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Leadership Essay

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When talking about leadership, one cannot help but wonder how it relates to nursing. If the focus of nursing should be caring for patients who are either well or ill, then why is there a need to tackle leadership? Unlike before, today’s health care environment is complex, rapid and continuously changing. This development prompts an upcoming danger to the nurse’s skills, identity and ability to coordinate with other health care professionals. On the other hand, this also makes nurses challenge their own into taking the lead, developing goals, consolidating a purpose and moving towards an attainable vision. A nurse leader then needs to combine clinical, administrative, financial and operational skills to effectively solve various clinical …show more content…

There are three known styles of leadership namely autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. In simple terms, autocratic means that only the leader makes the decision. In democratic the people most of the time has a say on the decision. And in laissez faire the decision making is given to the members directly, the leader is minimally involve in the process. The relationship of leadership to power is unmistakable. Power is the key component in leadership (Feldman, 2008). It is the ability to influence the other party’s behavior. The formal aspect of power is authority. One aspect of power in leadership is the distinction made between the exercise of power to advance a collective purpose and power to self advancement. True power is shared and given freely. Even the most memorable leaders are empowering in a sense that their power is about influence, confluence and synergy versus domination, control or willfulness (Feldman, 2008). Empowerment is one of the many roles a leader assumes. The other roles that a leader assumes include creating a climate that promotes followership in response to authority, recognizing the dual pyramid of power that exists between the organization and its employees, and using a powerful persona to increase respect and decrease fear in subordinates. Previous theories of leadership

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