Why Credibility Matters in Nursing Leadership

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

Recently, I was talking with a new graduate who had made the decision to leave her unit after only six months. She had no plans to return to school and would be seeking a similar role in another organization. When I asked why, she told me that she did not trust her nurse manager because she had observed a lack of follow through on commitments. I tell new graduates that working for a highly credible nurse manager should not be minimized as a job criteria. Often, new graduates are very focused on specialty areas or pay packages but think less about who the leaders are in the organization. Yet once you begin employment, you quickly see how important the leader is to your own satisfaction.

Leadership is a relationship. Without followers, you are not a leader. That is why understanding what motivates nursing staff to follow their leaders is critical. In their newest edition of the Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner outline over 30 years of research with thousands of employees to study the expectations that followers have of their leaders. They ask for a ranking of 20 different characteristics. Over time, the results are remarkably stable globally. The top four characteristics are the following:

Honesty – the leader is principled, ethical and truthful.
Competence – the leader has a track record and ability to get things done with respect to the expectations of the position.
Inspiring – the leader is excited, energetic and positive about the future. They give their followers hope.
Forward Looking – the ability to look ahead and have a sense of direction – a point of view about the future.

Taken together, these four qualities lead to a concept called “source credibility”. In their research, Kouzes and Posner found that leadership credibility really matters. When nursing staff find their leader to be highly credible, they are more likely to:

Feel pride that they work on the unit.
Feel a stronger sense of team spirit.
See their own personal values as consistent with the organization
Feel engaged with the work.
Have a sense of ownership in the organization.

The behaviors that leaders exhibit when they have high leadership credibility include the following:

They practice what they preach.
They walk the talk.
Their actions are consistent with their words.
They follow through on their promises.
They do what they say they will do when they say they will do it. (this is the highest ranking behavior related to credibility)

The good news is that you can enhance your credibility as a leader by intentionally working on developing these behaviors then getting feedback on your success. This may be the most important thing that you can do to foster your own leadership success.

Read to Lead

Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z. (2017). The Leadership Challenge 6th Edition. New York: Wiley.