Leadership Exemplar and Personal Leadership Development …



Leadership Exemplar and Personal Leadership Development PlanMarla MichaelsUniversity of Mary Leadership Exemplar and Personal Leadership Development PlanIntroductionThe desire to pursue a graduate degree in nursing administration began during my senior year of undergraduate nursing school 18 years ago. Since then, I have continued to have positive and negative experiences during my professional career working on inpatient units and in ambulatory patient care settings, which have inspired my ambition to become a leader for future generations of nurses. The Influential Nursing Leadership course at UMary has further increased my desire to learn of the essentials of leadership and deepened my appreciation to incorporate faith through servant service in my career. The following paper provides results and reflection of a surveyed assessment of my leadership skills by my co-workers, an overview of the leadership aspect of a book, If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9? Things You Would Do Differently by Fred Lee (2004), and my own personal narrative discussing my strengths, areas needing further development, my Leadership Development Action Plan and my philosophy of nursing leadership. I have learned a great deal of information about leadership during this course and I look forward to continued personal and professional growth throughout the remainder of my graduate studies curriculum and my nursing administration journey. Part 1: Leadership EvaluationLeadership Evaluation For the Leadership Evaluation process, I chose to use the Nursing Leadership Evaluation Tool (University Of Mary, 2013) available in the UMary syllabus (see Appendix A). I surveyed 4 RNs and 1 care assistant from the Kidney Center clinic where I am the charge nurse, and I also surveyed my immediate nurse manager for a total of 6 participants. Porter-O’Grady & Malloch (2011) points out that feedback from supervisors is the traditional valued method of developing skills, but the more challenging method of “coaching upward” or providing feedback to individuals with greater authority can deter serious negative outcomes as a result of appropriate, timely, and constructive upward feedback. The participants I chose encompass both methods of feedback. In order to maintain confidentiality of the evaluators, I selected Paula Robinson who is a member of the Talent Development team in Human Resources at CMH to have the surveys sent to for the computation of score averages and listing the responses of open-ended questions. I asked each evaluator individually if they would like to participate in the survey and upon acceptance, I handed them the paper survey and an envelope to put the survey in after completion. At that time, I verbalized that the envelope is to be sealed by the participant and put in an inter-office envelope in the Nurse Manager’s office by 4:00pm. I had pre-addressed the inter-office envelope to Paula Robinson in HR before giving it to my Nurse Manager. At 4:00pm the Nurse Manager took the inter-office envelope with the 6 surveys to the mailroom. After 7 days, Paula provided me with the results (see Appendix B, Table A1).In looking at the average responses of the survey, I was a little surprised to see one of the lowest ratings was in taking accountability to improve department performance, patient satisfaction, staff morale, etc, (question 5). I feel that I have lobbied hard with management to make several changes to reduce the amount of time consuming “busy work” tasks that team members used to complain about. The complaints from staff earlier this year were that the “morning huddle”, patient visit time studies and weekly staff meetings took time away from staff’s ability to provide quality patient care and frustration resulted reducing staff morale. It seems like I listened, responded and delivered action, but that it has been forgotten about and other issues have moved up in their place. It was interesting to see that there was a somewhat higher score for questions 1 and 2 when they are quite similar to question 5. Setting and enforcing high standards of care and holding self and others accountable for meeting objectives and commitments are the actions that lead to taking accountability for improving department performance and patient satisfaction. The questions related to marketing and financial knowledge (7, 8, 11) were low or marked as “don’t know or not applicable”, which I felt was accurate in my self-survey as well. I have not been involved in budget or financial items to date, but my manager’s plan is for me to begin learning next year. I was delighted to see that some of my highest ratings from the survey were questions 9 and 16 that covered listening carefully and soliciting input from staff as well as generating enthusiasm for work and compliance with requests. I gave myself lower marks (see Appendix B, Table A2) for those and higher marks for encouraging teamwork, cooperation and identification (question 9). The surveyed participants reported lower marks for my skills related to analyzing problems in a systematic, logical and timely manner, as well as facilitating constructive resolution of conflict (questions 4 and 15). These are areas that I feel will improve over time with the knowledge I am acquiring during my graduate education in nursing leadership and coaching I receive at work. I gave myself a higher score for acting promptly and decisively to address problems in the department on question 6. I saw a pattern of lower scores for my leadership skills when it came to the amount of time I take to address requests (acting promptly, timely manner, etc.). I think it is only human and also a sign of the times that people in general want problems fixed immediately no matter how unreasonable the request may be; “just fix it for me now”. I know that I would like to have problems taken care of immediately, but it takes time to ensure that appropriate decisions are made systematically and logically with the input and collaboration from team members, which were also items of concern for the survey participants.Overall, I was not surprised by the results of the survey. Recently, we have had some turnover in the clinic, as well as 2 RNs on medical leave. These workplace disruptions may have been a small factor in some of the responses from team members; however, I know that I have beginner’s leadership skills now and I also understand that they will never be perfect. With that being said, I will strive for perfection by continuing to work hard to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills needed to foster professional growth and increase my emotional competence as a leader. As part of my Leadership Development Plan, I will be reading the book If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9? Things You Would Do Differently (Lee, 2004) and attend collaborative meetings with other ambulatory staff members in the organization to promote quality improvement and implement learned strategies that will increase patient and staff satisfaction. My commitment to the goals of my leadership development plan will increase clinical performance for staff and heath outcomes for patients.Part 2: Leadership ExemplarWalt Disney and The Disney Corporation There is a great number of successful business people in this world, but radically successful business people all possess something different than the rest; a hunger for success and ferocious drive that makes them never, ever give up (Marr, 2013). Walt Disney was one of those radical business people who failed over and over before he built one of the world’s largest successful business empires of film studios, theme parks and consumer products. Early in his career, Walt worked for The Kansas City Star and was fired on the grounds that he lacked creativity. That did not deter Walt’s ambition and continued too pursue his artistic efforts in the Kansas based Laugh-O-Gram production company, which was his next business attempt (Mar, 2013). He started the business in 1922 making short advertising films and cartoons, but by 1923, it went bankrupt (Marr, 2013). Walt still did not give up on his creative abilities. The same year The Laugh-O-Gram business failed, Walt moved to Hollywood and started The Walt Disney Company with his brother Roy, and the rest is history (Marr, 2013). The contributions of the Walt Disney Company to film animation and the media and entertainment industries are largely unsurpassed. Although Walt died in 1966, his company continues be extremely successful thanks to his vision, persistence and courage to provide a world class, transformational entertainment experience for his guests (Kober, 2000). In an article focusing on successful business leaders by Couch (2013), it noted that The Walt Disney Company is one of the biggest and most well known companies practicing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) throughout their entire business model. As an employer, Disney hires, trains and supports a workforce by consistently providing a culture of open communication, responsibility and teamwork for the benefit their employees, guests and the corporation (Couch, 2013). These same attributes of The Disney Company have been discussed in depth by Porter-O’Grady and Malloch (2011) as essential for leaders in the healthcare workplace as well. I chose to read and review the book If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9? Things You Would Do Differently by Fred Lee (2004) to analyze the successful leadership philosophies of the Disney Company and how they can be applied to the health care setting. An Experience to RememberThe idea of creating an experience rather than just a service is how Disney team members are coached to treat guests at Disney theme parks so that they may enter the make-believe worlds of fun and fantasy (Lee, 2004). Patients in a hospital are hurting, sad, anxious and/or depressed and they have traditionally been serviced by the organization, but Lee (2004) states that a competent hospital care team should collaborate effectively to provide a dramatic transforming experience to facilitate healing based on the “theatre” business model. Lee (2004) points out that patients or the “the audience” need to be actively engaged by the hospital care team or “cast members” on a physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual level by the hospital because hospital guests talk about the experiences they had, not the services they received. The paradigm shift is for quality empowered employees to see their daily work as a holistic health care experience set on the hospital “stage” to give their guests a memorable experience of personal substance, rather than providing just a service (Lee, 2004).Walk the TalkIn effort to shift from an environment focused on service to improve each patient’s experience, leadership must “walk the talk” on the “stage” because the “audience” is watching. Lee (2004) states that what people see and feel influences their behavior and however the staff members are engaged and influenced by leadership, they will take to the health care stage. This principle was discussed in Porter-O’Grady & Malloch’s (2011) text, specifically, “The trust that leaders acquire by walking their talk encourages innovative behaviors by employees, minimized the potential for discrepancies between expectations and reality, reinforces their perceived integrity, strengthens the confidence that employees have in the appropriateness of future interactions, and reinforces the bond between the leader and employee.” (p. 