Leadership Practice in Health and Social Care Report Sample

For information and reference only – not to be submitted as your own work.

This page shows how a 4,000-word reflective report on leadership practice in health and social care can be built: a theory-led Part A, then a Part B that reflects on a real change at work and keeps pulling Part A back in. The extracts below are condensed, so they are shorter than the 2,000 words each part needs.

The planning side is covered in our guide to writing a leadership practice reflective report. If you want subject-specialist support with your own brief, see our leadership assignment help page.

What this sample covers

• Part A extract: transformational leadership critically analysed, compared with collective/compassionate and authentic leadership, plus historical versus contemporary approaches, motivation and ethical leadership.
• Part B extract: a Gibbs (1988) reflection on a fictional change, a change-model appraisal (Kotter v Lewin), emotional intelligence, conflict resolution and self-management.
• An illustrative 200–300-word draft paragraph of the kind you submit before the final report.

The organisation, people and events below are fictional. Every figure marked “illustrative” is invented to show how to present evidence; do not copy it as fact.

Part A extract: methods of leadership in contemporary care

Transformational leadership and its impact

Transformational leadership, developed from Burns (1978) and refined by Bass and Riggio (2006), asks leaders to raise followers’ sense of purpose through idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. In care settings this fits the work well: staff are often motivated by values, and a leader who connects daily tasks to the quality of someone’s life can sustain commitment when resources are tight.

The critical point is that the evidence on impact is stronger for follower attitudes than for service outcomes. West et al. (2015) argue that the quality of leadership in health care shapes culture, engagement and, indirectly, care quality, but they stress that no single style delivers results on its own. A transformational manager can also create dependency on one charismatic person, and the model says little about how power is shared across a multi-professional team. Those two limits matter in Part B.

Comparing transformational leadership with two other contemporary styles

No style wins outright. The stronger argument is situational: a leader needs transformational energy at the launch of a change and collective practice once the work is being done by many hands.

Historical and contemporary approaches

Trait and great-man ideas assumed leaders were born, and early behavioural theories sorted leaders into task or relationship types. Contemporary approaches treat leadership as relational and distributed, and as something that can be developed. The NHS Leadership Academy (2013) Healthcare Leadership Model reflects this shift: it describes nine dimensions of behaviour, such as inspiring shared purpose and engaging the team, that anyone can show, whatever their job title. The gain is inclusivity; the cost is that “leadership for everyone” can blur who is accountable when something goes wrong.

Motivation, team behaviour and ethical leadership

Motivation links the styles together. When staff feel their views are heard and their work has meaning, they are more likely to speak up about risks and support colleagues, which is where team performance is won or lost in care. Brown, Treviño and Harrison (2005) define ethical leadership as demonstrating normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and relationships, and promoting it through two-way communication and reinforcement. Their social-learning argument is useful here: followers copy what leaders visibly do, so a manager who is open about mistakes makes it safer for others to be open too.

Part B extract: reflecting on a change in practice

The change and the reflective model

The scenario is fictional. I was the deputy manager at Willowbrook Court, a small care home, and I led the move from paper handover sheets to an electronic handover and e-rostering system. I use Gibbs (1988) because its six stages (description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, action plan) let me separate what happened from what I felt and then connect it to theory.

Description and feelings

Night staff had relied on handwritten notes that were often incomplete by morning. Over a planned period I introduced a shared electronic handover record and trialled it on one floor first. I felt confident about the vision and anxious about the three senior carers who had told me, politely, that the old system worked.

Evaluation and analysis: leadership and change theory in use

My early approach was transformational. I explained how better handover supports safer care and asked staff to help design the template, which is individualised consideration and intellectual stimulation in Bass and Riggio’s (2006) terms. Where it fell short was exactly the weakness noted in Part A: I framed the change as my vision, so staff concerns were treated as resistance rather than information. Moving towards a collective style, with a shared working group, improved ownership.

