How to Write the BSN335 Leadership Styles Assignment Without Leaving Points on the Table
Four questions, 1–2 pages, APA citations, and the Giddens eBook as your primary source. This guide breaks down all seven leadership styles from Concepts for Nursing Practice, explains exactly what the quiz reflection question is asking, and shows you how to handle the leader vs. manager comparison the right way.
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Get Expert Help →What BSN335 Is Actually Testing With This Assignment
This assignment isn’t just a content recall exercise. Yes, you need to know the seven styles from Giddens. But questions two through four ask you to connect that knowledge to yourself and to real clinical experiences. The quiz reflection question is asking whether you can think critically about what a standardized tool says about you — not just accept its output. The manager question is asking whether you can analyze leadership behavior using the frameworks you’ve learned, not just describe a person you liked.
The submission is 1–2 pages. That’s tight. A lot of students lose points not because they lack the knowledge but because they misallocate the space — spending three-quarters of the paper listing the seven styles and leaving the reflection questions underdeveloped. The styles overview is worth knowing cold. The reflection questions are where the points live.
APA Citations Are Required — Both In-Text and a Reference Page
The assignment explicitly requires APA 7th edition format with in-text citations and a reference page. The reference page is separate from your 1–2 page body — it doesn’t count toward the page limit. But you must have it. Forgetting to cite Giddens when you discuss the seven styles, or submitting without a reference page entirely, are two of the most common mechanical errors on this assignment.
Your primary source is Concepts for Nursing Practice by Giddens, page 432. That’s where the leadership styles content lives. The assignment says “additional resources if needed” — so you can supplement with peer-reviewed nursing leadership literature, but Giddens is the anchor. Every description of a leadership style should trace back to that text.
All Seven Leadership Styles from Giddens — Key Characteristics of Each
Giddens (page 432) presents seven distinct leadership styles. Each has a different set of core behaviors, a different relationship with authority and decision-making, and a different impact on nursing teams. Here’s how to understand each one — and what makes it distinct from the others.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leaders focus on inspiring people to move beyond their immediate self-interest toward a shared vision or goal. The key mechanism isn’t authority — it’s inspiration. A transformational nurse manager doesn’t just tell staff what to do; she articulates why the unit’s work matters and connects individual contributions to larger patient care outcomes. This style is widely studied in nursing literature because it correlates strongly with nurse satisfaction, reduced burnout, and lower turnover rates.
In clinical contexts, you see transformational leadership when a charge nurse advocates for evidence-based practice changes, mentors new nurses with enthusiasm, or rallies a fatigued team by reconnecting them to patient-centered values. The leader’s own energy and commitment are the mechanism of influence.
Transactional Leadership
Transactional leadership operates on exchange. The leader offers something — a reward, recognition, job security — in return for compliance or performance. It’s a more traditional, management-flavored approach that relies on established rules, policies, and reward structures to maintain order and achieve targets.
In nursing, transactional leadership shows up as performance reviews tied to merit raises, recognition programs for compliance with protocols, or disciplinary action for repeated policy violations. It’s not inherently negative — clear expectations and consistent follow-through are essential in high-stakes environments. But on its own, it doesn’t inspire staff or drive innovation. Giddens contrasts it directly with transformational leadership to illustrate this limitation.
Democratic Leadership
Democratic leaders — also called participative leaders — actively seek input from team members before making decisions. The leader retains final authority, but that authority is exercised after hearing from the people affected. The result is typically higher staff buy-in and morale, because people feel their perspectives are genuinely considered.
In nursing, this looks like a nurse manager who holds open staff meetings to discuss scheduling changes before implementing them, or who asks bedside nurses for feedback on a new charting protocol. The risk is time — democratic processes take longer. In a code situation, nobody is taking a vote. But for decisions that allow deliberation, democratic leadership tends to produce better results and stronger team cohesion.
Autocratic (Authoritarian) Leadership
Autocratic leaders make decisions independently, without seeking staff input, and expect compliance. Authority is centralized in the leader. This style is often discussed negatively in leadership literature, and for good reason — sustained autocratic leadership damages morale, suppresses staff voice, and increases turnover. But that’s not the complete picture.
In genuinely acute situations — a rapid deterioration, a code, a mass casualty event — clear, decisive, top-down direction is exactly what the team needs. The charge nurse who takes immediate command in a crisis is exhibiting autocratic behavior, and it’s appropriate. The problem arises when autocratic behavior is the default mode rather than the emergency mode. Giddens discusses this context-dependence explicitly.
Laissez-Faire Leadership
Laissez-faire leadership is characterized by minimal leader involvement in day-to-day decisions. Staff are given wide autonomy to determine their own approach to work. When used with highly experienced, self-directed teams, it can produce excellent outcomes — expert professionals often perform best when not micromanaged. The problem is that it relies entirely on the team’s competence and motivation.
In a unit of experienced nurses who are self-regulating and collegial, a laissez-faire approach can feel like respect and trust. In a unit with newer nurses who need direction and feedback, it’s abdication. Giddens is clear that this style has a very narrow appropriate application in most healthcare settings.
Servant Leadership
Servant leaders invert the traditional authority pyramid. Their primary question isn’t “how do I direct my team?” but “what does my team need to do their best work, and how do I provide it?” The servant leader sees their role as support infrastructure — removing barriers, advocating upward for staff needs, providing resources, and protecting the team from institutional dysfunction.
This style resonates strongly with nursing’s foundational values of care and advocacy. A nurse manager who stays late to help with a short-staffed shift, who goes to administration to advocate for better equipment, or who regularly asks staff “what’s getting in your way?” is exhibiting servant leadership. Giddens connects this style to Magnet hospital culture and shared governance models.
Situational Leadership
Situational leadership — developed by Hersey and Blanchard — argues that no single leadership style is effective in all situations. The effective leader diagnoses what the team needs in a specific situation and adjusts their style accordingly. High-directive behavior with a new graduate nurse, high-autonomy behavior with a senior charge nurse, collaborative behavior during a policy revision — the same leader uses different approaches at different times.
This is arguably the most practical framework in the Giddens chapter because it acknowledges what experienced nurses already know: the right approach depends on who you’re working with and what’s happening. A skilled nurse leader isn’t locked into one style. They read the situation, assess the team member’s readiness and competence, and shift their behavior to match what’s needed.
Don’t Just List — Characterize
The question asks you to “discuss key characteristics of each.” That means more than a one-sentence definition. For each style, identify the core decision-making approach, how the leader relates to staff, and when it is or isn’t effective in nursing. Even in a tight page limit, each style needs a distinct, accurate description — not just a label.
The Leadership Quiz Reflection — What It’s Actually Asking
The quiz the assignment links to is a self-assessment tool. Based on your responses, it assigns you a leadership style — democratic, transformational, servant, or another from the seven. The question has three layers: what result did you get, do you agree with it, and why or why not.
A lot of students treat this like a report: “I got democratic leader. I agree because I like to hear everyone’s opinion.” That’s the minimum. It’s not wrong, but it doesn’t show critical thinking. The question is asking you to engage with the assessment itself — to evaluate whether this tool captured something true about you or missed something important.
How to Structure a Strong Quiz Reflection
Think of it in four moves. Each can be a sentence or two in a tight paper.
State Your Result
Name the style the quiz assigned you. Be specific — not just “I got a collaborative style” but the actual label from the quiz output (democratic, transformational, etc.).
Connect It to Giddens
Briefly describe the characteristics of that style as Giddens defines it. This shows you’re not just reporting a quiz result — you’re grounding it in the course content.
Agree or Disagree — with Specifics
Do you see yourself in that description? Give a concrete example from your actual experience — a time you sought input, or led by example, or adapted your approach. Concrete examples are what differentiate reflection from summary.
Nuance or Limitation
Even if you agree with the result, acknowledge its limits. Self-report assessments have well-known biases — we tend to describe how we’d like to behave, not how we actually behave under stress. That’s worth one sentence of honest acknowledgment.