378). The Disney Academy, which trains leaders within the corporation, vehemently enforces the responsibility of leadership to walk the talk and provide role-modeling behaviors in effort to display and promote these characteristics for all cast members to follow in their interactions with the patient and family to provide a holistic memorable experience (Lee, 2004). Servant leaders know that people pay less attention to what people say and more attention to what people do and because of this they willfully align their good intentions with their actions to serve others by walking their talk (Hunter, 1998). Walking the talk is a concept that should be carried out by leaders in all settings across the continuum of health care and in every business that aspires to promote a healthy working environment.Openness to New Ideas and CollaborationWalt Disney was the innovator of the storyboard method of developing a plot for he realized quickly in his creative endeavors that timely, successful scripts cannot be the work of one playwright, but are collaborative effort achieved through collective brainstorming (Lee, 2004). When Walt included, encouraged, respected and relied on the collaborative efforts of his team members, he displayed emotional confidence and servant leadership skills. Porter-O’Grady & Malloch (2011) defined some key points of emotional competence in a leader as understanding: “individual members of an organization are interconnected and related; creativity is inherent in the individual wisdom of each team; leadership emerges from the combined active engagement of all members of the organization, not from the activities of a single individual” (p. 325). The Disney Corporation continues to have a reputation as a business leader by building on Walt’s transitional effort to place creativity and innovation in the hands of cast member process improvement teams rather than a select few executives that are far removed from the day-to-day operations (Lee, 2004).Focused HiringLee (2004) notes that The Disney Corporation puts a great emphasis on managers (directors) to audition talent to perform roles rather than skills, which elevates the workplace by “hiring on the basis of the talent needed to engage the audience (customer) and the vital role they play in that, rather than the skills needed to do a particular job” (p. 119). The idea is that if a leader hires smart and emotionally talented candidates with a great attitude and interpersonal skills to play their designated role in the workplace theatre and on the workplace stage, they can be taught the technical skills needed to complete their job description. With this in mind, it is the responsibility of leadership to engage in focused hiring or finding the right applicant that fits into the job requirements. Committing to the time and having the patience to hire the best candidates needed to support the organizational goals are attributes exhibited by a servant leader. Porter-O’Grady & Malloch (2011) reinforces the idea of focused hiring with the explanation that if an appropriate amount of time and energy is spent to hire the right candidate, there is a greater chance that the employee will stay in the company, become more acculturated to the organizational structure and goals and have greater job satisfaction. An emotionally competent leader recognizes these important factors during the process of interviewing and hiring candidates for the benefits of the employee, staff, organization and the patients and families. SummaryThe most essential leadership lessons that I learned from reading the book If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9? Things You Would Do Differently were to; create an experience rather than a service, to consistently walk the talk, and to hire candidates based on their intellectual and emotional talents. In reflecting on the information in the book and our course curriculum, I found these areas of growth to be a great place to begin to focus on in my transformative efforts to become a more proficient leader. Specifically, I plan to implement a mental strategy as described by Lee (2004) to visualize and treat every patient and family member as if they were my son or daughter and every staff member, as I would like to be treated. It is my plan that my “audience”, team members and patients alike, will follow my lead and a positive culture shift will emerge. Increasing my effort to walk the talk by not asking anyone to do anything that I wouldn’t honestly be willing to do myself is another area that I believe to be essential for enhancing trust and teamwork among staff members. Lastly, I will lobby for management to increase the time, effort and patience that it takes to interview many candidates so that the right people are hired for the benefit of everyone involved. While completing the Leadership Exemplar assignment, I have learned a great deal about providing an excellent patient experience and creating a desirable workplace from the “Disney” book. In coupling ideas and information from the book with the principles outlined in our textbook, I look forward to discussing, planning and implementing new and innovative strategies in my role as a transformative influential leader.Part 3: Personal LeadershipPersonal Leadership NarrativeThe Influential Nursing Leadership course has provided an intensely educational and enlightening experience and transformed my perspective of the nursing leadership role. There have been many instances when I have been reading or listening course material and have thought that I am doing a good job in my leadership position and other times I found out how much I need to improve. I feel that I have grown a great deal as a leader in 5 short weeks and my manager has taken notice as well. Her positive comments about my new