For the change itself I mapped my work to Kotter (1996) and compared it with Lewin (1947).

I chose Kotter as my main model because it made me plan communication and early wins, and used Lewin’s force-field thinking to understand why night staff resisted. In practice I skipped the guiding coalition at first, which Kotter would predict as a risk, and it cost me three weeks (illustrative).

Emotional intelligence and self-management

Goleman (1998) groups emotional intelligence into self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill. Looking back, my self-awareness was uneven. I knew I was enthusiastic but not how quickly I interrupted. In one team meeting I answered a senior carer’s objection before she had finished. Her silence afterwards told me more than her words. My self-management improved when I began to pause, ask one question, and summarise what I had heard before replying.

Resolving the conflict

The disagreement between day and night teams over who owed the other accurate notes was a conflict I had to handle. Using the Thomas–Kilmann conflict modes as a lens, I started by avoiding and then accommodating, which left the problem alive. I moved to collaborating: a joint session agreed what each handover needed, and a shared sign-off rule. This reflects ethical leadership in the sense of Brown, Treviño and Harrison (2005), because I acknowledged my own part in the delay instead of attributing it to the team.

Conclusion and action plan

My leadership improved team effectiveness only after I shifted from a vision-led approach to a shared one. Key lessons: involve the people who do the work before launch; check my own interruptions; and review the system with the team rather than declaring it finished. My action plan is to run a monthly 15-minute review for the first quarter, ask for feedback on my communication, and read the Healthcare Leadership Model (NHS Leadership Academy, 2013) dimensions against my own behaviour. In a real report, you would also link the change to local or national policy relevant to your setting.

Model draft paragraph (illustrative)

Your module asks for a 200–300-word paragraph before the final report. This is an illustrative example of the level of detail expected (about 220 words). Write yours about your own change, in your own words.

For my reflective report I will explore the introduction of an electronic handover system on the residential unit where I work as deputy manager. The change replaced handwritten notes and required all shifts to use one shared record, with a trial on one floor before the whole home moved across. I was part of the planning group and led the staff briefings, so I can reflect on my own leadership as well as on decisions made by the registered manager. The change matters because incomplete handovers had led to missed information between shifts, and because it tested how well the team adapted to new technology. I will use Gibbs’ (1988) reflective cycle because its stages let me separate description from feeling and analysis, and finish with an action plan for my future practice. In Part B I will draw on transformational leadership (Bass and Riggio, 2006) from Part A, evaluate my own emotional intelligence using Goleman (1998), consider how I handled disagreement between the day and night teams, and appraise Kotter (1996) against Lewin (1947) as change models.

Further help

If you are working on your own report, our health and social care assignment help and reflection portfolio help pages explain what is available. You can also submit your assignment brief for a quote.

About the expert

Cheste Hughes completed a Master’s in Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her profile lists health care, public health, nursing research and nursing education among her areas, and work as a registered nurse.

References

• Bass, B.M. and Riggio, R.E. (2006) Transformational leadership. 2nd edn. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Brown, M.E., Treviño, L.K. and Harrison, D.A. (2005) ‘Ethical leadership: a social learning perspective for construct development and testing’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97(2), pp. 117–134.
• Burns, J.M. (1978) Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
• Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic.
• Goleman, D. (1998) ‘What makes a leader?’, Harvard Business Review, 76(6), pp. 93–102.
• Kotter, J.P. (1996) Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
• Lewin, K. (1947) ‘Frontiers in group dynamics: concept, method and reality in social science, social equilibria, and social change’, Human Relations, 1(1), pp. 5–41. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/001872674700100103.
• NHS Leadership Academy (2013) Healthcare leadership model: the nine dimensions of leadership behaviour. NHS Leadership Academy.
• West, M., Eckert, R., Steward, K. and Pasmore, B. (2015) Leadership and leadership development in health care: the evidence base. London: The King’s Fund.