Honesty is an important part of good leadership and is closely tied to credibility. The chapter says that credibility is the foundation of effective leadership and points out that honesty is one of the main qualities people want in leaders. It also says that if people do not trust the person giving information, they will not trust what is being said.

At my job, I had a supervisor who always told us honestly when there were not enough staff and explained the situation instead of making excuses. She kept her promises and let us know about any changes right away. Because she was open and reliable, the team trusted her, even during stressful times.

This experience taught me that honesty is needed to build trust, and without trust, real leadership cannot happen.

In my opinion, competence is the most crucial aspect of leader because as a leader needs to be competent and knowledgeable to effectively mentor others. A capable leader understands the duties of task and makes prudent decisions and supports the team in achieving goals.
For instance, in my class group project I assigned as a leader. I divided the project into sections based on the strength of each group member. Because I was familiar with the project requirements and carefully organized the work to group members. All members maintained coordination and finished the project successfully. Managing the workload and allocating responsibilities taught me that being a leader not only giving instructions , it is also being able to manage the team and make sure everyone participates appropriately.
Competence develops confidence and trust, which motivates team members to follow instructions and collaborate to achieve goals that are shared.

I believe that being honest is the foundation of a good leader. When a leader is honest, it builds trust with others and credibility for what you are hoping to inspire in others. If honesty does not exist, trust erodes and you are not taken seriously or with much weight. I recall an incident with a staff member that was rather negative as they had not followed a policy and had to be written up. I stuck to the facts as what the discrepancy was, and was very honest about how the misconduct affected a client negatively. In the moment the staff was upset, however weeks later after some self reflection, that staff came to my office and thanked me for being honest as it helped them improve.

One leadership characteristic that I feel is especially important is the the ability to inspire others. Working in health care can be stressful on most days, and it is easy for teams to feel overwhelmed. But when staff are guided by someone who brings a positive influence, an uplifting attitude, and genuine encouragement, it helps everyone come together with purpose. Inspiring leadership not only boosts morale but also strengthens teamwork, allowing us to complete tasks and care for our residents/patients with a compassionate outlook.

One leadership characteristic that I feel is important is the the ability to inspire others. Working in health care can be stressful on most days, and it is easy for teams to feel overwhelmed. But when staff are guided by someone who brings a positive influence, an uplifting attitude, and genuine encouragement, it helps everyone come together with purpose. Inspiring leadership not only boosts morale but also strengthens teamwork, allowing us care for our residents/patients with a compassionate outlook.

Pick one of the Leadership characteristics in the chapter you read above that you feel is the most important in a leader. Describe a personal situation about yourself or a leader that supports why you feel that characteristic is the most important.

Ok, first of all, I loved this chapter so much that I just bought the entire book to read. I hope it is as good and inspiring as I am hoping.

I think honesty is most important as a leader. If I were to come to someone that I “willingly” thought of as a leader, I would expect honesty from them. Yes, I understand that you are not top dog and cannot make final decisions but did you actually take my recommendation/request to the higher ups? What did they say? If I am questioning everything that you say and do, how can I trust you to follow through with anything? If I cannot trust you, I cannot build a relationship with you. “Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow.” I have no respect for you, our relationship is deteriorating before it even begins. Most important I feel like I would get a “whats the point” attitude and become unengaged, and despondent. On the other hand, someone who is honest, and listens to what you have to say and relays that information onward and then reports back to you in a timely manner is trustworthy. You value my opinion and listen to what I have to say. The lines of communication are open.

