SCC Leadership Series

 Leadership is required anytime we are given authority or responsibility.  Merrily Sable, RN, BSN 

The Six Keys to Nursing Leadership guide nurse leaders/managers to shift from a hierarchical model to more professional collaboration, practicing the coach approach to leadership. The Six Keys teach you to lead from the head but not without also leading from the heart!   

1.   Respect/honor – how do leaders show respect, and how do they earn it?  Honor self – honor each other – honor others

2.   Passion – find the best fit, empower others to succeed, be the cheerleader, discover the passions of those you lead and utilize them

3.   Communication – how to shift to clear and valuable communication using powerful language, critical conversation for conflict resolution, and creating purposeful and respectful interactions

4.   Trust – integrity, honesty and accountability for yourself and others; confidentiality

5.   Courage –how to make the shift to leader, develop confidence in yourself and others and inspire those you lead

6.   Recognition – celebration and acknowledgment, intrinsic versus extrinsic    rewards, giving yourself credit

The Fourth Key to Nursing Leadership- Trust

The fourth key to leadership is trust. Trust yourself, trust others, earn others trust.

Trust is one of THE most important factors in job satisfaction.  If you desire loyalty, then building trust is an essential key starting place.  It takes time and effort but is hugely valuable.  Trust boosts productivity and retains employees.  For nurses, this includes quality of care.  How trustworthy are you as a leader?  To what degree do you trust your staff?  Colleagues? Your superiors?

Findings from the 2007 Walker Loyalty Report for Loyalty in the Workplace states that just 34% of employees are staying while another 36% are about to walk out. That leaves 30% who either haven’t made up their minds or are just going with the flow.  Taking time to trust is another key from the Shift Change Coaching Group to use as a tool to raise retention rates and improve your bottom line. When losing just one nurse costs a facility upwards from $60,000 in recruiting, training and lost productivity, trust is essential!

Where do you start? Check in with your own integrity. How often do you do what you say you are going to do? Be accountable – hold others accountable. Walk your talk. Show by your actions that you mean what you say.  When you make promises, keep them.  Make very specific measurable agreements with others and uphold your part of the agreement.  If the occasional mishap occurs and you can’t honor the original agreement, step up and renegotiate the terms.  Own responsibility for failure to uphold any part of an agreement and create new terms to correct or complete the agreement.  If others break agreements with you and do not come forward to address this, go to them and initiate the conversation and the resolution.

Identify your confidentiality boundaries.  Are there instances where you feel it is OK or essential to break a confidence?  Do you make these boundaries clear to others before you allow them to share confidential information?  Receiving in confidence and sharing in public erodes trust.   Far easier to create trust and keep it than trying to rebuild it.

Know your co-workers.  It is very difficult to trust your fellow workers if you don’t know them.  Ask about their family or what is important to them in and out of the workplace.  Be willing to share something of yourself even as the leader.  There is a fine line in being too personable versus untouchable. Reach out to others.

Delegate and allow.  Follow up with evaluation and praise.  If you feel no one can do it as well as you can, others stop trying You can say you trust someone but this must be followed up with letting them perform and then giving accurate feedback, either a job well done or a good try and a plan for improvement and why.

Be there for your team in the good times and the bad.  Back up your staff, support them and share the responsibility when problems arise.  Share the praise, recognition and celebration for the wins!

Know the value and practice the Fourth Key to Nursing Leadership- trust.  Trust yourself and your team.   Nurses want to make a difference.  Organizations want to stay in business providing quality care.  Empower yourself and others to meet and exceed expectations.  Trust!

 Best regards,

Merrily Sable, RN, BSN and Betsy Smith, PhD

The six keys to leadership take you from status quo leadership to leadership “on fire”!  This is when things get interesting.  The followers of the Shift Change six keys to leadership have followers that:

• Are inspired

• Are motivated

• Are creative

• Have “buy in” and increased loyalty

• Increase productivity

• Become innovative

• Get the job done

Invite the Shift Change Coaching Group to train you and your staff in the Six Keys to Nursing Leadership.  Build the foundation to promote excellence in your leadership and that of your organization.  Convenient teleclass (conference line calls) or in-person workshop formats are available.  Schedule now as our remaining 2010 is filling up fast!   Still time to take advantage of Special pricing for Nurses’ week 2010!