Interview
Keeping employees and subordinates motivated towards their professional duty of serving and taking care of patients is a mandatory role of the nursing leaders. Leadership is a complex set of abilities, traits, and strategies that helps a manager or chief direct his subordinates. This paper summarizes the face-to-face interview with two of the nursing leaders, and a conclusion about the leadership roles is drawn basing upon these interviews. The content of the interview focuses upon the role of qualification and training in acquiring a management position. Moreover, the challenges and the accomplishments of the interviewees as managers depict the possible relation between professional training, qualification and the professional success or failure. The managers’ perception about their job role depicts the level of satisfaction in relation to their position.
The performance of an organization is certainly influenced by the leadership style of the bosses and managers. Therefore, leadership and organizational success are two inter-twined terms. If an organization has an effective progress, then it means that the leadership of the organization is efficient. An efficient leadership helps in building trust among employees by sharing similar business values and ethics. This results in efficient employee performance, peaceful workplace, and smooth flow of company operations.
The leadership is a broader concept than management, and successful managers keep leadership approaches in consideration. Leadership is that quality or set of qualities, rules, and principles which are used to influence subordinates in order to achieve the set target and goals in an organization. A leader also functions in a way which brings harmony and togetherness in the organizational environment.
Leadership is not a one-time event; it is rather a continuous process which involves influencing others as all the definitions of leadership term it is as a process. In order to carry out this process, leaders need to apply their skills and knowledge in line with leadership theories. However, it does not comply with the Trait theory of leadership, which is in contrast with the Process theory of leadership.
Interview with Jane Wilson
The professional training was extended at an informal level in the beginning. Whenever an issue arose, the senior management helped Jane in overcoming that issue, as there was no formal training facility at Emory at that time. However, a training and development department was initiated at the facility that provided the professional training to Jane in order to cope with her professional challenges.
Jane felt the professional pressure when her role of Lab Nurse turned into a manager’s role. Jane had no academic qualification and training in management. This transition made her uncomfortable as she had to manage and direct her peers. This indicates that Jane was not a ‘born’ type of leader, but the one who needed training and experience in order to become an efficient leader. There are two broad schools of thought regarding leadership. One that says that leadership is learned, and the other one proposes that leaders are not made, they are born. Both the approaches are on the extreme side. In today’s world, these approaches alone become irrelevant(Lussier and Achua, 2006).
In response to the question of her perception about her position, she explained that this position as a manager improved her skills in many other fields. She got to learn finance, computer, and human resource management. In the meanwhile, she had to retain her technical knowledge of laboratory. This depicts that Jane believes that her management role enabled her to perform multitasking, and improved her knowledge, which means that she is satisfied with her career growth as a leader.
Interview with Leeann Bauch at Memorial in Jacksonville Fla
The management position that Leann holds requires the incumbent to be experienced in a leadership position for 5 years, and a Master’s degree in nursing. Leann has had no formal or informal training in order to perform his job duties more effectively. However, his lifelong experience of working in a catheterization lab enabled him to perform his work without having to face any major challenge. If there was a fresher hired in his position, he would have needed professional training. It can thus, be said that the leaders are also created by decades of experience.
The professional challenges faced by Leann included accommodating organizational needs within the allocated budget. The communication with the employees about the hurdles faced was also a roadblock faced by him in acting as a leader. In his answer to the question of professional success, he described that he noticed professional accomplishment when the consultants eliminated his position, and as a result of this, he was offered job in many other organizations. This made it clear to him that he had already gained enough professional experience to continue working in any other organization in same position.
Overall, he sounded to be satisfied with his managerial role despite previously being a lab technician. According to him, it is important for a leader to be easily accessible, by keeping an open-door policy for his subordinates.
Leann’s interview depicts his belief in decentralized leadership, which can grow in an open and friendly environment at workplace. In comparison with Jane’s interview, who had attributed her success to her lifelong experience, Leann’s success came from his personality traits.Trait theory believes that the true leaders are born, and they have inherited traits to influence others, particularly few traits are relevant to the leadership. Effective leaders have the efficient set of these traits and qualities. It is one of the earliest theories on leadership which focused on the psychological aspect of managerial leadership. The focus of the psychologists and the theorists was to find out those traits and characteristics that are relevant to good leaders. In short, the trait theorists believe that there are no leaders made, but those who are born with the required set of traits and personality characteristics (Northouse, 2007).
Conclusion
The role of a leader and manager are critical in improving the organizational performance through keeping employees motivated and focused towards their job duties. A medical or nursing leader has the responsibility to keep nursing staff motivated in order to serve and take care of the patients, and in doing so, he has to address all the issues regarding finance, communication, employee performance and training, and workplace ethics. However, if the leader faces a challenge, he should be provided formal professional training in order to facilitate him with the necessary skills to cope with the issue that he faces.
References
Northouse, P. (2007). Leadership. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Lussier, R. & Achua, C. (2006). Leadership. 1st ed. Princeton, N.J.: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.