Recognizing that my strength lies with direct care, I am applying some of the ideas that, as a result of the lesson readings, have sparked a keen interest in nurturing the leadership characteristic of honesty. Modelling the behaviour idealized in concept, I have taken a more supportive role within my team. I have also taken possession of the team and my role as a leader. Engaging with the more challenging of individuals, I am fortunate enough to have clinical evidence that the leader/follower model of care is an approach that leads to all facets of care.
Patients with dementia are constantly trying to teach us something about who they are trying to hang on to. Imagine knowing you are not right in the head and every now and then you are incontinent, and yet also know that there isn’t anything you can do about it. Then suddenly someone is tugging at your pants, and you want to know what the h-ll is going on, here… . To then continuing on with your job with as much grace and finesse as possible as you bare someone’s bottom. The leader/follower dynamic is perhaps a waltz, gliding from one followed step into the leading note; and, knowing you do impact another’s life, what is the lasting impression you want them to have of you?
If “credibility is the foundation of leadership” (Kouzes and Posner, 2007), then which of the character traits sustains credibility? The following are the characteristics people want in a leader: Honest, Forward-thinking, Competent, and Inspiring. If you are not competent your source credibility is compromised. You can do something about that. If what you do does not invoke inspiration, then the buy-in for forward-thinking is reduced. That leaves honesty as the remaining characteristic that stands the chance of invoking credibility. In order to gain the reputation of being an honest person, credible leaders practice what they preach (Kouzes and Posner, 2007).

I believe that honesty is the most important characteristic in a leader. The text explained “leadership is a relationship between a leader and a follower”. A relationship that is build on honesty is the key to many meaningful relationships. Followers are more likely to want to trust and create that relationship with a leader who is honest. The text also explains “ mutual respect between a leader and their follower will leave a legacy”. I think honesty is a great foundation in building respect. You will be more likely to respect someone who is honest and truthful to you opposed to someone who gate keeps information from you or lies and their actions do not meet their words. Also, if you have honesty and respect in your leader, you would be more likely to be inspired and motivated by the . However, after completing the text I did initially find myself stuck between honesty and credibility. The text explained that” credibility is the foundation of leadership” I think credibility and honesty are closely interconnected. The credibility section of the text had a large emphasis on leaders being trustworthy, expressing people must believe their leaders word can be trusted. The text also explains that trust is a synonym for honesty, so with that being said I understand the connection and still go with my first thought of honesty being most important.
An example of honesty in leadership was recently during the heat of cold and flu season. The words nobody wants to hear from your manager is “overbedding”. My manager is honest with us in the morning expressing there could be possibility for overbedding. Allowing us all the recognize the situation and be prepared for it. I think this shows honesty in leadership because she doesn’t have to give us the heads up, she could just call the moment she has the demand we have to over bed and dump it on us, but she doesn’t. she allows her team to process the information and prepare for it, due to this it increases staffs respect for our leader building that leader to follower relationship. She would update us throughout the day on the situation as she received more information. This allows us to have more trust in her word going forward. She always says she will be around for support and follows up on her word by frequent check ins during over bedding showing honesty and that her actions match her words.

I believe all 5 of the stated characteristic’s are essential to be a successful leader however I feel like being inspirational is most important. I see co-workers that appear unmotivated, experiencing burn-out or complaining about their job. Motivational leadership helps keep staff morale high which can lead to employee satisfaction and a more effective workplace. I am fortunate to work with many leaders in our nursing home that always wear a smile, are approachable and willing to sit down and brain storm solutions when issues arise.

One of the characteristic of leadership i feel is most important to me is Inspiring. a leader that has the ability to influence others through positive actions. basically someone that is leading by example. someone that recognized the effort of the team and don’t dismissed or unappreciated ones effort. someone that create an uplifting environment in the workplace to improve staff well being and most importantly patient care.

On page 34 of the reading it shares the Characteristics of Admired Leaders in Table 1.2 in which honesty has clearly shown to be picked as the most important over time with forward thinking next in line. I believe forward thinking plays a significant role in being an effective leader. It can be short term or long term. When you think about starting a shift one of the first things that typically takes place is shift report. This is the hand of from one leader to the next and identifies what the priorities will be for the shift coming on. The oncoming shift now takes the lead and prioritizes what has to be done for that shift considering things such as high risk, care requirements, documentation requirements, and following policy and procedure. The leader also has to consider quality care and what is require long term to provide the best outcomes for the client, their team, the organization and themselves. This requires forward thing thinking. Without the presence of forward thinking the team can quickly get into a routine that lacks direction, and this usually leads to a decline in motivation which in turn can easily lead to poor outcomes. For this reason I believe forward thinking is such an important characteristic for a leader to have.

