Running Head: Part B: Leadership Qualities

Assignment Topic: Leadership Qualities of My Nurse Resource Leader, My Expectations, and

Discussion on Leaders Arent Born They Are Made (Vince Lombardi)
Student: Toyin Fakus-Atundaolu
Student No: 8xx xxx xxx
Due Date: February 27, 2015
NURS 250: Practical Nursing Leadership
Professor: J
Humber College (ITAL)

Part B: Leadership Qualities

Blog Written by
Toyin Fakus-Atundaolu

Reflection: My Chosen Leader and My Expectation as an Effective Follower

My chosen leader who exemplifies democratic leadership qualities that I have come to
admire in my first five weeks of pre-grad experience is the Resource Nurse Team Lead, Veronica.
It has been suggested that the concept of role modelling, consistency of nurse care givers, power
of outcome attainment, project management, and wellbeing of senior nurses all shed light on the
factor that influence successful nursing care and the role of nurse managers (Sieloff and Raph,
2011). Unfortunately, in my first five weeks, I have experienced so many preceptors as my first
preceptor took a sick leave by the end of third week. There was a week I had to learn under as
much as four preceptors all with different styles and expectations with some following the College
of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) practice standards, while others use experience to take short cuts
that were strange and not taught in my textbooks. Leadership is vital in all organizations and the
health care sector is no exception, especially in the nursing profession, which is the main frontline
for health care provision and collaboration. My experience within the last couple of weeks have
also proven the importance of consistency in leadership in order to avoid having confused
followers. Although, I could not find any literature to support this my negative experience at the
time of this write up, but I am hoping that more research will be focused towards the effect of
inconsistent leadership on follower expectations and performance.
Furthermore, it is important that the leaders in each healthcare organization possess
leadership competency and not just nursing qualifications in order to lead effective and efficient
patient-focused quality team. According to Kelly and Crawford (2013), a nursing leader must be
a lifelong learner with a quest for knowledge and a desire to maintain and enhance leadership
competencies. In the Part A of this assignment, I had described how the transformational
leadership theory resonates my ideals, values, and expectations. It is defined as a progressive
partnership where both the leaders and followers elevate one another to greater heights of

Part B: Leadership Qualities

Blog Written by
Toyin Fakus-Atundaolu

motivation and morality through collective empowerment and vision to achieve unified goals
(Burns, 1978).
Therefore, I have my expectations as a follower with such leadership tendency during my
pre-grad experience at Respirology Department of Etobicoke General Hospital. My expectations
include gaining practical experiences of all my classroom instructed theoretical knowledge base
learning, uses of evidence based practices, transformational communication processes, and a
welcoming team-work environment. I am hoping to further develop assertiveness, leadership, and
strong inter-professional collaboration and communication skills and to be a patient advocate. My
ultimate goal is to be independent and job-ready by the end of my pre-grad experience. Moreover,
Kouzes and Posner (2002), leaders must recognize the contributions of individual team members
by showing appreciation for individual achievement, through constructive criticism and not just
when things go wrong. After all, everyone wants to be appreciated. I want a leader to feel
comfortable to use self to demonstrate they are human and have been in my position before.
According to Kelly and Crawford (2013), the use of the self is a strong factor that influences the
quality of leadership. I expect empathy when I am nervous and private coaching when I do
something wrong not public rebukes.

Application: The Leadership Style that Best Represents My Chosen Leader

Sieloff and Raph (2011) propose that there are three behaviors that are required for a
nurse manager to be considered a nurse leader. First, she or he must value nurses, the
profession, the nursing group or team and the art and science of nursing practice. Secondly, the
individual needs to provide a vision for the nursing team allowing for appraisal and acceptance.
Lastly, a nurse leader must also assist team members to work toward and achieve the vision. This
is because a nurse leader may be able to demonstrate productivity, ensure patient safety and
even save money in limiting unnecessary spending; however, without a vision that reflects the
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Part B: Leadership Qualities

