Thank you for sharing your thoughts Mr. Rj. With that, I am more convinced that Nightingale truly exercised authentic leadership. Do have any experiences of authentic leadership in the past? Or have you experienced any situation that lacks authentic leadership?

Thank you for sharing your great insights and for agreeing with me, Ms.Calvelo. You are right that being a leader is good. Isn’t it that a fulfilment if you bring about change to your people? You help them become better individuals. Being a leader is also a benefit for you because it is a very good opportunity for growth as well. Many things are learned when you become a leader. You even strengthen yourselves.

According to Gupta and Kumar (2009), leadership development is a pocess. People learn new behaviors and traits during their life and it will develop their leadership traits. He also quoted that leaders are born because it is in his nature. For example, employees with leadership potential are usually identified as extroverts, with good communication and interpersonal skills.

Reference:
Gupta,A & Kumar, A.(2009). Leadership Development Process. Retrieved February 1,2009, from http://www.practical-management.com/Leadership-Development/Leadership-Development-Process.html

Thank you, Ms. Aimee.

I agree with you that authentic leadership cannot be the only solution to various problems in our society but I believe it will help a lot so solve these problems and give it a progress. We need authentic leaders to lead our country.

I agree with your thoughts of becoming an authentic leader. It is difficult but we should take the challenge, future nurse leaders. We can become one for as long as we believe and we are willing. With our journey in life, we can be developed.

Thank you for agreeing with me,Ms.Therese. If you will be an authentic leader, your followers will recognize your efforts because isn’t it that one of the concepts of authentic leadership is prioritizing your followers before yourself? For sure it will be evident on your decisions for the team.

You have mentioned about gaining your members' trust, you are right with that. Trust is something very important in an organization. According to Gardner, et.al. (2006), effective leadership creates trust. If you gain your team's trust, you can exercise authentic leadership.

I agree that Florence Nightingale exercised authentic leadership because she use her own knowledge and simple ways in caring for the victims of the war. Even though she belongs to a well-known family, she didn’t hesitate to help. For me that was a good characteristic of a leader. And as a result, she was able to come up with a theory that is still applicable in the current time.

In my past experience I think I didn’t possess the characteristics of an authentic leader. During my undergrad years, I’m not confident enough to be appointed as a leader. I just enjoyed being a follower. But as time passes by, when I accepted the responsibility, I realized that being a leader is a good thing to do. You can be able to bring about change to your followers.

By using my own standards of being a leader, I can say that I can see myself as a leader!. But maybe for others, I need some time to identify the real me and improve myself. I think being a leader is not an inborn characteristic but it is a gift that you need to enhance as you go along with life.

Authentic leadership may not be the only solution to various problems in our current diversified society, for the theory, as stated by Wong and Cumming, has flaws and weaknesses. On the other hand , the authors have likewise emphasized that it is the root construct of positive forms of leadership, therefore it has been developed as a leadership style at its best.

Florence nightingale, with her ground breaking practice particularly in relation to healing, leadership, and global action, embodied what an authentic leader should be.

It is easy to describe what an authentic leader is, but to be one is a great challenge. Something that you cannot become overnight. Through experiences we learn , we develop, we adjust and evolve.

To Ms. Santos:

Thank you for agreeing with me that Florence Nightingale exercised authentic leadership.
It is true that authentic leadership makes a healthy work environment. Do you believe that authentic leadership cannot be exercised if the workplace is unhealthy?Why?


To Mr.Sabangan:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you that personal authenticity breeds trust, commitment and loyalty and those were exercised by Florence Nightingale making her an authentic leader. You have mentioned that Nightingale’s works and deeds affected your behaviour as nurse. Could you mention what ways or instances that it has affected your leadership as a nurse?


To Ms.Juan:

Thank you for mentioning Florence Nightingale’s contributions and thank you for agreeing with me that she is indeed an authentic leader. In your experiences in the past, have you ever experienced exercising authentic leadership?


To Mr. Penuliar:

It is true that healing environments must also extent to nurses for patients. Thus, nurses should have healthy working environments in order to give the best care for patients. So you are saying that authentic leadership is a part of a healthy work environment? Please connect clearly the relationship of healthy environment and authentic leadership. Are you trying to say that you need the manifestations of a healthy environment to make an authentic leader?

I agree that Florence Nightingale exercised authentic leadership. She has the passion, commitment, and will to bring change and improvement in health care setting. The most important is that she’s noble in her profession. She definitely can be considered as every nurses leader and role model.
I could be a leader, but maybe not that authentic at all times. I possess some elements on how to be an authentic leader but maybe not on whether my groupmates recognize those in me and for them to inculcate those in their system also. Maybe, i will pay more attention on the congruency of my values and beliefs to my actions at any given moment so that my members have trust on me all the time.

“AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP, NOT JUST ANY LEADERSHIP, IS THE GLUE THAT HOLDS TOGETHER A HEALTHY WORK ENVIRONMENT.”


With this quote, Florence Nightingale indeed utilized the principles of authentic leadership even though this model was not established in the Victorian era. Through her concepts, she was able to establish the effective ways of rendering care to our patients and her advocacies are the cornerstones of all the discovered theories that made nursing a very special profession. Way the go FN!