If you got “democratic leader” — which the UMass Global quiz apparently returns fairly commonly — you can engage with what that really means in a clinical context. Democratic leadership sounds appealing, but it requires time and group consensus, which isn’t always available in acute care. Do you use it selectively? Do you shift styles when the situation demands it? That kind of reflection signals genuine critical thinking about leadership, not just quiz-acceptance.
The point of a leadership quiz isn’t to tell you who you are. It’s to give you a starting point for reflection. Whether you agree or disagree matters less than whether you can articulate why — with specific examples from your actual practice.
— The analytical frame your professor is looking forYou Can Disagree With the Quiz Result — That’s a Valid Answer
Students sometimes assume they should agree with the quiz to avoid seeming difficult. Not so. If the quiz says you’re a laissez-faire leader and you actually practice close mentorship with new nurses, say so. Explain the gap between the quiz result and your self-understanding with evidence from your experience. Disagreement backed by specific clinical examples demonstrates exactly the critical thinking this question rewards.
Reflecting on a Favorite Manager or Supervisor — How to Frame It
This question asks you to describe a real person: a manager or supervisor you’ve worked with, what their leadership approach was, and what made them effective. It’s a narrative question, but it’s not just storytelling — it’s applied analysis. The person you describe needs to be evaluated through the lens of the leadership styles you just learned.
The structure that works best: name the setting briefly (no need for real names — “a charge nurse on a medical-surgical unit” is enough), describe what this person did — specific behaviors, not just adjectives — and then name the leadership style or styles you see in what they did. The analytical move is connecting the behavior to the framework.
What “Effective Leader” Actually Means Here
Don’t just say your manager was “supportive” or “organized.” Those are adjectives. The question asks what actions they took that made them effective. Think about observable behaviors:
| Behavior | Leadership Style It Reflects | Why It’s Effective |
|---|---|---|
| Held weekly check-ins and genuinely acted on feedback | Democratic / Servant | Staff felt heard; changes actually happened based on input |
| Articulated a clear vision for the unit’s culture and patient care goals | Transformational | Team understood the “why” behind daily work, not just the “what” |
| Stepped in to help during a code without being asked | Servant / Situational | Demonstrated commitment to the team and patient outcomes over status |
| Gave clear, directive instructions during high-acuity events | Situational (autocratic in context) | Reduced ambiguity when fast action was required |
| Recognized individual contributions publicly and consistently | Transactional (positive reinforcement) | Reinforced desired behaviors and boosted morale |
| Mentored staff toward professional development goals | Transformational / Servant | Staff grew professionally; retention improved |
Pick two or three behaviors your actual manager showed, describe them specifically, and connect them to the leadership style they reflect. That’s a complete answer to this question — even in the space constraint of a 1–2 page paper.
Most Effective Leaders Use More Than One Style
If your analysis leads you to say “my favorite manager used situational leadership” — that’s actually a strong answer, because it shows you understand that real leaders adapt. You can describe how she was democratic in scheduling decisions and directive during emergencies, and that situational flexibility was exactly what made her effective. That’s more sophisticated than assigning a single label.
Leader vs. Manager — What the Difference Actually Is, and How to Illustrate It
This question is asking two things: the conceptual difference between a leader and a manager, and a real example you’ve witnessed. Both matter. A purely theoretical answer without clinical grounding won’t fully address the prompt. An anecdote without any conceptual framing isn’t enough either.
The distinction is well-established in management literature and in Giddens. Here’s the core of it:
- Focuses on people and vision
- Influences through relationships and trust
- Asks “what should we be doing?”
- Challenges the status quo
- Drives culture and values
- Informal authority possible — not tied to a title
- Motivates through inspiration
- Long-term, strategic orientation
- Focuses on systems and processes
- Directs through formal authority
- Asks “how do we do this correctly?”
