Running head: LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

NUR 4144: Leadership Assessment
Lauren Cunningham
On my honor, I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment
or test, and I pledge that I am in compliance with the BSMCON Honor
system

LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT

Kouzes and Posner (2013) have developed the application of

transformational leadership concepts. These leadership concepts are
further divided into 5 practices of leadership. The five practices are
model the way, encourage the heart, enable others to act, inspire a
shared vision, and challenge the process. When I completed the SLPI, I
was interested to discover that the practice in which I scored the
highest was model the way. Jackowski & Burroughs (2015) define
model the way behavior with behavior that is consistent with shared
values and that achieves small wins for promoting progress and
commitment (p. 11). I was not surprised to find that I scored highest
on the model the way practice, because I feel that definition is
consistent with my leadership abilities. I am generally motivated and
work well with people that I feel have a similar work ethic and work
related values. Although I was not surprised with the practice in which
I scored the highest, I feel that I am most comfortable with encourage
the heart practice. This practice is focused on celebrating
accomplishments and encouraging people to improve them. With my
positive attitude, I feel that I am better aligned with this practice than
model the way.
From my peers, I found that my highest score was the model the
way practice. This was consistent with my self-observation score.
Following closely behind model the way was inspire a shared vision and

LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT

challenge the process. As I stated previously, I was surprised that

encourage the way was not as high as I believed it would be. I was
additionally surprised that I scored as high on the challenge the
process practice. Challenge the process is defined as seeking
challenging opportunities to change, grow, innovate, and improve.
Leaders are ready to take risks, experiment, and learn from mistakes
(Jackowski & Burroughs, 2015). When I see the challenge the process
practice, I tend to think of a person who is generally more assertive. I
can be assertive but by nature am usually more laid back and go with
the flow type of personality. I believe that I am not most comfortable
with model the way practice, even though I do think that my leadership
characteristics do align with it.
The leadership practice that I am most comfortable with is
encourage the heart practice. This practice provides individual
recognition for success of projects and celebrates accomplishments
(Jackowski & Burroughs, 2015). I think that it is really important to
celebrate successful moments and accomplishments. Recognizing all
of the work that may go into a project can be even more rewarding
when others recognize the determination represented. Personally I
believe that this practice focuses on motivating and encouraging
others to accomplish tasks. It requires the leader to be enthusiastic
about a goal they might be trying to obtain and motivating the
followers to achieve. Once the goal is achieved the leader

LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT

diplomatically praises accomplishments and determines areas of

improvement for the next task. In this literature the leader recognizes
contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence. In
addition celebrating the values and victories of the people can create a
spirit of community. Specific behaviors that may be seen with this
practice are praising people, encouraging others, provides support and
appreciation, publically recognizes alignment with values, celebrates
accomplishments, and creatively recognizes people (Kouzes & Posner,
2013).
The behaviors that were most frequent were tied between
praising people, providing support and appreciation, and celebrating
accomplishments. The behaviors that were the least frequent were
encouraging others and publicly recognizing alignment with values. I
feel that this is accurate, although I thought I would have scored higher
on encouraging others than I did. It is good to take this into
consideration so that as I begin my nursing career I can be careful to
more fully develop this and to incorporate it into my work in the
hospital. An example of how I have used this leadership practice in my
daily life could be last semester when we had been studying hard all
semester, we decided to take a beach trip at the end of finals week to
celebrate another semester closer to graduating nursing school. By
celebrating this accomplishment we could take the day to relax and
think about all the hard work we had put into the past 15 weeks. In

LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT

addition, I feel that throughout the semester everyone starts to get

stressed when thinking about all the different assignments and exams
that we have. I try to stay positive and encourage people to study and
work hard, that we are so close to finishing the semester. It may seem
minute, but at times it is the little pick me up that people need to
continue being motivated to study and reach their goals.
The leadership practice I would like to use more frequently is
inspire a shared vision. I would like to use this one more frequently,
because it is focused on envisioning a future by sharing a common
vision to reach goals. I feel that this is very useful when trying to
achieve goals. Many times I get focused on the here and now and am
blindsided when trying to look forward. This practice will help me focus
and look ahead to plan for the future. To feel more comfortable with
this goal, I think that I will have to work for a year or two to determine
exactly what I want for future goals in my leadership role.
Next, I am going to take actions to implement these leadership
practices in the work and student role I am currently in. I will use
encourage the heart practice with the younger students that may need
some additional encouragement to get through the semester. I will use
model the way practice in my work at the hospital where I am a patient
care tech by following through with promises to patients and sharing
values and principles with other technicians that I may help train
before I graduate. When I become a nurse, I will slowly develop my

LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT

own nursing technique and begin to integrate these leadership roles

into my practice. I will know that I will have improved in this
leadership skill when I am well rounded in each practice. Developing
comfort with each area of practice is imperative when becoming a
better leader. Although there are going to be areas of strengths and
weaknesses, when I develop and improve my weaknesses I feel that I
will immensely improve in my leadership skill.

References
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2013). The student leadership practices
inventory (2nd ed.). Self-Instrument (2 page insert). San
Francisco: Jossey Bass
Jackowski, M. B., & Burroughs, B. M. (2015). Relationships between
self-reported leadership practices, job satisfaction, and
demographics of radiology administrators. Radiologic
Technology, 87 (1), 10-20.

LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT