Free Leadership Style And Personality Type Essay Example

Leadership is a complex ability and process, through which one influences other people’s will to set and achieve desired goals. It plays a central role in the lives of nurses and other health care professionals, not least because these disciplines require strong and consistent direction in the determination and implementation of treatment goals, patient management, administration and other associated functions. Health care organizations and systems also require leadership in order to survive the constantly changing strategic environments to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, and quality. In this paper, I identify and evaluate my own leadership style and potential and explore the influence of my personality type on my leadership style and effectiveness.

Leadership Style Assessment

My Leadership Style/Potential
According to University of Kent’s leadership style assessment tool, I exhibit transformational leadership tendencies. Transformational leaders recognize their followers’ potential and leverage it in satisfying higher needs such as self-esteem. They inspire followers to go beyond the mere call of duty by serving as visible role models, fostering greater organizational loyalty, job satisfaction, positive work environment and to the extent practicable, foster successful relationships and an environment where both the followers and the leader pursue the same vision, values and goals. According to Rolfe (2011) and the University of Kent (2011), transformational leaders exhibit above average charisma, persuasion, self-reflection, empowerment of other people, communication skills, cultural improvement and willingness to forge the middle ground. They are goal-oriented and futuristic catalysts and motivators. We express clear and compelling visions for the future, identify and fix individual differences and employ creativity to develop acceptable solutions to complex problems (Giltinane, 2013; Rolfe, 2011).

When Leadership Style Most Effective

I focus on inspiring others in setting and achieving desired goals. Transformational leadership is widely endorsed by professional nursing bodies, in part because it helps improve patient outcomes in clinical environments. Transformational leaders can deliver quality agendas and inspire the staff to work towards quality service delivery. As a transformational leader, I am also likely to thrive in fast-changing organizational and practice environments, because of my ability to gain other people’s confidence and support.

Need Change of Leadership Style

Transformational leadership works great in environment where the leader and followers are equals in the level of skills, abilities, experience and sense of responsibility. However, in cases where the followers need guidance, direction, and skills, transformational leadership would be inadequate. For instance, while newly qualified nurses have a certain level of clinical knowledge they lack experience and confidence to do their jobs to the best possible potential. They need direction, and Giltinane (2013) recommends situational leadership style as a perfect complement to transformational leadership in these circumstances.

Jung Typology Traits

My Jung Typology
I am an ENFP. Effectively, I am imaginative, insightful, possibility-driven, spontaneous, playful, warm, caring, enthusiastic, people-driven, practical, cooperative and loyal. I also tend to be orderly, concrete, responsible, empathic and consensus-seeking (harmonizer). As a transformational leader, I believe the sense of empathy, cooperation, pragmatism and people-orientation are easily my strongest traits. According to Rolfe (2011), transformational leadership possesses skills to nurture positive relationships with followers and an environment in which both the leader nd the followers with the goal of meeting organizational goals. People orientation, care, and pragmatism also point to relatively high emotional intelligence, which according to Goleman (2004), Rolfe (2011) and Giltinane (2013), is indispensable in managing the effect of emotions on relationships with other people. This intelligence comprises self-awareness, social skills, social awareness and self-management. To be effective, I realize that I require high training and practice an analytical mind and a n excellent understanding of what I am capable of, as well as the social environmental within which I live.

Personality Traits and Change

I am adaptable, practical, possibility-driven, cooperative, imaginative and consensus-oriented. I believe these skills are critical in surviving uncertain organizational and other environments. Successful change management requires collective/cooperative decision-making and involvement of different stakeholders in order to avoid resistance. The ability to find imaginative solutions, explore different possibilities and adapt to the uncertain environment, while also remaining grounded to the reality on the ground are easily the strongest abilities that I have that play a critical role in change management. As an intern, I remember helping the organization that I was working for to establish a support group for critical care nurses and was closely involved when electronic medical records systems were established within the organization to help minimize medication errors. At the time, the organization struggled with poor quality of service reports, high staff turnover, job dissatisfaction and other negative factors that threatened its survival.

Leadership Competency Development

Selected Leadership Competency
The societal and organizational environments are both complex and constantly changing. Societal values have change towards greater hope, compassion, commitment, responsibility, opportunity, respect and cultural sensitivity. On the other hand, organizations are struggling against increasing competition, changing medical and information technologies, complex diseases and care needs (such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and Avian Flu), economic and other factors necessitating change. In am convinced that successful change management lies at the heart of any successful team or organization, I need to ensure that my leadership style and personality type should help me master this ability. As a transformational leader, who is adaptable, practical, possibility-driven, cooperative, imaginative and consensus-oriented, I believe I have it in me to work with those that I lead to set and achieve mutually valuable goals.

Traits/Style to Develop or Change

Successful change management also requires that a leader has a clear vision and contingency management capacity. I need to develop a measure of situational leadership to allow me to manage certain instances that require initiative and decisiveness (Hospitals & Health Networks, 2015; Rolfe, 2011; Ward, 2002). While it is perfectly acceptable to build consensuses and involve many stakeholders to the extent practicable, changing strategic environments involve considerable uncertainty, which require a presence of mind and initiative in doing what is right even in the face of resistance. Situational management skills that I need to cultivate include performance identification, competence, and ability to gain other people’s commitment. Directive and supportive behavior is also important, and attainable through the provision of emotional support and use of effective communication.

Summary

It is evident that my style as a transformational leader is closely tied to my personality type. As a leader, I tend to draw heavily on other people’s inherent capacity and abilities, shared vision, collaborative decision-making, self-knowledge, flexibility and authenticity, to create win-win situations that we can all pursue (Ward, 2002; Giltinane, 2013). Transformational leadership leverages people’s inherent capacity and relationships to innovate and inspire them to attain their potential. It is evident that I owe my leadership style and skills to my personality type. Aspects such as adaptability, practicality, cooperation, and imagination derive directly from my ENFP personality type (Human Metrics; Rolfe, 2011; Giltinane, 2013).

References

Giltinane, C. L. (2013). Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard 27 (41), 35-39.
Goleman, D. (2004). What Makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review, http://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader/ar/1.
Hospitals & Health Networks. (2015). Leadership Development: Building the Workforce of the Future. Career Builder.
Human Metrics. (n.d.). Personality Types Explained. Retrieved Mar 23, 2015, from http://www.humanmetrics.com/hr/you/personalitytype.aspx
Rolfe, P. (2011). Transformational Leadership Theory: What Every Leader Needs to Know. Nurse Leader, 54-9.
Ward, K. (2002). A Vision for Tomorrow: Transformational Nursing Leaders. Nursing Outlook 50 (3), 121 - 126.