Unit 1 Discussion Forum 2: Transforming Leaders.
Read the case at the end of Chapter 1 on Transforming Leaders.
Respond to the discussion questions at the end of case to frame
your post. You don't need to answer every question, but use them to
guide your responses in the case analysis.
The case is also listed below:
Cameryn is the vice president for professional development at
a large metropolitan hospital in the Midwest. She has been in her
role for 6 years and has accepted new responsibilities over the
years, widening her scope of work to include the direction of all
of the clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), the new graduate
residency program, and the research- and evidence-based practice
initiatives. She also oversees the Magnet program, which strives
for continual readiness for redesignation.
Cameryn and some of the other leaders in the organization have
become concerned about the competence level of some of the nurse
managers and their assistant managers, clinical leads, and shift
supervisors. The managers and others “get the job done,” but they
do not seem to be focused on inspiring the workforce to achieve
excellence in their work or preparing potential leaders for
succession. In fact, some of the managers seem to be threatened by
informal leaders who excel in the clinical setting rather than
encouraging them to develop their skills and competencies so as to
assume direct leadership roles in the future.
For all in manager and supervisory roles, the hospital
provides a quarterly leadership educational event with motivational
speakers. The feedback regarding the leadership event is positive,
and the managers are expected to share with their staff the new
knowledge gained from the motivational speakers and presentations.
How this new knowledge is shared and disseminated is not assessed.
Cameryn wonders whether it is shared at all and questions how well
the leadership messages are integrated into the daily behaviors and
activities of the managers.
Cameryn has been reading about transformational leadership and
how one of the characteristics of a transformational leader is to
inspire others to achieve what they previously thought was
impossible. Cameryn reflects on those in her own career who
inspired her to return to school for further education and
ultimately to seek roles where she could influence nursing practice
and patient care. In her heart, she wants to provide the same
experience for all developing nurse leaders in the clinical setting
and also in beginning-level management positions. She believes that
management is far more than “getting the job done and completing
tasks” and needs to include behaviors that transform individuals
into those who have a thirst for new knowledge and quest to
constantly change the status quo to achieve excellence in their
work.
Cameryn is inspired to do something about the development of
the nurse managers. She realizes that the first step would be to
inspire her colleagues to embrace the same vision for nursing
leadership at all levels within the organization, especially with
their focus on managing budgets and meeting organizational
priorities.
Cameryn is convinced that with better prepared frontline
managers, many of the organizational priorities could be achieved
more expediently. She wants the group to examine the current roles
expected of clinical leads, shift supervisors, nurse managers, and
their assistants and the personal and experience requirements for
the roles. She also wants to impress upon her colleagues that their
own behaviors strongly influence those who are watching their
interactions with others and daily behaviors in their roles. She
realizes that this is a sensitive subject, and she decides to
develop a strategy to informally lead her colleagues on a journey
for their own improvement and to influence them to improve the
experience of their direct reports. She realizes that the
interconnection between her colleagues and their direct reports is
critical for the changes that she envisions to transform every
nurse manager and supervisor into true inspirational leaders.
Cameryn decides to move beyond the occasional inspirational
speaker and elects to empower the management team at all levels
with as much information as possible about transformational
leadership, workplace empowerment, healthy work environment, and
nursing excellence. She works with the Collaborative Governance
Council for Professional Development to initiate a leadership
journal club for clinical leaders and all levels of management. The
journal club is led by the members of the Professional Development
Council who choose the journal articles to read and review. The
council also establishes group meeting norms, leads the discussions
about the articles, and creates a short summary of the articles for
all of the nursing staff to read in the Magnet Nursing
Newsletter.
Cameryn also decides that it is important to determine the
actual learning needs of those in management positions, so she
develops a self-assessment tool using the leadership domains
outlined by the American Organization of Nurse Executives and the
Benner levels of competency as the response set. The new assessment
tool provides information as to how each manager, assistant
manager, clinical lead, and shift supervisor perceives his or her
level of competence in each of the leadership domains.
From that information, Cameryn plans to develop educational
content and experiences that are targeted to areas where managers
perceive themselves to be least competent. She also meets with
those who are more expert in the leadership domains and discusses
their mentoring those who are less experienced and competent and
presenting some of the formal content needed for development of the
frontline leadership team. Recognizing that professional
development is a very complex and multileveled task, Cameryn also
plans to develop educational content and experiences for the more
expert group to teach them how to mentor others and how to prepare
and present educational content using teaching methods that are
innovative, engaging, and inspiring to the learners. Cameryn
realizes how interconnected each level of the plan is and how
necessary it is to create a fluid and adaptable project management
plan to guide the various stages of development to transform nurse
managers into true leaders. She soon realizes that in her work with
the collaborative governance councils to develop an educational
intervention for the frontline managers, she has forgotten to
engage the Human Resources department, which is also responsible
for leadership development.
There are many indications of their discontent with her new
leadership development program. When Cameryn recognizes their
concern, she meets with them to discuss ways that Human Resources
could be instrumental in the assessment and development of
frontline managers. Needless to say, not all of her colleagues
embrace her vision to transform the leaders in the organization.
Many barriers emerge that would dissuade most from continuing to
achieve their vision, and Cameryn is disappointed at times and must
continually refocus her energies to remain on course despite the
barriers. When she recognizes that one of her colleagues or one of
the nurse managers is not “on board,” she spends personal time
talking with that person and helping to translate the vision so
that it could become his or her reality as well. She is continually
engaged in dialogue with others to support the change effort, and
she formally recognizes the actions and efforts of those who are
involved in mentoring less experienced nurse leaders and those who
are involved in the educational activities.
The transformational process has taken several years, but
reflecting on the progress, Cameryn and her colleagues believe that
significant changes have occurred in the organization and that all
of the nurse leaders at every level have benefited from the efforts
to enhance the competencies and skills of the frontline managers.
The benefits of the program are validated with significant
improvements in the employee opinion surveys and in surveys to
assess the healthy work environment.
Questions
How do you think that complexity science and quantum
leadership systems thinking provide a framework for an initiative
to advance the competencies and skills of frontline managers and to
change the management culture to a leadership culture in an
organization?
How effective do you think Cameryn was in transforming the
leadership culture in her organization? What might she have done
differently to facilitate the change process?
One of the roles of the quantum leader is to read the
signposts that give direction and feedback regarding the change
process. What were some of the signposts that Cameryn encountered
during the development of the frontline manager group, interactions
with her colleagues, and the encounter with the Human Resources
department?
In your opinion, what effect will advancing the frontline
managers, her own colleagues’ competence, and transformational
leadership culture have on the organizational climate, nursing
satisfaction, and even patient outcomes?