I think the characteristic that stands out as important to me is competency. A leader to me is knowledgeable about what they are doing and competent in doing their job, so they can be trusted to lead in the right direction.
I have been in situations where the charge nurse of our unit has been a new nurse with little experience not having the competency to do their job in emergencies (my opinion). I think lacking competency or the perception of lacking competency makes it difficult for followers to trust their leader. Especially when they are someone that I am supposed to be able to go to for support in a lead position.

I believe, being inspirational to others is great quality, a leader can have. A true leader will have the shared goal for the team, which is founded by the leader’s trustworthiness and creditability accumulated working with their team members. Leader always has the positive influence on the processes and with the team members involved. Inspired by team members collectively always lead to productive outcome in the facility or the unit.

One of the most important characteristics of leadership is being forward-looking. Leaders guide others by setting clear directions and working hard toward the realization of their goals and vision. A forward-looking leader must also have the ability to be trusted and must be truthful and reliable. Having these attributes enables constituents to continue working with the leader to achieve the organization’s goals. Overall, leaders should be willing to do what they say they will do.

In my previous job, I had a supervisor who made sure that new hires were comfortable in their roles by ensuring they were properly trained and had all the necessary skills to perform their duties. She ensured that educators provided proper training and regularly held huddles with new hires. As a result, new employees felt very comfortable when they started working on the floor. Every new hire who joined the organization felt happy and motivated, and they looked forward to providing their best, safest, and most professional practice to support the organization’s growth.

Credibility is the most important characteristic, to me. Since being seen as credible also means being seen as being honest, trustworthy and consistent with their actions, credibly seems to encompass some other important characteristic’s. When a leader has credibility people are more willing to trust them and follow their guidance.

In my experience, I once worked with a supervisor who always followed through on what they promised. When they said they would help with a problem or support the team, they actually did it. Because of this, the team respected them and felt comfortable communicating openly.

This showed me that credibility is essential for leadership. When people trust their leader, they are more motivated to work together and achieve shared goals.

I believe the most vital characteristic of a leader is the ability to inspire. While competence is essential, a leader doesn’t necessarily need to have every answer or technical solution. Instead, their primary role is to lead with genuine passion and compassion. In a demanding field like healthcare, leadership requires a unique resilience to remain a source of motivation for others. Ultimately, when a leader inspires their team, they don’t just create followers they empower others to become leaders themselves

In every relationship in a workplace or in your personal life, honesty is the best policy. When it comes to leadership, the people who are in your team are looking for your honesty as a leader. It builds trust and holds accountability as we aren’t perfect and admitting faults proves to your team that you are capable of being honest and attempting to fix the mistakes either as a team or individual. Looking at table 1.2 in the reading, I am not surprised that honesty is number 1 compared to intelligence that didn’t make it to the top 4. Before getting a lead role at work, I told a supervisor I was worried about ‘not knowing everything’. They said you don’t need to know everything to lead, you learn as you go, be confident and as long as you can guide and build trust within your team, you’ll be an excellent leader.

Hi,
I believe that honesty is one of the most important characteristics of a good leader. In my experience I worked with a supervisor who had to cover a nursing shift ; while I was about to leave for home she indicated to me that she was not comfortable administering a g-tube feed because she had not done it in a long time. I stayed back and took the time to demonstrate to her what she needed to do. I cant imagine what a disaster that would have been if she was not open and honest. I do admire and respect her humble she was; this build confidence and trust in each other.

