Leadership and Communication Skills for Leading Teams and Change within the Workplace

Change in an organization does not occur in isolation. However, the element affected the entire system and all individuals as well. For change to be managed efficiently, it is important to focus on the wider bearings that bring up the change. In this case, the change management being introduced is more sensitive to changes in the conditions of patients. However, the issue entails some of the employees who feel that the proposed change will increase their workload. As such, the essay will offer an appropriate form of leadership style that will be used to facilitate the change management process. This will include conducting an analysis of and even the justification behind the choice of leadership style. Aspects to be covered in the essay will be such as leadership characteristics required, communication skills and the collaborative model that will be used as well as the reason behind the choice of the model.

Leadership and management in an organization are required to go hand in hand and as such, are not similar. They are only connected and complementary and separating them will most likely result in issues rather than solutions. A leadership that is visionary when associated with great forms of management leads to the best results in the firm (Schroeder, 2012). The difference between these two concepts can also be discussed. Management is identified as a set of procedures that maintain the operation or proper functioning of the organization. Some of the processes that are involved in management are such as staffing, budgeting, planning, job clarification and measurement of performance as well solving problems. These practices take place especially when results expected have not been achieved (Bertocci, 2009). On the other hand, leadership is all about supporting people to focus on the vision. This is undertaken through communicating, motivating and inspiring them as well (Schroeder, 2012). According to Shirey (2009), leadership and management also relate to significant roles that the task force in charge of transformation has to undertake. In this context, the transformation task force refers to the body that will be developed to lead the multidisciplinary team in the orthopedics area through the new practice guideline that has just been introduced.

Leadership characteristics differ in various sectors. In the clinical area, it is essential for a leader to focus and as such, ignore any form of selective ignorance. In this case, the registered nurse in the orthopedics surgical ward will be required to concentrate more on the changes in the conditions of patients. It will thus be upon the leader to ensure that the nurses take extra care of patients and monitor their pain. In this way, they will be in a position to administer pain medications whenever it is necessary. The leader in this aspect will also ensure that the nurses monitor the vitals of patients more frequently as they did before (Agha, 2012). According to Australian College of Nursing (2015), clinical leaders should be in a position to deliver and monitor the evidence-based practice as well as assess and alleviate risks to the individual patients. In this way, they will also be engaging their staff or those under them in the delivery of quality and efficient care to patients.

Leaders should be able to communicate and collaborate with their juniors and even clients. In this case, the registered nurse can engage the others in the determination of pain of the patients and its management as well. This will be achieved through communication and even collaboration with the staff and the patients who are within the multidisciplinary team. Through the deep involvement of the multidisciplinary team, any gaps that may exist in existence in the care of patients will be addressed. Moreover, systemic issues of concern such as lupus erythematosus and bone density will also be identified and solutions obtained in the process (Dhammi, Haq, and Kumar, 2015). Being emotionally intelligent is another feature of leadership that has been associated with success. It has been depicted that the new clinical practice guideline which is meant to focus on changes in the conditions of patients more has been viewed as resulting in an increase in the workload of the workers. It is evident that this is bound to bring up conflict in the orthopedics surgical ward. However, by being emotionally intelligent, a nurse leader will address dysfunctional workplace associations through modeling the values of the organization and managing any form of conflicts that may arise as well. By modeling values of the orthopedics surgical ward, the registered nurse will further extend their services to other units in the hospital when they are required. The units, in this case, are such as cardiac, oncology and the long term care units (Feather, 2009).

Communication has been identified as a fundamental aspect that makes leadership useful. As such, for the change of practice within the team to be undertaken efficiently, it is vital for the leader to develop listening skills. Active listening should be a goal, and the manager should concentrate on the utilization of verbal and nonverbal language. According to Davidson and Sindhu (2014), the non-verbal communication in the orthopedics surgical ward may be employed for example where the colleagues will also follow suit. It has further been pointed out that people tend to pay more attention to actions and nonverbal cues that accompany words as compared to only words. Besides, it may also be easy to work as a team in the implementation of the change of practice and thus reduce the workload that has been projected to occur as a result of the activity to be introduced. Furthermore, working as a team will result in efficient outcomes in the care of patients. Management of patients from admission to discharge for instance will be undertaken in an efficient manner as well as care for those patients with osteoporosis, arthritis, and fractures.

