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Running head: LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT

Leadership Assessment
Cody Singleton
Professional Role Development: Servant Leadership
March 9th, 2016

LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT

On my honor, I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment or test, and I
pledge that I am in compliance with the BSMCON Honor System. Cody Singleton
Of the five leadership practices, I gave two my highest self-assessment score, a 26
out of a possible 30. These two leadership practices were Enable Others to Act and
Encourage the Heart. According to the Kouves and Posner, Enable Others to Act is
centered on fostering collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust as
well as strengthening others by sharing power and discretion (Kouves & Posner, 2014).
Some of the activities highlighted by this practice are actively listening, treating others
with respect and giving others freedom and choice. The second practice, Encourage the
Heart, has as its focus recognizing contributions by showing appreciation for individual
excellence and celebrating the values and victory by building a sense of community
(Kouves & Posner, 2014). A few of the activities that pertain to this practice are praising
people, encouraging others and providing support and appreciation.
The fact that these two practices are my highest rated is not at all surprising.
When I have been in positions of leadership, a main focus of mine has been to build
group cohesion by ensuring that my team members shared a mission and goals. When I
worked in politics recruiting volunteers, I tried my best to ensure that all of my volunteers
really felt it was important that the congressman win re-election and that they understood
why their efforts were important to achieving that end. I would explain to them that the
more times a voter is contacted even if they are not home and a flier is left on their
porch the more likely that person is to go vote. The more likely they are to go vote, the
more likely the congressman is to get re-elected. The more likely he is to get re-elected,
the more likely the volunteers are to see the things they care about acted on in what they
felt was a positive manner. In doing this, I created buy-in: in just a few degrees of

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separation, the phone calls they made and the doors they knocked on had a direct bearing
on how they wanted the political landscape to look at least in one congressional district.
If they wanted more detail, I made sure to give them a peek into the more advanced
numbers, such as precinct-level breakdowns of how many voters the campaign needed to
show up on Election Day to be successful, how we choose which voters to contact and
how much progress we had made towards our goals thus far.
I built trust by getting my hands dirty. When they walked into the office, I was on
the phone, recruiting volunteers or contacting voters. On the weekends, I was sending
them out to knock on 40 to 50 doors on what were, in the beginning months, some very
hot July and August afternoons. I made sure I was knocking on 80 to 100 doors that day. I
also built trust by only asking my volunteers to carry out tasks they expected and had
agreed to ahead of time. I would not send them out to knock on 40 doors and upon return
to the office, try to send them out to knock on 40 more. My most fervent volunteer was
actually around my age, so there were no health concerns with sending him out for long
stretches of time. However, I knew that if he had made plans that evening and I tried to
guilt him into knocking on more doors and making more phone calls than he had
anticipated, I would be violating the trust I had built with him. That said, if he or any
other volunteer offered to put in more time and effort than they had agreed to beforehand,
I made sure to have other things for them to do. If they were feeling motivated to go the
extra mile, I made sure to provide them a target for their enthusiasm.
Another component of Enable Others to Act is empowering others by sharing
your power with them (Kouves & Posner, 2014). In my most extensive leadership role,
this was essentially my whole job. If my job was to knock on as many doors and talk to

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as many voters as I could by myself, I am sure that I would have compiled a sizable
number of interactions by the end of the four months I was at it. However, by using my
time to recruit volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls, I was able to utilize
this power of delegation as a force multiplier to greatly increase the amount of work I
was able to get done. There may often be a temptation to become territorial about power,
duties or responsibilities, but it is a very self-limiting proposal. One person can be in one
place at one time. However, delegation and sharing power opens up the possibility of
increased productivity and progress for everyone involved. This is a lesson I learned
working in politics and plan to carry into any leadership roles that are available in
nursing.
In the area of active listening, I was far less effective. In fact, I found it to be a
terrible struggle. I had difficulty focusing and giving those I was talking to my full
attention. In hindsight, it is apparent that this is something that held me back from
realizing my full potential throughout life, including when I worked as a field organizer.
However, after being diagnosed two years ago with ADHD, a condition I long suspected
was at work, things have improved dramatically. Taking control of this facet has led to a
greatly enhanced ability to concentrate and pay proper attention when engaged in
conversation with others. This, in turn, has led to increased effectiveness of
communication and improved relationships.
Treating others with respect is the final piece of this practice. This is something I
have tried to do regardless of which role I was in at any given time. Regardless of
socioeconomic factors or even factors of ability or talent, most individuals have the
capacity to contribute to a team or better those around them. Because of this belief, I have

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always made sure to treat others with respect and to convey my belief that they have
value.
Encourage the Heart, the other practice I gave my highest score, involves
relatively simple measures that can have a great effect. When I was a field organizer, I
made sure to always thank my volunteers for their contributions on any given day. Even
in my current trade, when a member of the healthcare team helps me with anything, I
make sure to thank him or her. It is a display of appreciation and respect that takes little
time and can have great effects. In theory, someone should always do his or her best
regardless of outside motivation. In practice, though, I would wager that all leaders have
found that effort and performance will decline if a team member thinks that effort is not
being noticed or that excellence and going the extra mile is unappreciated.
The highest scores from my peers were for Enable Others to Act and Inspire a
Shared Vision. For the reasons I detailed previously, Enable Others to Act was not a
surprise to me, and I agree with the high ratings for this area. However, I was quite
surprised by the high scores for Inspire a Shared Vision. I gave myself a score of 22 for
this practice, while my peers provided an average score that was slightly above 27. This
represents a fairly wide gap in the scores. According to Kouves and Posner, Inspire a
Shared Vision centers on envisioning the future by imagining exciting and ennobling
possibilities and enlisting others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations
(Kouves & Posner, 2014). Some of the traits making up this practice include talking
about a vision for the future, describing ideal capabilities and communicating purpose
and meaning. I have chosen to focus on these three because they are the traits for this
practice for which I gave myself the lowest scores. When describing tasks to team

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members, I am usually cognizant about explaining the purpose for any given task or
method, as I illustrated when talking about my field organizer experience. However, I am
aware of a tendency on my part to neglect to clarify or illustrate a bigger picture or a
greater meaning behind some tasks. I have a tendency to think in the present or near
future, not necessarily in grander terms about a long-term vision. I also tend to think in
terms of incremental, practical improvements instead of ideal capabilities. Because of
this, I would say that Inspire a Shared Vision is actually my weakest practice and an area
where I could make vast improvement, a contrast to the opinion of my peers. This is the
practice with which I feel least, not most, comfortable.
Enable Others to Act would be the practice I am most comfortable with. As I
discussed in detail earlier, this practice makes the most sense to me as a force multiplier.
One leader, no matter how hard they work, is capable of being in only one place at any
given time. By carefully selecting individuals to delegate tasks among and encouraging
them to take ownership of these tasks and their performance in these tasks, a leader can
effectively multiple their presence and ability to accomplish tasks and reach goals.
This practice requires humility and trust. Humility is required because in order to
embrace this leadership practice, one must admit that they cannot do everything by
themselves and that there may be others more suited to completing certain tasks than they
are. Trust must follow this humility, because the leader must then be willing to trust the
members of their team to appropriately and correctly carry out the tasks delegated to
them.

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In an article by Jody Rogers, a Certified Master of The Leadership Challenge and


the Program Manager for the Army Medical Department Executive Skills Program, one
can gain an understanding of what it means to embrace this practice. Rogers states,
Exemplary leaders know they dont go it alone and offers a four-part roadmap to
achieving the goals central to Enable Others to Act (Rogers, 2016). These four parts are
caring, creating ownership, ensuring security and practicing accountability for everyone,
including the leader. According to Rogers, caring helps to create positive relationships in
which a team member responds to a leaders caring nature with greater commitment to
that leader or organizations vision and mission. Creating ownership involves giving team
members a say in how goals are to be accomplished, making sure they understand their
role in the job at hand and that they know the importance of their contribution. Ensuring
security and letting team members know they are supported can lead to team members
taking educated risks that have the potential to be beneficial for the organization. Rogers
feels these educated risks are a positive outcome for the leader and team member and
goes on to say that if team members do not feel they have this security, there are potential
lost opportunities where these educated risks were not taken and team members did not
push their skills and knowledge to the limit. Finally, practicing accountability enhances
commitment by encouraging team members to work together. Through this, Rogers
states, knowledge gets shared, confidence increases and everybody wins (Rogers,
2016). Rogers summarizes by stating that, Leaders who Enable Others to Act spread
their influence far beyond their physical sphere (Rogers, 2016).
On the Student Leadership Challenge website, Kouzes and Posner state, At the
very heart of cooperation is trust. (Kouzes & Posner, 2013). They echo Rogers previous

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sentiment when they state, Without trust and confidence, people do not take risks.
Without risks, there is no change (Kouves & Posner, 2013). However, in a trusting
environment, team members feel empowered to take risks and as a result, further change
and progress (Kouves & Posner, 2013). Kouzes and Posner believe that individuals work
best when they are empowered with a sense of power and ownership. Furthermore, they
extend the concept of ownership by stating that effective leaders do not hoard their
power, but rather give it away. The work of a leader is making people feel strong,
capable, informed and connected (Kouzes & Posner, 2013). In this single line is
reflected the importance of building cooperative relationships, listening attentively,
treating others with respect and providing team members with freedom as well as
opportunities for leadership and growth, all traits of the Enable Others to Act leadership
practice (Kouzes & Posner, 2014).
The most frequent behaviors in my leadership behaviors ranking, receiving a
score of 5 from myself and all observers, were: fosters cooperative relationships, keeps
current and builds consensus on values. All three are accurate. As I discussed earlier, in
leadership roles, one of my primary targets is to build team cohesion and aim it in the
direction of a common goal that everybody on the team is knowledgeable of and
motivated toward. With this in mind, it makes sense that I would see myself and others
would see me as fostering cooperative relationships and building consensus on values.
Furthermore, I know that when I worked in politics, I would always stay informed on
what the big topics of the day were and what I could expect to be asked about. This was
out of genuine interest, but also a desire and need to earn the respect of those I was
asking to volunteer for me and to show them that I took as much or more interest in the

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situation. If my boss had recently expressed support of a piece of legislation, my


volunteers could be expected to have an opinion on it. In order to establish my authority
and earn their trust and respect, I needed to be able to at least explain if not defend the
congressmans position on all topics. With my classmates, it makes sense that they would
choose this behavior because we are in nursing school together. They see me as a fellow
student, with intellectual curiosities and interests that often mirror their own. Just like
working nurses and all healthcare professionals, we have a duty to engage in constant
education to inform ourselves as deeply and thoroughly as possible and to keep up with
the state of the nursing science.
The least frequent behaviors, receiving a score of 3 from myself and a score of 4
from my observers, were: aligns others with principles and standards, follows through on
promises and takes initiative in experimenting. With these three, there have been few if
any opportunities to display these behaviors around my observers or in prior leadership
experience. Aligning others with principles and standards and taking initiative in
experimenting are low, I feel, because the opportunity has not arisen in my prior
experience or while around my observers to perform either of these in a way that is
permissible, appropriate and beneficial. As it pertains to promises, I do not make a lot of
promises. I always offer to chip in and help others as time allows, but I very rarely make
a promise ahead of time for future action later. Because of the unpredictable nature of life
itself, there is no accurate way to forecast whether a promise made now is even going to
be possible to keep in the future. Because of that, I largely avoid making promises at all,
and the low value for this behavior reflects that.

