The transformational approach to leadership is an ideal that I strive to resonate within my style of

work. A style where leadership is provided through engaging others, and power is delegated
throughout the workforce to empower everyone to have the opportunity to showcase their own
abilities and strengths creating a team atmosphere where everyone feels responsible for the
success of the group. (Crawford, 2013) Transformational leadership can be demonstrated by
anyone , including the people that stand behind the leaders that are in the trenches doing the
necessary work day in and out who can be responsible for determining the success of the group.
Transformational leadership styles focus on changing followers to leaders, and then to agents of
change creating a successful working environment by motivating people to a level beyond selfinterest forming a common ground creating a team of leaders that all feel responsible in striving
towards a common goal. (Crawford, 2013)
I endeavor to be a leader in any environment that I work, but at the same time I will always
respect the hierarchy of authority of a system that is in place. My last clinical placement was at
various times a bit of a spectacle in miscommunication. The clinical instructor was well prepared
and extremely accommodating in pursuing the continuous learning of all clinical students, almost
to a fault. Every clinical day all students were assigned to give medications creating many
opportunities for learning, but also caused a great strain on proper communication having only
one instructor and eight students. A situation occurred between me and my instructor that was
related to medications and was a direct result of miscommunication. An error had occurred that
was important to rectify but did not involve the safety of myself or my patient, but would need to
be addressed. I set up a meeting with my instructor to try and solve the communication woes that
our group seemed to be having, and in the process spread the responsibility of communication to
our entire group. Transformational leadership theory empowers everyone to engage in pursuing a

collective purpose to reach a common goal (Crawford, 2013) and in this case I viewed the goal
as proper communication. I sat down with my instructor and went over the occurrence that
happened and we both agreed it was a direct result of miscommunication. I discussed with my
instructor that the entire group seemed to be having instances of communication errors and I had
a possible solution. I went over three way communication that is a system of communication that
has been in use at my current employer Ontario Power Generation. If I have an instruction, I will
state it to whomever I am talking to; they will then repeat my exact words to let me know they
understood and then I reinforce my initial instruction to make sure we both understand the
instruction. The whole process looks like this: person A Dave please give these medications at
0800hrs. Dave then responds Ok I understand you want me to give these medications at
0800hrs; Person A then repeats back Yes that is correct, give the medications at 0800hrs. I let
my instructor know that this system could easily be utilized by our entire group making us all a
great deal more comfortable communicating and cut down on misunderstandings. Knowing that
errors in the nursing profession can result in grave consequences, I thought it would be a great
idea to have everyone using three way communication to eliminate errors and work towards a
common goal together. Although my instructor chose not to employ this technique with the entire
clinical group, she and I always communicated in this manner regarding instructions and the rest
of my clinical experience was event free.
Transitional Leadership is the system of leadership that I will endeavour to utilize during my pre
grad experience, as it is a system that can be employed when you believe strongly in what you
are trying to accomplish. People see that you have a goal or purpose and that you are striving to
reach this goal, you can explain the vision that you are trying to achieve and empower them as
well to achieve what can now be a common goal to a preferred future, that creates positive

change (Crawford, 2013), such as error free communication. Communication can easily become
an error likely situation but this can be changed and during my pre-graduate clinical experience I
will endeavour to use three way communication with all my coworkers to ensure I have a clear
understanding of my instructions and duties that I will be required to perform.

Bibliography
Crawford, P. K. (2013). Nursing Leadership and Managemet. Toronto: Nelson
Education.