Tet Soriano wrote:

1.Do you agree that Florence Nightingale exercised authentic leadership? Why?

Florence Nightingale spent her life in service to the sick and the wounded. Born into an affluent family, she rejected the usual path that upper class Victorian women took at that time and followed her own heart. Along the way, she reinvented the role of nurses in society and brought to light necessary changes toward the organization of a successful army hospital. Florence Nightingale led a life of significance, but not without enduring a war and sufferings of her own. Florence Nightingale deals nursing during her time as a dedication to serve wounded soldier without asking any compensation on her action hence signifying real authenticity, a personalauthenticity that breeds trust, commitment and loyalty in a work group. Making her a leader, a nursing pioneer, and mother of nursing, Florence Nightingale brought us an impact through her works and deeds that affects our behaviour as nurse making her as an authentic leader.

Florence Nightingale defied all logic when she decided to become a nurse. The milieu at that time was of women marrying and becoming obedient wives and of nursing as a career with poor reputation. Nightingale came from a wealthy family and was expected to marry and stay home. But she was independent, courageous, and fearless. She followed her calling against all odds, and stood alone in her convictions. But not for long, as she joined the volunteer nurses in the Crimean war.

Throughout her career, she never wavered in her advocacy of sanitary living conditions for the ill. She did all that she could do, and saw the limitations as opportunities to be of service. She helped in bringing to public knowledge the poor conditions of the wounded soldiers. She was primary mover of creating sanitary living conditions in hospitals. She establish and developed the nursing profession. She dedicated her life to serving others. In her dedication and commitment to nursing, she gathered a lot of supporters and followers. She was branded as the most famous Victorian second only to Queen Victoria. She is the founder of modern nursing and “the lady with the lamp”.

She truly exemplifies the attributes of authentic leadership.

In Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing, an environment conducive to healing is one in which patients have a sense of warmth and wellbeing. Nightingale’s original assumptions about healing environments appear consistent with the findings of environmental psychology that colors, sounds, and external environmental stimuli are variables that affect therapeutic outcomes. Beyond the requirement to provide a healing and aesthetic physical work environment for patients is the more contemporary assumption that the healing environments must also extend to the nurses who care for patients. Ideally, healthy work environments should have the necessary infrastructures to create “sanctuaries of healing” that are beneficial for all caregivers.

A healthy work environment must manifest:
• First, in healthy and effective work environments, employees are treated in a respectful and fair manner. Similarly, concern and value for each person as an individual are apparent.
• Second, healthy and effective work environments exhibit a strong sense of trust between management and employees. These organizations engage and empower employees in decision making, risk taking, and personal and professional growth.
• Third, healthy and effective work environments have an organizational culture that supports communication and collaboration, views individuals as assets, and reduces decision making not solely to considerations of money, but also to consideration for the impact of decisions on the organization’s mission and its members.
• Fourth, healthy and effective work environments have a “feeling tone” in which individuals are encouraged to feel physically and emotionally safe. A sense of family is commonly reported in healthy work environments, and cheer is evident within work teams and the organization as a whole.

These 4 manifestations is effective in establishing and sustaining healthy work environments that include skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition, and authentic leadership.

Thank you, Mr.Liwag for agreeing with me that Florence Nightingale is an authentic leader. You are right that leaders like Nightingale are influential people. But you yourself can become one as well. Our role is to be social innovators and social agents like what you have mentioned earlier. Are you taking the challenge to become one?

Thank you, Ms.Roidah for your insights and also for agreeing that Nightingale exercised authentic leadership. It is nice to hear that you already have experienced exercising authentic leadership in the past. Truly that self-awareness and balanced processing can help you become a better authentic leader. Earlier, you mentioned your weaknesses as a leader. Have you tough of ways to improve on it?








Thank you for your comments,Ms.Kaye. What are the attributes of an authentic leader that you have exercised?

I agree that Florence Nightingale exercised authentic leaders at the time of Crimean war because according to the Walker (2005) on her article entitled “The Great Leader Series No.2 –Florence Nightingale”, Florence led her nurses well, supporting them, but also being tough and sending home those who succumbed to the “evils” of alcohol. She was strong in her use of the rules, not allowing any wastage and requiring that her nurses’ uniforms were either returned or paid for when they were dismissed. Her determination to get the job done and her abilities to organize and support her nurses along with her refusal to be ignored brought great changes both during and after the war in the Crimea. Her ability to get the job done, in terrible circumstances, while facing strong opposition, shows the leadership values of hard work and following your vision.

In the past, I may have possessed the some of the characteristics of an authentic leader, because during my undergraduate years, even if I was assigned to be the leader of the groups, I make sure that everyone would be able to speak their own voice in the group. I ask their opinion on what to do and respected for what they have to say. I tell the group that even if I’m the leader I don’t know everything and that they could help me in some ways. And if there conflicts within the group, I make sure to resolve it before doing the task so that we are able to perform productively to in producing an outcome.

I may not still be a fully authentic leader, the area that I need to improve is the emotional management because if I’m pissed off, I am really pissed off and the whole project and activity is ruined because I expressed too much emotion within the group. I cannot function well if I mood is not good. Another area is being empathetic because whenever a person doesn’t do his/her part in the group I get irritated easily without even knowing the reason for doing so.