Personal and professional leadership

INTRODUCTION
For many years, leadership continues to be one of the captivating issues in institutions, society and the nation at large. The term eludes a unified definition due to its complex and subjective nature (Pardey, 2007). Hence Pardey (2007: 9) likens it to a good art, recognised when seen but difficult to describe. The debate is still ongoing as to whether leadership is an innate ability (Marquis and Huston, 2006) or can be acquired (De Pree, 1989; Grant and Massey, 1999). Notwithstanding, I believe that leadership can be learnt in spite of the fact that certain traits help us to lead effectively. Several theories of leadership have been developed with an emphasis on traits (Hibberd, Smith and Wylie, 2006; Mann, 1959; Marquis and Huston 2006), behaviour (Mintzberg, 1973; White and Lippitt, 1960), situation (Fieldler, 1967; Hershey and Blanchard, 1972), social exchange (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978) and organisational dynamics (Bass, 1985; Bass, Avolio and Goldheim, 1987; Burns, 1978). The work of behavioural theorists give insights into autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire leadership styles which has a lot of impact on organisational performance (Bass, 1981). In spite of the various conceptualisations on leadership, many authors agree that it is a process (Barrow, 1977; Hollander, 1985; Trice and Beyer, 1992), involves influence (Charney, 2005; Grayson and Baldwin, 2007; Tappen, Weiss and Whitehead, 1998), occurs in groups (Berger and Luckmann, 1966), requires an adaptive goal seeking approach (Katz and Kahn, 1978) and exist at all levels (Faugier and Woolnough, 2002). Nonetheless, leaders are believed to be ordinary people who do extraordinary things (Kouzes and Posner, 1995; Peters and Waterman 1995) through the effective use of power (Kanter, 1977) in creating the future (Kerfoot, 1998). This implies that leaders are judged mainly by the consequences of their behaviour and not on any physical characteristics. There have also been debates concerning leadership and management for m (Grant and Massey, 1999; Hibberd et al. 2006). Notwithstanding, I agree with Hershey and Blanchard's (1982) view of leadership as an influence process and management as a goal achievement endeavour. This is because leadership can stimulate people into performing to their utmost capacity, unlike management that only aims at getting intended results. In today's health care system, nursing leadership needs to focus on people and problem solving in an ever-changing environment (Davidhizar, 1993). This essay is a reflection of my own personal leadership development and the process which helped me in producing the plan. Gibb's (1988) reflective cycle will be used in guiding the reflective process due to its simplicity. The essay will commence with my personal and professional leadership background, followed by my personal leadership development plan. It will continue with a reflection on the process which helped me in developing the plan and finally end with conclusions on my action plans for the future.