Leadership is vital to teamwork in a professional, personal, or social setting. Various characteristics make up an individual’s personality, and each attribute will either enhance or hinder their ability to be an effective leader. A person’s leadership style, personality traits, theory of change and conflict, emotional intelligence, and communication style influence their ability to lead their peers. In addition to these attributes, the leader’s capacity to incorporate nursing informatics and technology into patient care is essential in effectively leading the group.
There are three different leadership styles that an individual can fall under, and whichever one they do will determine what kind of leader they will be. It is essential to consider that a person can carry traits from each style and still be an effective leader. The first style is an Autocratic leader; they have full reign over all decisions, take little to no input from the team, and belittle their peers (Murray, 2017). This style is not the most effective because their peers feel demoralized, creating poor workplace morale. The second style is a Democratic Leader; they give their team the freedom to develop ideas, value input from each group member, encourage all members to participate, and increase employee satisfaction (Murray, 2017). This style is the most favored among all three because it creates an open and honest environment that makes each employee feel valued. The final style is a Laissez-Faire leader; they give free rein to their employees, provide little input on their end, expect all team members to execute the tasks, and have very little involvement in completing these tasks themselves (Murray, 2017). This style is the least effective for the organization because timelines are not met, creating a disharmonious between all team members. Most managers look for employee and management satisfaction and high work morale.
An individual’s personality traits are one of the factors that play a role in their leadership style and whether or not they will be an effective leader. The five most used traits that psychologists believe make up a personality are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeable, and neuroticism (Pappas, 2017). These five attributes are thought to be evenly distributed in an individual’s personality, or some can shine more than others. A person can be abundantly extroverted, very open, mildly conscientious, plenty agreeable, and have little neuroticism. This shows that each trait is measured differently and not evenly disbursed throughout their personality. These characteristics make a person who they are and ultimately decide if they will be an effective leader or a change agent.
A person’s emotional intelligence is a part of their personality and plays a crucial role in an individual’s ability to be an effective leader. Emotional intelligence is self-awareness and awareness of others concerning their emotions, feelings, and points of view (Murray, 2017). Since nursing is based on compassion, empathy, and self-awareness, having high emotional intelligence can make you a great nurse. Additionally, an above-average emotional intelligence level can aid in your communication style with your peers. The five components of emotional intelligence include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills, so all managers look for these qualities in their nurse leaders. When individuals can be aware of their emotions and peers and navigate through a conversation on a situational basis, they have all the characteristics to be influential leaders.
Change is a constant in life, and how an individual enforces and deals with resistance to change plays a role in whether they will be an effective leader. There are four different theories of change, and each one suggests that change happens in a sequence and that for it to be successful, one must progress through each stage. Lewin’s theory is best used for problem-solving and unplanned changes; one would unfreeze the status quo, move towards the new plan, and freeze there to sustain the change (Murray, 2017). This theory is the most used, and the other three branches of Lewin’s. Lippitt’s approach is best used for changes that are planned; they would diagnose the problem, assess the motivation for change, assess the change agent and resources, select the change objectives, choose a good role for the change agent, maintain the shift after it begins, and terminate the helping relationship (Murray, 2017). This model was based on Lewin’s theory with additional stages and focuses on the change process. Roger’s theory is best used for individual and company changes and goes off five steps: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation (Murray, 2017). It is believed t