A Summary On Trust And Leadership

In this book, trust is defined as “one’s willingness to be vulnerable to another based on the confidence that the other is benevolent, honest, open, reliable, and competent.” (page xiii) The author recognizes that trust is complex and dynamic. She views trust as the “lubricant” that greases the machinery of the organization. Trust is particularly important where parties are interdependent, or the “interests of one party cannot be achieve without reliance upon another.” In schools “teachers and principals are

In today’s healthcare system, effective leadership is essential to improving and reaching organizational outcomes. A leader is someone with the ability to influence others but, an effective leader uses positive strategies to inspire employees to work towards the same goal. Leadership in nursing requires a constant effort to motivate others to become part of the organizational transformation. This can be achieved using a transformational leadership style with a focus on communication, motivation, and empowerment.

Transformational theory reminds leaders of how their behavior influences their team members by building trust in the organization, showing how they fit in the organization, and sharing a vision together (Northouse, 2010). Even though all nursing theories share unique criticisms, Northouse (2010) goes on to suggest “more attention should be directed toward how leaders can encourage followers to challenge the leader’s vision and share in the leadership process” (p. 189). A self-assessment tool, such as the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ), can assist the leader in understanding how they can improve their leadership qualities. MLQ examples might include evaluating the awareness of being open to others opinions, demonstrating confidence, or assisting in developing others leadership strengths.

Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.

Every day, a set team of nurses and nursing managers set out to ensure the health and well-being of their patients. To achieve this goal, a nurse manager must adhere to a specific style of nursing leadership. There are many different styles of leadership in the healthcare field. Bass and Barnes (1985) stated that the two most common are transformational and transactional (as cited in Frankel, 2008, p.24). This paper will define leadership, the two different styles, how each are executed, as well as pros and cons of each.

In healthcare it is very important to have strong leaders, especially in the nursing profession. A nurse leader typically uses several styles of leadership depending on the situation presented; this is known as situational leadership. It is important that the professional nurse choose the right style of leadership for any given situation to ensure their employees are performing at their highest potential. Depending on which leadership style a nurse leader uses, it can affect staff retention and the morale of the employees as well as nurse job satisfaction (Azaare & Gross, 2011.) “Nursing leaders have the responsibility to create and maintain a work environment which not only promotes positive patient outcomes but also

Finkelman, A. (2012) Leadership and management for nurses: Core competencies for quality care (2nd ed.). Boston, MA. Pearson

Once these qualities are achieved that organization’s outcomes are superior. The intended audience is for nurse managers and those in leadership positions to help them identify their particular skill set and enhance their management qualities for most effective outcomes. This article is relevant because it allows for accurate public perceptions of people’s skill sets as leaders in nursing. The strength of the article is the clear and concise language used as well as the incorporation of figure 1 chart. The chart allows the reader to differentiate between the styles of leading and it’s effect on organizational outcomes.

Leading a health care organization comes with immense responsibility and is not an easy task. Transformational leadership has proven to be an effective leadership style in the nursing profession, demonstrating a clear mission, a commitment to excellence, and the ability to motivate and lead others to higher levels of achievement (Schwartz, Spencer, Wilson, & Wood, 2001). Characteristics and qualities of an effective leader include

Throughout the nursing industry, both managers and bedside nurses utilize their strengths and skills as transformational leaders to develop a strong sense of camaraderie that bases its success through teamwork and development of personal attributes. As the role of the nursing manager, individuals must inspire their employees to share the same vision as they do on behalf of the organizational goals. Givens (2008) explains how transformational leadership is shown when leaders encourage followers to think outside of the box, thus motivating them to perform at higher levels by becoming more involved in their work and developing a sense of commitment to the organization (p. 11). This not only pertains to the nurse manager but to lower level employees as well. Even though lower level employees, such as a certified nursing assistant, do not own a title that gives them authority, each employee can still practice leadership skills

The purpose of this paper is to “gain a holistic perspective of the leadership role and their impact on patient outcomes” (Sinutko, 2016). The role of a nurse in a management position can extend beyond the confines of the hospital. “There are plenty of opportunities to put your nursing skills to good use outside the hospital walls” (Brooks, 2015). Nursing information technology (IT), research analyst, healthcare educator, and the insurance industry are just a few of the opportunities for nurses to make a positive impact on the health and well-being of the population. To create this positive healthcare environment, nurse leaders must work “within a collaborative and interprofessional environment” to

“Managers with leadership styles that seek and value contributions from staff, promote a climate in which information is shared effectively, promote decision making at the staff nurse level, exert position power, and influence coordination of work to provide a milieu that maintains a stable cadre of nurses”, (Boyle, Bott, Hansen, Woods & Taunton, 2009). This statement describes the large impact a leadership style can make on the work environment, and the morale of the team. In nursing history, several theories and leadership

Leadership traits associated with nurse executives are honesty, credibility, supportiveness, visibility, and flexibility. Nurse executives analyze nursing functions and empower nurses through participatory decision making, shared governance, and employee involvement. Nurse executives share the vision and goals of the hospital and promote application of a nursing theory into the nursing care delivery system. They anticipate the future of health care and nursing and serve as monitor, role model, and preceptor to lower level management (Upeniecks, 2003). Nurse executives in the Magnet program are required to have advance practice degrees with certification in their specialty (ANCC). Understanding evidence-based management and enabling the use of evidence-based knowledge provides the nurse executive with the tools to improve patient outcomes. The transformational leader will remove barriers to improvement and encourage outcome based thinking. While nurse leaders are charged with questioning the status quo, nurse managers in the transformational approach to leadership are charged with maintaining the status quo.

The four major components of nursing leadership are decision-making ability, influencing and directing others, facilitating process and relationship building (Paul, Day, & Williams, 2016).Very closely associated with leadership is the concept of management and though many people use the two terms interchangeably, it’s very important to know that leading is one of the key functions of management; the others are planning, organizing and controlling activities to pursue

In order for interpersonal trustworthiness to exist in organizations, a leader-follower relationship must first exist between the parties involved (Caldwell et al., 2010, p. 500). Once that leader-follower relationship is established, leaders have to earn trust. Leaders earn trust by their respective actions, morals and virtues. Trust is can also be based on past history. If something was done in the past which questions a leader’s values, morals or judgment, it would be unlikely that the leader would be trusted in the future. One of the most important parts of being an effective leader is building and maintaining trust. Trust can further be defined as a “multi-dimensional construct comprising different dimensions of the trustee’s attributes that the trustor evaluates” (Ingenhoff and Sommer, 2010, p. 341).