Transformational leadership style will be employed to implement the change of practice within the team. According to Hable and Sherman (2015), the health care sector has been focusing on the aspect of motivating their staff through ensuring that they can cater to their physiological needs and are working in a safe and secure environment. As such, the transformational form of leadership has been identified as having the capability to motivate followers to satisfy their higher level needs. These are such as self-actualization and self-esteem. Transformational leadership has four elements (Giltinane, 2013). There is the idealized influence which in this case will enable the leader to stimulate a high level of standards and act as a role model for an excellent professional practice. The leader will thus portray the change of practice as being the best aspect in the sector that will result in high-quality care for patients in the orthopedic surgical ward (Kelly, 2012). The colleagues will further be motivated to take the change positively as it may result in them obtaining more benefits concerning the rewards to be given by their employers.

Inspirational motivation is the second element of transformational leadership that entails the capability of the leader to generate creative ways that will inspire the employees who have a vision for the future. For the change to be carried out successfully, this element entails conducting meetings with groups of employees or communicating the goals and modes to attain them with the employees through channels such as e-mails (Huber, 2010). The primary purpose here is to accomplish a comprehensive and more sensitive change to the conditions of patients. For the employees to be motivated towards achieving this aspect, it is necessary for the leader to give them an outline of how the change will be undertaken (Cassida and Parker, 2011). In this way, all workers will be in line with what is to be done and thus accommodate the proposed change and take it positively.

According to Habel and Sherman (2015), intellectual stimulation, on the other hand, is the element that is provided by a leader who values the input of staff. This leader also challenges the followers to come up with innovative solutions to issues. He or she further seeks for ways that can be employed to provide opportunities for growth and development. The transformational leader, in this case, will provide the registered nurses time to incorporate the changes into their daily practice in the orthopedics surgery ward. Furthermore, ideas of the nurses will also be encouraged concerning how the care of patients can be improved in the surgical orthopedics ward. The care and support for patients with musculoskeletal diseases can be enhanced. Also, the mode of educating patients and their families concerning self-care and the available support systems will also be modified so as to suit the overall change of practice within the team. In the element of personal consideration, the leader is aware of the essentials and worries of their staff (McCloughen, OBrian and Jackson, 2011). They are also aware of their career aspirations and can guide their juniors.

The application of transformational leadership in the health sector has been associated with greater commitment, high levels of morale and job satisfaction among the nurses. Studies have further shown that nurses who are influenced by transformational leaders have depicted to be more devoted and ensure that their organization has succeeded. Satisfaction among the registered nurses can have a significant positive effect on the fulfillment of patients and the quality of care that they also receive in the health settings (Habel and Sherman, 2015).

Any healthcare organization is usually focused on the provision of safe, excellent and compassionate care. In this case, the collaborative model to be applied will entail focusing on patients, transforming talent and the capacity for complexity, innovation, and change. Collaborative patient-care teams will be crucial in this case. This is as a result of the patient-care team being highly inter-reliant in nature (Morgan, Johnston and Garrison, 2007). A patient team care in the orthopedic surgical ward will bring up the element of accountability in the change to be proposed. The capability of actual change being adopted in the orthopedic surgical ward will be reliant on the technical expertise and efficiency of the leadership of the individual who will be engaged in modernizing any medical aspect (Unutzer, 2013).

According to Browning, Torain, and Patterson (2011), the leader in charge of a healthcare system will need to hire and develop individuals with talents who have the capacity to offer the right solutions and even innovations that will result in transformational change. As such, once the collaborative patient-care teams have been developed, talent transformation will be fundamental. In the modification process, the talent of leadership can also be nurtured. This can be undertaken by providing extensive feedback, and coming up with developmental assignments (Unutzer et al., 2013). Freshman, Rubino, and Chassiakos, (2010) pointed out that the capacity for complexity, innovation, and change are other crucial elements that should be included in the model. As the leader will be influencing, observing and even responding to developing changes, they will also be required to react to any demographic shift that may occur among the nurses or even the patients. Technological development may also occur regarding the equipment being used in the orthopedic surgical ward, and it is thus upon the leader to ensure that they have acquired them and hence ensure efficiency i...