NR 504 Week 4 Discussion: Leading Others: Implications of Personal Leadership Style
Emotionally incompetent behaviors can destroy a team's ability to
... [Show More] achieve a specific goal. Consider the following list of emotionally incompetent behaviors (Porter-O'Grady & Malloch, 2018).
• Acting as a devil's advocate
• Displaying a bad attitude
• Displaying a superior attitude
• Tolerating errors
• Failing to balance work and relaxation
Select one behavior from the list above, and complete the following.
• State the selected behavior.
• Develop a fictitious example that demonstrates the selected behavior.
• Considering your selected leadership style that was identified in Week 1, describe two techniques that a leader could use to help develop the individual.
• Explain how the techniques are reflective of the leadership style you have identified.
• How will these techniques be useful in your future role as a MSN-prepared nurse leader?
Include current, peer-reviewed scholarly support (outside of class resources) to validate your work.
ANSWER
Prof and Class,
For this discussion, the emotionally incompetent behavior that I will examine is displaying a bad attitude. In week 1, I discussed situational leadership but the leadership style that I feel best reflects my style of leadership is transformational leadership. From my experience, I have recognized the impact attitudes have on the work environment, other staff members, and patient care. The most common attributes of bad attitudes are individuals that behave in unconstructive, uncooperative, or negative manners. A fictitious example that demonstrates this behavior is when an individual feels they were given an unfair patient assignment and they decide to express their frustrations vocally and by behaving in volatile and unpredictable manners. In this example, this individual is displaying unconstructive and negative behaviors that need to be addressed appropriately to encourage emotional intelligence development within this individual.
A transformational leader is a leader who inspires and empowers others to perform at their highest level by cultivating an environment of accountability and innovation (Spano-Szekely, Quinn Griffin, Clavelle, & Fitzpatrick, 2016). Two transformational leadership techniques that could be used to address this behavior are idealized influence and individualized consideration (Gilbert, Horsman, & Kelloway, 2016). Idealized influence can be defined as influencing others by serving as a model of behavior (Gilbert et al., 2016). A leader that models positive behaviors will influence others to display those same behaviors. In this example, the leader can model behavior by showing how to constructively resolve frustrations through communication and teamwork. Individualized consideration is the relationship portion of transformational leadership. Transformational leaders treat others with respect and take the time to build trusting relationships with their team. A leader would be using individualized consideration in this situation by offering support to this individual and being empathic with their concerns (Gilbert et al., 2016).
These techniques are useful for my current practice because I have experienced this type of situation in the past and not known what to do because of my concerns about making the situation worse. However, as I have recently realized, ignoring emotionally incompetent behaviors will only create more issues later and encourage others to behave in the same poor manners. As a transformational leader, I intend to use these techniques to influence and shape an environment that holds each other accountable for their actions.
Ciara
References
Gilbert, S. Horsman, P., & Kelloway, E. K. 2016. The motivation for transformational leadership scale: An examination of the factor structure and initial tests. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(2), 158-180. doi: 10.1108/LODJ-05-2014-0086
Spano-Szekely, L., Quinn Griffin, M. T., Clavelle, J., & Fitzpatrick, J. J. (2016). Emotional intelligence and transformational leadership in nurse managers. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 46(2), 101-108. doi: 10.1097/NNA.0000000000000303.
Kathryn,
The scenario you described in your post is very relatable and we have all experienced similar situations where displaying a superior attitude negatively impacts the work environment, coworkers, and patients. You provided great insight into how a transformational leader leads by example. In my opinion, the most effective leaders are leaders that are working with their staff members and encouraging them to do more because they are observing their leader go above and beyond for them and their patients. I also appreciate that you touched on rewarding good behavior. As a leader, I think providing recognition is challenging because those individuals who display superior attitudes are the first ones to ask for a reward when they feel they have done more than what was expected of them. Personally, when I am asked to give a reward for a behavior, I instantly do not want to offer any type of reward because it feels as if their intentions for helping is to gain recognition, even if their behavior was worth recognition.
Ciara
how was emotionally incompetent behavior addressed? Was the approach effective? If not, what approach might you recommend?
Dr. McConnell,
In my current setting, emotionally incompetent behavior has been addressed with a few different approaches. Typically, these behaviors are addressed by my managers pulling the individual into the office and having a coaching conversation with them regarding the issue. However, the issue with this approach is the issue of consistency. From my observations, I don’t believe these conversations are consistent and some behaviors are excused because some specific individuals are known to act that way. If the behaviors continue, then the issue is escalated to our human resources department and the employee is placed on a corrective action plan. In my opinion, we should have a zero-tolerance environment where emotionally incompetent behavior is not accepted and where we all hold each other accountable. I believe initiating a zero-tolerance policy would hold leadership accountable for being consistent with the punishment for displaying emotionally incompetent behaviors. Unfortunately, establishing a zero-tolerance policy in my current setting would require a change in culture which would take time and consistency to be effective and successful.
Ciara [Show Less]