By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN
Developing yourself as a nurse leader is a journey. One question that I always enjoy asking nurse leaders concerns the laws or principles that they live by in their leadership. As a leader, it is helpful to reflect on what grounds your leadership practice. The laws that they talk about have often been learned from mentors or in leadership development programs. Sometimes, we learn these laws from our experience and mistakes in our leadership practice. One leader told me that a primary law in her practice is that you cannot over communicate your message. Another told me that her law is to admit her mistakes quickly and be transparent to control the communication and reduce gossip. If you are just getting started in a nursing leadership career, you may not have your own laws of leadership yet but the following ten laws from leadership author and blogger Terry Starbucker can serve as a good foundation.
10 Immutable Laws of Leadership
1. Until you figure out why you want to lead, you cannot deliver great leadership.
I think this is the most important of Starbucker’s laws. It is important for leaders to ask themselves why anyone would want to be led by them. To be successful, nurse leaders need followers and a clear sense of their leadership direction.
2. Your team can only be great in an atmosphere of truth and transparency.
Truth and transparency are two important building blocks of the healthy work environment that your team needs to be successful. To be a great leader, you must be trustworthy.
3. Leadership by osmosis doesn’t work.
In leadership, we cannot make assumptions that people will know your goals and intent as a leader. You must be explicit and be ready to explain the WHY of decisions.
4. Your way isn’t the only way.
As a leader, you naturally have preferred ways of getting things done BUT your way may not be the only way. It is important to give staff the accountability and responsibility to make decisions and take action without constantly having to seek your approval.
5. If you are going to make rules for ALL, then apply them to ALL.
When staff are asked about what they look for in leaders, our nursing research consistently indicates that fairness and trustworthiness are high on the list of key attributes. Staff pay close attention to leadership consistency in how rules are enforced. Nothing kills motivation faster than the sense that a leader has favorite staff members who are not required to play by the rules.
6. Great teams are made by hiring people that are smarter than you.
New leaders often worry that by hiring great staff – they may jeopardize their own positions. A key leadership quality is recognizing your own leadership strengths and hiring staff who can compensate for team weaknesses.
7. If you want them to remember something, you have to say it at least 15 times.
When you watch effective politicians, you quickly notice how they have key talking points that they emphasize again and again and again. Nurse leaders need to develop this art of repetition of key messages.
8. Those who learn best from wisely selected history are destined to greatness.
There is much to be learned from history – both our own and that of others. It is not surprising that great leaders are often also great readers of historical biographies. History does repeat itself and interestingly, human nature changes little over time.
9. Facts are stubborn things – ignore them at your peril.
There is nothing more frustrating than to observe a leader who fails to acknowledge facts that he/she does not like. These facts don’t go away as much as we sometimes wish they would. Peter Drucker, the Father of Modern American Management, often said that leaders have to know when to stop doing something because it is not working. Some leaders have difficulty doing this because they feel they have made a significant personal investment and cannot acknowledge that they were wrong.
10. You have to let them fail.
There is much that can be learned from failure. Some initiatives don’t work but we have to be willing to let others try. As a nurse leader, you quickly learn that not every staff member on your team will be successful. Letting someone fail and leave with dignity can be the absolutely right thing to do in leadership.
Do you have laws that govern your nursing leadership? I would be interested in your additions to this list.
Read to Lead
Terry Starbucker Blog www.terrystarbucker.com, PDF Handout 10-Immutable-Laws2.
© emergingrnleader.com 2013
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