MHA 542 Week 6 Authentic Leadership Development Plan Example

From 3.2 to 3.9: A Year of Authentic Leadership Development Measured, What the Evidence Says About Feedback and Coaching, and the Next Two Years

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

MHA/542: Leading with Authenticity in the Health Sector

Week 6 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The leader, the medical center, the survey scores and the plan are composites written for a model paper; research findings come from the sources cited.

Twelve months after her first anonymous feedback survey, the western Michigan medical center's chief operating officer sat with her executive coach to review the repeat results. Her direct reports now rated her balanced processing, meaning how well she weighed others' views before deciding, at 3.9 out of 5, up from 3.2 a year earlier. Her target had been 4.0. This paper reflects on the year and sets out her plan for the next two.

What Changed and What Did Not

Balanced processing rose by 0.7 points, the largest change on the survey. Relational transparency held at 4.1 and internalized moral perspective rose slightly to 4.4. Self-awareness rose from 3.8 to 4.1. Written comments noted that she now asked for views before sharing her own, but that under time pressure she sometimes slipped back into deciding first. Her self-ratings had moved closer to her team's, a sign of growing self-awareness. The four components come from a validated authentic leadership measure whose scores have been linked to followers' work attitudes and to rated performance, which is why she treats them as more than a personality profile (Walumbwa et al., 2008).

Why Change Was Modest

The modest gain is consistent with research. Pooling 24 studies that tracked leaders over time, one meta-analysis concluded that ratings from subordinates, colleagues and bosses typically move only a little after multisource feedback. The leaders who did improve tended to be those told clearly that change was needed, who accepted the message, thought change was possible, set goals and then practiced new skills (Smither et al., 2005). Feedback alone rarely changes a leader; feedback followed by goals and action sometimes does.

What Helped

Looking back, three things helped. Specific behavioral goals, such as asking for views before sharing hers, were easier to practice and notice than general intentions. Her accountability partner, the director of nursing, gave her real-time signals in meetings. And her coach helped her prepare for difficult conversations and reflect afterward.

The Case for Continuing Coaching

Evidence supports continuing. A meta-analysis of coaching in organizational settings found that coaching had significant positive effects on performance and skills, wellbeing, coping, work attitudes and goal-directed self-regulation (Theeboom et al., 2014). She decided to continue coaching for another year at a lower frequency.

Lesson From Transparency

The medication error taught her that openness with families and staff builds trust and learning, and that telling her own story of error gave others permission to report theirs. Near-miss reports rose after the forums, a signal she will keep watching.

Lesson From Ethics

The boarding crisis taught her that ethical leadership is visible reasoning. Writing a one-page rationale, inviting appeals and admitting the costs of her decision made a painful choice legitimate. Directors now use the same format.

Lesson From Culture

The heart program taught her that culture is changed by what leaders do repeatedly, such as night walk rounds and protecting people who speak up, and by guiding coalitions that include critics. It also taught patience: culture shifts over years.

Lesson From Collaboration

The crisis center taught her that collaboration with a rival requires giving up credit and sharing data first. The surgical team training taught her that routines, such as briefings, make collaboration a habit rather than an aspiration.

Tying It Together

Across these moments, one thread runs through her growth: the more she listened before deciding, the better her decisions and the stronger her relationships. Balanced processing was not only a survey score; it was the skill each hard moment required.

What She Got Wrong

The year included mistakes. Early in the heart program effort, she pushed the coalition to adopt a handoff checklist before nurses had tested it, and it failed within a week; the coalition rebuilt it with front-line input. During the crisis center negotiations, she briefly shared a draft budget with her own board before her partners had seen it, which the rival hospital's chief operating officer rightly criticized. Each mistake involved the old habit of moving ahead before listening, and each reminded her that the habit had not disappeared.

What Her Team Said

The written comments in the repeat survey added texture. One director wrote that she now asked the quiet people in the room first. Another wrote that she still became impatient when budgets were tight, and that the team could see it. A third wrote that her willingness to share her own feedback results had made the team more willing to seek feedback themselves.

Adaptive Leadership in Practice

Many of the year's challenges had no technical fix: persuading surgeons to accept briefings, rebuilding trust with a rival hospital and changing how a heart program talked about errors. Each required her to hold people in productive discomfort, give the work back to those closest to it and resist providing answers too quickly. These are the skills of adaptive leadership, and they depend on the same listening her survey measured.

Leadership Philosophy

She wrote a short philosophy statement: I lead by listening before I decide, telling the truth even when it is uncomfortable, showing my reasoning so others can challenge it, protecting people who raise problems and sharing credit with partners. I will measure whether I live this through feedback from those I lead.

Goal One: Hold the Gains Under Pressure

Her first goal is to keep balanced processing at 4.0 or above, especially during crises. She will use a simple rule: before any urgent decision, ask two people with different views for input, even briefly.

Goal Two: Develop Other Leaders

Her second goal is to help her eight directors develop the same skills. Each will complete the same feedback survey, set behavioral goals and meet with her quarterly to discuss progress. She will share her own results with them first.

Goal Three: Lead Adaptive Change

Her third goal is to lead the medical center's shift toward outpatient and community-based care, an adaptive challenge requiring many people to change how they work. She will form a guiding coalition, following the lessons from the heart program.

Support

Her coach, her accountability partner and a peer group of chief operating officers from three other Michigan hospitals will support her. She will also ask the chief executive for candid feedback twice a year.

Measures

She will repeat the feedback survey annually, track her directors' survey results as a measure of goal two and use milestones in the outpatient strategy for goal three.

Conclusion

A year of deliberate development moved the chief operating officer's weakest leadership component meaningfully, though not to target. Research on feedback and coaching explains both the modest gain and what will sustain it. Lessons from transparency, ethics, culture and collaboration converge on listening before deciding. A philosophy tied to behaviors, three goals and measured feedback make her development ongoing, and extend it to the leaders she develops.

References

Smither, J. W., London, M., & Reilly, R. R. (2005). Does performance improve following multisource feedback? A theoretical model, meta-analysis, and review of empirical findings. Personnel Psychology, 58(1), 33-66. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.514_1.x

Theeboom, T., Beersma, B., & van Vianen, A. E. M. (2014). Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.837499

Walumbwa, F. O., Avolio, B. J., Gardner, W. L., Wernsing, T. S., & Peterson, S. J. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management, 34(1), 89-126. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308913