- Maintains existing structures
- Drives compliance and consistency
- Formal title and designated authority
- Motivates through reward/consequence
- Short-term, operational orientation
The critical nuance: these are not mutually exclusive, and the best nurse managers are both. Someone can hold the title of manager and be a genuine leader. Someone without any formal title can lead a unit through a difficult transition through sheer credibility and influence. The assignment is asking you to recognize the difference — not to say one is always better than the other.
How to Frame Your Personal Example
The question asks about differences you have witnessed “in a past or current job.” This doesn’t require a dramatic contrast between a heroic leader and a terrible manager. It’s asking you to show that you understand the difference by pointing to concrete examples from your experience. A few scenarios that illustrate it clearly:
Example Contrast Scenario A
A nurse manager ensured staffing ratios were met, submitted incident reports on time, and enforced protocol compliance — essential functions. A staff nurse with no formal title was the person everyone went to for guidance, who initiated conversations about unsafe practices and pushed for change, and who mentored every new hire. Same unit. Two different roles: one managed, one led.
Example Contrast Scenario B
A charge nurse managed the daily assignment board, handled call-outs, and ensured protocol compliance (manager functions). That same charge nurse also advocated for a traumatized family, rallied the night team through a difficult shift by acknowledging their effort, and mentored a struggling colleague without being asked. One person, demonstrating both leadership and management behaviors in the same shift.
Either type of scenario works. The key is being specific about what you observed and naming which behaviors were management functions and which were leadership behaviors — using the conceptual framework from Giddens to make that distinction clear.
How to Structure 1–2 Pages Across Four Questions
One to two pages is a real constraint. Most students underestimate how tight it is for four substantive questions. The right move is to plan your word allocation before you start writing — otherwise you’ll spend 60% of the paper on the styles overview and leave the personal reflection questions scrambling for space at the end.
| Question | Recommended Space | What to Include |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 — Seven Leadership Styles | ~350–400 words (roughly half a page) | Each style gets 2–3 sentences: the defining approach, the key behavior, and the clinical relevance. No need for a full paragraph each — tight, precise descriptions show mastery better than padded prose. |
| Q2 — Quiz Reflection | ~150–200 words | State your result, connect it to Giddens’ definition, give one specific example from your experience to support or challenge the result, acknowledge one limitation of self-report tools. |
| Q3 — Favorite Manager | ~150–200 words | Brief context (setting, not name), two or three specific behaviors, the leadership style those behaviors reflect, and why it made this person effective. One Giddens citation anchoring the style you name. |
| Q4 — Leader vs. Manager | ~150–200 words | The conceptual distinction in two sentences, then your personal example with specifics. Name which behaviors were management functions and which were leadership behaviors. Cite Giddens for the distinction. |
| References | Separate page, not counted | Giddens APA entry, plus any supplementary peer-reviewed sources you cited. One source may be enough if you use Giddens consistently throughout. |
Use Headings to Separate the Four Questions
With four distinct questions and a tight page limit, APA-formatted headings make your paper easy to navigate and demonstrate that you addressed each component. Bold, centered Level-1 headings (APA 7th edition format) for each question section are appropriate here. They also make it easier for your professor to verify that you answered everything — which protects your grade on any rubric item that checks for completeness.
APA 7th Edition Citations for This Assignment
The assignment requires APA 7th edition — in-text citations within the body and a reference page at the end. Here’s what you need to know for the specific sources involved.
Citing Giddens — In-Text
When you describe a leadership style from the textbook: (Giddens, 2021, p. 432) — or whatever the edition and page number of your specific eBook version. The first time you cite Giddens, use the full citation in-text: (Giddens, J. F., 2021, p. 432) if the author’s first name is needed for disambiguation. Most of the time, (Giddens, 2021, p. 432) is sufficient.
Giddens — Reference Page Entry
Giddens, J. F. (2021). Concepts for nursing practice (3rd ed.). Elsevier. [Adjust edition and publication year to match your specific eBook version. Check the copyright page for the correct year and edition number.]
The quiz itself — if you’re citing it as a source — poses a challenge, since it’s a web-based tool, not a peer-reviewed source. You don’t need to cite the quiz as a scholarly reference. Simply state in your text that you completed the leadership quiz provided in the assignment and received the result. No formal citation required for a web quiz used as a course activity.
