W2 The Influence of Leadership Styles on Leadership Practice
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LEADERSHIP STYLES 5
The Influence of Leadership Styles on Leadership Practice
Name: Luis S. Cabrera
Course Name: Concepts Nurs Leadership
Course Number: NU-605-02-21PAS1
Instructor’ Name: Diane Droutman
Institution: Regis College
Date of Submission: 05/11/2021
The Influence of Leadership Styles on Leadership Practice
An individual’s style of leadership is influenced by several factors including the work environment, the beliefs and attitudes of the people they work with, and the world view of an individual regarding human control. It is important that leaders continually assess and understand their assumptions on human nature and control and determine how the assumptions affect management and leadership (Northouse, 2018).
What do your responses to the questionnaire reveal about your leadership style?
On the Leadership Styles Questionnaire, my highest score was 27 in favor of democratic leadership, followed by 20 for laissez-faire, and 13 for authoritarian leadership. The score indicates that I am a very high-range democratic leader. Democratic leadership is based on the foundation that followers have significant competencies that they can utilize to achieve desired results in assigned tasks. The democratic leader collaborates with the followers first by entrusting them with responsibility and secondly by guiding them via mentorship and coaching (Northouse, 2018). The best attribute for a democratic leader is that he/she listens to the views of their followers. Together, they brainstorm and negotiate on the best methods to tackle a complex task. In my case, I appreciate a leadership style that promotes communication amongst followers and between followers and their leaders. The idea is to create an environment where the followers recognize my strengths as a leader and I recognize the various strengths that each follower holds (Xie et al., 2018). Thus, in assigning tasks, there is a shared approach that some tasks are best suited for one follower and other tasks for the next follower. The key element of democratic leadership is to avoid or limit giving orders or pressuring their followers. The democratic leader works via collaborating on the floor or indirect patient tasks and having a foundational experience of the concerns of the followers (Northouse, 2018). When the followers and their leader have a foundational view of a problem, there is improved engagement and passion for resolving the issue via shared decision-making. My low score on authoritarian leadership style depicts my overall resistance to a work environment that is characterized by orders, excessive pressure, and subjective criticism (Northouse, 2018). The challenge with the laissez-faire type of leadership is that while allowing the followers to assume full control over tasks, the leader assumes a hands-off approach which ultimately creates a chaotic and unstable work environment.
How will this style influence your intended professional role?
My preference for a democratic leader would align well with my intention to work as a nurse leader and nurse educator within long-term care settings. In long-term care settings, patients have diverse needs and collaboration is a key element of success or desired results. Long-term care settings require a workforce that is innovative and creative in solving problems. However, innovation cannot occur in an environment characterized by obsessive control, orders, and pressure from a leader. Innovation thrives where the leader affords the followers freedom to demonstrate their competencies and engages them only to offer guidance and direction via negotiations (Xie et al., 2018). As a nurse leader in a long-term care setting, I would work towards enabling my followers to take up roles in evidence-based practice where we all take part in our respective tasks and ultimately evaluate the quality of our outcomes. Democratic leadership seeks to nurture informal leaders from within the followers' group and I intend to have a group that continually recognizes their responsibility and is accountable for their actions. The more informal leaders there are in a setting, the better the level of responsibility and the more stable the work environment (Al Khajeh, 2018). This is the environment that I seek to create for my followers.
References
Al Khajeh, E. H. (2018). Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of Human Resources Management Research, 2018, 1-10.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Sage.
Xie, Y., Xue, W., Li, L., Wang, A., Chen, Y., Zheng, Q., ... & Li, X. (2018). Leadership style and innovation atmosphere in enterprises: An empirical study. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 135, 257-265.