Constructs of Leadership Decision-Making, Ethics, and Followership in Relation to the Scholar-Practitioner-Leader Model

Constructs of Leadership Decision-Making, Ethics, and Followership in Relation to the Scholar-Practitioner-Leader Model

Scholar-Practitioner-Leader Model

Leaders, especially leaders in healthcare settings, face major challenges due to the ever-changing environment and healthcare industry demands. This article summarizes and synthesizes an interview with a healthcare leader and identifies constructs of leadership, decision-making, ethics, and followership in relationship to the Scholar-Practitioner-Leader model. It will discuss how leaders can inspire teams, the challenges faced in maximizing team performance and mitigation strategies of such challenges, and the top 5 leadership skills for successful team building and leading. It also describes an important decision-making strategy identified from the interview, leadership ethical concerns, and how leaders develop followership.

Leadership Approaches to Inspire Teams to Perform

Some of the ways that a leader can inspire teams to perform to the best of their abilities include creating an environment of clear and open communication in which the leader can share their vision and create collaborative goals. Others include being supportive as a leader by ensuring adequate resources and training teams (Buljac-Samardzic et al., 2020). As per the interviewee, a leader can inspire teams to perform to the best of their abilities by setting an example for them, including doubling the efforts towards achieving a set goal.

Challenges in Maximizing Team Performance

As noted in the interviewee’s responses, a major challenge in maximizing team performance, especially in healthcare settings, is the ever-changing environment and the diverse demands placed on teams. This means the solutions developed must be tailored to meet each demand, slowing performance. Others include conflict among team members, lack of role clarity, ineffective communication and information silos.

Mitigating the Challenges

The challenges can be mitigated through promoting clear communication, educating team members on the need for commitment to collaboration, and setting a clear communication path. The challenges can also be mitigated through creating a clear description of the role of each team member. The interview notes that besides communicating effectively, a leader needs to include the employees in coming up with different ideas and making decisions as a team.

Leadership Skills for Successful Team Building and Leadership

The interviewed leader identifies their top five leadership skills as being humble, being a team player, being a good listener, always a fighter for the team, and being honest with everyone, including the entire staff. These soft skills are noted to be the most essential in leadership, especially in nursing (Major, 2019).

Important Decision-making Strategies that the Interviewed Leader Finds Effective

The leader identifies their important decision-making strategies as being responsible for the decisions made and including the opinions of others. The leader prioritizes these strategies as they promote buy-in from the team members and commitment to the mission and work. It also supports team building.

Ethical Concerns Faced by Leaders

Some of the major ethical concerns leaders face include whether each decision is the right decision, whether the decisions are driven by personal or collective interests of the organization, and what information to share with the team members and what to withhold. They are also concerned with whether the decisions made towards achieving profitability align with business and healthcare ethics principles.

How Excellent Leaders Develop Followership

Excellent leaders develop and promote followership by first becoming followers themselves and relating the concepts of leadership, followership, and organizational culture (Martin, 2019). As per the Scholar-Practitioner-Leader model, great leaders first embrace the concept of a follower to best know how to lead and have others follow. Other ways great leaders develop followership is by training and educating their followers and allowing them to be part of the team.

Conclusion

In conclusion, healthcare leaders face multiple challenges and ethical concerns that require applying the best leadership skills and strategies to navigate through. Notably, through training teams, applying soft skills such as effective communication, and becoming followers, leaders can ensure the full engagement of all team members toward achieving a set goal.

