By Rose O. Sherman, RN, EdD, NEA-BC, FAAN
Many new nurse leaders achieve promotions because of their excellent clinical and problem-solving skills. Once selected as a leader, they want to continue to add value in this way. This style is a Superman approach to leading. You swoop in and fix problems, usually receiving great feedback from staff about how responsive you are. You spend most of your day putting out fires that others bring to your attention. You then find it hard to get your administrative work done because you are available to staff. Over time, this can lead to leadership burnout. You become indispensable, and your team does not grow in their leadership.
A better approach is to be more Yoda in your leadership. Yoda is there to coach and support staff but will not solve all their problems. Yoda is OK with things not being done their way and recognizes that mistakes will be part of the learning. When confronted with issues brought to them by staff, Yoda asks questions that point the staff member in the right direction but does not give them the solution. The Yoda leader can take a day off and not receive fifty texts from staff about what is happening. Yoda recognizes that they should not be indispensable or believe that no one on the unit could take their place if they left.
Becoming more Yoda will help the nurse leader avoid being a micromanager through his/her overinvolvement in direct patient care. Nurse leaders sometimes micromanage their staff because they are more comfortable with clinical decision-making than their leadership responsibilities. Once a leader takes the path of being the problem solver in chief, it may not be an easy transition for either the team or the leader when they try to pull back. The staff becomes used to having the leader jumping in to solve problems and help them with patients. To change their behavior, the leader will need to work hard to empower staff to solve their challenges by asking questions such as:
- What solutions have you already considered?
- What do you think is the right approach?
- What would you do if I wasn’t here?
When new leaders transition into their roles, their mentors need to have a conversation about making the transition from expert clinician and leaving behind the clinical care comfort zone. My experience from working with new leaders has taught me that nurses struggle with this, especially when they feel like imposters in their new leader role. New leaders need to know that these feelings are a normal part of stepping into leadership.
Read to Lead
Covey, M.R. (2008). The speed of trust: The one thing that changes everything. Free Press.
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