Running head: PERSONAL LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY 1

Personal Leadership Philosophy

Prino Idison

NLM 100

Debbie Cameron

October 2, 2019
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Introduction

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one

that gets the people to do the greatest things.” (Ronald Reagan; 1975). The above quote clearly

signifies the quality of a leader should have and, I strongly believe in Mr. Regan’s words. My

experience working in healthcare field over 5 years from a novice nurse to an assistant charge

nurse. Throughout this period, I have experienced different feelings towards my charge nurses,

supervisors and I have experienced several different type of leadership styles. I believe

leadership is way more than just leading the other people, but it also inspiring people to be better

themselves or teach them to trust and believe a person they choose to follow .There are many

ways we can define leadership the basic definition for leadership is the action of leading a group

of people or an organization. From a text book says, “leadership is commonly defined as a

process that involves influencing the thinking and actions of others with respect to achieving a

goal” (Institute of Medicine, 2010). I aspire to be a transformational leader because

transformational leadership is the only one kind of leadership tend to have strong motivation,

constantly challenge their employees and inspire their followers. and I believe in such a leader

who can inspire me every single day and only a great leader can bring out the harmony, effort,

creativity and informative ideas that benefit ourselves and for the people who trust on our

decisions. one of the examples for a transformational leader is Mahatma Gandhi. “He gave the

Indian freedom movement a sense of direction and purpose. He was able to make it a truly mass

movement that till then existed in fragmented interests and limited to either extreme elite

participation or participation of the extreme poor. By preaching his theory of nonviolence,

Gandhi was able to bring in each citizen of India into the freedom struggle and make every

single person’s contribution count” (Bhasin, 2017).

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My Philosophy on Leadership

In my belief leadership is critical to the wellbeing and growth of both the individual and

the entire team. it is not only reserved or restricted to those with formally assigned management

of leadership. leadership opportunities are often to all level with in the organization or team,

either formal or informal ways. In nursing profession, nurses take various leadership roles like

staff nurse as a leader, nurse manager, nurse executive and so on.

Nursing student as a leader help student to practice beginner leadership skills within the

limit of educational program. The novice leadership skill contributes to the future leadership by

learning how to work in a group, resolves the issues within groups, deal different people etc.

During my college days I had the opportunity to be part of college student nurse’s association,

they elected me as secretary of association where I was doubting myself in my own leadership.

The whole experience taught me to be confident, self-motivated, I was never self-motivated

because I lacked self confidence in myself, but once I gained that confidence, I found myself

being involved in more activities, I started motivating others. This informal style of leadership

grows me as better leader.

Workplace leaders develop an environment suitable for the nurses to experience job

satisfaction and improving their ideas also give opportunity for nurses with new ideas to

volunteer in committees such as quality assurance committee. From my own experience in

hospitals I had an opportunity to work with an inspiring personality, my mentor and head of

surgical unit. she was a leader I always look up to, she has this type of leadership, she always a

find a way to inspire me and others. As a leader she always gives us a chance to voice our ideas

about improving patient care in terms of evidence-based practices. The experience working with
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her was the major milestone in my career to transform as a leader, who work together as a team

to reach our goals through strong willful motivation and faith in one other.

On comparison of my personal leadership style with Maslow’s hierarchy, it is evident

that it has latent abilities to inspire followers to satisfy higher level needs such as self-esteem and

self-actualization. For example when I get paid appropriate for my work as nurse, as an

employee of the organization I get a chance to meet my basic physiological needs, I get safety

satisfied through safe work environment and .this gives me an opportunity to contribute to

success of my employer .In addition to that my research came across to the nursing organizations

like College of Nurses Ontario and Canadian Nurses Association, i realized that they even

promote everyone in their organization should have some leadership skills. And they expect

each nurse shows leadership by providing facilitating and promoting the best possible care to the

public. The Canadian Nurses Association on their mission statement on leadership states that

“Nursing is a practice discipline and it is a political act, nursing leadership is about critical

thinking, action and advocacy, and it happens in all roles and domains of nursing practice.

Nursing leadership plays a vital role in the immediate lives of nurses and it has an impact on

entire health system and Canadians its serves” (Canadian Nurses Association, 2018). CNO

policies and standards enlightened me. Their style in leadership is always motivating and eye

catching, I believe it has started its effect on me.

My own philosophy of leadership comes from my knowledge as nurse, personal beliefs

and experiences that I have gathered all these years. I believe that a true leadership comes with

all openminded and listening ears. Leadership always led by example motivating others, having

self-integrity, valuing commitment to himself and others. Being a transformational leader gives
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us an opportunity to give something back to our organization and help to grow as a people

person rather being a boss.

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References

Bhasin, H. (2017, December 24). Transformational leadership explained with examples [Blog

post]. Retrieved from https://www.marketing91.com/transformationalleadership/

Canadian nurses Association. Position statement on nursing leadership. Retrieved on September

30, 2019 from https://www.cna-aiic.ca/~/media/cna/page-content/pdf-en/nursing-

leadership_position-statement.pdf

College of nurses Ontario, (p.2). Professional standards Guidelines. Retrieved on September 27,

2019 from http://www.cno.org/globalassets/4-

learnaboutstandardsandguidelines/prac/learn/modules/profstands/slides/leadership.pdf

Kelly, P., Quesnelle, H. (2016). (p.170-175). Nursing leadership & Management (3rd ed.).

Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education.

Raman, R. (2017, December 11). What Maslow can Teach Us about Leadership [Blog post].

Retrieved from https://hackernoon.com/what-maslow-can-teach-us-about-leadership-

a1088198874

Reagan.R explained that “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest

things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things” (Interview with mike

Wallace, 60 minutes, (December 14,1975).

Yoder-Wise, P. (2015). (p.47,48). Leading and Managing in Canadian Nursing (6th ed.).

Missouri: Elsevier.