Reply 1

Re: Topic 3 DQ 1

The fundamental principle of servant leadership is primarily founded on the concept of service to followers. Servant leaders “seek to build their followers” by providing support and guidance in order to achieve the mission of the organization. “The servant leader has initial and primary focus to serve, which is then followed by the desire to lead” (GCU, 2018). They think about the welfare and success of the community they lead. Gandolfi & Stone (2018) noted that the difference between servant leadership and other leader-centered styles of leadership is that servant leaders consider the success of their followers first and then followed by the mission whilst the others seek to achieve the mission before the welfare of followers are considered.

Servant leaders possess several qualities including active listening and foresight. According to GCU (2018), “communication begins with listening” and servant leaders are good listeners. They pay attention to what their followers say through their words or actions and carefully factor it in their decisions to ensure success for the group. Again, leaders who practice servant leadership also have foresight. They are able to anticipate future outcomes and plan accordingly. Foresight helps leaders to “make conscious ethical decisions” (GCU, 2018).

The qualities of active listening and foresight are needed by servant leaders in patient care delivery. These qualities allow for inter-professional communication and collective decision-making in patient care.

References

Gandolfi, F. & Stone, S. (2018). Leadership, Leadership Styles, and Servant Leadership. Journal of Management Research (09725814), 18(4), 261–269.

Grand Canyon University (Ed). (2018). Nursing leadership & management: Leading and serving.  https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs451vn/nursing-leadership-and-management-leading-and-serving/v1.1/

Reply 2

nt 3 postsRe: Topic 3 DQ 1

Nurse leaders are armed with the knowledge and power to influence the team around them. Leaders maintain a performance driven culture that includes a sense of purpose, open communication, trust and mutual respect, shared leadership, effective working procedures, building on differences, flexibility and adaptability, and continuous learning (Neumann, 2014).  To maintain this culture, servant nurse leaders employ several characteristics that develop and support high performance. They strive to foresee how they can best serve the community, build meaningful relationships, and optimize patient care and satisfaction. This is especially important in health care, where change is constant and a necessary part of continuous improvement.  The quality of services that nurses provide to the community and to clients in any institutional setting is often dependent on their own interpretation of how they feel valued. This said, the servant nurse leader has an opportunity to directly affect services provided by engaging and building relationships with the nurses they serve.

Empathy:

1. Understanding and sharing the feelings of followers allows servant leaders to be placed in a position at the level of those followers. Servant leaders are further able to identify the characteristics that make each individual unique and provide them with the ability to understand how best to support and lead their followers to achieve success in the mission. While the leaders may not always accept the performance or actions of followers, the leader always accepts each follower as an individual.
2. Listening: Communication begins with listening. Servant leaders have an innate ability to hear what others are saying through both verbal and nonverbal communication and reflect upon what they hear to lead a group to its full potential.

Thomas, J., (2018). Chapter 3. Grand Canyon University (Ed.). Nursing Leadership & Management: Leading and Serving. Retrieved from:

https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs451vn/nursing-leadership-and-management-leading-and-serving/v1.1/#/chapter/3