Examples Of Ineffective Leadership

1. Introduction

Individuals with leadership qualities are everywhere, if you can identify them. From within the family household, the school your children attend, to the more obvious; the workplace and political environments. However, what makes an individual a leader and what makes that leader an effective one? Can anyone be a leader?

This paper has four main sections. Firstly, the definition of leadership, followed by a profile of Miss X and a couple of situations that showcases her leadership style on handling the different followers under her. Next, there will be a discussion on how I would lead in the same situation and why, which then will conclude with a summary on showing Miss X as an effective or ineffective leader as defined by the

On one occasion, all ten theatres including the two trauma theatres were running with complex cases. A trauma call from the emergency department was called to the Clinical Nurse Unit Manager stating that there was trauma on route to the hospital possibly needing surgery from multiple surgical services. The Operating Theatres was short of staff that day as there were many sick calls, that had not been replaced and many were closed to ending their eight hour shifts. The Clinical Nurse Unit Manager was just hired from another country a month before and newly minted into her current role. Laying her foundation as a leader as what is described by Roellig and Curphy (2010), she was still getting to know the staff and their capabilities. However, she chose not to inform Miss X of the impending trauma case, as she did not recognize that there would be a problem ensuing. This was a failure on building an effective relationship with superiors as Kelley (1988), explains that critical thinking and active followers in the organization must inform their higher-ups about critical happenings concerning the company. This is to ensure that affiliations are fortified and support is improved when providing support to their superiors and the company (Kelley, 1988). Bass (1990) defined that the level to which an individual tells others anything and ensures that they understood it is known as communication effectiveness. There was a clear breakdown in effective communication here as no information was transmitted to Miss X. When the trauma case came through the emergency department, it was found that due to the high urgency of the injury, immediate surgery had to be performed. Since all the theatres were currently running with cases, things had to be escalated and the matter was brought to the attention of Miss X by another staff member who happened to overhear of the impending trauma case crashing