Course Objective #2
Differentiate leadership, management and organization in terms of a variety of supporting theories and frameworks.
Reflections on Course Content
In Week 1, I read How Can You Be A Voice to Lead. This article taught me that leadership is a process and not a position, reinforcing the idea that an individual does not need to be in a designated position of authority to be a leader. Conversely, just because an individual is in a designated position of authority does not automatically mean they have excellent leadership skills (International Council of Nurses, 2017).
In Week 3, we discussed how being in designated positions of authority can actually hinder the important leadership skill of self-awareness. I learned from the Harvard Business Review Article What Self Awareness Really Is, that power and seeing ourselves as highly experienced (two things that traditionally come with management positions) can hinder self-awareness by keeping us from questioning things, listening and reflecting on feedback, and “doing our homework” by taking the initiative to personally reflect (Eurich, 2018). I also learned that the Johari Window can be an effective tool to use (especially if you find yourself in a management position) in identifying how your habits in the workplace are contributing to high or low levels of external and internal self-awareness (Eurich, 2018).
During research for my scholarly paper, I read an article about aesthetic leadership in nursing. This article explored how nurse managers can also be effective leaders, which can lead to efficient organizations and healthy workplaces. Some effective leadership strategies for managers that were identified included being physically present on the floor, frequently jumping in to assist the team, and inspiring a sense of calm amongst the team (Mannix et al., 2015).
Reflections on Personally Discovered Content
Reflection #1
The comic strip shown above illustrates how informal leaders and managers can work together to achieve success in the workplace. The leader in this comic strip seems like a visionary leader, as she is thinking about the “big picture”. The manager is more of a strategic leader, as he is concerned about efficiency and the logistics of achieving goals. This comic relates to objective #2 because it illustrates how leaders and managers, or individuals with different leadership styles, can work together symbiotically to guide the teams within their organizations.
Reflection #2
Following Week 3, I began to recognize that self-awareness was an important key to both effective leadership and effective management and that having self-aware leaders and managers in an organization helped strengthen it. As an avid journaler, I was curious if journaling could improve self-awareness. I found a great research article entitled Reflective Journaling: Innovative Strategy for Self-Awareness for Graduate Nursing Students. This research showed that reflective journaling helped nursing students work through personal biases, better understand their role as a nurse, reflect on their strengths and opportunities for improvement and work through the emotional pain that can come with nursing (Williams et al., 2009).
