Leadership Week 2 Reflective Journal - Successful Leadership

 1. What did you learn from the unit.

I learned a lot from this week’s unit on successful leadership. I really enjoyed the DISC personality test. There, I learned that I have a lot of personality characteristics that are split between the four personality types listed in the DISC results. I was surprised to find that my personality is split between two very opposite personality types. I was honestly happy with my results that I am well-rounded in regards to personality trait. I think this might mean that I will be able to tailor my leadership style to the needs of the people I am working with. 

I learned a lot from the article I read about management too! Something that stood out a lot to me was the importance of monitoring the well being of the people you are managing. Their well-being is important to assess, so that they are able to feel happy at work and do their jobs well. This is an important quality of a leader: to be able to keep your “followers” happy and make them feel well taken care of.

2. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why?

I have a really good team! For our team activity we were to come to a consensus as to whether or not the provided people in the assignment were leaders or not. We all shared the same idea that a person is a leader if they have a significant following or influence, whether for good or bad. It was easy to come to a consensus with my team as to who was a leader and who was not. The main take-away in that there are good and bad leaders. 

3. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

I will utilize what I learned this week into my nursing practice by trying to use my personality trait to be a good leader and to look up to good leaders and emulate their personality traits that I find beneficial. I will make sure to focus more on the person than the task, as the well being of the people you work with, and yourself, is very important as outlined in one of the articles I read. 

4. Your personal feelings about the material covered.

After this unit, I got to wondering, after the DISC personality test, what qualities make an ideal leader. I think many would say that the Dominant personality type would make the best leader, but I personally think that they just present being a leader well. Just because they are outspoken and bold, doesn’t mean that they have good ideas and interventions. I think a good leader is humble, takes input from members of their team, and implements ideas with confidence after collaboration. A good leader had good values, is organized, smart, ethical, humble, considerate, and kind (to name a few qualities of a good leader).