Leadership Qualities
Gardner (1990) identified several attributes of leaders, including physical vitality and stamina, intelligence, good judgment, willingness to accept responsibilities, task competence (i.e., knowing what needs to be done), understanding of followers’
needs, ability to work effectively with others, a need to achieve, ability to motivate others, and courage.
8 Understanding the Theory of Leading, Following, and Managing
Practice Proof 1-1
May (2001) conducted a study of 508 women in the Houston area to identify the skills and attributes those women believed would be needed to succeed in leadership positions in the 21st century. Data from the 263 women who responded to the questionnaire, 137 of whom completed both the first and second rounds of the study, yielded six skills (listed in order of importance to the respondents) seen as the most important skills and attributes of leaders: personal integrity, strategic vision/action orientation, team building/communication skills, management and technical competencies, people skills, and personal survival skills (e.g., political sensitivity, self-direction, courage).
QUESTIONS:
1. To what extent are the skills and attributes needed by leaders in the 21st century that have been identified by participants in May’s study consistent with those needed by nurses?
2. For those who do not possess these six strengths or need some assistance in improving their skills, how could nurses develop and/or improve them?
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COMPETENCIES
In a presentation at the April 2004 American Society of Association Executives Foundation Forum, one of the most influential individuals in the area of leadership, Warren Bennis, offered his ideas about exemplary leaders. He asserted that leaders have the following six competencies:
1. Leaders must foster a clear vision with an endowed purpose that is owned by the people involved with the leader. To illus-trate this competency, Bennis gave the follow-ing example of how Howard Schultz, founder of the Starbucks Coffee conglomeration, views his company’s vision: “We aren’t in the coffee business serving people; we’re in the people business serving coffee.”
2. Getting people to support a vision or mission takes work. Leaders must “keep reminding people of what is important [because]
people really can forget what they are there for.” Followers also need regular recog-nition in order to maintain their engagement with and commitment to the vision.
3. Leaders must be optimistic and see possi-bilities. Leaders must be adaptive to the con-stant change in our society, which “takes a hardiness attitude that allows [them] to face challenges and adapt all of it in a way that results in alignment.”
4. Leaders must create a culture of candor.
Bennis asserted that such a culture requires integrity, which evolves from a balance of ambition, competence, and having “a moral compass.” When ambition surpasses compe-tence or overrides one’s moral compass, for example, integrity is lost, a culture of candor cannot be created, and one cannot be an effec-tive leader.
5. Leaders must mentor others and acknowledge their ideas and accomplish-ments. Bennis said, “Drawing out the leader-ship qualities [of others] is the way of the true leader.”
6. Good leaders must be in tune to getting results. Bennis shared a conversation he had with Jack Welch, previous CEO of General Electric. This highly successful cor-porate manager and leader noted that “getting
results depends on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and cash flow. If I have those three measurements, I can win.” Thus, vision, good intentions, and strong desires are not enough; leaders are leaders because they make things happen.
GENDER DIFFERENCES
Today there are more women than ever before who are effective leaders, and it is expected that the number of women leaders, particularly those from minority groups, will continue to increase (Bennis, Spreitzer, & Cummings, 2003). There are more women governors, senators, and representatives.
There are more women leaders in sports, science, business, education, and many other fields than ever before. In nursing, women have always led the profession toward change and development.
It is reported that women have different styles than men in many things, and because of these dif-ferences, it is assumed that women are better at some things (e.g., child-rearing, nursing) and men are bet-ter at others (e.g., sales, construction work). But when it comes to leadership, the styles of men and women allow both to be successful, particularly if stereotypical maleness is combined with stereotypi-cal femaleness. A more androgynous perspective on leadership—one that combines the best of “female-ness” and the best of “male“female-ness” and draws on the strengths of each style—therefore, is most helpful.
The androgynous leader “blends dominance, assertiveness and competitiveness [often thought to be “male” characteristics] . . . with concern for rela-tionships, cooperativeness, and humanitarian values [often associated with a “female” style]” (Grossman
& Valiga, 2005, p. 112). Such a combination is criti-cal in a world characterized by declining resources and increasing chaos and uncertainty.
