IOM1 TASK PERSONAL MASTERY Reflection SCENARIO-BASED SOLVER PROJECTS LEADING WITH PERSONAL MASTERY — D155

Lessons Learned

The development of social and emotional skills has an influence on the performance of nurses during their clinical practice. Nurse leaders ought to have well-developed social and emotional power skills like self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, interprofessional communication, and executive functioning to effectively manage today’s complex healthcare system. During task 1, I enjoyed describing scenarios that utilized the identified social and emotional skills. During the task, I learned that different scenarios required the application of specific skills while others could benefit from the use of multiple power skills. For example, self-awareness was one of the skills that a nurse leader could use to solve problems among staff including conflict and performance issues. I learned that self-awareness can enable the leader to identify individual strengths and weaknesses in a range of areas and use that knowledge to solve problems among staff (Sánchez Expósito et al., 2019). It became evident that self-awareness can foster optimism and provide a foundation to establish and maintain relationships with others.

Effective communication, both intrahospital and interhospital, is important for healthcare teams to protect their patients, improve quality, and save costs. During the identification of applicable skills to solve the case scenarios, I realized that communication cut across all sections. The application of either self-awareness, self-management or executive functioning required the nurse leader to identify the most appropriate communication strategy. I observed that I could better relate to employees if I actively listened and addressed their issues with honesty. It is often the responsibility of the nurse leader to establish meaningful connections with patients, subordinate staff, and all professionals involved (Jankelová & Joniaková, 2021). I found it easy to apply the different power skills to solve conflict using appropriate communication skills.

IOM1 TASK PERSONAL MASTERY Reflection SCENARIO-BASED SOLVER PROJECTS LEADING WITH PERSONAL MASTERY — D155

Building Confidence

Strong leadership is critical if the vision of a transformed healthcare system is to be realized. Strong leaders are characterized by the ability to guide employees in realizing set goals while maintaining good relationships at work (Collins et al., 2020). During the solving of the scenarios in task 1, I was able to utilize my strengths including effective communication, empathy, flexibility, and critical thinking, and decision-making. I realized that effective communication was an important skill for any leader during solving problems. I was able to build confidence in my leadership abilities through communicating effectively according to the identified problem. For example, scenario 1 involved solving an issue between the morning shift and night duty staff. I utilized my ability to communicate and relate well with employees to bring together the two parties that failed to amicably solve their problems. I realized that being a leader does not require making decisions for your employees, but enabling them to come up with solutions during difficult times.

Leadership Style and Motivation

The path towards the development of my mastery has helped me understand that I am a transformational leader. This type of adaptive leadership allows environments of shared responsibilities. The leader is observed to motivate followers by appealing to higher ideals and moral values while sustaining the greater good instead of own interests (Collins et al., 2020). While solving the scenarios, I realized that I like giving people the opportunity to see the good that can come out of difficult situations. I was not ready to give punishment to those that had mistakes, but rather ready to establish good relationships that can foster growth among employees.

Developing personal mastery has enabled me to view leadership from a different perspective. Most leaders do not get along well with their employees because of the leadership style used and the approaches to solving problems (Jankelová & Joniaková, 2021). Throughout this task, I realized that a leader must be genuine, transparent, and demonstrate self-awareness. Demonstration of these attributes indicate that I am a strong leader who is able to handle different situations in healthcare. Additionally, the demonstration of self-awareness, rational transparency, and balanced processing motivate me become an authentic leader.

References

Collins, E., Owen, P., Digan, J., & Dunn, F. (2020). Applying transformational leadership in nursing practice. Nursing Standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987), 35(5), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.2019.e11408

Sánchez Expósito, J., Jiménez-Rodríguez, D., Díaz Agea, J. L., Carrillo Izquierdo, M.D., & Leal Costa, C. (2019). Impact of Socio-Emotional Skills On The Performance of Clinical Nursing Practices. International Journal of Nursing   Education Scholarship, 16(1), 10.1515/ijnes-2019-0064.   https://doi.org/10.1515/ijnes-2019-0064

Jankelová, N., & Joniaková, Z. (2021). Communication skills and transformational leadership style of first-line nurse managers in relation to job satisfaction of nurses and moderators of this relationship. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 9(3), 346. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030346