Blog Written by
Toyin Fakus-Atundaolu

goal of the nursing profession, the gains will be short-lived. Having studied her since last
semester, I have come to respect Veronica as a true nursing leader. Veronica has a democratic
style.
Veronica embraces the five practices described by Kouzes & Posner (2002): role model,
vision inspiring, encourages team members to challenge status quo, encourages initiatives, and
motivates us during team hurdles to apply compassion in all we do. I remember a particular
incidence at the end of the first week of my starting the pre-grad, we were just about 45 minutes
to end our day shift, when she approached my preceptor at the time to allow me to take an
admission that was coming to the floor. This was new to me and I was nervous and tried to dodge
it with an excuse, but Veronica insisted I do it because she wants me in her own words to learn
to take initiatives. I ended up doing it that day and realized it was not difficult to do; as I was only
filling a questionnaire form and filling the data entry into the system afterwards. Since then I had
always asked the nurses to help out when new admissions are coming in order for me to perfect
the admission process. Even when there was going to be team hurdle, she would personally ask
me to be present. When there was an incident that involved my preceptor and a blood collector,
and I was a witness, she had called me to hear my side of the story and then asked me to always
be neutral as the incident reached the Director of Care and she did not want my name to be
mentioned as witness caught up between two people. She said she knows that by coming back
to her unit for pre-grad that I wanted to work there so I should be careful.
Although, she was not my Preceptor, but I feel she takes time out to look out for my
wellbeing and takes personal interest in my development there. Thus, when I had issues
regarding my Preceptor going on sick leave, she immediately paired me with another available
nurse till we finally got one that will be my preceptor till April ending. Every encounter with
Veronica is always opportunity to grow and feel belong to the team. She makes me feel more like
I am doing job orientation rather than pre-grad.
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Part B: Leadership Qualities

Blog Written by
Toyin Fakus-Atundaolu

Critical Thinking: My Comment on the Quote Leaders Are Made, Not Born
Vince Lombardi. Are There Exceptions? How Are Leaders Made?
The full version of the famous Vince Lombardi quote states, Leaders arent born they are
made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And thats the price well
have to pay. I would want to agree with Lombardi that Leaders are made. When leader is looked
at based on processes or characteristics and not in terms of material wealth or societal titles, a
leader is made overtime through learning and experience. Dunham-Taylor (1995) found the idea
the leadership competencies are learned, and suggested that preceptorship, mentoring, and
education are key strategies for the development of future nursing leaders. Nurses are leaders;
not because of their professional title but as per their professional commitment and standards
they function as leaders when they influence others toward goal achievement (Kelly and
Crawford, 2013). Nurses advocate, educate, nurture, collaborate, manage cases and motivate
patients towards achieving their treatment goals through the nursing process. All these require
formal and informal trainings, hands on experiences, personal determination, hard work and then
leaders are made with perseverance.
The only exception to the rule is when you reference leadership in terms of societal and
religious titles such as the English Monarchy, where the child is born with the title. However, it is
still earned and due to public taxing involvement, the child still has to attend a formal schooling of
some sort, participate in military exercise, and engage in a lot of diplomatic functions before
attaining power. This will still involve learning, experience and hard work on the titled leaders part
otherwise, he will bring his subjects and land to ruin. Therefore, long live nursing leaders who
through hard work engage in lifelong learning, are confident to take nursing students under their
wings to model them to be evidence based, critical thinking, and technologically prepared
independent nurses till the cycle repeats itself all over again.

Part B: Leadership Qualities

Blog Written by
Toyin Fakus-Atundaolu

References
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row
Dunham-Taylor, J. 91995). Identifying the best in nurse executive leadership: Part 2, interview
results. Journal of Nursing Administration, 25(7/8), 24-31.
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2004). Leadership: A communication perspective
(4th Ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland.
Kelly, P. and Crawford, H. (2013). Nursing Leadership and Management. (2nd ed). Toronto:
Nelson Education
Kouzes, J. M, & Posner, B. Z. (2002). The leadership challenge (3rd ed). San Francisco: JosseyBass Inc.
Sieloff, C. L., & Raph, S. W. (2011). Nursing theory and management. Journal Of Nursing
Management, 19(8), 979-980. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2011.01334.x
Vince Lombardi. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from BrainyQuote.com
Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/v/vincelomba130743.html