knowledge and appreciation for the fundamentals of nursing leadership during our discussions has given me mental lifts and encouragement when I have been overwhelmed with my school, work and home lives. Analyzing the Past, Planning for the FutureAfter analyzing the results of my Leadership Evaluation, my perception from the evaluators’ responses is that I am an advanced beginner in developing the emotional competence of a leader, which is where I see myself as well. Porter-O’Grady & Malloch (2011) define the Advanced Beginner Stage as someone who tests the knowledge and skills attained during formal education and developing skills in coaching, mentoring and relationship building. I believe I am more mindful of my words and actions as my self-awareness increases and I have experienced additional personal competence in my leadership role since beginning graduate school. Advanced Beginners are just starting to begin to understand the connection between the emotions and reactions of others and processes and events (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2011). The responses to the open-ended survey question number18 addressed my need to improve in these areas as well as my openness to others’ ideas for process improvement. Patience with people and situations are areas that I know I need improvement and I have been praying and working on having more patience everyday. My Leadership Development Action Plan (see Part 4 section below) defines several action areas that will help me improve my leadership skills. Reading the book If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9? Things You Would Do Differently has increased my appreciation of how to engage employees and patients to provide an excellent experience as well as the importance of building effective team collaboration and spending the time and effort to hire the right people for positions. By joining the Ambulatory Education Committee, I hope to provide staff members with pertinent quality educational opportunities that will enhance nursing and patient satisfaction and outcomes; and for more personal areas in need of action, I know that my personal and professional daily performances are at higher levels if I take care of my physical and mental well-being. I plan to do this by increasing my physical activity, attending Catholic church/school functions weekly, nurturing my soul with meditation and yoga and getting an appropriate amount of sleep, especially on weeknights. In reviewing the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) competencies (American Organization of Nurse Executives, 2013), I see areas of strengths and weaknesses in my nursing leadership skills. I have always been a vocal leader who communicates well and enjoys bringing relationships together, but I still have a fear of upsetting people. I witnessed great strength when shadowing and interviewing the 5 nursing leaders who have been in leadership roles for a many years and I look forward to learning and gaining experience in the future to become more confident during adverse communication. As an RN, I embrace and promote shared decision making like Walt Disney and his Corporation. In my charge nurse leadership role, I know I could find more opportunities to involve staff in workplace changes, which would be beneficial for all of us. I believe that my knowledge of the health care environment is generally good, but the business aspect is my weakest competency. I have not had the formal business education nor been involved in major divisional or organizational financial discussions yet. My nurse manager has plans to involve me in more financial discussions over the next year, which will provide some much needed insight. I was fascinated to learn about CMH organizational goals during my discussion with Kevin Mroczka, the Director of Professional Services for Nephrology/Dermatology (personal communication, December 10, 2013). Listening to his knowledge of the business side of our division was truly enlightening. My knowledge in other areas of the health care environment such as clinical practice, governance, quality improvement, etc. is much better, but still has plenty of room for improvement. I have never had an issue with displaying professionalism, demonstrating sound ethical beliefs or advocating for my profession. These are all areas in which I am proud to hold a high standard for myself and hope to encourage the same in others. I recognized these same attributes in all of my interview and discussion choices as well as Walt Disney and his corporation. I would not have chosen them otherwise. After 1 year of performing in the Kidney Center Charge Nurse role and 2 courses of graduate school, I believe my manager and the employees I work with have seen some positive changes in my leadership abilities and they are very supportive of my learning process in hopes that I will become the Kidney Center Nurse Manager in the future. Interestingly enough, I was informed last week by Nephrology Division leadership that I am the planned successor to the Kidney Center Nurse Manager position after the Service line Director retires in 3 years and the current Nurse Manager is promoted into her position. I took the news as a compliment to my integrity as a person and my emerging nursing leadership skills and look forward to the opportunity.Philosophy of Nursing Nurses bring their skills, experience and knowledge to advocate and ensure the highest caliber of healthcare is provided for their patients and families. As a registered nurse, I possess the knowledge and technical competence that are required for my profession. As the ever-expanding profession changes, like it has and always will, I am committed to continuously learn and strengthen my resolve to perform my nursing duties to the very best of my