Discuss about the Healthcare Professionals for Leadership in Health Care.
The aim of this report is to explain the role of a team leader in a team of healthcare professionals. In this context, the report will discuss the skills, values and behavior exhibited by an effective leader and its impact on the team. The report depicts the effect of inefficient leadership on the health care workers, patients, and the entire organization. I have been elected as a team leader for a healthcare organization. I will perform an evaluation of my role with leadership analysis tool to analyze my leadership style and the performance outcome of the team members.
Leadership in any organization is essential to accomplish target goals. Leadership refers to the role associated with mentors, role models, coaches and advocates (Piccolo & Buengeler, 2013). Leadership relates to a capability of a person to lead a group of members in the direction of a common goal (Borkowski, 2015). A leader fulfills the responsibility of boosting team performance by providing moral support and positive energy and at the same time taking care of negative factors that are responsible for downregulation of positive outcomes (Daft, 2014). There are several leadership styles and related theories existing but in health care sector, these are less profound. To support the health care organization a leader must have unique capabilities. Healthcare industry is a diversified domain that contains different types of departments and specialties. Working in such complex domain requires a leader to have unique skills, attitude and moral values to use resources efficiently and drive the proposed objectives (Huber, 2013). An effective leader always works to uplift and maintain the interest and energy of nurses and other health care staff in the team to deliver best practices to achieve patient satisfaction (Piccolo & Buengeler, 2013).
According to Rowitz, (2013), in a health care sector, one can implement different types of leadership styles such as collaborative leadership, transactional leadership, distributed leadership, transformational leadership and shared leadership. According to Stoller, (2013) for a health care sector, transformational leadership would be best suitable. As a team leader I would prefer and adopt transformational leadership style. According to Piccolo & Buengeler, (2013) transformational leaders are “usually dynamic, vigorous, enthusiastic and robust”. They lend a helping hand to all the team members and usually merge ideals and principles of followers and leaders to exercise their leadership (Yukl, 2012).
A team leader should have characteristics and competences to invoke a positive response from others who will naturally consider that person as a source of inspiration (Huber, 2013). An effective team leader should be able to boost the confidence of the fellow members to the highest level and retain the team spirit with his discipline and strength of character. It is the duty of the team leader to identify the issues in the team, which prevents other from coping up with the pace, and address them in a best possible way to boost the production of an organization (Nancarrow et al., 2013).
A team leader must have a character that enables fellow members and all the subordinates to trust and have faith in him or her, to approach any problem or any other adversity (Stoller, 2013). According to Dr. Duane “trust” consists of three components that are capacity to trust, the perception of competence and intentions (Rowitz, 2013). To build trust, the team leader must say and perform the same sentiment. He or she should always be honest towards the team, and it is due to the integrity that a positive response is always evoked from the team and generates a positive energy in the system.
An efficient team leader should always have high spirit and confidence to drive the organization goals by making effective decision (Piccolo & Buengeler, 2013). The communication system between the team members and the leader must be strong and clear. A leader must possess both verbal and non-verbal communication skills (Nancarrow et al., 2013). Every health care organization has multiculturalism, due to the staffs and patients coming from different cultural background and ethnicity. Therefore, a leader must be proficient in more than one language. This attribute will help in better collaborating with different types of people working in a team of health care professionals.
According to sociologist Max Weber, a transactional team leader always respects his teammates, values their opinions, ideas and concepts, and includes them in decision making giving them the full flexibility of their choices (Nancarrow et al., 2013). A team leader must always maintain fairness in dealing with fellow members and take disciplinary action wherever necessary. He closely monitors that the instruction is clearly followed by the members. The team should be treated as individuals rather than impersonally, and the responsibilities should be assigned not based on hierarchy but virtue (Yukl, 2012). The team leader should be influential to bring out the potential outcomes. Others always admire these leaders for their motivational skills. Such leaders are active, approach fellow member in a friendly manner, and advocate the changes. It results in promoting the passion for work and commitment towards the organization among the staff (Weaver et al., 2014).
