- Email: [email protected]
The practice of leadership
FROM OUR COLUMNISTS
Pf7-oessiondl Pmctice The Practice of Leadership
L
EADERSHIP IS A WORD that makes us all stand a little taller and feel a brt more “empowered’ as it rolls off our tongues. Many of us aspire to be leaders in some aspect of our professional practice and actually accomplish that goal to a greater or lesser degree. What does the word “leadership” mean? I don’t mean Webster’s definition. That’s simple enough: “the abrlity to lead.” But rather what does “leadershrp” mean m the context of the professronal practice of nursing? How do we know it when we see It? And how do we meet the desperate need for it in the professron today? Fmally, is there such a thmg as the “practice of leadership” ? Recently I have been involved in a project that has made me reflect on these seemingly simple yet complex rssues. To stimulate the integratron of leadership content into baccalaureate currrculums, the Helene Fuld Health Trust funded the Leadership Initiative for Nursing Education Program through the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California at San Francisco. The purpose of that inmatrve was to bring together educators and practmoners with the goal of strengthening the leadership content of baccalaureate currrculums. It was noted that this content generally was Isolated in one leadership course, usually in the senior year, as if we could grve a one-time dose or injection of leadership content that would somehow prepare our graduates for leadership m the certainty of their uncertain practice worlds. I had the prrvilege of charring the advisory committee that planned two institutes that brought together pau-s of fellows, one from practice and one from education, to plan leadership content for then baccalaureate programs back home. After the institutes, I am left to ponder what I learned from the fellows about leadership.
SARAE. BARGER,DPA, RN, FAAN Dean and Professor Capstone College of Nurszng The Untuerstty ofAlabama Box 870358 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0358
Copyright o 2000 by WB. Saunders Company
8755-7223/00/1602-0002$10.00/0
72
As I observed these teams throughout the Institutes, I became convinced that there is a practrce of leadership and that this practice has the potential to change our profession. I realrzed that I did “know it when I saw it” in the fellows attendmg the institute. Then I attempted to sort out what made these individuals leaders and thus able to accomphsh the difficult, if not impossrble, task set before them. Although fellows did not know each other before the Institute, they were able to quickly make the human connectron not only with theu partner but with the other fellows attending the institute as well. Thus, the abrlity in thus fast-paced world to qmckly establish a relationship with others IS an important leadership attribute. As the fellows spent their initial sessions m an analysrs of their own leadership styles and preferences, I observed an openness and even an eagerness to learn about oneself. They looked at the feedback they received from the perspective of using the knowledge of self to not only improve individual performance but also to improve therr abrhty to lead others. And so knowledge of self 1s an important factor in leadership. The institute sessrons moved next to the task at hand: the development of mnovative leadership curriculums for baccalaureate nursing programs. Fellows were quick to Identify a goal for their mdrvrdual teams and then moved swrftly to design a plan to accomphsh the goal. By the end of the mstrtute, each team knew what it wanted to accomphsh m the leadership content of their baccalaureate program back home and artrculated not only conceptual issues but practical plans for implementation as well. After reviewing the fellows’ evaluations of the mstitutes and my own observations, I realize that the practrce of leadership begins wrth the followmg: (1) knowledge of self; (2) social competence with relationships; and (3) ability to set goals and establish reahstic implementatron plans. Although It would be overly simplistrc to reduce the complexitres of leadership to these three factors, they are the foundatrons upon which we burld the leaders of the future. Preparing ourselves and our graduates for the practrce of leadership may be our biggest and most exciting challenge m the new millennium.
Journal of ProfessionalNursing, Vol 16, No 2 (March-April),
2000: P 72
Pf7-oessiondl Pmctice The Practice of Leadership
L
EADERSHIP IS A WORD that makes us all stand a little taller and feel a brt more “empowered’ as it rolls off our tongues. Many of us aspire to be leaders in some aspect of our professional practice and actually accomplish that goal to a greater or lesser degree. What does the word “leadership” mean? I don’t mean Webster’s definition. That’s simple enough: “the abrlity to lead.” But rather what does “leadershrp” mean m the context of the professronal practice of nursing? How do we know it when we see It? And how do we meet the desperate need for it in the professron today? Fmally, is there such a thmg as the “practice of leadership” ? Recently I have been involved in a project that has made me reflect on these seemingly simple yet complex rssues. To stimulate the integratron of leadership content into baccalaureate currrculums, the Helene Fuld Health Trust funded the Leadership Initiative for Nursing Education Program through the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California at San Francisco. The purpose of that inmatrve was to bring together educators and practmoners with the goal of strengthening the leadership content of baccalaureate currrculums. It was noted that this content generally was Isolated in one leadership course, usually in the senior year, as if we could grve a one-time dose or injection of leadership content that would somehow prepare our graduates for leadership m the certainty of their uncertain practice worlds. I had the prrvilege of charring the advisory committee that planned two institutes that brought together pau-s of fellows, one from practice and one from education, to plan leadership content for then baccalaureate programs back home. After the institutes, I am left to ponder what I learned from the fellows about leadership.
SARAE. BARGER,DPA, RN, FAAN Dean and Professor Capstone College of Nurszng The Untuerstty ofAlabama Box 870358 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0358
Copyright o 2000 by WB. Saunders Company
8755-7223/00/1602-0002$10.00/0
72
As I observed these teams throughout the Institutes, I became convinced that there is a practrce of leadership and that this practice has the potential to change our profession. I realrzed that I did “know it when I saw it” in the fellows attendmg the institute. Then I attempted to sort out what made these individuals leaders and thus able to accomphsh the difficult, if not impossrble, task set before them. Although fellows did not know each other before the Institute, they were able to quickly make the human connectron not only with theu partner but with the other fellows attending the institute as well. Thus, the abrlity in thus fast-paced world to qmckly establish a relationship with others IS an important leadership attribute. As the fellows spent their initial sessions m an analysrs of their own leadership styles and preferences, I observed an openness and even an eagerness to learn about oneself. They looked at the feedback they received from the perspective of using the knowledge of self to not only improve individual performance but also to improve therr abrhty to lead others. And so knowledge of self 1s an important factor in leadership. The institute sessrons moved next to the task at hand: the development of mnovative leadership curriculums for baccalaureate nursing programs. Fellows were quick to Identify a goal for their mdrvrdual teams and then moved swrftly to design a plan to accomphsh the goal. By the end of the mstrtute, each team knew what it wanted to accomphsh m the leadership content of their baccalaureate program back home and artrculated not only conceptual issues but practical plans for implementation as well. After reviewing the fellows’ evaluations of the mstitutes and my own observations, I realize that the practrce of leadership begins wrth the followmg: (1) knowledge of self; (2) social competence with relationships; and (3) ability to set goals and establish reahstic implementatron plans. Although It would be overly simplistrc to reduce the complexitres of leadership to these three factors, they are the foundatrons upon which we burld the leaders of the future. Preparing ourselves and our graduates for the practrce of leadership may be our biggest and most exciting challenge m the new millennium.
Journal of ProfessionalNursing, Vol 16, No 2 (March-April),
2000: P 72