ability. During my personal and professional growth as a nurse, I have displayed the humble and compassionate kindness along with honest integrity that transverses nursing and the concept of servant leadership as described by Hunter (1998). Part 4: Leadership Development Action PlanLeadership Development Action PlanFocused Action AreaPlanned ActivityComments/SpecificsAnticipated Timeline:Start/CompletionMeasurement of AchievementIncrease patient and staff satisfactionReading/Reflecting/Implement 2 StrategiesRead If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9 ? Things You Would Do DifferentlyStart: 11/26/13Completion: 12/31/14Conduct a leadership survey/Review NRC Picker scoresIncrease quality of educational opportunities and involvement for team membersJoin the Ambulatory Education CommitteeI have been recruited to join a committee to plan continuing education to enhance nursing practice and staff involvementStart: 12/12/13Completion: 12/31/14Increased number of staff at educational CEU offerings/conduct opinion of increased quality survey Physical WellnessRenew commitment to exerciseMinimum 20 minutes of moderate-high intensity exercise 4x/week through winterStart: 11/17/13Completion: 3/15/14Follow exercise regimenas planned-have more energy, less stressSpiritual WellnessAttend faith based activityAttend/Participate in Catholic church/school activity minimum 1x/weekStart: 11/9/13Completion: 12/31/14Weekly attendance/participation in faith based activity- have more patience, less stress Psychological renewal/soul nourishmentMeditate/Yoga1-2x/week45 minutes of yoga and 15 minutes of meditation 1-2x/weekStart: 12/1/13Completion: 4/1/14Follow renewal/nourishment regimen as planned- clearer thought processes, less stressSleep WellnessLights out at 11:15 on weeknightsPlan evening tasks and events to facilitate healthy amount of sleep Start: 12/1/13Completion: 4/1/13Follow sleep regimen-clearer thought processes, more energy, feel better, less stressConclusionI have been inspired by the quality leadership that I have read about, had discussions with, and interviewed during this leadership course. During my educational, work and volunteer experiences, I have learned to communicate effectively and achieve common goals by collaborating with interdisciplinary teams. In furthering my formal education, developing a leadership action plan and committing myself to increasing my emotional competence, I will continue to the gain the skills needed to address the endless endeavor to improve the nursing care processes by nurturing staff participation and collaboration in decision-making, which will enhance positive workplace outcomes. As I proceed through the MSN-Nurse Administrator coursework, I will continue to strengthen my leadership skills with an emphasis on increasing my emotional competence and providing selfless service. References American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2013). The AONE Nurse Competencies. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from American Organization of Nurse Executives: tools/nursecomp.shtmlCouch, E. (2013, June 10). The Walt Disney company: A leader in corporate social responsibility. Retrieved from: , J. C. (1998). The Servant: A simple true story about the true essence of leadership. Rocklin, CA: Author.Kober, J. (2000, August 26 2000). Of failure and success: The journey of Walt Disney. Retrieved from: , F. (2004). If Disney ran your hospital: 9 ? Things you would do differently. Bozeman, MT: Second River Healthcare Press.Marr, B. (2013, July 15). The one thing successful people never do. Retrieved from ’Grady, T., & Malloch, K. (2011). Quantum leadership: Advancing innovation, transforming health care (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.University of Mary. (2013). NUR 611 Syllabus. Nursing leadership evaluation tool. Retrieved November 10, 2013, Department of Nursing Graduate Studies, University of Mary, Bismarck, North Dakota. Appendix A University of Mary Syllabus Nursing Leadership Evaluation Tool: NUR 611228600889000038100022860000Appendix B Personal and Evaluator’s Survey Ratings and ResponsesTable A1Personal ResponsesQuestion #Rating152333455465728294104113124134145155164174Open-Ended Questions: 18. This person can do more of: Have patience with difficult staff members, provide constructive feedback, provide more positive feedback, hold brainstorming sessions for problems, hold people accountable19. This person can do less of: Listening to complaints without asking if the staff member has a solution20. Additional Comments: My leadership skills are not terrible, but they can be strengthened with a consistent effort to be mindful of my performance all day every day.Appendix B (cont.)Table B1Evaluator’s ResponsesQuestion ##ResponsesAvg Rating164.30264.30364.00464.00553.80664.00734.00813.00964.301064.161113.001234.001364.001464.001564.001664.301754.00?Open-Ended Questions:18. This person can do more of:??????????? Going over procedures; making sure what has been implemented is working well????????????Distributing nursing responsibilities evenlyMarla has not been asked to be involved in budget and financial items.? In the future, I would like to bring her in on these conversations and get her more familiar with financial concerns?19. This person can do less of:???????????? Nothing – she is doing a wonderful job!?20. Additional Comments:??????????Appendix B (cont.)Marla does an excellent job of problem solving in the clinic.? She relates well to staff and tries hard to make sure concerns are addressed. She is an advocate for patients and staff while keeping the overall big picture in mind. She is developing her ability to see long term and big picture implications and she is doing a wonderful job at this. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download