An effective leader can also delegate really well to enhance the structure of the organization (Stoller, 2013). Such leaders are also a good “facilitator” who strives hard to encourage and facilitate the team towards the accomplishment of organizational goal (Rowitz, 2013). Such people are independent in thinking and have clarity of mind with a clear vision to maintain pace with the changing environment. They treat every hurdle as an opportunity. Health sector keeps changing with the progress of science and technology, and it is mandatory for an ideal leader to be positive towards such change (Nancarrow et al., 2013). To improve the safety and quality of medical services, the leader must have in depth concept about diseases and its care (Ciulla, 2014). A quality leader is courageous enough and tactful in taking risks and yet be successful.
There is always an uncertainty in such health care organization. Evaluating the performance and outcomes on a regular basis is required to identify any concerning issues and address it immediately as the ultimate goal is to deliver quality services to the patients (Fernandez, 2015). It is a well-known fact that a goal without the plan is just a wish (MacPhee et al., 2013). Therefore, a leader must always be ready with plans to face the daily challenges such as shortage of workers, increased patients due to new disease outbreak and others. Therefore, effort should be put on modifying traditional methods of care services without compromising the goal. Implementing this plan effectively will ensure success in a long run (Lavine, 2014).
Every organization has the code of ethics, which the team leader must strictly follow. A leader must be aware of the importance of ethical behavior. By exhibiting strong ethical behavior, a leader can influence the action of other professionals in the organization. According to (Harrison et al., 2015) moral development, virtues and motives do influence the choices of leader. The best leader is the one who lives and exhibits values in their style and daily activities (Ciulla, 2014). To retain the staff, their interests and commitment a quality leader always recognizes and appraises the hard work and performance of the members (Koh et al., 2013). “Rewards and acknowledgment” are the age-old tactics that never fail in client retention (Huber, 2013).
As a team leader, understanding the theories of leadership and its styles will help in preparing myself as an effective leader. As I belong to healthcare related background, it would be helpful for me in understanding the operations of the organization and accustom quickly. I would regularly monitor the tasks allocated to the staff and ensure they are well carried out, and I will also participate in the ward rounds to supervise the care providers. I will use best of my potential to ensure continued care services without compromising the quality and safety of the health of the patients. To accomplish the goals of the organization, I will stay committed to my work and never lose sight of vision. I will make sure that at no point in time the team lacks motivation by regular rewards and recognition of their potential, ideas, intelligence and hard work.
In this section, the author will discuss the effects of poor leadership skill on an organization and overall health care facilities.
Poor leadership only brings catastrophe to the organization darkening all its chances of success and damages its reputation (Koh, 2013). It is evident from the controversies and the ethical dilemma faced by “the Apple Company at Foxconn” due to poor managerial practice by its leader (Johnson, 2013). A poor leadership makes the organization unhealthy. Healthcare organization is a complex system dealing with the life and death of an individual. The quality of services determines the health of an individual. Therefore, poor leadership not only harms the sustainability of organization but also the client satisfaction (Munir et al., 2012).
There are several incidences of medical errors and unprofessional behavior of nurses, which has led to the death of patients and chaos (Schyns & Schilling, 2013). It may be due to lack of proper guidelines or training, misleading by the leader. A leader without vision cannot direct the team towards its goal. He or she fails eventually to meet the needs of the system (Borkowski, 2015). It creates gaps and leads to miscommunication among the employees. It has been earlier reported by (Lavine, 2014) that poor communication among nurses and physicians are common and has resulted in various medical errors such as over dosage of medicines. These workers, therefore, will not be determined by their objective, but all they would have is wishful thinking. The efficiency of these workers will decrease without proper leadership to guide them (Schyns & Schilling, 2013).
