I am a mental health nurse practitioner provider, working in a major

I am a mental health nurse practitioner provider, working in a major tertiary medical center. The main problem I have identified as a focus for my leadership practicum project is the issue of top-down leadership rigidity that involves resistance to change and unwelcome collaboration efforts from lower management department administrators and provider practitioners. 

     My organization is made up of a leadership style in which decision-making is centralized flowing from the top to the bottom. Our organization’s CEO maintains rigid control over direction and decisions, setting specific priorities, goals, and expectations as marching orders. This leadership style tends to stifle creativity leaving no room for input or ideas from lower-level managers and administrators who may have other valuable insights. 

        My leadership change initiative is to introduce more opportunities for provider managers’ and administrator’s perspectives to be heard, recognized, and valued. The nature of work I do as a nurse practitioner although heavily regulated requires opportunities for autonomy and independent decision-making, without which disengagement and reduced motivation will become rampant, undoubtedly leading to non meaningful pervasive rote robotic performance. 

      To introduce change towards more collaboration and inclusivity in my rigid top-down organizational leadership environment,  I plan to use Kotter’s 8-step change guide beginning with communicating a sense of urgency along with the risks associated with the current leadership method, explaining and providing data to illustrate the essential benefits of inclusive collaboration and input from lower management and administrative providers while progressing along the author’s strategically and carefully planned change processes. 

         As change can be a challenge for most leaders, I will exercise empathy, respect, and support for the CEO to help him embrace and adapt to such a change. People, organizations, and societies are generally better off when their leaders are flexible,  willing to accept varied perspectives, empathetic, and ethical, rather than rigid, and  uncaring. My hope is that my CEO can master the art of emotional intelligence to be guided by empathy to understand that leadership is not a personal privilege, but the ability to convince a group of people to collaborate effectively in the pursuit of a common goal. I am in for the challenge! Kotter’s 8-step guide will help me ensure that the values and principles of inclusive leadership are reflected in all that I do within my provider management level, communicating, respecting, and leading by example to evolve a more collaborative and inclusive leadership. 

        With my goal to make collaborative leadership a fundamental part of my organization, I choose Humility as the virtuous characteristic to complement my leadership practicum change initiative. According to Chamorro-Premuzic, (2021), there has never been a better time for humble, curious, and ethical leaders, the hope is that my CEO will embrace these ways to display emotional courage to mitigate the pain for everyone else instead of demanding that we march to orders, which is sadly a reflection of the leader we have in place.