References

Buljac-Samardzic, M., Doekhie, K. D., & Van Wijngaarden, J. D. H. (2020). Interventions to improve team effectiveness within health care: A systematic review of the past decade. Human Resources for Health 2020 18:1, 18(1), 1–42. https://doi.org/10.1186/S12960-019-0411-3

Major, D. (2019). Developing effective nurse leadership skills. Nursing Standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain): 1987), 34(6), 61–66. https://doi.org/10.7748/NS.2019.E11247

Martin, J. (2019). The leadership/followership process: A different understanding of library leadership. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(1), 15–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/

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Appendix

1. What can leaders do to inspire teams to perform to the best of their abilities?

In my opinion, the first step in inspiring your team is to set the example you want them to set.  When I put 200% in, the rest of my team wants to meet me there.  The success that comes from that continues to drive the team in that same direction and instills that work ethic going forward.  Letting your team see you work through trials and barriers while celebrating the wins is also important.  And lastly but just as important, I make sure my team knows how much I value every one of them.  I do that both publicly and privately.

Constructs of Leadership Decision-Making, Ethics, and Followership in Relation to the Scholar-Practitioner-Leader Model

2. What challenges do you face in maximizing team performance? What actions do you take to alleviate these challenges?

In my current position, the biggest challenge is the ever-changing environment and demands placed on the team.  What is unique about where we work is the multiple groups placing demands and tasks on us as medical providers.  Constant changes are very hard on people, so being able to keep them motivated with buy-in and to continually do better both for the patient and their staff is very challenging.  I try to alleviate as much “floof” from my team as I can.  I always ensure I know the why behind the change so that I can communicate that effectively to them and in doing that I also let them know how this is beneficial to them, their staff, and our patients.  Most importantly, I don’t sit behind my desk dictating what they need to do.  I include them, we discuss and come up with different ideas and make decisions as a team and then I’m in the trenches with them tackling it.

3. What are the top 5 leadership skills for successfully building and leading teams?
4. Being humble – just because I’m in the position I am in does not make me better or smarter than anyone else on my team; I never claim or pretend to know everything.
5. Being a part of the team – setting the example and being with them during the hard times even if it’s for moral support or lunch, I’m there showing them they’re not alone in this project or task; I’m not too good to put on a pair of scrubs and clean or count medications; etc.
6. Listening – partly goes back to being humble, but everyone on the team has a unique perspective or different ideas that I probably never think of.  Beyond that, listening to how they’re feeling: allowing them to be frustrated, and sometimes giving them different perspectives can change the cohesiveness of the team.
7. Fighting for the team – it’s my job to shelter them from most of the corporate BS (sorry).  I like to use the imagery of an umbrella.  Corporate managers aren’t always good at appreciating the people making things happen, so I use every opportunity to push their accomplishments up to those above me as well.
8. Being real with all the staff not just my immediate team; I’m not a corporate snob per se.  I want my team to feel more like a family than work acquaintances
9. How do excellent leaders develop followership?

No one can be a good leader until they’re a good follower themselves.  So, while I lead my team every day, my team also sees me follow those who lead me.  In my opinion, the best leaders are those who never forget where they came from.  Most of us never start at the top.  I started my professional career in the Navy on a warship.  I had to clean toilets, chip paint, paint, do dirty maintenance, and take the trash of my leaders out for them.  You can allow those experiences to harden you or shape you for growth.  Finally, mentorship doesn’t dictate but shows, educates, and trains the proper way while leaving them room to develop their style.

5. What are some important decision-making strategies that leaders might use? Which of these strategies do you feel is most effective, and why?

While I know that ultimately, I have the decision-making responsibility, I include my team in a lot of those decisions.  People who feel like they’re heard, buy into the mission and work hard for it. Including the team in the decision-making process is the most powerful and effective both for the decision-making process and team building.

6. What are some ethical concerns faced by leaders? How might you deal with these ethical concerns?

Just doing the right thing is sometimes the hardest ethical concern leaders face.  Most leaders who “fall from grace” fall b/c they let the smallest of issues exploit them and it snowballs.  Daily there are opportunities to “look the other way” “let that slide this onetime” “they’ll never notice,” etc.  As a former Sailor, I live by the core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment: “Would I do this same thing if anyone was watching?” “Do I have the courage to do the right thing even in the hardest moments that might make me look bad?” I’m committed to my team and will perform for them in their best interest as well as that of my clients every day.