Preparation

You have been offered the opportunity to apply for a leadership position in your organization. As a part of the application process, your potential employer uses the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) competency model of leadership development (NCHL, 2016), which includes a 360-degree evaluation.

The evaluation is an assessment that includes anonymous, confidential feedback from those around you, such as your peers, supervisor, direct reports, and stakeholders, as well as a self-assessment on behavior (relational), technical and operational skills, and strategic ability.

As a part of this 360-degree evaluation, you will complete the self-assessment component. This information will be shared with the interview committee for the position, so it is important that you demonstrate your knowledge and experience in each of the areas outlined in the self-assessment requirements below.

Note: Remember, you can submit all, or a portion, of your draft to Smarthinking for feedback, before you submit the final version of your work for this assessment. However, be mindful of the turnaround time for receiving feedback, if you plan on using this free service.

Reference

National Center for Healthcare Leadership.(2016). NCHL organizational assessments.

Self-Assessment Requirements

Complete a leadership self-assessment to create a portrait of the effective health care professional and leader you aspire to be.

Note: The assessment requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the Leadership Self-Assessment scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point.

In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. You are provided an example leadership self-assessment to illustrate what proficient-level work for this assessment looks like.

Self-Assessment Format and APA Style

• Use the APA Paper template, linked in the Resources, to draft your self-assessment. An abstract is not required.

• Your self-assessment should be 5-7 double-spaced pages in length, not including the title page and reference page.

• Apply correct APA formatting to all in-text citations and references.

• Use Times New Roman, 12-point font.

Writing

Note: Because this assessment requires you to develop a leadership self-assessment, you may write using first-person voice.

However, it is important for your development as a practitioner-scholar to recognize that writing in the first person is not usually acceptable in academic papers, which are written in the third-person. Consequently, you should always carefully consider departing from this norm.

• Be clear and concise in your writing.

• Express your main points, arguments, and conclusions coherently.

• Use correct grammar and mechanics.

• Be sure to support your claims, arguments, and conclusions with credible evidence from 4-5 current, scholarly or professional sources.

• Proofread your writing.

Self-Assessment Content

• Analyze your leadership strengths and weaknesses.

o Identify at least one leadership theory or style that you believe best aligns with your own thoughts of what leadership means.

o Use that theory or style in your analysis. Cite your sources.

o Consider potential biases or underlying assumptions in your analysis.

Explain how specific leadership characteristics you already possess will enable you to guide, educate, inform, and influence others to manage change in the field of health care.

o Consider examples of past successes.

o Consider strategies or best practices that could be applied to improve outcomes.

o Describe at least two additional leadership characteristics you would like to develop to enhance your effectiveness in this area.

Explain how your leadership characteristics will serve to help you build and maintain collaborative relationships across, and within, disciplines.

o Consider examples of past successes.

o Consider strategies or best practices that could be applied to improve outcomes.

o Describe at least two additional leadership characteristics you would like to develop to enhance your effectiveness in this area.

Explain how you can best apply the principles of ethical leadership, given your leadership style.

o Identify the main principles of ethical leadership within your field of practice (nursing, health administration, or public health). Cite your sources.

o Consider examples of past successes.

o Consider strategies or best practices that could be applied to improve outcomes.

o Where do you have room to grow in this area?

o How can you prepare yourself to do so?

Explain why diversity and inclusion are important to employee relations and the provision of safe, high-quality health care.

o Provide an example you have experienced or read about. Cite your sources.

Explain how your leadership characteristics prepare you to develop and lead a diverse team of employees and serve a diverse community within an ethical framework.

o In what ways can you address issues of diversity and inclusion, both within an organization and in serving the public?

Explain how research skills and critical thinking guide effective decision making and foster integrity in research and professional practice.

CAse
Leadership represents both what we do and who we are. Its crucial role within health care organizations is appropriately described by Manning and Curtis (2012) in The Art of Leadership, where they state, "Leadership is an important and difficult task, but the cornerstone of organizational success" (p. 11).

Its challenges seem to be increasingly manifested in the public sector, where views of leadership performance are more accessible than at any other time in history, given continual advancements in communications technologies, such as the Internet and multiple smart devices.

Subsequently, there is less tolerance for leadership failure, and skepticism is on the rise, making a strong case for leader awareness and continued leadership development.

As a health care professional and leader, it is important to have an understanding of the universal leadership characteristics and behaviors that produce the most desirable outcomes. Of even greater significance is the leader's need to know his or her own personal leadership style and corresponding implications on decision making.

References

Manning, G., & Curtis, K. (2012). The art of leadership (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.