StrengthsFinder assessment Leadership Profile Essay
Discussion – Week 5
COLLAPSE
Discussion 2: Your Leadership Profile
Do you believe you have the traits to be an effective leader? Perhaps you are already in a supervisory role, but as has been discussed previously, appointment does not guarantee leadership skills.
How can you evaluate your own leadership skills and behaviors? You can start by analyzing your performance in specific areas of leadership. In this Discussion, you will complete Gallup’s StrengthsFinder assessment. This assessment will identify your personal strengths, which have been shown to improve motivation, engagement, and academic self-conference. Through this assessment, you will discover your top five themes—which you can reflect upon and use to leverage your talents for optimal success and examine how the results relate to your leadership traits.
To Prepare:
Complete the StrengthsFinder assessment instrument, per the instructions found in this Module’s Learning Resources.
Please Note: This Assessment will take roughly 30 minutes to complete.
Once you have completed your assessment, you will receive your “Top 5 Signature Themes of Talent” on your screen.
Click the Download button below Signature Theme Report, and then print and save the report. We also encourage you to select the Apply tab to review action items.
NOTE: Please keep your report. You will need your results for future courses. Technical Issues with Gallup:
If you have technical issues after registering, please contact the Gallup Education Support group by phone at +1.866-346-4408. Support is available 24 hours/day from 6:00 p.m. Sunday U.S. Central Time through 5:00 p.m. Friday U.S. Central Time.
Reflect on the results of your Assessment, and consider how the results relate to your leadership traits.
Download your Signature Theme Report to submit for this Discussion.
By Day 3 of Week 5
Post a brief description of your results from the StrengthsFinder assessment. Then, briefly describe two core values, two strengths, and two characteristics that you would like to strengthen based on the results of your StrengthsFinder assessment. Be specific. Note: Be sure to attach your Signature Theme Report to your Discussion post.
By Day 6 of Week 5
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by making recommendations for how they might strengthen the leadership behaviors profiled in their StrengthsFinder assessment, or by commenting on lessons to be learned from the results that can be applied to personal leadership philosophies and behaviors.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
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5 months ago
Andruw Cain
RE: Discussion – Week 5- Initial Post
COLLAPSE
While in college, I was involved in multiple associations and help leadership roles, and I have done the StrengthsFinder assessment many times. The “signature themes report presents your five most dominant themes of talent” (Rath, 2007). My top five were: Learner, Achiever, Belief, Includer, and Restorative. I believe the results of this assessment display accurate results to the themes I find to be true to myself. It did not surprise me that Learner was ranked number one on my list because I have “always been drawn to the process of learning” (Rath, 2007). I am a true believer that knowledge is power. I left the emergency room since there were not as many educational opportunities that were offered to help me grow as the CVICU (cardiovascular intensive care unit) offered. After not even a year of being there, I have managed to be checked off on multiple devices such as CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy), ECMO (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), Impella, Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump, etc. It is satisfying for me to push myself to learn new things, and I always think, “what is the next skill to tackle?” One core value that learners hold is that they are more excited about the learning journey than the outcome.
The Achiever was second on my list, which goes hand in hand with Learner. The Achiever is said to have “an internal fire burning inside you [and] it pushes you to do more, to achieve more” (Rath, 2007). However, it mentions that achievers need a tangible achievement to feel satisfied, and I am afraid I must disagree with this statement. In nursing, there is not always a tangible achievement at the end of the day, nor is it the reason I went into nursing. I have an internal gratification that satisfies me after achieving my next goal. For example, if patient cardiac arrests and we cannot bring them back, I do not feel like I am an Achiever. However, the conversation with the family made me feel like I had achieved my goal of doing everything possible to save the patient. The Achiever inside of me keeps me going day to day, even on those days when you are not motivated. The Achiever holds motivation as one of their core values to help themselves and others keep pushing.
Based on the results of my StrengthsFinder assessment, I would like to strengthen two characteristics: my sense of judgment and detachment. I tend to judge people based on their work, which is not always the best representation of someone’s character. For example, I was called into a room to assess a less responsive patient and found that the patient had ipsilateral pupil dilation. After questioning the nurse about when this change was found, she stated that she noticed the pupil change hours ago. At that moment, I immediately judged her nursing skills as inadequate, but then I remembered that she had only had experience working in the CVICU, and my experience was different because of my background. Healthcare leadership brings different skill sets together to take care of a patient. (Walden University, 2014). It is so quick to judge someone, and it has been a personal goal I have been working on.
Regarding detachment, I always find myself involved in emergent situations in the unit. I received feedback from a colleague once that sometimes it would be nice to step back and allow others to intervene. I did not take this personally because she was right; how can others work on their critical thinking skills if I answer/do things right away. Allowing the new graduate nurses to learn from experienced nurses “allows them to move into the practice arena with assistance” (Aiken, 2015). Since this feedback was given, I have tried to step back and teach others what to do rather than doing things myself.
