8001 Leadership
Critical reflection
Word count: 3187
, Part A
One instance where I believe I demonstrated a high level of emotional intelligence was dealing with a
colleague during a training session that I was involved with. My occupation is a medical doctor and to
ensure that doctors are competent in dealing with emergency situations, simulation training is run
with the intent of imitating emergencies as accurately as possible. These simulations are stressful and
difficult, but doing the training ensures that when real emergencies occur all doctors can
appropriately manage their patient and communicate effectively with their team. This simulation
involved a paediatric case which are difficult as children present with different and more vague
symptoms than adults and are often accompanied by a hysterical parent. I could see that as the
simulation progressed the trainee doctor was becoming overwhelmed and moving out of the learning
zone and entering the panic zone (Senninger, 2015), and that the other trainee doctors were
becoming bored observing the simulation as it was not progressing. I understand from my own
experience that these simulations are quite stressful and that once you are in the panic zone it is very
difficult to retain and learn new information and easy to become paralysed with fear of saying
something unintelligent. I decided to intervene and help the trainee doctor, suggesting tests we could
run or other doctors we could call on to help with the simulation. I tried to slow down the simulation
so that the trainee doctor could catch her breath, think for a minute about what to do next and guide
her when needed. We both worked through the simulation and I believe that the trainee doctor
learned more with me helping her than if I let her flail with the simulation. I also believed that the
other doctors learned more as the simulation progressed in a timely manner. I believe I displayed
emotional intelligence as I was self-aware and knew this would be a difficult simulation for myself and
that I would appreciate some help. I also showed initiative in helping the trainee doctor before she
became too flustered as I could empathize with her situation.
My learnings from this situation was that I believe I allowed the trainee doctor to be involved in the
decision-making process but when I could see that she was becoming overwhelmed, I stepped-in and
offered some suggestions to alleviate her anxiety. I believe this facilitated learning for everyone as
the trainee doctor was still able to think independently and the simulation still moved along at a
reasonable pace. I think next time the trainee doctor would be more confident to run the simulation
completely independently. Upon reflecting on the situation, I believe that I could have allowed the
trainee doctor to be more independent with her decisions and involve the other trainee doctors so
that they could work as a team (which is critical to working in medicine). I believe I could have better
communicated to the other trainee doctors and we could have all collaborated and cooperated in this
training simulation. I could see that the trainee appreciated my intervention as she was more
comfortable running the simulation with my help and the other trainees fed back that having the
simulation move along allowed them to continue learning. With each individual trainee I would need
to modify my approach depending on their skill and confidence level as they may need guidance
during a simulation. I also believe that by helping this trainee I developed my own leadership skills
and emotional intelligence (Scott, 2013) through thinking before I acted with the troubled trainee and
listening to feedback from the other trainees. If another trainee was having trouble I would now be
better equipped to help.
The dark side of leadership which I most often encounter within myself comes in stressful situations
in the emergency department (ED). My job entails looking after multiple patients in the ED and this
can involve multiple nurses, radiologist, allied health and other doctors. I find that sometimes I can
have analysis paralysis (which resembles the dark side trait of being cautious and having a fear of
making mistakes (Kaiser, et al., 2015) and can find it difficult to make decisions and lead my team
appropriately.
Critical reflection
Word count: 3187
, Part A
One instance where I believe I demonstrated a high level of emotional intelligence was dealing with a
colleague during a training session that I was involved with. My occupation is a medical doctor and to
ensure that doctors are competent in dealing with emergency situations, simulation training is run
with the intent of imitating emergencies as accurately as possible. These simulations are stressful and
difficult, but doing the training ensures that when real emergencies occur all doctors can
appropriately manage their patient and communicate effectively with their team. This simulation
involved a paediatric case which are difficult as children present with different and more vague
symptoms than adults and are often accompanied by a hysterical parent. I could see that as the
simulation progressed the trainee doctor was becoming overwhelmed and moving out of the learning
zone and entering the panic zone (Senninger, 2015), and that the other trainee doctors were
becoming bored observing the simulation as it was not progressing. I understand from my own
experience that these simulations are quite stressful and that once you are in the panic zone it is very
difficult to retain and learn new information and easy to become paralysed with fear of saying
something unintelligent. I decided to intervene and help the trainee doctor, suggesting tests we could
run or other doctors we could call on to help with the simulation. I tried to slow down the simulation
so that the trainee doctor could catch her breath, think for a minute about what to do next and guide
her when needed. We both worked through the simulation and I believe that the trainee doctor
learned more with me helping her than if I let her flail with the simulation. I also believed that the
other doctors learned more as the simulation progressed in a timely manner. I believe I displayed
emotional intelligence as I was self-aware and knew this would be a difficult simulation for myself and
that I would appreciate some help. I also showed initiative in helping the trainee doctor before she
became too flustered as I could empathize with her situation.
My learnings from this situation was that I believe I allowed the trainee doctor to be involved in the
decision-making process but when I could see that she was becoming overwhelmed, I stepped-in and
offered some suggestions to alleviate her anxiety. I believe this facilitated learning for everyone as
the trainee doctor was still able to think independently and the simulation still moved along at a
reasonable pace. I think next time the trainee doctor would be more confident to run the simulation
completely independently. Upon reflecting on the situation, I believe that I could have allowed the
trainee doctor to be more independent with her decisions and involve the other trainee doctors so
that they could work as a team (which is critical to working in medicine). I believe I could have better
communicated to the other trainee doctors and we could have all collaborated and cooperated in this
training simulation. I could see that the trainee appreciated my intervention as she was more
comfortable running the simulation with my help and the other trainees fed back that having the
simulation move along allowed them to continue learning. With each individual trainee I would need
to modify my approach depending on their skill and confidence level as they may need guidance
during a simulation. I also believe that by helping this trainee I developed my own leadership skills
and emotional intelligence (Scott, 2013) through thinking before I acted with the troubled trainee and
listening to feedback from the other trainees. If another trainee was having trouble I would now be
better equipped to help.
The dark side of leadership which I most often encounter within myself comes in stressful situations
in the emergency department (ED). My job entails looking after multiple patients in the ED and this
can involve multiple nurses, radiologist, allied health and other doctors. I find that sometimes I can
have analysis paralysis (which resembles the dark side trait of being cautious and having a fear of
making mistakes (Kaiser, et al., 2015) and can find it difficult to make decisions and lead my team
appropriately.
