice. The VARK questionnaire showed that I am a kinesthetic learner, which implies I learn best through action. This learning style will enable me lead others through coordination of activities and performance (Hughes, 2019). The value assessment showed that I am led social, realistic, and caring value. Therefore, I would leverage on these values to influence the decisions and actions of those I lead positively.

Leadership Style that Aligns With My Philosophy

The leadership style that closely aligns with my philosophy is visionary leadership style. Visionary leadership style is an approach to leadership where the leader drives progress and change by inspiring those they lead. These leaders strive at earning the trust of those they lead for them to instill new ways of undertaking things. They also value strong bonding between them and their followers (Wei & Horton-Deutsch, 2022). The effectiveness of this leadership is that it can transform organizations and facilitate effective corporate restructuring. The unique characteristics of visionary leaders include being persistent, bold, strategic, risk taking, inspirational, optimistic, and innovative (Rothwell, 2020). I believe this is the leadership that aligns with my philosophy since I value influencing others by sharing vision with them. I also strive to gain their trust, as a way of facilitating easy adoption of any proposed change in the organization.

Incorporating into Practice

I can incorporate the elements of visionary leadership style into my practice in some ways. One of them is by communicating organization’s or change vision and mission to the followers. I can persuade the followers to see a sense and need for a proposed change in the organization. I can drive excellence in organizational transformation by motivating them to embrace proposed initiatives in the organization (Rothwell, 2020). The other way in which I can incorporate the leadership style into my practice is by encouraging innovation. Visionary leaders encourage their followers to explore innovative, effective, and efficient strategies that can be adopted to achieve optimum outcomes in the care process. I can also adopt the style in practice by encouraging strategic thinking and decision-making (Wei & Horton-Deutsch, 2022). This entails having followers consider strategies such as collecting facts, developing alternatives, and selecting the best decisions when solving issues facing them.

Areas of Improvement

The undertaken assessments revealed some areas of improvement that I should consider. One of them is teamwork. The assessment showed that I have moderate teamwork and teambuilding skills. I have to engage in activities that increase my competencies in leading and initiating team activities. The second area of improvement that I need to improve based on the assessment is the use of reflective practice. Reflective practice is an important tool for personal and professional development as a nurse. It increases our understanding of our strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities we need to explore to achieve better outcomes in our personal and professional lives (Esterhuizen, 2019; Patel & Metersky, 2022). I discovered that I have been rarely using reflective practice to improve myself. I will incorporate it into my routines to enhance my leadership abilities.

Characteristics of Effective Professional Nurse Leader

Effective professional nurse leaders have unique characteristics. One of them is effective leading of self. The nurse leaders have effective self-governance knowledge and skills. This includes being self-aware of themselves, adaptable, self-motivated, and knowledgeable. The other characteristic of effective professional nurses is innovative. These leaders can inspire others to identify new ways of providing patient care and meeting the needs of their stakeholders. They also lead them in implementing innovative practices and transformation of the organizational culture to support excellence. The other characteristic is good listeners and speakers. They understand the importance of good listening skills to understand the needs and support their staff (Stanley & Stanley, 2018). They also utilize effective speaking skills to be understood by the followers and influence them too.

Leadership Theories and Styles

Nurse leaders and managers can adopt different leadership styles and theories in their practice. The leadership theories that are applicable to nursing include participative, transactional, transformational, situational, and trait theories. Some of the leadership styles include servant, visionary, democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire leadership styles (Wei & Horton-Deutsch, 2022). A leadership style different from my style is servant leadership. Servant leadership is a type of leadership style where leaders exist to fulfill the needs of those they lead. They are dedicated to identifying and meeting the needs and concerns of their followers. The emphasis in this leadership style is on active collaboration and employee satisfaction. Servant leadership style supports leaders to develop transformative, employee-centered strategies in organizations (Best, 2020).

