Have you ever felt like you had to ‘minimize’ yourself to be accepted as part of the team?

1. As a DNP prepared Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, you will serve as the leader for your team. Explore leadership styles in your reading. Most leaders identify with more than one leadership style. Identify your leadership styles and discuss how can your leadership styles help you be an effective leader.

I am a huge proponent of leadership. I identify with a variety of resonant leadership styles, including servant, democratic, and visionary leadership. My strong point is servant leadership. Servant leadership focuses on the needs of their team members to assist and grow them (Chism, 2021). They prioritize serving others over serving themselves, but this form of leadership can be difficult because if you lack a strong personality and emotional intelligence, people may perceive it as a weakness and exploit it. Democratic leadership involves the team in decision-making by allowing them to submit ideas and opinions, with the leader making the final choice based on the group’s input (Chism, 2021). This is my preferred form of leadership since I’ve experienced being unheard, unsupported, and devalued by management in my career. The key to this leadership style is to have a dissolved ego and focus on the goal and prospective outcomes. I am also a visionary leader, presenting a clear and exciting vision for the future and pushing the team to strive toward common goals, which is sometimes all that is required to help individuals achieve their goals (Chism, 2021).

When I’m in a leadership position, I frequently feel alone. I believe that loneliness can stem from the understanding that not everyone will agree with the end outcome or plans. I respect everyone’s input, and point of view however I always have to be mindful of the goal and not focus on the popularity of others. I am well conscious of my strengths and values. I believe in these styles of leadership because I am not scared to stand up for what I believe is right. However, it can be difficult at times since I’ve been told that my personality is too strong and that I’m regarded as aggressive, although I’m simply very enthusiastic about my beliefs. I recognize and acknowledge that constructive change is not accidental; it is intentional. Building a team and creating a healthy work atmosphere is critical to achieving effective results. Stepping away from floor practice while still having an impact on fostering a positive environment speaks volumes in my opinion. I’ve worked side by side with nurses who would complain about policies and procedures, patient load, and duties all the time, then advance to leadership roles and, for some reason, quickly forget how it is on the floor, agreeing to more responsibility and work on the staff rather than speaking up for the entire team.

2. In serving as a leader, you will also collaborate with the interprofessional team. Current healthcare work environments require increased collaboration to promote positive outcomes for patients. Often there are conflicts within and across teams for many reasons such as poor communication, overlapping of duties, and role confusion, which can cause potential safety hazards, delays in care, ineffective patient care, and poor outcomes. How will you use your leadership qualities to resolve conflicts and implement change to promote a cohesive, collaborative, working environment?

To implement change and promote a cohesive, collaborative work environment, I believe it is necessary to first recognize that an interprofessional team is a collection of healthcare providers with different personalities, cultures, and beliefs, each with its approach to assessing, analyzing, diagnosing, and treating. We all have different perspectives, but it is always important to communicate disputes and concerns respectfully. Maintaining a professional manner is key to successful teamwork (Bragadóttir et al., 2023). We must always remember that patient safety and positive patient outcomes are the primary aims to achieve. If the disagreement raises ethical problems, I must seek advice from an ethical committee. I’ve experienced instances where I disagreed with an order or plan of care. I would first try to comprehend and research what I am questioning, as my initial thoughts and processing may be incorrect. I would need to ensure that I had investigated my own biases and viewpoints. If I don’t get an answer there, I might ask someone else for their thoughts or see if they can assist me grasp what is being asked. If I can’t come to an understanding, I’ll go to the ordering doctor, sincerely express my worries, and ask for the rationale to obtain a deeper understanding and be willing to learn. If I am still concerned, I will inform the provider and follow my chain of command, ideally without delaying treatment and care for the patient. I must remember that effective communication and teamwork are critical to the success of interprofessional healthcare teams. Resolving differences respectfully promotes a pleasant work environment and, eventually, improves patient care (Bragadóttir et al., 2023).

Peer Question

Have you ever felt like you had to ‘minimize’ yourself to be accepted as part of the team?

References 

Bragadóttir, H., Kalisch, B. J., Flygenring, B. G., & Tryggvadóttir, G. B. (2023). The relationship of nursing teamwork and job satisfaction in hospitals. SAGE Open Nursing, 9, 237796082311750. https://doi.org/10.1177/23779608231175027

Chism, L. A. (2021). The Doctor of Nursing Practice: A Guidebook for Role Development and Professional issues. Jones & Bartlett Learning.