To kick off the leadership blog series, I wanted to start by writing my experience and perception of leadership in my short career so far. So what is leadership?
Firstly, I think it is hard to explain. A simple search on the internet will give you millions of returns so it can be a minefield. Defining leadership is also just as hard with several definitions all depending on the author and the field they belong to. The one I particularly like is the follow leadership definition:
"Leadership is a process of social influence which maximizes efforts of others towards achievement of a goal."
This is a definition by Kevin Kruse, who, in a blog for Forbes, looks at some of the other definitions and picks them apart for why they are not ideal. It is a worthwhile read and can be found here.
At the Council of Deans welcome event this year for the 150 Leaders programme, we were introduced to 8 major leadership themes. These are as follows: Great Man Trait Contingency Situational Behavioural Participative Management Relationship
I won't go into these, as you can read more about them here, but now we know the 8 major themes, now what?
Source Verywell Mind.
Recently at university, we learnt a bit more about leadership styles and how situations might mean your style changes depending on the circumstances. Some of the styles introduced here were Authoritarian Leadership, Democratic Leadership and Laissez-Faire Leadership. But how do we know which to use and when and why? According to the Verywell Mind questionnaire, I would be classed as a Democratic Leader.
We know that the Nursing and Midwifery Council expect leadership in our nursing practice, where they state the following:
" You should be a model of integrity and leadership for others to aspire to."
"Provide leadership to make sure people’s wellbeing is protected and to improve their experiences of the health and care system."
But the most important sentence the NMC state, I feel is the following one:
This is important to me because, although I may be in a leadership position now, I feel I got here due to being a leader without a position in the past. According to a characteristic questionnaire which you should try out yourself, I am a protagonist. Something we are also taught as part of the 150 Leaders programme is about being an authentic leader and this focuses on reflection, identification of your leadership style, building confidence, emotional intelligence and empowerment. Being genuine in my option is the first step to being a good leader, but not only genuine to others but to yourself also.
Source Twitter.
For me, I am slowly learning as part of my leadership journey, to differentiate what is, or should be important to me, and what should not be. That way, I will be able to focus my energy on the things that are important rather than worrying or focusing energy into areas that might not be the best idea. This is something I have learnt from a rather obtuse book by Mark Manson (Warning, there is a lot of swearing in this book). Although there is a lot in the book that I perhaps do not agree with, or understand, I think the message that is being given is a strong and good one about refocusing your energy on what really matters, which I think is also vital in leadership, particularly concerning yourself, as well as because the book makes it clear that failure is not as negative an aspect as we might all think. If you are not looking after yourself, how can you look after the people who look at you as a leader? The book also looks at two interesting concepts, The Feedback Loop from Hell and Backwards Law, which are worth a read also (second swear warning if checking out these links).
Recently, I read a journal article by one of the leaders I met at the 150 Leaders welcome event, Adele Nightingale, who wrote an article on Collective Leadership, and its this style I particularly like. It aligns well with Stacey Johnson's views on Inclusive Leadership and it focuses on peoples strengths and using these, along with the diversity of others no matter what position or role they have, as everyone has a part to play. This is said to then have better outcomes for staff but also for patients in healthcare if healthcare teams follow a collective, inclusive style of leadership and team working.
The last theme I think is vital for leadership is compassion and this is something Michael West from the Kings Fund writes and teaches about. Again, I won't go too much into this as you can read this in your own time here, but in healthcare and particularly nursing, I find it impossible to be a leader without having and showing compassion, where we expect nothing less for our patients so why not for our team and colleagues.
So, leadership is nothing to do with seniority, hierarchy, position or title. It's not about management but it's about authenticness, genuineness, collectiveness and compassion. To be a leader you need creativity, capability and believe you can inspire others. I leave you with this video, which I particularly like due to my own background. Look out for some other perspectives and experiences of leadership in the coming weeks/months.
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