Leadership Styles (Nursing)

00:00 Welcome back everyone. Regardless of whether you are a formal leader or an informal leader, you are going to have your own way of expressing yourself. Today, we're going to be talking about leadership styles. Now it's important to know that different leadership styles are needed for different situations and leaders should know which approach is most effective in a given scenario to achieve the organization's goals. Now there are 3 classic leadership styles. The first, Authoritarian. This is where a leader makes all of the decisions without really considering input from the staff. Negative reinforcement and punishment are often needed to enforce the rules. Now this doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Sometimes this particular leadership style maybe effective in an emergency where quick decisions need to be made. The second one is Laissez-Faire. This is where the leader provides little or no direction or supervision and prefers to take what we call a hands-off approach. Decisions are not really made, changes rarely occur, and quality improvement is typically reactive. Meaning after the fact not proactive or forward facing. And the third one is Democratic. This particular leadership style really encourages open communication and staff participation and decisions or personally giving responsibility, accountability, and feedback regarding their performance. Now there are several contemporary styles that we want to discuss today. These are Transactional, Transformational, Servants, Authentic, and Visionary. The first one is Transactional. Transactional leadership in nursing is the one whereas leaders give rewards or punishments to the employees respective of the way way they complete the tasks. Now different from Transactional leadership is Transformational.

01:55 This style in nursing is based on the encouragement of the employees to give their best at work and motivation to be positive while performing various tasks done through a common mission and vision.

02:06 Another one is servant. Servant leadership style in nursing is the one which the main goal of the leader is to serve. A servant leader shares the power, puts the needs of the employees first, and really helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. Next, Authentic leadership.

02:24 This is the leadership style rooted in the concept of authenticity where the leader is a fully functioning person in tune with themselves and their basic nature, self-actualizing and they have strong ethical convictions. And finally, Visionary leadership. Now this is very similar to transformational. Additionally, these leaders are much concerned about the future and they guide the followers to stay focused on what they need to achieve in the upcoming years. So here's a great example for us to go through. Pat is a nurse manager for the operating room of a small local hospital. She designed a process for self-scheduling of the staff and allows staff members to resolve their own conflicts. When new nurses ask her questions, she provides them with the hospital or the nursing unit's policy and procedure manuals. Now, which type of classic leadership style is Pat demonstrating? Is she demonstrating Authoritarian, Laissez-Faire, or Democratic? If you chose Laissez-Faire, you are correct. In this scenario, she designed a schedule where everyone chooses their own schedule. She does not do that for them. She also doesn't intervene when they have conflicts so she doesn't act as a mediator or a liaison there. And third, when a new employee asks for help she simply gives the policy and procedure for them to read rather than spending time with them and really teaching and coaching them on what they need to be successful in the unit. So remember, regardless of the leadership style needed it's important to act with integrity to set realistic goals, to communicate clearly and often, to encourage others, to recognize the successes of your team members, and to inspire them to provide the best care. So what do we learn today? First, we learned classic leadership styles include Authoritarian, Laissez-Faire, and Democratic. The Transactional leadership style in nursing is the one which leaders give rewards or punishments to the employees respective of the way that they complete the task. Different than that is transformational. Transformational leadership in nursing is based on the encouragement of employees to give their best at work and motivation to be positive while performing various tasks done through a common mission and vision. Servant leadership style in nursing is the one where the main goal of the leader is simply to serve. Authentic leadership is a leadership style rooted in the concept of authenticity where the leader is fully functioning person in tune with themselves and their basic nature. And finally, Visionary leadership is very similar to Transformational with the added focus to the future. I hope you've enjoyed this video on leadership styles. Thank you so much for watching.