I believe the most important characteristic of a leader is honesty. When I approach someone in a leadership role or my manager, I want them to speak to me honestly and as a fellow human being. If I know a leader is honest, I can trust that the feedback they provide is genuine and that they will tell me the truth. Without honesty in leadership, staff may feel minimized and become less likely to bring forward concerns. Honesty is also important among followers. As a team leader myself, I want staff to feel comfortable coming to me and to know they can expect honest feedback in return. I have brought concerns forward to my own leader many times, and although she remains professional and somewhat guarded, as many leaders must, I do trust that she provides honest feedback and realistic responses.

Competence is a key component to leadership, I feel a leader should have an understanding of the technical details, and skills of their job to guide their team confidently when problems arise. Also knowing how to communicate expectations clearly, provide support where needed, and have the ability to adapt when new information or situations come up.
For example; during a staffing shortage. Staying calm, assessing the situation and draw on their knowledge/experience of the team’s strengths to reassign tasks and assignments. The ability to communicate a clear plan, provides reassurance, and makes sure everyone knows their role. In that moment, their competence keeps the team organized and ensures resident care is provided effectively

I think that the most important quality for a leader, mentioned in the reading, is to be inspiring.
In order to have people follow you you have to make them feel like you’re worth following.
They have to want and desire to listen to you and follow your plans and ideas.
Non-leaders can be honest, forward-looking, and competent. But what sets a leader apart from these others is that people are drawn towards following them due to them being inspiring. I don’t think you can be a good leader without inspiring others to some degree.

Personally, I have had experience with a very capable manager. They stayed true to their word and knew the work well, but they never struck me as a great leader because they didn’t inspire me to be better. Without inspiration, people are just going to follow the status quo unless they are able to inspire themselves to do more.

A leader who inspires is a great asset because it motivates the unbeliever. A leader can see capabilities/potential that a person may not see in themselves and that is very powerful. All it takes is that spark of inspiration, then that unbeliever becomes a believer within themselves. The believer would then give their testimony and inspire others.

A leader that inspired me was one of my ADOCs when they said I should take a wound course because they see a wound champion in me. I laughed, and I said, “Tell me what you see in me, that I don’t”. I was nervous, but signed up for the SWAN program-completed the program and now going to the Vancouver 2026 NSWOCC Conference for the graduation ceremony. I learned all it takes is a few moments to give someone positivity, to ignite a passion that they never thought was possible.

A quality that stuck out for me was inspiring. A good leader inspires everyone around which in turn boosts confidence and work moral. However, I believe that they also have to show by example.

During an outbreak/Covid, managers would stay in offices with doors closed, and just sent memos and emails of what we were missing. Staff would comment how we had absent leaders and how they didn’t care. One manager came out of the office one day and did vitals and offered support, that day she changed the moral on that floor.

I think inspiring is the vital quality of a leader. To act effectively and to be focused, all team members need to be inspired by their leader. When there are positive motivation, encouragement and reinforcement, team can reach to the goal easily and successfully.
I was greatly inspired my clinical supervisor. I was in my PSW placement and wasn’t sure if I would go for nursing. On the evaluation day, my clinical supervisor asked me what my career plan was. I informed her that I may go for nursing. (As English is my second language, I wasn’t sure/confident that I could do bedside care effectively). My supervisor held my hand and said, “promise me that you will go for nursing. I wish when I will be in LTC, you will be my nurse. I see a very passionate and caring person in you, who could be an awesome nurse and will advocate for the patients/residents. We need good nurses in Canada, who are empathetic and knows what they are doing. I believe you can do it”. My supervisor made me to believe in myself. I still remember her every positive and inspiring words that she used to encourage me to choose nursing as my profession.

I think it’s hard to pick just one characteristic as the most important. Like the chapter explains it a combination of the top four characteristics that create a sense of credibility that is most important for a leader to have. To create a relationship of trust between the leader and the follower(s). While I was reading this chapter I was reminded of some of my first clinical placement opportunities and the clinical instructors I had that really drove into us that building a therapeutic relationship with patients involved building this sense of credibility; having the patient believe that you would do the things you said you would do. Since then I have stived to do this with all my patients but also with my peers and others on the team.

