Rapid changes in the healthcare environment require that nursing leaders begin to examine their leadership skillset and develop a whole new cadre of modern competencies. This new skillset will ensure that the leaders can keep up with the pace of change and help staff effectively adapt, even when the change is difficult. The most important competency is the utilization of a leadership style that engages, empowers and unleashes potential. Transformational leadership practices achieve these goals and ensures that a team can produce significant results and measurable quality outcomes.
What Is Transformational Leadership?
In 1990, Bernard Bass defined transformational leadership as a relationship whereby, through the actions of the leader, both the leader and follower are positively transformed as a result. Daniel Goleman further identified a connection between transformational leadership and the limbic system of the brain that controls human emotions. A transformational leader can engage the follower on a level that makes them feel good about themselves and a valuable part of the organization.
It is this level of engagement and commitment where success happens. Transformational leadership has been known to be especially effective in a professional environment where employees function independently. This is exactly the environment in healthcare where multiple professions engage each other for a common goal. As such, American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) incorporated transformational leadership as one of the major components in the Magnet® Model because of the repeated success of leadership teams that embrace and practice this philosophy.
Who Is the Transformational Leader?
Attributes of the transformational leader include a high degree of emotional intelligence, the ability to create an empowered environment, the power to unleash innovation and enhance critical thinking. Understanding these concepts will help to inculcate them into your personal leadership approach.
Emotional intelligence is defined by Goleman as the ability to engage with others by being aware of their own emotions. It is also having the ability to understand the perspectives of others. I like to describe this concept as the reality that there are always three sides to every story: mine, yours and what really happened. Once you are opened to the possibilities of many perspectives, you open your mind to understanding others, which engages them on a higher level. It is important to enter every situation without judgment which will allow for the best emotional outcome.
Transformational leaders, through the creation of an empowered workplace, unleash the power of creativity and critical thinking. In an un-empowered environment, the leader has a tendency to be autocratic, making changes based on their feelings and thoughts without input from the staff. In an empowered environment however, transformational leaders realize that the best ideas for change come from the individuals that are at the front line and experiencing the issues day in and day out.
The further we as leaders move away from the care environment, the less competent our past experiences are in relation to the new reality. We have to rely on the perfect knowledge of those closest to the situation.
Early leadership theorists believed that good leaders were born and not made. Modern theorists propose that effective leaders can in fact be made and improved over time with experience, education and focus. To become an effective leader, we must first be willing to look within ourselves to evaluate who we are and how we lead. Once we see where our opportunities are, we can begin to make the changes in our behaviors to become truly transformational and enjoy unbridled success.