Nursing Leadership

Questions

Write a 350-700-word paper answering the following questions: What are your personal views of leadership? How does leadership differ from management? What are the characteristics of an effective leader?

Answer

Nursing Leadership

Leadership is the act of influencing a group of people towards a particular course.  My personal view on leadership is that this is not something inherent on particular individuals or acquired during birth. Rather, leadership is about the situations that people find themselves. This means that anyone can become a leader, and the most basic thing is to adapt to the needs of the tasks at hand. Experience also determines the quality of leadership exemplified by a particular individual. The more experienced an individual is the better the quality of his/her leadership. Good leadership also involves having the will to take responsibility and ability to handle assigned responsibilities. Thus in some situations, leaders should have the necessary educational qualifications (Rickets & John, 2010).

There is a significant difference between leadership and management. Management involves planning, controlling, and directing activities in an organization in order to achieve set goals and objectives. On the other hand, leadership involves establishing mutual purposes in order to accomplish particular activities. Management is unidirectional in nature while leadership is multidirectional in terms of influence. Management involves dealing with people, budgets, processes, systems, and equipment while leaders are concerned with developing visions and influencing people to agree with the visions. The success of a leadership style is assessed by achievement of goals, while the success of management is often measured in terms of profits made by the organization. Leadership is about influencing people to follow instructions, while management involves use of hierarchical structures to direct, influence, control or to command people (Bertocci, 2009).

Effective leaders have certain unique characteristics.  An effective leader should be results and goal oriented. Such a leader work with a focus on achieving particular goals or set objectives.  An effective leader should inspire or empower individuals into action. They should be optimistic and inspire hope among individuals. Effective leaders should also have integrity. This mean that they should practice honesty and fairness in their dealings. They should also have good communication skills and confidence. Lastly, effective leaders should be decisive.

References

Bertocci, D. I. (2009). Leadership in organizations: There is a difference between leaders and     managers. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.

Rickets, C., & John, R. (2010). Leadership: Personal Development and Career Success. Cengage             Lerning.

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