Poor leadership results in knowledge gaps and a gap in strategic planning (Koh, 2013). Due to a gap in knowledge leader is unprepared for adverse consequences or arise from the uncertain situation. They fail to link the plans or strategies with the goals of the organization. Therefore, taking risks in such circumstances brings drastic results decreasing the productivity (Weaver et al., 2014). Risk taking is a calculated process which involves a disciplined plan of action. Weak leaders succumb to pressure and end up taking random decision haphazardly. They never plan for the adverse situation before hand and quickly lose sight of their vision (Yukl, 2012).
Poor leadership does not include all the professionals in decision-making underestimating their potentials, ideas and intelligence. Lack of collaboration is the “root of the culture of mediocrity” (Harrison et al., 2015). Consequently; the nurses feel that they are not valued and that their dignity and respect is not maintained. Therefore, it decreases motivation and efficiency of performance (MacPhee et al., 2013). Employee dissatisfaction and burnout is a significant factor that leads to the downfall of an organization (Weaver et al., 2014). People with low self-esteem and confidence show reduced enthusiasm. This, in turn, results in delivery of poor quality of services. According to Harrison et al., (2015) poor leadership skills is the leading cause of poor quality of services offered by the staff.
Leadership is an attribute that is essential in not only health sector but in every sphere of life. Self-assessment tools are developed to determine and judge essential characteristics of leadership. Such devices are designed in the area of healthcare sector as well. These tools analyze the style of direction and are mainly performed in academics and by practitioners. The analysis is important to enhance the skills and quality of leaders. It helps one to identify their areas of weakness, strength, and threats, assess traits, positivity, emotional intelligence, confidence level, and compare oneself with the health care model dimensions (Fernandez, 2015).
These tools can be used to evaluate the performance of other members of the team as well. These assessment tools come in the form of survey questionnaires where one can rate themselves on the scale of 10 or 5. Sometimes the options like “agree, disagree, moderately agree” are used in the assessment. The result is based on the score and ultimately gives a clear picture of where one stands regarding the role played by them through data interpretation (Johnson, 2013). This evaluation occurs on several parameters like team building, power to encourage, cognitive capabilities, motivational skills, and others (Yukl, 2012). These are also known as “applied analysis” oriented with “personality, developmental and psychoanalytic theories” which also merge role models and early experiences. The questions are mainly close ended (Lavine, 2014). As a team leader I would analyze myself and my team members by evaluating their performance to identify issues and barriers to positive outcomes. It may include determining if guidelines and code of practice were strictly followed by people. Sometimes the assessment may include problem solving exercises such as “how would you convenience a patient with breast cancer at a malignant stage to undergo chemotherapy knowing she has developed fears related to the process and prefer only medication? How will you explain the importance of chemotherapy? What are your strategies to involve parents and patients in decision-making? How will explain them about the health insurances plan if any or other schemes that benefit them of a cost?” (Weaver et al., 2014)
Another example such as “how will you motivate nurses who are unsatisfied with long shift hours and a high patient is to nurse ratios? How will you help nurses committing medical errors? How will you mentor them in managing work-life balance expectation?” These kinds of self-assessment tool come as an online kit which itself projects data after completion of the assessment (Weaver et al., 2014).
Conclusion
In a health care system, caregivers and nurses play a pivotal role. Therefore, workplace related matters are crucial for them and their profession. If they undergo job dissatisfaction and burnout, it will lead to a downfall of an organization as the quality of the medical services is significantly hampered. Knowing the fact that the nursing care has the significant effect on the quality and safety of the patient care, nurses should be properly trained and engage them in leadership development and decision-making and mentor them in improving the quality of attention services in a health system.
The report details the extensive skills and competencies of an effective team leader. The analysis of the leadership skills demonstrated the significant importance of the role played by a leader and its impact on an organization’s growth and sustainability. The report detailed both positive and adverse consequences of good and poor leadership skills respectively. The literature search shows that the work efficiency of members and organizational culture depends highly on the behavior and attitude of its leader. Amongst the different leadership styles, I prefer the “transformational style.” A health care organization must adopt a leadership style that best suits its health care setting. The report finally presents how the assessment tool helps one to develop and enhance their skills as a team leader.
Reference
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