Leadership and Nursing

Leadership and NurseProductivity Leadership and Nurse ProductivityThis paper will review an article by Elizabeth Curtis and Rhona O’Connell in Nurse Management-UK. â€Å"Essential leadership skills for motivating and developing staff† reviews the importance of leadership skill and empowering staff (Curtis & O'Connell, 2011). This article discusses the effect manager has on the staff they supervise, and how a negative attitude can produce negative results; whereby a positive and supportive environment can produce staff Nursing Leadership and Developing Staff Productivity. In the article, Curtis and O’Connell discuss the difference between transactional and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership is based on working on an agreed level of performance for a reward. Managers only intervene when something goes wrong. It is a reactionary type of managing. Transformational leadership, on the other hand, is supportive of the employee. Transformational leadership results in higher employee performance, positive relationships and greater employee satisfaction. When employees have job satisfaction is leads to increased productivity and retention. Data Analysis In reviewing and analyzing this article, the transformational leader has four main elements. These elements are charismatic leadership, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration (Curtis ; O'Connell, 2011). This leadership style is important in today’s healthcare. With all the increasing demands and changes being placed on nursing staff, nurses need a supportive and inspiring leader A charismatic leader is admired and respected by the staff. The leader can affect their staff by being a positive role model. Skilled communication is a strong key in to promote self-confidence and respect in their staff. Inspirational motivation shows a team spirit and enthusiasm for the position. This can affect the staff’s development and potential. The staff is very knowledgeable about the role they play. When problems arise, asking the staff for solution encourages participation and motivation. This also shows the staff they are a valuable part of the team. Intellectual stimulation demonstrates the aptitude for creativity and advancing knowledge base. These leaders encourage their staff to continue their knowledge of the field. They provided mentorship encourage nurses to become certified or get advanced degrees. Individual consideration is where leaders are supportive to their staff’s needs. In this article, Curtis and O’Connell determined that staff will leave a position because the manager did not show concern for the staff. Managers must realize that staff needs social contact and friendship and should be treated with dignity and fairness. Through these leadership skills a manager can create an environment that encourages staff to behave in a mature way, express creativity and enable participation in decision making processes. This will increase job satisfaction, staff retention and productivity. Importance of This Article This article discusses skills for motivating and developing staff. This article also discusses transformational leadership verses transactional leadership. Transformational leadership is important because it provides not only direction but it also creates opportunities for professional development (O'Brien et al. , 2008). Through the information here on encouraging staff to participate, to be creative and to continue gaining self- confidence, a manager can excel in leadership. It is important to have excellent leadership skill a manager should strive for the best unit possible. This will include motivated enthusiastic staff and maintain the staff. This will also have an added benefit of decreasing the financial expenses through reduced turnover and improved job satisfaction. Strong Nursing Leadership In society there are always leaders and followers. It is important to know how to lead to have successful followers. Once a leaders has the skills necessary to assure satisfied followers or staff members then the process of job satisfaction will be a natural progression. Followers do not simply follow. Leaders in community nursing should be aware that successful leadership is the result of a cooperative process involving leaders and followers. They argue that leaders who ignore followers and their contribution to leadership do so at the peril of their organizations (Kean ; Haycock-Stuart, 2011). Therefore, it is important to have skills and guidance how to nurture and develop the followers (staff members) to be productive and satisfied. Conclusion In this review, it was discussed the importance of transformational leadership. With transformational leadership the manager can lead the staff (followers) toward job satisfaction. When a staff member has job satisfaction, productivity increased and staff turnover decreases. Job satisfaction is accomplished through charismatic leader, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. The transformation leader that understands and nurtures the staff will have a productive effective team. References Curtis E O'Connell R 2011 Essential leadership skills for motivating and developing staff. Curtis, E. , & O'Connell, R. (2011). Essential leadership skills for motivating and developing staff. Nursing Management – UK, 18(5), 32-35. Kean S Haycock-Stuart E 2011 Understanding the relationship between followers and leaders. Kean, S. , ; Haycock-Stuart, E. (2011). Understanding the relationship between followers and leaders. Nursing Management-UK, 18(8), 31-35. O'Brien J Martin D Heyworth J Meyer N 2008 Negotiating transformational leadership: a key to effective collaboration [Abstract]. O'Brien, J. , Martin, D. , Heyworth, J. , ; Meyer, N. (2008). Negotiating transformational leadership: a key to effective collaboration [Abstract]. Nursing ; Health Sciences, 10(2), 137-143.