In taking part in the Seven Habits Profile, it is easy to see what parts take precedence and which go on the back burner. While knowing what the end goal is, there is not motivation and there is evident procrastination. These are shown in sections 4 and 5. For example, I want to advance in my career within the hospital setting but have been slow in completing tasks for my higher level degrees. Knowing what my long term goals are is one of the qualities I have that make me an authentic leader. Also, my desire to work with others is high. In taking the Seven Habits Profile, I learned I am fairly even across the board with a few outliers. Having everything so across the board shows that I have the same care for my own thoughts as I do others. This is most evident in section 6. This section was the second highest scoring section for me, 15/18. This section is about interactions with other and valuing them as well as yourself. The high score shows that fairness for all in a given situation is near and dear to me. That is a good quality of an authentic leader. As previously mentioned, I feel that my leadership style is the authentic leadership style. Daft (2014) states this leadership style “refers to individuals who know and understand themselves, who espouse and act consistent with higher-order ethical values and who empower and inspire others with their openness and authenticity.” Meaning that authentic leaders stay true to themselves regardless of what others are doing or what thoughts are on what they are doing. As shown in the Seven Habits Profile I think of how situations benefit a group, while still knowing what is important to me. There are strengths to having an authentic leadership style. Authentic leaders focus on what the long term goal is regarding the situations they are involved in (Kruse. 2013). This is demonstrated in my current position as a case manager in a hospital. Case Managers start planning discharge on admission. Ordering what will be needed when discharge comes that is the mission and the end goal. I started this behavior of planning long term as a teenager. Knowing I wanted to go into nursing and help people, I graduated early and started college at 17. I graduate college and get my first registered nursing job at 23 years old. This is also being genuine to myself. I always had the dream and followed it. As an authentic leader I also I utilize transparency and fairness (Rouse, 2015). Which is leading without influences from the outside. Meaning still listening to the points of view of others but continue to listen to their own heart. This is to see everything as it is and thoroughly think through the plan of action for the situation. To do this, factoring feelings of all parties involved. I demonstrate this with how many of my coworkers have a negative opinion toward one assistant and keeping my own opinion of her, not letting them influence my thoughts. While others are quick to point out her shortcomings and try to get her in trouble, I give her a chance and always follow up with her to make sure all is going ok when we work together. Also being an inspiration to people is a key to authentic leadership. While not attempting to I helped others in college decide on a nursing career, and when I changed to my current position, others decided to search out other nursing opportunities. Also, I have a friend with a little sister that wrote articles for the local newspaper and recently did a story covering my journey through college as a story on getting higher education. There can also be weaknesses in authentic leadership. A big problem can occur when there needs to be a change of some kind and there is a resistance to the change. This can “block” the group as a whole to moving forward to bigger and better things (Gruenfeld and Zander, 2011). I can admit that I can be somewhat stubborn at times. I am a creature of habit. Eastman (2014) states a downfall of authentic leadership is keeping the big picture in context of the individual situation. I have been known to be overly eager. For example, although planning ahead is my job, I have ordered equipment before interviewing the patient and family, only to find out they already had that particular piece of equipment. A weakness I have that is large is building resilience (Metcalf, 2014). I can be a little sensitive at times when there is criticism. I must learn to focus on my own strengths and not take experiences so personally, but rather use it as learning tool for the future. There is always room to improve yourself. First step is to build self-awareness (Metcalf, 2014). This is to really see who you are within in regard to leadership style. Then learn about the people you interact with and their leadership style. When learning what all involved different leadership styles are, it is easier to make an environment where all party’s styles are balanced and comfortable with interacting with one another. Another change is to respond to situations a little quicker while still have myself and genuinely in the equation. This is to “ learn to expand your repertoire of skills and behaviors.” This takes listening skills as wells as understanding, even when disagreeing with the person speaking to you. Lastly, learning to utilize my emotional intelligence will help with success. Learning to understand others and being flexible to get to their level to get the job done. I must learn to practice patience and not get irritated when someone is not doing things the same way I would.
S.M.A.R.T. goals are a tool to goal setting (Zahorsky, 2014). These goals it needs to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time based. As mentioned before, an improvement of mine that needs work is self- awareness, the goal is to be more self-aware in the work environment. This seems to be a problem for many of my co-workers and needs to change in order to help as we are intended to. To do this it will be important to have meeting within the department to learn more about one another. The self-awareness of all in the department can be determined by taking a questionnaire in regards to how everyone feels about the job. Then learning about the leadership types of the others in the department, such as have each employee take the Seven Habits Profile. Then have everyone meet twice a week for a month and learn about one another, so as to know where they fit in and how to work with each other regardless of differences in opinion of how to get to the end result. Then at the end of the month retake the questionnaire and see if there is an improvement on the outlook for the department. After spending the month working on this as a department, it should help to have a more unified front and make it more efficient for the hospital and patients.
The next S.M.A.R.T. goal for me is personal to my practice. That is to update and implement better strategies for daily use with my assigned patients. This will be helpful in order to make the patients transition from hospital to home smoother. This should be transformed within 2-4 weeks. This can be accomplished by using lists each morning and have smaller time frames throughout the day, as in deadline times to have each of the items on the list performed by. Those items include the daily audit, interviewing new patients and conducting utilization reviews. Another way to help make the transition smoother is to delegate more to the assistants, such as the referrals for home health and creating follow-up doctor appointments. This will allow for more time to spend speaking to patients and completing necessary reviews. These will be very helpful in my position, as I am learning it further.

References
Daft, Richard (2014). Management, 11th Edition. Retrieved from http://ng.cengage.com/static/nb/ui/index.html?nbId=37374&nbNodeId=6298189&deploymentId=9069221310208537579042035&eISBN=9781285511597#!&parentId=6298317
Eastman, Phil (2014). The Bottom Line of Authentic Leadership: Character, Context and competence. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.wgu.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=56bf9566-fe04-4f75-b66c-d9d009c82c37%40sessionmgr111&vid=7&hid=120
Gruenfeld, D., & Zander, L. (February 3, 2011). Authentic Leadership Can Be Bad Leadersip. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2011/02/authentic-leadership-can-be-ba
Kruse, Kevin (May 12, 2013). What Is Authentic Leadership? Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/05/12/what-is-authentic-leadership/#774a405c2ddd
Rouse, M. (2015). Authentic Leadership. Retrieved from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/authentic-leadership
Zahorsky, Darrell (December 20, 2014). The 5 Steps to Setting SMART business Goals. Retrieved from http://sbinformation.about.com/od/businessmanagemen1/a/businessgoals.htm