Posted: July 5th, 2022

Discussion 2
I’ve learned a lot about this week’s discussion topic as a whole. I didn’t know that being a leader meant so much. I didn’t know about servant-leadership, even though I belong to that group. I’ve always thought that I’ve never been in charge of anything before now. I always thought that a leader was someone in charge, like a manager or the CEO of a company. I always thought it was about being in charge of someone. After reading this week’s articles, I now see leadership in a different way.

Complexity leadership is all about learning and being creative while doing so, rather than always focusing on work. One way I can remember what complex leadership is like is to think about a kindergarten class. The professor doesn’t give the toddlers tests. Instead, he or she lets them do what they want, be creative, and talk about their work with each other. During the process, they not only learn, but they also get great feedback and the chance to say what they think. If there is a problem, they can say what they think and work out a solution. When that toddler gets a chance to be creative, he or she will feel like they have control.

Care-based leadership is another type of leadership, but it’s my least favorite. Dr. Anne’s example was that nurses have little to no time on the floor, and in order to help a patient, they have to hear their side of the story. Sometimes this takes too long, so they give the task to another nurse or teammate so they can care for another patient. I understand why work needs to be given to other people, but I also agree with Dr. Anne that nurses need to get back to the heart of what they do. The charge nurse should step in and find a way for these patients to get good care without having to wait. When a nurse gives a task to another teammate and it gets done, that is good leadership. However, when management lets the nurse do all the delegating or doesn’t step in, there is a high chance of chaos and conflict between the nurse and the patients or between the nurse and management (Boykin, 2012).

Since I work in the ICU, I know that something like this can’t happen there. There is no room for chaos or conflict, either with a teammate or with management or with a patient. The most important thing is to take care of the unconscious patient, and since ICU nurses don’t have much time, they spend all of it on that patient. The ICU nurse is in charge of the room, and she makes all the decisions that are best for the patient. There’s no room for mistakes or time to fight. The nurse is only taking care of one patient at a time, so if there is trouble or chaos, it will be easy to handle. A great example of servant leadership is also a nurse who works in an ICU. I also think that if someone wants to be a good charge nurse or work in management, they need to have great servant leadership skills. Making good decisions is part of being a leader (Davis, 2018)

References

Boykin, A (2012). Caring-Based Nursing Leadership. February 9, 2012 https://www.emergingrnleader.com/caringnursingleadership/ (Links to an external site.)

Davis, H. J. (2018). SERVANT-LEADERSHIP DECISION-MAKING RUBRIC: A Greenleaf-Inspired Assessment Tool for Employee-Based Issues. The International Journal of Servant-Leadership, 12(1), 149-172. https://go.openathens.net/redirector/fau.edu?url=h…