NURS FPX 5004 Assessment 3 Leadership and Group Collaboration

May, 2026

Waillim

Lakeland Clinic 

Lakeland Medical Clinic 

Dear……, 

         Proficient leadership in a context of health care, particularly engaging with the work that involves the management of complex issues of cultivating cultural competence, building trust with the community, requires compassion, a forward-looking mindset, and partnership. Some of the most preferred leadership traits that would be appropriate for Lakeland Clinic’s diversity program are cultural humility, active listening, emotional intelligence, and the ability to facilitate inclusive dialogue. All these characteristics help a leader to identify the systemic deficits in care delivery and encourage personnel to take responsibility in considering their assumptions and biases. After all, an efficient leader in these circumstances must be able to adapt themselves to the community, turn community feedback into an organizational change, and should be continuously inquisitive about cultural norms of the community being included, especially in Haiti in our neighborhood. 

In addition, that leader would need to have transformational qualities in that he/she would drive such a vision in the employees to treat individuals fairly and with caring, and demonstrate such behaviors in the treatment of individuals. According to Bhardwaj. Transformational leadership is particularly effective in achieving cultural changes in health care environments: transformational leaders enable the values of the team to correspond with the organizational missions (2022). A leader can create a space where people feel appreciated and loved, and rooted in psychological safety, within the team, and where open and candid conversations are experienced regarding diversity issues. This is not only important to the morale of the staff but is also important in regaining the trust of the community and improving health outcomes. 

         If I had to do an interview and name my ideal health care leader who is doing this work, I’d choose Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who uncovered the Flint water mess. Dr. Hanna-Attisha consistently advocated for marginalized communities; used data to inspire systems to change; and was culturally responsive and community-oriented in her approach to her work. Her leadership was both humanistic and evidence-based and combined the insights of the evidence with those of the grassroots. Similar to her, I value listening to the voices of the community and value data not only to diagnose problems but also to jointly develop solutions with those most impacted. 

Empathic communication is one of the major qualities that I have in common with Dr. Hanna-Attisha. During a prior quality improvement program at our facility, I led focus groups of non-English-speaking patients to learn about impediments to care. Likewise, even as Dr. Hanna-Attisha made use of community health workers and interpreters to ensure that the concerns of local residents of Flint were real, I worked with interpreters and community health workers to ensure patient stories were directly incorporated into the design of the intervention. I, however, don’t have the institutional support or a national platform, so I have to rely more and more on internalizing, which is quite different from coalition building and is just less effective for me to have to do. This has led me to see leadership as an alternative to authority, which I can use to build trust through being consistent, transparent, and collaborative rather than authoritative. 

 As the responsible leader of this diversity project, my leadership style would be a transformational leadership style attributed by Pearson (2020) as able to motivate the followers to work beyond their mean capabilities by aligning personal values and the organizational values. I would be playing the part of embodying a powerful vision: A clinic where every patient is taken care of, treated with humility, respect, and welcomed the moment the patient walks across her threshold, and would be giving other members of staff a part to play in achieving that vision. To monitor cultural competence, I would create routines, reflective check-ins, promote the idea of shared responsibility of milestones, and reward efforts that promote cultural competence. This aligns with the current good practice in healthcare leadership, with the link between transformational leadership and higher employee engagement and satisfaction among patients. 

Furthermore, I would adopt the principles of servant leadership as I would prioritize the needs of the team and its members of society. The proactive removal of conditions which hamper effective teams (including training lacking or role ambiguity) and the availability of tools for staff to positively ensure they are capable of developing cultural humility. Roberts. Building trust through servant leadership begins with leading second listening and first listening (2020). That, in this project, would translate to holding listening sessions with the leaders of the Haitian communities before writing any recommendations so that our solutions would be informed by the communities instead of being foisted on them by the institutions. 

I’d also set up communication rules and decision-making that is inclusive to ensure the appropriate exchange with an interdisciplinary committee, comprising clinicians, interpreters, HR, community liaison, and administrators. All of this – the file/video sharing, update asynch events, and the meeting documentation – would be conducted on a shared digital platform (e.g., Microsoft Teams or Slack). Through the regular virtual and in-person meetings, the members of the team would build a meeting agenda together, and the facilitation role would be rotating so as to foster collaborative leadership. 

Responsibility will be assured by utilizing a RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) and progress monitoring regularly on a bi-weekly basis based on SMART goals. I would do this to encourage input, such as nominal group process and plus-delta feedback, so everyone knows they are heard, such as the quieter or junior staff members. Moreover, I would incorporate the cultural competency training into the team norms from the first day, which would be based on such frameworks as the National CLAS Standards, which highlight the significance of equitable and culturally competent care. These practices make us a collaborative ecosystem that reflects the culture of inclusivity we are trying to cultivate throughout the clinic by integrating them as part of our work process.

Sincerely, 

Carrie CG