A Beginners Guide to Becoming an Impactful Nurse Leader

When it comes to the Healthcare industry, time management, emotional intelligence, and work-life balance are essential to ensure your team can consistently perform at an optimum level. However, the long hours can soon take their toll on nurses, making it challenging to motivate them. If this scenario sounds familiar, maybe you should consider working with a leadership coach to rally the troops.

Working with an experienced coach will help to establish yourself as a respected leader. So if you want to make some incremental changes and take control of your team, I suggest you read on.

I’m Sarah Bell, the founder of Bells Breakthrough Leadership Coaching LLC. I’ve created an informative beginner’s guide to help you excel at nurse leadership. Following this guide will establish a solid foundation to build trust, alignment, and commitment with your team.

Getting Started

Determine your leadership style: Any leader or would-be leader must first determine what leadership style best aligns with their personality, work environment, and company culture. Experienced leaders adjust their leadership depending on situations; for example, servant leadership is prevalent in healthcare; however, during an emergency, such as a cardiac arrest, the leader is likely to shift to an autocratic leadership style.

Next Steps

Do Research:

Step #1 - The first step to knowing your leadership is to do some research. The research does not need to be extensive; google popular leadership styles in healthcare. Leadership is about helping others be the best they can be to help them operate at the top of their license; your job is to grow a high-performing team focused on what matters most - excellent patient care. Creating a high-performing team requires building trust and commitment. Which of the leadership styles is most likely to help you accomplish this goal?

Step #2 - Determine the attributes you want to embrace that support this style. Identify five leadership attributes to get started, and then rate yourself from 1 to 5 on how well you exhibit these qualities. Completing this simple assessment gives you awareness of your growth opportunities and offers guideposts on how you want to show up as a leader. You can download a list of attributes from https://www.bellscoaching.com/pages/the-book.

Step #3 - Embrace your top five leadership attributes with intention. Be consistent so that the staff knows what to expect and feel safe. You might consider being transparent and letting your team know what to expect from you as a leader.

Advice From The Pros

Be consistent: The most important thing for any leader to remember as they go through this process is that the team watches you. They want to know how to be successful under your leadership, and consistency goes a long way toward building team trust and commitment.

Empower the team: Working with an experienced leadership coach will help the client establish themself as a trusted and respected leader. It will help them avoid the drama-inducing pitfalls often experienced by well-intended nurse managers who do not understand the difference between being a boss and a leader.

The biggest mistake I’ve seen new leaders make is assuming that because they are excellent patient care providers, they only need to tell others what to do and how to do it. Telling others what to do is being a boss; it’s damaging as it does not respect or value the ability of others and erodes trust. Your team has the knowledge, experience, and skills and must be recognized and embraced by the leader.

The goal is establishing a solid foundation to build trust, alignment, and commitment.

Find a mentor: If this is your first leadership position, I recommend you find a mentor or coach who will be happy to share their experience and support you. If you want a complimentary discovery call to help you discover your leadership style and attributes, click this link and provide your contact info.

Get in touch with me today!

At Bells Breakthrough Leadership Coaching LLC, I serve clients across the DFW Metroplex and nationwide.

To learn more about Bells Breakthrough Leadership Coaching LLC, call (214) 546-3127. Alternatively, you can email sarah.bell@bellscoaching.com.