DNP 709 Module 2 Leader Reflection Mind Map Example

Roots and Branches: A Mind Map of the Experiences Behind My Leadership

Student Name

Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Arizona State University

DNP 709: Individual and Innovation Leadership in Healthcare Practice

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Roots and Branches: A Mind Map of the Experiences Behind My Leadership

Center Node

The leader I am becoming: someone who makes it safe to speak up and then acts on what is said.

Branch 1: Family

Node: oldest daughter, translating for my parents at clinic visits. Belief formed: people who cannot speak the language of a system get worse care. Habit left: I explain decisions in plain words and check understanding.

Branch 2: Early Nursing

Node: new graduate on a busy surgical unit, afraid to call a surgeon at night. Belief formed: fear of looking incompetent silences nurses. Habit left: I thank people for questions, especially new staff.

Branch 3: A Night as Charge Nurse

Node: a patient deteriorated after a float nurse noticed something but did not raise it. Belief formed: a team is only as safe as its quietest member feels. Habit left: I ask each nurse at huddle, by name, whether anything is worrying them. Edmondson (1999) called this psychological safety: team members believe they can take interpersonal risks, such as admitting an error, without being punished, and teams that hold this belief learn more.

Branch 4: A Mentor

Node: a director who answered my complaint about staffing by asking what I would try. Belief formed: leaders grow people by giving problems back with support. Habit left: I offer small projects to nurses who complain well, knowing that staff copy what a leader does more than what she says (Brown et al., 2005).

Branch 5: Becoming a Manager

Node: first year as manager, trying to fix everything myself and burning out. Belief formed: control does not scale. Habit left: I am learning to delegate and to let some things be imperfect.

Cross-Links

Branches 1, 2 and 3 connect through one theme: voice. In each, someone with important information hesitated to speak, and harm or near harm followed. Branch 4 shows the opposite, a leader who invited my voice. Branch 5 is where I am still learning that inviting voice means accepting answers I would not have chosen.

What the Map Revealed

Drawing the map showed me that my leadership is organized around speaking up, more than around efficiency or clinical expertise, which is what I would have guessed. It also exposed a gap: few of my branches involve innovation or risk, the subjects of this course. The relational styles linked to better nursing outcomes depend on exactly this kind of attention to people (Cummings et al., 2018), but I will need to add a branch this term on trying new things.

Software and Format

I built the map in a free mind-mapping program, with the center in the middle, branches color coded by life stage, and cross-links drawn as dotted lines.

References

Brown, M. E., Treviño, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97(2), 117-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.03.002

Cummings, G. G., Tate, K., Lee, S., Wong, C. A., Paananen, T., Micaroni, S. P., & Chatterjee, G. E. (2018). Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 85, 19-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.04.016

Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999