References
Aiken, Linda. (2015). Lessons in Leadership. YouTube. June 23, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL6DH8iOQOM&list=PLopRJPO6GaifsYPGP_jcWXZzU10H3AaX7&index=8.
Rath, T. (2007). Strengths Finder 2.0
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2014). Leadership [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
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5 months ago
Rosemary Mc Williams Haggins WALDEN INSTRUCTOR MANAGER
RE: Discussion – Week 5- Initial Post
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Excellent Andruw! Thank you for sharing the results of the StrengthFinders assessment! Based on your assessment, you identified you would like to improve two characteristics. The characteristics which you would like to improve are judgement and detachment! Additionally, you offered examples which support your desire to improve these characteristics! As you consider these two characteristics, what action steps will be engaged in order to access the mentoring, education and skill building opportunities to achieve strengthening these characteristics? Thank you again!
Dr. Rosemary Haggins
Part-time Faculty
Walden University
College of Health Sciences
MSN, Leadership and Management
155 Fifth Avenue South, Suite 100
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401
310-569-0429 (Cell)
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5 months ago
Andruw Cain
RE: Discussion – Week 5- Instructor Reply
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Thank you Dr. Haggins. There are several avenues that I have thought about in to assess the mentoring, education and skill building opportunities to achieve strengthening my charactersitics as stated above. In order to maintain a nonjudgemental mindset, I have to be more observant and mindful of my surroundings. There is an “importance of observation and the role of openness to experience in self-leadership and mindfulness” (urtner, Tutzer, & Sachse, 2018). As I mentioned above, sometimes understanding somones background my better explain the reasoning they act/do things. As far as detachment, I took a leadership/preceptor class offered at my hosptial facility that proposed some good tools to help detach. Going back to being more observant, “watching for indications that your preceptees are to diengage”, is an important assessment to make (Swihart, 2014). One example of this that I can use as a resource is by seeing that my coworkers can “apply past clinical experinces to current ones” (Swihart, 2014). It is a process and i do not think I could do this assessment alone. Therefore, taking these leadership assessment allows self-reflection to areas I can improve on as a leader. Thank you again.
References
Furtner, M. R., Tutzer, L., & Sachse, P. (2018). The mindful self-leader: Investigating the relationships between self-leadership and mindfulness. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 46(3), 353-360.
Swihart, D. (2014). The Effective Preceptor Handbook for Nurses: The pocket companion for effective preceptors. HCPro.
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5 months ago
Rosemary Mc Williams Haggins WALDEN INSTRUCTOR MANAGER
RE: Discussion – Week 5- Instructor Reply
COLLAPSE
Excellent Andruw! Thank you for providing an evidence-based response to my question!
Best!
Dr. Rosemary Haggins
Part-time Faculty
Walden University
College of Health Sciences
MSN, Leadership and Management
155 Fifth Avenue South, Suite 100
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401
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5 months ago
Andruw Cain
RE: Discussion – Week 5- Instructor Reply
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GallupReport, Cain.pdf (85.531 KB)
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5 months ago
Courtney Whitaker
Discussion Post Reply #1 – Week 5
COLLAPSE
Hello Andruw,
I believe that everyone has at least one quality of a leader. Discovering your strengths can lead to personal and professional development. Cope & Murray (2017) write that understanding your leadership style can also facilitate working with others of a different type. You stated that Includer and Restorative were two strengths you discovered by taking the StrengthFinders assessment. Includers make people feel included (Rath, 2007). I believe you could strengthen your ability to include others with your love for learning. You can be a mentor for new nurses. For example, when you learn something new, you can share the information with your colleagues. Sharing information can be an opportunity to include others in things you are passionate about and inspire a new interest. Broome & Murray (2017) states that transformational leaders inspire others.
Rath (2007) writes that Restorative people are problem solvers. Your love for learning allows you to be proactive when you discover that there is a better way you learned—using this skill to discuss with current leadership innovative ways to reduce incidents like the one you described with the nurse that did not recognize a reportable decline in her patient. Your knowledge, experience, and love for learning go hand in hand with problem-solving and could prove an asset to your facility and your colleagues. Nurses use their voices to improve outcomes (Karam, 2021).
References
Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Cope, V., & Murray, M. (2017). Leadership styles in nursing. Nursing Standard (2014+), 31(43), 61. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.2017.e10836
Karam, S. (2021). Finding Your voice: Nursing leadership Has space for you and your goals. ONS Voice, 38(5), 12–16.
Rath, T. (2007). Strengths Finder 2.0. Gallups Press.
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