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I have provided multiple examples of how I have demonstrated Enable Others to


Act in my work in politics. The most relevant was perhaps communicating with my
volunteers regarding the importance of what I was asking them to do and its impact on
the organizations goal as well as their own personal ambitions. In my current trade, I
carry out some of the tenets of this practice in clinical. One example of this took place
during a clinical immersion shift earlier this semester. The PCT assigned to my patients,
among others she was caring for, was very busy and seemingly overwhelmed. This led to
my patient experiencing delays in having her call bell answered. The PCT was often
unable to answer her call bell in a satisfactory time, leading me to take the initiative to
answer the patients call bell when it was used. However, this led to me missing out on
some useful learning opportunities early in the day because I was being pulled away to
answer the patients call bell. This was acceptable, since it is my duty to take care of my
patients and I was happy to do so. However, the PCT being unable to answer the patients
call bell for fairly simple, routine things was impacting my learning opportunities at
clinical as well as creating more stress for the PCT because she was still aware of my
patient needing help. So a few hours into the shift, I offered to help this PCT get current
with her duties in a way where we both benefitted. If she needed to take 10 blood glucose
readings, I offered to take five of them. If she needed to get vital signs for 12 patients, I
took six off her hands. Very quickly, she was caught up and able to proactively respond to
patient requests instead of playing a 12-hour game of catch-up where neither one of us
won. This also freed up my time to engage patients in education, collaborating with other
team members and nursing-specific activities. The earlier situation was not ideal, but it
was manageable. The PCT would have completed all her duties at some point and is not

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as though any of the tasks I completed for my patients were out of my scope of practice.
However, because I took the time to actively listen to the PCT, showed respect for the
needs and challenges of her position and established a cooperative relationship with her,
explaining the benefits of working together, we were both able to have a more productive
and meaningful day. As an added bonus, this PCT and I enjoy a pleasant, productive
working relationship that conveys benefits for both of us every time we work together.
I believe strongly in the benefits of the Enable Others to Act practice and already
utilize a majority of the behaviors and traits pertaining to this practice. However, I would
like to display much more of the Model the Way practice in my current leadership style.
From my past experience, I am fully aware of how effective and important this practice
can be. I was modeling the way when I made sure that I knocked on more doors and
made more phone calls than any of my volunteers. I was also able to speak with clarity
about my values and beliefs and how they aligned with the congressmans. This made
those volunteers who bought in and shared my values and beliefs much more likely to
give their best effort.
Simply put, in nursing, I currently lack the confidence to model the way. Making
an abrupt career change early in life has led to me feeling surrounded by others who if
they do not actually know better, at least seem to. My experience in healthcare consists of
the knowledge, skills and experience I have attained in nursing school and little else.
Compared to practicing nurses, paramedics, EMTs, LPNs and even CNAs with years of
experience, I do not often feel qualified to lead the way. It is difficult to model the way
when you do not yet know the way. Because of this, I typically defer to these individuals.

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This is changing more as I progress through nursing school and gain more experience and
confidence. I am currently engaged every day in the process of embracing this practice
more thoroughly. At the hospital, when I know what to do, I get to work and serve as an
example for others present who may be less experienced. If I do not know what to do, I
use my resources. I ask others, look up information on the computer or watch someone
else tackle the problem and take careful notes of what they are doing. If I am in school or
have the day off, I am constantly studying and drawing on recent experiences from
clinical to analyze what I could have done better or an alternative approach or
intervention I could have applied. As I continue this process, I am fully confident I will
become more likely to jump into action and become a model for others. I will know I
have improved in this leadership skill when others see me as someone who leads by
example and does not merely possess the knowledge and skills in theory, but uses them
confidently and effectively in practice.

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References

Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B. (2014). The student leadership challenge: Five practices for
exemplary leaders (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B. (2013). The five practices of exemplary leadership. The
Student Leadership Challenge. Retrieved from
http://www.studentleadershipchallenge.com/About/Five-practices.aspx#EnableOthers-to-Act
Rogers, J. R. (2016). Enabling others to act Inspiring commitment. The Leadership
Challenge. Retrieved from
http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/resource/enabling-others-to-act-inspiringcommitment-.aspx

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