Krystle B and Stacy A discuss leadership styles and their impact in healthcare organizations. Krystle identifies with authentic leadership characteristics like self-awareness, transparency, balanced processing, and moral leadership. She describes a director who initially displayed relational leadership but struggled with accountability. Stacy discusses transformational, authentic, and aesthetic leadership styles. She describes an ACD who micromanages versus one who leads by example through clinical involvement and inspiration. Both cite research finding relational and transformational leadership correlate to positive work environments and nurse outcomes.

1. Respond to Krystle B and Stacy A, 2 citations 2 Refs.
Respond to two by explaining how the leadership skills they
described may impact your organization or your personal
leadership, or by identifying challenges you see in applying the
skills described.
Krystle B
RE: Discussion - Week 4
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Main Discussion Post
Evidence for Characteristics of a Healthy Work Life
of one’s self. Balanced processing involves an open mind and
an open heart. “Leaders described balanced processing as the
ability to be open to feedback and diverse opinions, to analyze
information objectively, and listen to those who have opposing
views” (Alexander & Palan, 2018). Nurses must feel like they
can talk to their leaders openly and honestly; they must feel
heard and understood. Nurses look to their leaders to help them
wade through the difficulties of the every day nurse life.
Transparency involves honesty and commitment to nursing
staff, and these characteristics drive trust between nurse and
leader. The final quality, moral leadership, involves healthy
ethics. Nurses look to their leaders to guide their behaviors and
A healthy work environment is key to a positive work-life
balance. Toxic work environments can lead to nurse burnout,
negative behaviors, frequent call-offs, and dismissive attitudes
towards patients. However, a positive work environment can
have a wildly different impact on patient care. From the
resources, I most identified with the authentic leadership model.
This model expresses the following leadership characteristics:

2. “self-awareness, relational transparency, internalized moral
perspective, and balanced information processing” (Marshall &
Broome, 2017). I like this model because I can identify with
these characteristics, and I imagine it is the kind of leadership
style that I would exude.
In a study on leadership styles and their impact on nurse’s
perceptions of a positive work environment, there were several
characteristics of leadership that correlated with positive
nursing attitudes. Overall, the highest correlation between
leadership styles and positive nursing attitudes was a relational
leadership style. “The findings of this systematic review
provide robust support that relational leadership versus task-
focused leadership styles are linked to better nursing workforce
outcomes and related organizational outcomes.” (Cummings,
Tate, Lee, Wong, Paananen, Micaroni, & Chatterjee, 2018).
Nurses are receptive to leaders who are genuine in nature. They
want to feel that they are being led by someone who is honest
and fair. Can I talk to this person and expect an honest
response? Are they easy to talk to? Can I vent to this leader and
feel heard and understood? These are important qualities of a
relational leader.
In another study, researchers assessed the attitudes towards a
healthy work environment possessed by nursing executives. The
researchers spoke with seventeen nursing executives to assess
their ideas of important characteristics of management to
promote a healthy work environment. All participants agreed
that maintaining a healthy work environment was important to
their role (Alexander & Palan, 2018). The self-identified
characteristics of a nurse manager that promotes a healthy work
environment were: self-awareness, balanced processing,
transparency, and moral leadership (Alexander & Palan, 2018).
I would agree with these results. Self-awareness is a key
component to leadership; a strong ability to evaluate the
positive and negative characteristics of others involves the
ability to evaluate the positive and negative characteristics
attitudes; a leader with a strong moral compass can help guide

3. their nurses through difficult days.
Leadership Example
I worked at an inpatient psychiatric hospital for eight years.
About two years after I started, a colleague of mine (Gina) was
promoted to Director of Nursing. She didn’t have any
management experience but she had strong relationships with
the nurses and a positive attitude. Over the years, I watched her
transform and grow into a leader. She displayed a relational
leadership style like the one mentioned above. She was open,
honest, and communicative. She had a strong moral compass
and an open mind. Many nurses felt comfortable coming to her
with issues, and she was always open to feedback and
communication. However, she struggled with holding nurses
accountable. Because of the tight relationship she held with her
nursing staff, she struggled to be fair; she wasn’t comfortable
providing appropriate feedback to those who needed direction.
Years later, I still work for her on a PRN basis. Many of her
nurses now feel that she is unfair, because those nurses who are
not performing as well as the rest are not given the appropriate
corrective action and their behaviors continue. Therefore, this
manager initially had a positive impact on nursing work life, but
over time the environment has become more negative.
References
Alexander, C., & Palan Lopez, R. (2018). A Thematic Analysis
of Self-described Authentic Leadership Behaviors Among
Experienced Nurse Executives. Journal of Nursing
Administration, 48(1), 38–43. https://doi-
org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000568
Cummings, G. G., Tate, K., Lee, S., Wong, C. A., Paananen, T.,
Micaroni, S. P. M., & Chatterjee, G. E. (2018). Leadership
styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work
environment: A systematic review. International Journal of
Nursing Studies, 85, 19–60. https://doi-
org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.04.016
Marshall, E. S., & Broome, M. E. (2017). Transformational

4. leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential
leader. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
2 hours ago
Stacy A
RE: Discussion - Week 4
COLLAPSE
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Leadership Styles in Practice
While managers do the right thing, leaders do what is right
(Marshall, E., & Broome, 2017). It is an important distinction.
All leaders can be managers but not all managers can be
leaders. Managers think in the short term and rely on authority
rather than influence (Marshall & Broome, 2017). Leaders are
visionary who can use their influence to effect change and think
in both short and long term goals. Nursing leaders can be
authentic, challenging or aesthetic leaders.
Marshall and Broome discuss transformational leaders and the
impact they have on their staff and organizations by being
visionary leaders who use their influence to change
understanding to effect what is important both at the unit and
organizational levels. They use good judgment and advocate for
health and dignity. Two models of transformation leadership are
authentic and challenge. The authentic leader is hopeful and
optimistic and emphasizes relationships between leaders and
followers. They are honest and open with their superiors and
staff alike. The challenge model inspires vision, challenging the
process, and enabling others to act (Marshall & Broome, 2017).
From an organizational standpoint, the challenge model could
be problematic if the leader has competing needs with the
organization.
Another leadership style is the aesthetic nurse leader. Mannix,
Wilkes, and Daley define aesthetic nursing as ‘leadership with a
moral dimension, and a reliance on tactile knowledge derived
from sensory, emotional, and somatic awareness’ (Mannix,
Wilkes, & Daley, n.d.). This leader leads by example,

5. composure, and with nursing values (Mannix, Wilkes, & Daley,
n.d.). ‘They improve nurses’ working lives across a range of
clinical settings’ (Mannix, Wilkes, & Daley, n.d.). Aesthetic
nurse leadership is specific to clinical leadership. They
encourage empowerment and teamwork. . They encourage staff
to work at their best abilities.
I am currently a post-anesthesia care staff nurse at a large urban
hospital in NJ. On average, divided between 3 fully functioning
recovery areas, 60 to 80 patients are recovered within 24 hours.
Additionally, if critical care beds are delayed, scarce or
nonexistent, patients requiring higher levels of care are
transferred to the recovery unit where a staff nurse provides
care until a bed becomes available. The supervisory hierarchy in
the PACU consists of a BSN prepared nurse manager, and 2
assistant nurse managers, ACDs. One ACD has her ADN while
the other has his MBA and MSN. The ACDs supervise staff and
the daily functioning of the unit. The ADN prepared ACD is not
a leader. She is not visionary. She manages by authority. She
does not encourage problem-solving, and has insisted that staff
contact her with any issues. She is a micromanager and difficult
to deal with. She is defensive when questioned, and has dressed
down staff at the nursing station in front of other staff,
physicians, patients and visitors. The MBA/MSN prepared ACD
is a combination of an aesthetic nurse leader and an authentic
nurse leader. He is hands-on, clinically relevant, and inspires
trust. He is not only visible on the unit, but steps in to transport
patients, help stabilize patients, or assist staff if needed. He has
been discouraged by both the manager and other ACD to stop
being so hands-on, yet it hasn’t dissuaded him. His leadership
by example style does not change, and as such he is highly
respected by the staff. I worry, that over time, the manager’s
and ACD’s view that their management style collectively is the
better one could wear him down, and ultimately discourage him.
Nursing management needs to move from the draconian
management model and into a leadership model with leaders
who have the vision and desire to lead. In a study conducted by

6. Suratno, Arlyanti, and Kader, et. al., ‘transformational
leadership has a direct influence on quality nursing work life.
Leadership strategies are very important to enhance the role of
nurses where leaders can create effective work environments for
nurses and improve the quality of services provided to patients’
(Suratno, Arylanti, & Kader, et.al., 2018).
References
Mannix, J., Wilkes, L., & Daly, J. (n.d.). “Watching an artist at
work”: aesthetic leadership in clinical nursing
workplaces. JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, 24(23–24),
3511–3518. Retrieved March 15, 2020 from https://doi-
org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/jocn.12956
Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational
leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader
(2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Suratno, K., Ariyanti, S., & Kadar, K. S. (2018). The
Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Quality
of Nursing Work Life in Hospital. International Journal of
Caring Sciences, 11(3), 1416–1422. Retrieved March 15, 2020
from https://eds-b-ebscohost-
com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&si
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