By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Accepting accountability for our errors is not easy. A nurse manager talked with me about a scheduling error that she made that left her unit with serious staffing issues over a holiday weekend. Her CNO was angry; the staff was angry. She was disappointed in herself for an error in judgment that could have compromised patient care. She sought help from her director about how to manage the situation best. The director urged her to let it go – people would soon forget. The manager was not comfortable with this approach. If she expected her staff to be accountable for their professional actions, she needed to be accountable for her leadership actions.
Five important words that leaders need to learn are, “I am sorry I was wrong.” Many leaders think their staff expects them to be perfect. They may believe that they risk losing power if they willingly accept blame. This nurse manager knew that she had dropped the ball, and it was her responsibility. All she had control of in this situation were the next steps she took to set things on a better path. Jazz great Miles Davis once said, “When you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that makes it good or bad.”
Most leadership mistakes are not big failures, but smaller mistakes we inevitably make as we learn and grow in our roles. Experience is a good teacher, but it can be painful to learn the lessons. So ultimately, as leaders, the question is not whether we will make mistakes but rather how quickly we can rebound from them, learn our lessons, and move on. If we don’t recover, we can find ourselves taking relatively minor setbacks and turning them into a much bigger deal than they should be. That will leave you frustrated, questioning your own ability, and wasting energy that could be spent doing other things.
The manager talked openly with staff about the scheduling error accepting full responsibility. Not surprisingly, her staff was surprised at her vulnerability. Many noted that they had never seen a leader openly accept accountability for a bad decision. She both gained respect and felt better about the incident because of how she had managed it. She wisely saw this incident as a growth opportunity and forgave herself.
Don’t let nurse leaders in your organization go without development in 2020. Virtual programs include Nurse Leader Coaching, Coaching Staff to Promote Resilience and Leading Teams in Turbulent Times or schedule your customized Nuts and Bolts of Nursing Leadership Virtual Workshop taught by experts for either new or experienced leaders. Nuts and Bolts Flyer
Read Rose Sherman’s book available now – The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave
© emergingrnleader.com 2020
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