Kelly Vana's Nursing Leadership and Management

One popular way of characterizing leadership is by describing it as authentic leadership. The American Association of Critical Care Nurses in their landmark work, AACN Standards for Establishing Healthy Work Environments: A Journey to Excellence , cite authentic leadership as one of the key standards necessary for establishing a healthy work environment. AACN's belief is that to establish and sustain healthy work environments for nurses, leadership that is authentic is a critical element. Authentic leadership requires skill in the core competencies of self‐knowledge, strategic vision, risk taking and creativity, interpersonal and communication effectiveness, and inspiration (American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), 2004; Raso, 2019).

Leaders are also described by fundamental qualities that effective leaders have been found to share (Bennis & Nanus, 1985). The first quality is a guiding vision. Leaders focus on a professional and purposeful vision that provides direction toward a preferred future. The second quality is passion. Passion expressed by the leader involves the ability to inspire and align people toward the promises of life. Passion is an inherent quality of the nurse leader. The third quality is integrity that is based on knowledge of self, honesty, and maturity developed through experience and growth. Other leadership qualities include self‐awareness—knowing our strengths and weaknesses—that can allow us to use feedback and learn from our mistakes (McCall, 1998). Daring and curiosity are also basic ingredients of leadership that leaders draw on to take risks, learning from what works as much as from what does not work (Bennis & Nanus, 1985).

Certain characteristic traits are commonly attributed to leaders. These traits are considered desirable and seem to contribute to the perception of being a leader; intelligence, self‐confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability (Stodgill, 1948, 1974). Research among 46 hospitals designated as Magnet ®Hospitals by the American Nurses Center for Certification(ANCC) for their success in attracting and retaining registered nurses reported that nurse leaders who are visionary and enthusiastic, are supportive and knowledgeable, have high standards and expectations, value education and professional development, demonstrate power and status in the organization, are visible and responsive, communicate openly, and are active in professional associations are valued (Kramer, 1990; Kramer & Schmalenberg, 2005; McClure & Hinshaw, 2002; McClure, Poulin, Sovie, & Wandelt, 1983). Research findings from other studies on nurses revealed that caring, respectability, trustworthiness, and flexibility were the leadership characteristics most valued. In one study, nurse leaders identified managing the dream, mastering change, designing organization structure, learning, and taking initiative as leadership characteristics (Murphy & DeBack, 1991). Research by Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) concluded that leaders are different from non‐leaders across six traits: drive, the desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self‐confidence, cognitive ability, and knowledge of the business. Although no set of traits is definitive and reliable in determining who is a leader or who is effective as a leader, many people still rely on many of these traits to describe and define leadership characteristics.

Many believe that the critical factor needed to maximize people's involvement is leadership (Bennis & Nanus, 1985). A more in‐depth understanding of leadership can be gleaned from a review of leadership theories. Leadership theories can be classified various ways. These are summarized in Table 1.2.

Table 1.2 Leadership Theories