GAINING POWER
McClelland and Burnham (1976) determined that power is a definitive aspect of leadership because it motivates individuals and contributes to their charisma. The concept of power is discussed more fully in Chapter 13 so it will not be examined in depth here. But it is important to look at power as a component of leadership.
Leadership and Followership 9
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The two primary sources of power are one’s position in an organization and one’s personal qual-ities. McClelland and Burnham (1976) asserted that hierarchical power, or the amount of authority one has in an organization, and the ability to provide rewards or “punishments” to others are used to attain organizational goals. They also noted that personal power, deriving from one’s knowledge, competence, and trustworthiness, or from follow-ers’ respect for and desire to be associated with the leader, is used to influence others.
It is only when one’s personal power is well established that one can exert transformational leadership. Transformational leaders with highly developed power are comfortable with themselves, have high self-efficacy, and empower followers to attain their own goals and, ultimately, the goals of the group or organization. We are well aware of the many disadvantages of people abusing their power, but when power is used in the service of others, positive results are realized. Greenleaf (1977) and Block (1993) used the term stewardship to describe the phenomenon of directing one’s power toward the service of others, and they asserted that such a quality is essential in leaders. Stewardship is
“the willingness to be accountable for the well-being of the larger organization by operating in service, rather than in control, of those around us”
(Block, 1993).
Similar notions of building relationships through nurturing and empowerment, gaining power through community networking, and leading groups based on values of cooperation were offered by Chinn (2004). Chinn advocated for building one’s personal power base so that it can be used to enhance the group’s ability to achieve its goals and realize its vision, thereby using it to fulfill the leader role.
BECOMING A NURSE LEADER
Nurses need to view themselves as leaders, develop their leadership abilities, and embrace the chal-lenges that face them in health care today (Grossman & Valiga, 2005). In order to become leaders, however, nurses must learn about leader-ship in their academic programs (Fagin, 2000), through on-the-job experiences, through mentors, or through other avenues. In order to develop their leadership skills, it is imperative for nurses to observe expert leaders, work hand-in-hand with
such individuals, and receive constructive feedback on their performance. Having a “shadowing,” or preceptor, experience with a leader, for example, allows nursing students to understand the context of an organization, develop their negotiation skills, think more broadly, communicate more effectively, collaborate more effectively, and be empowered (Grossman, 2005). Personal involvement, immer-sion in a situation, learning by doing, and practicing in the clinical setting with an experienced nurse have been cited as important to learning generally.
They are also strategies to be used to help individu-als learn how to be leaders.
Bennis and Thomas (2002) reinforced the notion that in order to become an effective leader an individual must be able to define her uniqueness or what makes her special. She must then continu-ally grow and increase her expertise in that unique area so that she can be a leader who influences pol-icy development, evidence-based practice, and dis-semination of new understandings.
Many health-care organizations have leadership programs for their managers and those aspiring to become managers. Leadership skills can also be learned as part of the professional development of all nurses. Many professional organizations have leadership institutes and seminars at their annual conferences. When the nursing profession realizes that nurses need leadership skills as much as patient care and management skills and that every nurse, from the entry-level staff nurse to the chief executive nurse, needs to become an effective leader, we can expect that patient care outcomes will be enhanced and that nursing will most effec-tively influence health care.
All Good Things ...
The mantle of leadership does not fall to only a few.
Indeed, all nurses must think of themselves as a leader, act as a leader, and take on the challenges of a leadership role. All leaders are not managers or organizational office holders; many of them are staff nurses, faculty, and individuals on the “front lines” of patient care. By the same token, all man-agers are not leaders. Nurses also need to be effec-tive followers, knowing who to follow, when to follow, and how to follow. It is only through the exercise of leadership and effective followership 10 Understanding the Theory of Leading, Following, and Managing
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that nurses will be able to influence health care and create a preferred future for the profession.
Those of us who are leaders in the field must guide, support, and encourage those who aspire to this role. Those who aspire to genuine leadership must learn about this role, take the risks associated with expressing and moving forward to achieve a vision, and allow passions to drive actions. The patients, families, and communities we serve deserve nothing less.