A leadership theory that is different from mine is transactional leadership theory. Transactional leadership theory is largely focused on employee management. Transactional leaders emphasize the utilization of interventions such as rewarding performance and upholding organizational standards and policies to achieve the set goals. Transactional leadership theory supports nurses in leadership by helping them understand ways of motivating employees to achieve optimum outcomes. It also increases their understanding of the need for strategies such as collaboration for the success of their organization (Hughes, 2019). Understanding and meeting employee needs help nurse leaders develop conflict resolution and decision-making skills.

Conclusion

The assessments revealed that I am an effective leader with personality traits and values that supports teamwork, openness, and innovation. Visionary styles align the most with my philosophy. Different leadership styles and theories exist. Leadership styles and theories such as servant leadership and transactional theory contribute to the nurses’ development of their desired competencies in leading others in their organizations.

References

Best, C. (2020). Is there a place for servant leadership in nursing? Practice Nursing, 31(3), 128–132. https://doi.org/10.12968/pnur.2020.31.3.128

Esterhuizen, P. (2019). Reflective practice in nursing. Learning Matters.

Hughes, V. (2019). Nurse leader impact: a review. Nursing Management, 50(4), 42–49. Doi: 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000554338.47637.23

Patel, K. M., & Metersky, K. (2022). Reflective practice in nursing: a concept analysis. International Journal of Nursing Knowledge, 33(3), 180–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/2047-3095.12350

Rothwell, D. (2020). Leadership-A Nursing Imperative for 2020 and Beyond! Canadian Journal of Critical Care Nursing, 31(1).

Stanley, D., & Stanley, K. (2018). Clinical leadership and nursing explored: a literature search. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(9–10), 1730–1743. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14145

Wei, H., & Horton-Deutsch, S. (2022). Visionary Leadership In Healthcare. Sigma Theta Tau.

Appendix: APA Checklist

APA Writing Checklist

Use this document as a checklist for each paper you will write throughout your GCU graduate program. Follow specific instructions indicated in the assignment and use this checklist to help ensure correct grammar and APA formatting. Refer to the APA resources available in the GCU Library and Student Success Center.

☒ APA paper template (located in the Student Success Center/Writing Center) is utilized for the correct format of the paper. APA style is applied, and format is correct throughout.

☒ The title page is present. APA format is applied correctly. There are no errors.

☒ The introduction is present. APA format is applied correctly. There are no errors.

☒ Topic is well defined.

☒ Strong thesis statement is included in the introduction of the paper.

☒ The thesis statement is consistently threaded throughout the paper and included in the conclusion.

☒ Paragraph development: Each paragraph has an introductory statement, two or three sentences as the body of the paragraph, and a transition sentence to facilitate the flow of information. The sections of the main body are organized to reflect the main points of the author. APA format is applied correctly. There are no errors.

☒ All sources are cited. APA style and format are correctly applied and are free from error.

☒ Sources are completely and correctly documented on a References page, as appropriate to assignment and APA style, and format is free of error.

Scholarly Resources: Scholarly resources are written with a focus on a specific subject discipline and usually written by an expert in the same subject field. Scholarly resources are written for an academic audience.

Examples of Scholarly Resources include: Academic journals, books written by experts in a field, and formally published encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Peer-Reviewed Journals: Peer-reviewed journals are evaluated prior to publication by experts in the journal’s subject discipline. This process ensures that the articles published within the journal are academically rigorous and meet the required expectations of an article in that subject discipline.

Empirical Journal Article: This type of scholarly resource is a subset of scholarly articles that reports the original finding of an observational or experimental research study. Common aspects found within an empirical article include: literature review, methodology, results, and discussion.

Adapted from “Evaluating Resources: Defining Scholarly Resources,” located in Research Guides in the GCU Library.

☒ The writer is clearly in command of standard, written, academic English. Utilize writing resources such as Grammarly, LopesWrite report, and ThinkingStorm to check your writing.