One important leadership characteristic is honesty. Honesty builds trust and respect between a leader and their team.

For example, during my nursing practice, I noticed a concern in a resident’s care that needed attention. I communicated the situation truthfully and documented it accurately so that the healthcare team could address it appropriately. This experience showed me that honesty is important because it promotes transparency, accountability, and safe patient care.

I think the characteristic that stands out as important to me is competency. a leader to me needs to knowledgeable about what needs to be demonstrated and competent in order for staff to believe and trust in you.
in my role, at times, i am teaching and demonstrating to others and I need to be competent in my skills in order to teach others.

I think that “inspiring” is a very important characteristic to have as a leader. I specifically will always remember when I was doing my final consolidation in a LTC setting and my preceptor always said to me, “you help the PSW’s with anything, answer call bells when they are busy, help them with lifts and transfers, assist with care when you have time.” Her leadership with the entire team was so inspiring, that it made me want to be a strong team leader like her.

Being competent is an important aspect of being a leader. As an RPN working in an Organization that foster students through their clinical/consolidation placements, from both College and University levels, over the years, I have been buddied-up with numerous students and took them “under my wings”. I have to be competent and knowledgable of skills and among other things, for the nursing students to learn from me, and I am always hoping that by the end of their placements/consolidations, that they learned and retained something from what I taught them.

So, yes, being competent of what you do is an integral part of being a good leader. It shows that you have the ability, skills and knowledge to perform a task(s) efficiently and effectively.

One leadership characteristic I think is very important is being an inspiring leader. Working in healthcare, work can sometimes be stressful and busy, especially working in community. I remember working in a nursing home and being a charge nurse, it was always important to stay positive and be an inspiring leader to my team, this worked well because everyone in my team was happy in return and work was productive.

The five practices of exemplary leadership go hand in hand with each other, so it’s very difficult to pick apart. However i believe that inspiring a shared vision and enabling others to act has been demonstrated by my leaders in the past and it has inspired me to become a great leader. In the past i worked for a Plastic surgery/Aesthetic practice with multiple locations. During this time there was a change in CEO and regional managers, which lead to further changes down the line, including team leads, clinic managers and readjusting personnel in other areas. As a nurse case manager in the plastic area i was one of the few nurses who had previous experience in both Dermatology and Plastic Surgery, so i was sent to help train new nurses, staff and assist the surgeon with flow in the new clinic. It was a temporary change that came with a lot of complaints and issues as staffing was required to cover my position while i completed the other one. I was overwhelmed as i had to work in both areas until everything was sorted and proper staffing was hired for all areas. New management had started so the team was apprehensive with all the changes at once, plus new management and expectations. Luckily, the new manager that came on board for both my offices had previous experience with clearing up the chaos, so she was able to appease a lot of our concerns by sitting down with the team as a group and individually to discuss any concerns, ideas and her expectations. The new manager was able to calm everyone’s worries by acknowledging the current concerns and creating a plan of action in steps that would be achievable by assigning tasks to each individual based on their strengths. While at the same time challenging some of the ideas brought forward by employees to help with changes and review at a later date if expectations were met or if further changes were required based on the current model. The new manager achieved integration from the team by taking the time to listen and inspire all to grow the company, by creating and trialing the changes that were suggested in order to involve the team to be part of the creative and execution process. The team and myself were now eager to do our part at work as we all cohesively wanted to improve the workflow and work environment and the manager was allowing us to trial the ideas and find other solutions to bring forward. Therefore, the standard of practice was maintained and the work expectation was attainable with full team involvement.

When it comes to most important qualities in a leader, for me, honesty tops the list. Everything else is irrelevant if the leader/manager is dishonest or expresses half truths.
A few years ago, a co-worker and I approached a supervisor and requested a piece of equipment to be able to do our jobs more efficiently. We were told that her manager had refused said request. A few months later, it came up again when we were speaking with the manager who asked us to explain further as she didn’t have any knowledge of the request. Both myself and my co-worker’s opinion and trust of that supervisor was forever changed.