If you bring in additional peer-reviewed sources to support your discussion of a specific style — a journal article on transformational leadership in nursing, for example — cite it normally in APA 7th edition format with author, year, title, journal, volume, issue, and DOI.
Pre-Submission APA Checklist
- In-text citation every time you describe a leadership style from Giddens
- In-text citation when you reference the leader/manager distinction from the textbook
- Reference page on a separate page after the body of the paper
- Giddens reference entry includes author, year, title in italics, edition, and publisher
- Article titles in reference list in sentence case (first word and proper nouns only capitalized)
- Journal names in italics in reference list
- DOI included for any journal articles cited
- Reference list alphabetized by author last name
Errors That Cost Points on This Assignment
| # | The Error | Why It Costs Points | The Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Listing styles without key characteristics | The question asks you to “discuss key characteristics of each.” A one-word label next to each style doesn’t address the question. Graders are looking for the defining behavior and clinical relevance of each style, not just the name. | For each of the seven styles, write at least two sentences: one describing the core decision-making approach, one describing how it appears in nursing practice. That’s the minimum for “discussing” a characteristic. |
| 2 | Agreeing with the quiz without analysis | “I got democratic leader and I agree because I like to work with others” answers the surface of the question but shows no critical engagement with what the quiz result actually means, its limitations, or how it connects to Giddens. | Add a specific clinical example that supports or complicates the result. Acknowledge the self-report limitation. Connect the result to Giddens’ definition of that style. Three moves, two to three sentences each. |
| 3 | Describing the manager with adjectives instead of behaviors | “She was supportive and organized” tells the reader nothing analytically useful. You can’t connect adjectives to leadership styles. You need behaviors — actions the person took — to make the analysis work. | Before writing, ask yourself: what did this person actually do? What actions did I observe? Then describe those actions specifically. The adjectives will take care of themselves once you have the behaviors down. |
| 4 | Conflating leader and manager in Q4 | If your answer to the leader vs. manager question doesn’t actually distinguish between them — if you use the terms interchangeably or describe a person as “both a leader and a manager” without explaining what makes each different — you haven’t answered the question. | Explicitly name what management behaviors you observed (staffing, protocol enforcement, performance management) and what leadership behaviors you observed (vision, influence, mentoring, culture-shaping). The contrast needs to be visible in the text. |
| 5 | No in-text citations for the styles discussion | The seven styles come directly from Giddens page 432. Describing them without citing the source is a citation omission that will cost points on any rubric that checks APA compliance. | Add (Giddens, 2021, p. 432) at least once per paragraph when describing the styles. You don’t need it on every sentence — a citation at the end of a paragraph that covers a single source’s content is standard APA practice. |
| 6 | Exceeding 2 pages without the reference page | The submission should be 1–2 pages. The reference page is separate and doesn’t count. Going significantly over 2 pages on the body suggests either over-writing or poor allocation across the four questions. | Draft each section to the word allocations above. Write tight. The reflection questions reward quality over quantity — a specific clinical example in two sentences beats a generic paragraph of three hundred words. |
FAQs: BSN335 Leadership Styles Assignment
One More Resource Worth Knowing About
For the nursing leadership literature that underpins much of what Giddens covers, the American Nurses Association (ANA) leadership resources are a credible, publicly accessible starting point. The ANA’s position statements and practice standards on nursing leadership and management are peer-informed and regularly updated — they’re appropriate to cite in nursing papers when you need a supplementary source beyond your textbook. For transformational leadership specifically, the body of Magnet Recognition Program research published through the ANA’s Magnet program has decades of peer-reviewed evidence on how leadership style affects nurse satisfaction and patient outcomes.
If you need help writing, organizing, or polishing this assignment — or any nursing paper from BSN through DNP — the team at Smart Academic Writing covers nursing leadership, APA formatting, and reflective writing at every academic level. Visit our nursing assignment help service, our APA citation help, or our editing and proofreading service. You can also contact us with your details and deadline.