Willow Ponds Nursing Home Case

1. This case is included in the chapter on charismatic and transformational leadership because Willow Pond is in dire need of major changes or it will not be in existence much longer. The need for a charismatic leader with the vision to see what Willow Pond can be, rather than what it currently is, is obvious. The problems Willow Ponds faces, i.e., poor facilities and services, high employee turnover, lack of respect and concern for customers, apathetic employee attitudes, and barely meeting state operating requirements, are going to require a leader who can inspire all stakeholders to embrace an future vision in which Willow Ponds is a leader in the industry (an ambitious goal, but she will need to set the bar very high to get results and implement a phased approach). The situation is further complicated by the fact the institution has been losing money for the past three years, indicating the need for creative and innovative solutions in the face of scarce resources to implement the vision of what Willow Pond can and should be. Charismatic leadership to inspire the hard work that is going to be required to turn around Willow Pond within the resource constraints is the unmistakably theme of the case.

2. Aspects of transformational leadership Heather should emphasize in order to rehabilitate Willow Pond are:

a. Optimism: Heather has to come in with a positive attitude that she can turn around a situation that currently cannot get much worse. She has to express her optimism to all the stakeholders in the form of her vision of what Willow Pond can be with some hard work, commitment, and loyalty given the uninspired, apathetic attitude currently amongst her staff. To do this she will have to ingrain her vision amongst the staff and motivate them to focus on the future while engaging all stakeholders, to include her staff, for their input to turn things around and get their buy-in. Heather will have to be open to the ideas of others and willing to accept their input where it supports her vision.

b. Emotional Intelligence: Heather is going to need the respect, confidence, and loyalty of the stakeholders to get things moving in the right direction. In order to do that she will need to be able to read their emotions and influence their will to make the commitment to put in the hard work and to conduct themselves in a professional manner. Their current disrespect and mistreatment of the customers cannot be tolerated.

c. Vision: Heather is going to have to communicate and sell her vision of what Willow Pond is going to be in the future to the stakeholders in a way that they can understand. She is going to have to impress upon them her intrinsic values, such as hard work, ethics, morals, caring, motivation, energy, etc., and get them to invest themselves into these same values. It will take commitment and loyalty to overcome the staff turnover and poor state of the facilities.

d. Professional Development of Staff: Heather is going to have to invest in development of the staff to ensure they understand their responsibilities and conduct themselves in a professional, ethical, and moral manner. The current conduct of disrespecting patients and treating them inhumanely cannot be tolerated.

e. Supportive Leadership. To sustain the hard work that is going to be required Heather has to be supportive of her staff. She can do this by pitching in when they need a helping hand, providing positive feedback when they do things right, and even being positive in the way she corrects them when things aren't going the way they should be. Building trust, loyalty, and commitment to reduce turnover and improve motivation is a must to achieve her vision.

f. Recognition. Heather's staff can be motivated and energized with the proper use of recognition and incentives to work hard and do the right things. It starts by recognizing their