For me , I believe Honesty and inspiring need to be held by anyone in a leadership position, there are alot of people who can be “inspiring”, but if they are not backed by honesty about the situation than their inspiration becomes irrelevant. I need to trust the people I see as leaders, I always am willing to learn and in turn teach new concepts, procedures or ways of doing things to better our environment, but if I cannot trust where I am getting my information or who I am sharing information with then I would not feel comfortable in that role. I have had leaders over the years who I did not trust in their position, manager or charge nurse etc, it is clearly not effective and usually lasts only a short time as it is then a breach in the system that can create chaos in an environment that people’s lives and health depends on,

I believe all of those characteristics are important. However the one that stands out is competence. If you are competent, you are reliable in your skills. Staff know that you are knowledgeable and when they need help you are the go to person. You are someone they may aspire to be and look up to and encourage ongoing education. Some nurses competences cut corners for time management but still uphold standards and follow policies and procedures. Others do tasks exactly by the book and get the same outcome. I feel that I showed this with catheter insertion in my years of nursing. A lot of Rns and RPNs were having difficulties with this task. So they knew I was competent in my skills so they would approach me to do it. I would do the procedure correctly but also demonstrate to other staff my method and ask them to return demonstrate when it came up again. Competence needs to be shared in order to be successful. If you are the one holding it but not teaching others than it will diminish the characteristic of the leader.

I think being competent is important. If you don’t have the skills or the answer, then no one will seek you out. As I don’t routinely work on the units, I do come across some tasks that have changed/evolved over time and sought out my supervisor to assist me. I was told more than once, I don’t know either. But…the good leader who didn’t know, said” lets go together and figure it out together”.

It is Competence for me. Competence helps me get through situations I come across unexpectedly. Competence is a result of experience. ” Been there, experience it situation” leader is a bonus to have in a team. Competence is something that grows in a leader from negative/positive past experiences. A competent leader’s performance is hard to miss and very inspiring to observe and follow. That leader becomes an inspiration to the whole team, makes the followers willing to please and ready to perform whatever that leader is asking that needs to be done.

I feel like the top four characteristics are all very important but the characteristic I feel is the most important in a leader in competence. It is hard to be inspiring or forward-thinking if you are not competent, and honesty only helps if you are honest with your team about your skill level and lean on them for their strengths and expertise. Therefore, competence is the number one most important trait in a leader in my opinion.

I really believe a good leader is one that enables the group to find solutions to problems or situations that arise. Collaboration is essential in health care and especially when it the workloads are demanding. Enabling everyone to have a voice and recognizing that your followers are professional and know their roles more than I do, I trust that collaborating together we can come up with solutions. When job routines come from a top down approach, from managers who don’t leave their offices, it becomes very difficult to implement. However when there is input and collaboration with the staff involved, people feel valued and heard and are much more likely to get on board. This has been the case in my workplace and it is detrimental to morale and overall job fullfillment.

I agree with what it shows most people did…honestly is definitely the one characteristic that I feel is the most important on a leader. Since the most important relationship is between a leader and a follower then it must be an honest one.
If you can’t trust your leader, you will not be encouraged to follow them and if you lead dishonestly then whatever you are leading them toward is unjust.
I had one of the most brutally honest charge nurses during my time in the emergency department. Whether we were short staffed, or being mistreated by upper level management-she was honest and direct about it. But alternatively, if we were slacking on the job or complaining about things that didn’t influence the outcome of a situation, she was not shy to put you in your place. No one feared her, or disliked working for her…on the contrary, she was well liked, respected and revered as a strong representative. Staff were able to take complaints to her, knowing full well she would give an honest answer, even if it meant you didn’t like it.
I miss this charge nurse dearly. As do most of the staff she worked with.