Becoming a Leader that Others will Follow

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

Achieving a leadership position is an important career achievement but wise leaders soon realize that leadership is ultimately about influence. To be an effective nurse leader, you must have staff that respect you and are willing to be your followers. It is often said that all a leadership title buys you is time to establish your reputation and influence.

You may wonder if you have what others look for in their leaders. If we look at the research that has been done both in nursing and the business world, followers do look for certain attributes in their leaders that help inspire confidence. 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 book 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 asked for a ranking of 20 different characteristics. Over time, the results are remarkably stable globally. The top four characteristics are the following:
1. Honesty – the leader is principled, ethical and truthful.
2. Competence – the leader has a track record and ability to get things done with respect to the expectations of the position.
3. Inspiring – the leader is excited, energetic and positive about the future. They give their followers hope.
4. 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.

If you want others to follow you then you need to work hard to build your leadership credibility and influence. This is not something that staff will automatically give you. It takes time and it needs to be earned.

Read to Lead

Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z. (2017). The Leadership Challenge 6th Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.